U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Https

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Was this page helpful?

African American Employment Program

Background

The Department of Commerce strives to create a culture that encourages collaboration, flexibility, and fairness that enables employees to participate to their fullest potential.  The African American Employment Program (AAEP) enhances the Department’s efforts to comply with the mandates of Executive Order 13583, Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce, and Executive Order 11478, Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal Government.

The AAEP develops, plans, and implements strategies that enable the Department to recruit, hire, promote, and retain a more diverse, qualified workforce. In addition, the AAEP helps the Department address potential discriminatory and/or inequitable practices in hiring and employment and works to eliminate barriers to full participation for AAEP in the workplace.

Program Manager: Monique Dismuke

African American History Month

February is designated as African American History Month or Black History Month to commemorate the rich and varied contributions of African Americans to the culture and history of the United States and the world. Negro History Week was initiated in 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a Harvard Ph.D., who 11 years earlier founded the Association for the Study of Afro- American Life and History. In those early days, the words Afro and Black were seldom used. It was Dr. Woodson's hope that through this special observance, all Americans would be reminded of their ethnic roots, and that “togetherness” in the United States racial groups would develop out of a mutual respect. Dr. Woodson chose February to recognize Negro History Week because it contains the birthdays of two iconic figures in African American history, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

In 1976, Negro History week was expanded to include the entire month of February and became known as "Black History Month", also known today as "African American History Month." From its initiation, African-American History Month has evolved to incorporate the views and expressions of many ethnic and social groups, not just African Americans.

Each February, the Department plans activities designed to provide cultural awareness, debunk stereotypes, and recognize the contributions and achievements of African Americans represented in our workforce.

News

2023 Black History Events:

U.S. Department of Commerce Presents Guest Speaker - Zaheer Ali 

Black History Month Event

In honor of Black History Month, on February 22, 2023, DOC hosted a virtual event with Guest Speaker - Zaheer Ali, historian, educator, and Executive Director of the Hutchins Institute for Social Justice. Ali lead an interactive discussion on “Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail - A Call to Action”. Ali explored how Dr. King’s letter stands as an important reminder, eloquent articulation, and emphatic invitation to its readers to acknowledge histories of injustice, understand the rationale for civil disobedience, and become what he called “coworkers for human progress.”


  •  

    0:02

    for progress and how we can support black resilience on a journey to

    0:08

    equality we are so privileged to be fought in the coming hour by a noted

    0:15

    oral historian and educator Zahir Ali so in the chat I'm going to post a bio

    0:21

    highlighting teach our leads absolutely impressive credentials but I have to

    0:27

    call out two of them one is founding the Hutchins Institute for social justice at

    0:33

    Lawrenceville New Jersey's famed high school but also speaking as a

    0:39

    brooklynite the absolutely amazing Muslims in Brooklyn art and history

    0:45

    project that you did for the Brooklyn Historical Society so Mr Ali educator Ali is then going to

    0:53

    be joined in a discussion with our own resident expert in diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility Janiece

    1:00

    Aurora who is our department of commerce's Chief diversity officer so

    1:06

    like all of you I am here to learn from the two of them and with that I'll turn

    1:12

    it back over to you Amina

    1:19

    thank you so much thank you for those insightful remarks

    1:25

    um now I would like to take a moment to introduce our guest speaker

    1:31

    um before I I do that I wanted to take a moment to just say when we were planning

    1:36

    for this event and the theme was brought to our attention about

    1:41

    um black Brazilian and the um journey to equality I immediately thought about

    1:47

    that here and I was just like sayless I have the perfect speaker in mind so it

    1:53

    said I just wanted to give a brief introduction and um about our speaker today Zahir Ali is

    2:00

    an educator and oral historian with more than a decade of experience directing nationally recognized public history and

    2:06

    cultural heritage initiatives he is currently the inaugural executive director of the Hutchins Institute for

    2:12

    social justice at the Lawrenceville school as we mentioned which is an Innovative Secondary School initiative

    2:17

    supporting social justice teaching and practice through scholarship programming and experiential learning

    2:24

    in um 2020 he was senior fellow of the pillar spine Muslim narrative change

    2:30

    um cohort and a recipient of the open Society foundations for us equality Fellowship for his work on leveraging

    2:36

    the power of Storytelling and listening for social change formally he was the project manager of Columbia University's

    2:43

    Malcolm X tragic and his oral historic interviews informed the late Manning

    2:48

    Miracles Pulitzer prize-winning biography Malcolm X a life of reinvention

    2:54

    he serves on the National Council of the oral historic history Association the principal membership Organization for

    3:00

    oral history practitioners on the Advent 534 distinct a journal of film in visual

    3:05

    culture focused on black brown and Indigenous communities and on The Advisory board at the University of Georgia's history in the headline series

    3:16

    um he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in Africa Afro-American studies from Harvard

    3:21

    University and master of arts in master of philosophy degrees in history from Columbia University there's more to read

    3:28

    in the chat and on his bio but without further Ado I introduce to you our guest speaker today Mr zair Ali

    3:35

    thank you so much Amina and thank you so much under secretary Largo for your

    3:41

    um welcome and introduction thank you to the members of bemold and the organizers

    3:46

    of this event I'm looking forward to our um conversation

    3:52

    um titled King's letter from Birmingham Jail let us be co-workers for Progress

    3:57

    before we start so this is going to be a little interactive and as a little

    4:02

    warm-up activity I wanted you all to engage in some polling so there are

    4:08

    various ways for you to do this to so we're going to do like a word cloud um for you to type in where you're

    4:15

    viewing from you can either to log on to the polling feature because there'll be several questions throughout this

    4:20

    presentation you can text my names I hear Ali to the number

    4:26

    37607 or you can go to your computer uh if you're on uh or on your browser at

    4:33

    pullev.com forward slash as I hear I Lee um and I'll bring that back to you or

    4:39

    you can use this QR code and so I'm going to leave the QR code up for a few seconds for those of you who can use

    4:47

    that with your phone of course direct your your phone's camera to the QR code which will automatically pull up the

    4:54

    link to the website where you can begin participating in the series of polls um

    5:01

    that will be part of this interactive uh presentation um so I'm gonna give you like another

    5:07

    few seconds and I'll go back to the poll and we'll see what um people's responses will be this is just sort of a warm-up

    5:14

    activity to make sure that people oh here we go y'all are y'all are doing it okay

    5:20

    um again if you didn't get the QR code you can access through um your browser or by texting

    5:27

    um and uh we're looking at like about 41 results so far let's see how far we can

    5:33

    go for uh another few seconds and then we'll we'll Dive Right into our

    5:39

    um conversation Washington is very well represented

    5:46

    um Silver Spring Maryland the DMV so I grew up in the DMV area so it's good to

    5:52

    see folks from the DMV um I saw Minneapolis I'm a huge Prince fan so always happy to see Minneapolis

    6:00

    represented um Alaska okay

    6:05

    um so this is great I'm so happy to be able to speak speak to all of you

    6:11

    um in all of your locations and I look forward to this conversation all right

    6:19

    so it looks like folks got the hang of it with the polling feature so now we're

    6:24

    going to move on to the next um slide which is letting you know what

    6:30

    the agenda is for this presentation I will provide a little bit of a historical context for King's letter

    6:38

    from Birmingham Jail we'll explore some of the main ideas and things teams found

    6:43

    in that letter which introduces a dialectical definition for co-workers for progress and also pose some

    6:51

    questions so let's start with this first one now

    6:56

    that you all have the hang of the polling who was Martin Luther King Jr what word comes to mind when you think

    7:04

    of Martin Luther King Jr and for the people just in case you need that QR code again here's the QR code I'll have

    7:12

    it up for a few seconds

    7:18

    all right let's see what you all are coming up with let's see leader Champion

    7:24

    Justice revolutionary Visionary Pioneer

    7:31

    um okay all right we're at like 50 60 results let's see how far we can get

    7:38

    disruptive okay courage Peacemaker powerful

    7:44

    a visionary freedom

    7:50

    Advocate activist Pioneer pastor all right let's get a few more in

    8:00

    spiration okay I love the interaction I love that

    8:06

    people are engaging that you're responding part of this call and

    8:11

    response tradition is hard when you're doing a virtual presentation for us to

    8:17

    not be in the same room that you can like hear and feel the audience so this

    8:22

    is the next best thing okay

    8:28

    um so these are great uh I'm gonna move on to the next slide but hopefully

    8:33

    you'll keep thinking about words that you would add on uh to this question of

    8:39

    like what word comes to mind one of the words that

    8:45

    um no one said was pool shark so this is one of my favorite pictures of Dr King

    8:52

    because I think so many of us have a very um limited dimensional view of him as an

    9:00

    icon as a leader and we often think of him in the context of a demonstration of

    9:05

    a protest of a speech and sometimes when we do that we make these leaders

    9:12

    somewhat superhuman and in doing that we sort of expect them to do all of the

    9:18

    work for us um and you know like they have it handled the other thing that I like

    9:24

    about this is that this reminds us that Dr King practiced joy as part of his

    9:31

    freedom work and so thinking about your theme of black resilience so often when

    9:39

    we think of black history we think of struggle and certainly struggle is part of it it but when we think of struggle

    9:44

    we should think of the joy and the community and the creativity and the

    9:49

    love that is very much part of the community building work that's needed

    9:55

    for um this this structure the structural engagement

    10:01

    um maybe some people said scholar uh this these are my two other favorites pictures of Dr King

    10:07

    um showing him as a a student as someone who is working with ideas who is a

    10:15

    philosopher we know him as an accomplished order and writer um but he is someone who thought deeply

    10:22

    about the ideas that informed the work that he did and those ideas show up in

    10:28

    the letter from Birmingham Jail another word is we could say a messy

    10:34

    um his desk definitely looks like mine when I'm in the midst of working on something and probably many of you as

    10:40

    well another thing that I think people sometimes don't think about is unpopular

    10:47

    uh because of time I think we have come to understand King's work and come to

    10:53

    appreciate his work but it's important to remember that contemporary to him

    10:58

    during his time he was not always um popularly received in fact in May

    11:06

    1963 just a month after he penned a letter from Birmingham Jail

    11:11

    um his favorable ratings were just slightly higher than his unfavorable ratings and so this is really important

    11:18

    for us to keep mindful of that you know

    11:24

    our reimagination of king and the Civil Rights Movement is sometimes where we

    11:30

    think it was something and he was someone who was embraced by all at the time but that was not always the case

    11:36

    and that brings us to the history that we're going to explore which is the

    11:41

    Birmingham campaign in 1963. uh in April on April 3rd

    11:48

    um organizers launched a desegregation campaign that included Mass meetings

    11:53

    direct actions Lunch Counter sit-ins marches and boycotts and the

    12:00

    um they were targeting the discriminate discriminatory practices by businesses

    12:06

    in downtown Birmingham uh and two days prior Alabama courts had issued an

    12:11

    injunction against the protests um on April 12th Good Friday King was

    12:17

    arrested and at the time members of at the day the day of his arrest members of

    12:23

    the white members of some of the clergy and Alabama issued a statement called a

    12:30

    call for Unity where in the local paper they said they were strongly urging our

    12:36

    own negro Community to withdraw support from these demonstrations while King

    12:41

    read these comments he began jotting down his response on the margins of the

    12:48

    newspaper and his aides as they visited him smuggled in paper so he could finish

    12:54

    his thoughts that would become the letter from Birmingham Jail the New York

    12:59

    Times declined to publish it and the Atlanta monthly did um I'm sorry the Atlantic Monthly did

    13:05

    publish it in August of that year under the title de negro is your brother

    13:12

    um and this of course August 1963 is the same month as the now historic March on

    13:18

    Washington the title from my talk comes from a passage in the letter where King says

    13:25

    human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability it comes through

    13:31

    the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God and without this

    13:36

    hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation so King

    13:42

    understood that this is not something we could just sit back and expect to happen it is not inevitable it requires

    13:49

    co-workers for Progress um you'll see that my presentation is

    13:55

    both textual and visual um it is designed to bring King's

    14:01

    um ideas into conversation with images from the demonstrations that we've seen

    14:08

    in the last few years primarily around

    14:13

    um police uh killings of of black men and women

    14:19

    um and so it is designed to see how King speaks to

    14:24

    um our moment but it's also understanding that King's letter was in response to a statement by the clergy

    14:32

    the clergy statement was 442 words um King's letter was 7 000 words and so

    14:40

    even with that balance or imbalance um King spoke very

    14:47

    um thoroughly uh to the issues that the clergy raised and so we were going to

    14:53

    explore some of the statements of the clergy and we'll explore what King's response was the clergy and setting up

    14:59

    this dialectic and in the backdrop you'll see images of

    15:05

    um recent protests so we're going to go back to the polling the first question

    15:10

    is what defines our vision of Justice and this is forcing a binary I know

    15:18

    people want to say both but I want you to if you were forced to choose one

    15:23

    which one would you choose what defines our vision of justice and our can be

    15:29

    your personally our society or how whoever you want to conceive our to be

    15:35

    what defines our vision of Justice

    15:42

    so I'm going to give a few more seconds thank you for those who are responding I love the interactivity

    15:50

    um and it looks like a good body a good distribution of answers are coming through

    16:01

    I'll give a few more seconds

    16:07

    okay so let's let's see what the clergy thought of this question in their

    16:13

    statement king um in their statement to King the clergy

    16:19

    said we expressed understanding that on his convictions and racial matters could be properly pursued in the court so they

    16:25

    they landed on the legal uh codes King's response was one has the

    16:33

    moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws of course he is powerfully drawing

    16:40

    on the notion of inalienable rights and the social contract outlined in the

    16:46

    Declaration of Independence he frames a reminder that laws are not the source

    16:53

    but the codification of a shared moral commitment to Justice and so

    17:00

    um he wanted to say that by confining our scope of our vision for justice

    17:05

    exclusively to questions of legality as as his um as the clergy did we were missing a

    17:12

    whole range of ways that racial Injustice plays out in extra legal practices through policies through

    17:20

    culture through customs through standards and through norms and so this

    17:25

    is the first dialectical framework that King introduces to us in his letter and

    17:31

    that is over the scope of Vision on the one end legal code on the other end

    17:36

    moral imagination and this um now brings us to the second so we got

    17:44

    a second question for you um our work advances Justice on an

    17:50

    individual or a systemic level

    18:09

    I'm going to say we get to like 60 or 70 before we move on

    18:19

    okay here's what the clergy said we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations

    18:26

    by some of our negro citizens directed and led in part by Outsiders so this was

    18:33

    a very common charge made against civil rights organizers that during King's

    18:38

    time and during our time that these protests originate out of the work of

    18:44

    outside agitators they sought to undermine the legitimacy and representativeness of the demonstrations

    18:51

    that were happening in Birmingham and they emphasized that the protests were

    18:57

    directed and led in part by Outsiders this atomization of the social justice

    19:04

    movement that seeks to disconnect it from people throughout different locations and communities obscures

    19:12

    patterns of Injustice that revealed a deep systemic and structural causes of

    19:18

    these inequities and so King in one of his most famous passages says Injustice

    19:25

    anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere we are caught in an escapable

    19:31

    network of mutuality tied in a single garment King response says he's like I

    19:38

    am going to be whoever Injustice is and this is true today whether in Birmingham

    19:44

    or Minneapolis Georgia or Kentucky or Memphis in 1963

    19:51

    or 2020 or 2021 a thing that social sociologists call linked fate binds us

    19:58

    in our communities together prompting us to seek Justice on a scale that is

    20:04

    broader and deeper than any one individual so this is the second dialectic of individual versus systemic

    20:12

    those of us who want to be co-workers or progress thinking about where we locate

    20:18

    and focus our energy all right next one discomfort should be avoided or engaged

    20:36

    no oh I like that no one's staying avoided but I wonder if I said in practice how much

    20:44

    of us actually do engage discomfort versus avoid it can we get can we get some votes to like thank you I see I see

    20:52

    a little movement in the avoided yes some of us even though we want to engage

    20:57

    discomfort sometimes we know out of practical considerations we might need

    21:04

    to avoid it so it's okay it's okay these are these are provocations right these

    21:10

    are not accusations or judgment this is just getting us to think um and so of course the clergy

    21:18

    um wanted to avoid discomfort right they were saying we have we further strongly urge our own negro Community to withdraw

    21:25

    support from these demonstrations when rights are consistently denied a cause

    21:31

    should be pressed in the courts and negotiations among local leaders and not in the streets we appeal to both our

    21:38

    white and negro citizenry to observe the principles of Law and Order and common

    21:44

    sense so Law and Order and Common Sense and King

    21:50

    his response um was I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the negro's

    21:57

    great stumbling block in this stride in his stride toward freedom is not the

    22:03

    White Citizens counselor or the Ku Klux klanner but the white moderate who was

    22:08

    more devoted to order than to Justice who prefers a negative peace which is

    22:14

    the absence of tension to a positive piece which is the presence of justice

    22:20

    so what king is doing here he is saying that it is

    22:26

    um Justice that should be the measure of whether peace a real peace has been

    22:33

    achieved right in that order like if you go by order if you Define peace in terms

    22:39

    of order then you look at if something is orderly or disruptive if it's orderly

    22:44

    it's peaceful if it's disruptive it's not peaceful but if you define a piece

    22:50

    according to the presence of Justice then you have a very different measure and so that is the next

    22:59

    um dialectic that we've had we've had scope a vision we've had scale

    23:06

    of concern and now we have tactics our tactics orderly or disruptive

    23:14

    and now we have our final question the pace of change should be gradual or

    23:21

    immediate and I know that we would like to say both but I'm forcing you to choose one

    23:27

    again to provoke conversation around these dialectics which admittedly are on

    23:35

    a spectrum that we are not fixed on but move from side to side

    23:45

    so we got we got a lot of gradual and it got some immediate okay so we're at 70 so we're going to move to

    23:53

    um what the clergy said we recognize the natural impatience of people who feel

    23:59

    that their hopes are slow in being realized but we are convinced that these

    24:04

    demonstrations are unwise And Timely and King said

    24:11

    frankly we have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was well

    24:18

    timed in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation for years now I have heard

    24:26

    the word wait it rings in the ear of every negro with piercing familiarity

    24:33

    this weight has always has almost always meant never so this is the you know this

    24:41

    is the one that like people are like I'm down with moral imagination I'm down

    24:47

    with systemic change I'm even down with some disruption but

    24:53

    immediate change is a little difficult to imagine and so

    24:59

    um you know it's okay right like it really is okay

    25:05

    um because this again is a provocation and I think but it's important for us to

    25:11

    be true to when we're talking about king um and the clergy that the clergies

    25:18

    end of the spectrum was a focus on the legal code a focus on individual solutions that are

    25:28

    achieved through orderly means and that are gradual that reflect gradual change

    25:34

    King grounded his work in the moral imagination that was beyond what had

    25:41

    been legally codified focused on systemic change that meant

    25:47

    that it it involved and encompassed everyone and that it was something that

    25:52

    everyone had to be involved in change that could be disruptive of course his most

    25:59

    um strongest commitment as a tactician was to Civil Disobedience non-violent

    26:04

    Civil Disobedience and then finally uh you know immediate that there needed to

    26:10

    be some signs of the media change and so this is the dialectic and that is

    26:18

    introduced in um King's letter and this dialectic I

    26:23

    think is a good framework for us to think about like and again it isn't a

    26:28

    judgment it's like we should always be on our toes when we are advancing Solutions as co-workers for Progress

    26:34

    where are solutions on this this spectrum where are they floating on the Spectrum and so here's some questions

    26:42

    that we might want to consider as co-workers for progress what is the scope of our vision for

    26:49

    justice what is the scale of our approach how aligned with our existing systems is our

    26:57

    work and what is our timeline for change so as we read King's words and reflect

    27:04

    on our vision of Justice our own networks of mutuality how we sit and

    27:10

    engage discomfort how we sit with and engage discomfort and our sense of

    27:16

    urgency for what is needed let us think about how we might be co-workers for

    27:21

    Progress for something that is bigger than ourselves and our current moment thank you for your engagement thank you

    27:29

    for your attention and I look forward to the conversations that we can have in

    27:35

    the remaining time and the conversations I hope that you continue to have as you

    27:41

    engage in the work of being co-workers for progress

    27:51

    wow wow thank you Zaire for that very insightful and informative presentation

    27:58

    I know we're going to have plenty of questions in the chat and we will get to

    28:03

    all of that um unless we were taking a moment now

    28:08

    Monique I believe I'm just going to um go straight into introducing into

    28:14

    this conversation someone who has responsibility for helping the Department of Commerce become a

    28:19

    co-worker for Progress Mr junish Aurora Jewish is the Department's Chief diversity equity and inclusion officer

    28:26

    in that capacity he promotes deia in the Department's externally focused Mission

    28:32

    area of Service delivery including supporting Outreach to historically underserved communities he is also

    28:40

    responsible for developing and implementing an internal deia strategy to fully integrate and sustain the eia

    28:47

    into the agency's workforce Mr Aurora received his VA in English from Dartmouth College his inmate in English

    28:54

    from the University of Virginia and his JD from the school of law at the University of Texas at Austin

    29:00

    he is a member of the District of Columbia bar he was also honorably

    29:05

    discharged from the U.S Army Reserves he is married and has two raven-haired angels his full bio is also posted in

    29:12

    the chat junish take it away thank you Amina I want to thank you and

    29:18

    the ITA diac and be bold um and ocr's Monique to smux um for

    29:24

    inviting me and providing me with the opportunity uh to offer people remarks and of course under secretary Lago for

    29:30

    her opening uh to this uh session um and of course I want to thank uh

    29:35

    Zahir Ali for those uh inspiring insightful observations and connections

    29:40

    to Dr King's letter to Birmingham and being a co-worker for human progress a

    29:46

    wonderful term of art that is both aspirational and attainable

    29:51

    um I I think uh since I hear you did a masterful uh dissection of um Dr King's

    29:58

    lettering for burning Hammond and made uh all of us think about it uh in in different ways by offering this

    30:03

    dialectic approach because here at the Department of Commerce we are aware all co-workers and

    30:10

    we all want professional progress it makes me think why can't we leverage those relationships in that trajectory

    30:16

    that seeks to elevate I think um when learning about Dr King's letter to Birmingham I was most struck by his

    30:24

    belief that all communities were interrelated as Dr King wrote and um and in Zahir uh

    30:31

    also uh mentioned this in his presentation uh Dr King wrote quote we are caught in an inescapable network of

    30:38

    mutuality tie in a single Garment of Destiny I mean what beautiful oratory

    30:44

    um he continues whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly

    30:49

    and in the workplace all employees are interrelated networked in mutual

    30:55

    dependence aligned to a single Mission purpose uh a linked fate as Dr King

    31:00

    would say this is reflected uh partly in the Department of Commerce diversity

    31:05

    Equity inclusion and accessibility strategic plan fiscal year 22-24 so we

    31:11

    have our timeline uh for for uh our pace of change particularly in goal area

    31:17

    three which is to create a and promote an organizational culture that is

    31:22

    inclusive and supports a sense of belonging this area of inclusion focuses on

    31:28

    retention career advancement including professional development and promotion

    31:33

    diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility training and Workforce culture

    31:39

    some of the specific objectives in this area include enhancing employee retention

    31:44

    enhancing career advancement Career Development enhancing and promoting Dei

    31:50

    training monitoring the health of the Department's work environment

    31:55

    lastly the doc deia strategic plan has a framework to promote safe and inclusive

    32:01

    workplaces and address workplace harassment to ensure that we have respectful workplaces and create a

    32:08

    culture that doesn't tolerate workplace harassment and discrimination

    32:15

    so is it here I I was just really uh so

    32:22

    impressed uh by your uh your your presentation initially you uh you know

    32:27

    showed us some some pictures of Dr King and you talked about how we often think

    32:33

    about him as as superhuman and sometimes when we have leaders like that we assume

    32:39

    that they will do the work and we don't think about our own accountability and the own work that we might do could you

    32:45

    elaborate on that a little bit oh I think you're muted inside here

    32:51

    can can you all hearers are here okay yes okay there we go okay yes can you

    32:57

    escape the question yeah um you mentioned um initially uh that we

    33:02

    often think of Dr King and and other leaders as being superhuman and we assume they'll do this work for social

    33:09

    justice social progress and we don't think of our own role um and the own work that we might do um

    33:15

    our own accountability could you talk about that a little bit more sure um and you know this is the this is

    33:22

    the challenge with um you know uh some people call it exemplarity when you have people who we

    33:28

    see as examples um they you know it's like people who we see as exemplary right

    33:36

    um in the work that they've done and certainly Martin King was exemplary but then we we moved to this point where we

    33:42

    moved from exemplary to exceptional right and when we make people exceptional then we kind of take them

    33:49

    out of our out of our sense of part of who we are and what we can do and so

    33:54

    it's really important um because you know we think of ourselves most of us as Ordinary People

    34:00

    and we because we know how we move in the world and if we only encounter

    34:05

    people like King and others in the extraordinary moments of their lives

    34:12

    um then we don't understand how we are also um connected to them and so showing them

    34:18

    in these sort of ordinary settings is important and why that's important is because you know this is this is work

    34:24

    that we have to do right like you know the the passage that introduces the idea

    34:30

    of co-worker right he I like co-worker better than you know some people say Ally right like or they like co-workers

    34:38

    like you you have to be with me doing the work right

    34:43

    um because this is not inevitable there is nothing you know like some people say the Ark of the universe bends towards

    34:50

    Justice it bends because people bend it right and so that I think is the

    34:55

    important lesson to to when we talk about king um talk about him as a co-worker not as

    35:02

    this you know a leader he was that right um but as a co-worker because when we

    35:08

    think of him as a co-worker we are implicating ourselves in the work that he uh is doing or that we all want to do

    35:15

    yeah and I think that also ties into that other quote that you presented um from from Dr King that it the the the

    35:22

    progress isn't on the the wheels of of inevitability that

    35:28

    um time isn't necessarily you know our our Ally that time can be this Ally of Social stagnutation and that it's it's

    35:35

    really work it's it's grit uh to get to a future that we want uh as as you were

    35:41

    you're sharing you know we might think that there's this teleological Arc of progress

    35:47

    um and that history will will you know write itself but history is is made by

    35:53

    by us as these co-workers of progress you know think about like the people you

    36:00

    know so the March on Washington about 250 000 people attended the March and watch it was a huge demonstration that

    36:05

    says 250 000 people right like not everybody some people were just doing whatever they were doing and

    36:12

    imagine the challenge of having to enlist people to join you in a struggle

    36:19

    in that moment right where people are like nah you got this like King you have

    36:24

    this and we are in a moment now where not only are we

    36:30

    we'll we're we might be looking at contemporary figures to say like they have it we're we're relying on History

    36:36

    we're not even relying on living human beings to do the work we want the

    36:42

    history to do the work for us right so that we think by just remembering the past we have done the work right and

    36:50

    that history is not the ceiling it's the floor it's the foundation right so it's

    36:55

    we have to remember the history but we we cannot expect the history alone or

    37:01

    even the memory of the past alone to move us forward and I think that is you

    37:06

    know as a historian as someone who's like a student of History um you know like that's really important

    37:13

    for us to understand like we these figure and you know like a lot of times I give a presentation on Martin King or

    37:19

    Malcolm X people like so what would Martin think and I'm like you know it's those so what would Jesus do kind of

    37:25

    thing and it's it's that is a kind of historical eventual

    37:30

    where we want people from the past to speak into our moment and so what I what

    37:37

    I what moved me to do this presentation in this way is not necessarily think

    37:42

    about the answers King has for our moment but the questions he has for our

    37:49

    moment right so looking at these historic figures not to see what their because their answers are specific to

    37:56

    their historical context to their moment in time right but their questions

    38:03

    are Timeless right so yeah yes so that's that's it we look at the past for the

    38:10

    questions we need to ask ourselves today we have to answer those questions right the next generation is going to have to

    38:16

    answer those questions and so that's I think part of this is to not rely

    38:22

    on History to answer questions that we need to answer but look at the history

    38:28

    for the questions that we need to to to uh face I think that's so uh appropriate for a

    38:35

    special observance event where we often just look at the history we look at the past we think about it in terms of of

    38:42

    Education we don't think about it in terms of action in terms about uh how

    38:48

    that that historical framework can drive action in the present and into the

    38:54

    future that I think we all want um what in the workplace uh in our society so um thank you so much and I

    39:02

    want to now um leave it uh I think we're going to check to chat for some questions Monique because uh we want to

    39:08

    uh make this uh keep this interactive and um

    39:13

    it was such an inspiring uh presentation and dialogue

    39:19

    absolutely and we do we do it so I'm gonna call one of our

    39:24

    s Marianne melzer to come off uh uh mute to unmute herself and ask for each

    39:31

    question Marianne are you there

    39:42

    um I am here I didn't enter a question though okay your hand is up Marion oh I

    39:47

    I apologize I'm sorry no problem no problem okay so I do have two questions

    39:53

    from the Tourette chat and uh one of them is just a simple one generally she mentioned something about a timeline so

    40:00

    um is there a link to the timeline that you noted uh is there a link that we can get well yeah the deia uh strategic plan

    40:09

    for the Department is uh fiscal years 22 to 24. uh it's on um our website and is

    40:15

    is readily available uh of course it's uh a living document

    40:21

    um and uh it you know gets updated uh you know uh regularly so um when the the

    40:27

    DIA strategic plans in ends in 24 we'll um issue a new uh Dei strategic plan

    40:34

    because um you know we uh it is a journey and uh we'll continue continue on this Dia

    40:41

    Journey thank you I will put that in the uh that link to that strategic plan in the chat

    40:46

    I just wanted to make sure I had the right one so okay that is what we're talking about and then the other question is uh for you Zaire can there

    40:55

    be progress without disruption uh I so I think it depends what we think

    41:02

    of disruption um I I do think that progress

    41:07

    there can be some uh yes I mean it's on a spectrum right there can be progress that is orderly

    41:14

    um but disruption doesn't have to be disorderly disruption can be creative disruption disruption can be thinking

    41:20

    outside of the box disruption can be um challenging

    41:27

    um you know conventional I call it unwisdom right the the idea that

    41:34

    um if our imagination is is you know uh

    41:41

    confined to what we have always done um then maybe we need to shake that up a

    41:47

    little bit and so disruption doesn't necessarily need to be protest

    41:53

    um so I was thinking of disruption more um broadly I I do think that if we're

    42:00

    looking at patterns um that our systemic uh patterns of

    42:05

    discrimination patterns of Injustice um those need to be interrupted uh they

    42:12

    do need to be disrupted and they can happen creatively

    42:17

    um but I think we should we we should welcome um you know people who are coming with

    42:24

    ideas and and provocations right like so we might not be in the position to be

    42:31

    the provocateur but we should be open to the I ideas that provoke us to think like I you know

    42:39

    I may not always be lined up with it most of us that is the other thing is like a lot of us like to think we're

    42:46

    Martin King we're not and it's okay right like we're not gonna line up with

    42:51

    King on everything um but it's important to hear what he's saying and it's important to listen to

    42:59

    the challenges that are posed by a Martin or Malcolm or Ella Baker or

    43:04

    Fannie Lou Hamer or even a contemporary moment with black lives matter and the

    43:10

    full spectrum of people who are calling for you know the various ways of addressing police uh

    43:17

    killings or or any other of our social ills we don't have to agree with the

    43:23

    solutions but we should really be open to understanding and listening to what

    43:29

    people are saying as as provocations it's it's like you know Shifting the Overton window right like if we're only

    43:36

    listening to people that we agree with then we have set ourselves into a box of

    43:42

    what is possible but we have to expand our cone of possibility even if we don't go there

    43:49

    um it should be important for us to consider what people are challenging us

    43:54

    to do um I think of the the acronym for this organization of be bold boldness is

    44:01

    disruptive right it's not be timid it's not fall in line it's not you know it's

    44:09

    be bold um so that is just corruptive and I think it's important even if we don't

    44:15

    um say like I'm gonna do that it's important for us to to be challenged by

    44:20

    it right um so that's what I think is important absolutely thank you thank you I think

    44:27

    you answered that question very well and I do have another question for you so what lessons can we learn from Dr King

    44:33

    and others on not getting burned out doing the work especially when it feels

    44:38

    like constantly pushing against a status quo play pool no uh

    44:46

    well that's that's the joy right like Joy is part of uh the the the healing

    44:53

    work of of engaging in resistance right or engaging in struggle

    44:59

    um and think of all of the Traditions that are part of the black freedom

    45:06

    movement the food culture the music the embodied

    45:13

    ways that people move and dance and sartorial decisions they make and how

    45:19

    people do their hair and how they get dressed and how they talk and the rhythm of language and all of that are the

    45:27

    things that bring us joy that make us feel whole that are restorative and sometimes you have to rest and sometimes

    45:32

    you have to take a break but um that I think is why when we think about the you know the historical black

    45:39

    experience to think about it holistically um you know we tend to just kind of get

    45:45

    these flash points of struggle and only think about confrontation or struggle I

    45:51

    um you know I think of the work of like Toni Morrison who you know they always would ask Tony Morrison like well you

    45:57

    don't really um They Don't Really Center white people in your stories and she was like because

    46:03

    I'm focusing on black communities um Zora Neale Hurston did the same thing

    46:09

    um so there are it's important for us to be balanced and it's important for us um you know to to make sure we have

    46:16

    these moments of Joy um but it's also important for us to be vigilant right and make sure that when

    46:24

    we're doing what people now call self-care that it's not the kind of self-care

    46:30

    um that lends itself to Indulgence to the disregard of

    46:36

    um the very really pressing needs of of our communities right so there's a balance

    46:42

    great thank you um now here's another question it's kind of an interesting question so

    46:49

    you know I'm looking at it and trying to understand the spin on it but you can take it delve it up either you Jewish or

    46:55

    as I are either one or both um can you give your opinion on when

    47:00

    diversity equity and inclusion may not be ideal intolerance is better Suited

    47:14

    yeah well um

    47:20

    so I think that tolerance is

    47:27

    just the coexistence with difference which Maybe

    47:34

    that might be all that's possible but I think the ideal is pluralism which

    47:40

    is engaged difference which is encounter difference which is relational difference

    47:46

    again you know the idea of of building Community

    47:51

    um we don't have to be the same to be in community with each other

    47:58

    but one would hope that to be in community in each other with each other

    48:04

    is not just to tolerate each other but to celebrate each other be in relations

    48:09

    with each other to um engage and learn from each other's

    48:16

    difference and I think that's that's much more than tolerance um and so I do think that's the goal and

    48:22

    I think there are many ways of achieving that and um you know strategically I think that

    48:29

    the space that's been created for the work of Dei provides some of that space

    48:34

    but it doesn't need to be limited to that space

    48:40

    yeah I would just add that um I mean to me tolerance sounds sounds like order

    48:45

    and um sounds like um you know what uh what the the white clergy at the time we're

    48:52

    telling Dr King um in terms of uh

    48:57

    you know the pace have changed uh you know the the kinds of of tactics and

    49:03

    um I I think uh deia is is much more um expressive uh is is much more

    49:11

    connective uh imagines a a future um where we are networked and um you

    49:18

    know we do have a sense of of shared fate and uh we're all draped by this uh

    49:24

    because as king would say this this Garment of of Destiny but thank you junish and zayer that is

    49:32

    going we have other questions but for the sake of time we're not going to be able to get to those other questions right now

    49:38

    um I think uh if you have access to the chat um you may be able to look at the

    49:43

    questions and if you want to put some chat something down in the in the uh chat how you might be able to do so or I

    49:50

    can actually write the questions down and we can get it back to um the individuals later Zaire

    49:56

    um I can shoot those over to you and you can just give me a quick response and I'll shoot it back to the to the requesters but I want to now turn this

    50:02

    back over to Amina because we uh we will get ready to close it out just to make sure we can do this in a timely manner

    50:10

    thank you yes thank you thank you so much um what did I tell you everyone I said

    50:16

    they left I knew we would have the perfect speaker if he was available um I just wanted to take a moment you

    50:22

    said um you know we talked about black resilience a journey to equality this journey is the Spectrum as he said um

    50:28

    there's no one way or exact direction to get there um it's just a matter of doing the work

    50:35

    and like you said history is important to understand but we can't rely on that to do the work I think that that was a

    50:40

    very important Point um I just want to take a moment to thank you Zaire and junish for that very

    50:46

    informative and enlightening discussion and presentation um we will now turn over the program to

    50:51

    Mr Jerry beat director for the office of civil rights for closing remarks

    51:01

    good afternoon everybody uh Zaire thank you so much for your

    51:07

    presentation today thank you be bold thank you Monique thank you junish our

    51:13

    chief diversity officer I I I I really thought this was an outstanding

    51:19

    program and I want to mention that we are here today delivering this to you

    51:25

    through the office of civil rights because of Dr King and the Civil Rights

    51:30

    Movement the name of our office office of civil rights born in the 60s we're

    51:36

    still carrying out very fundamental foundational work today uh my favorite quote from him or not my

    51:45

    favorite quote from him from this but gives us something to think about when we're talking about uh how quickly the can this work be done

    51:52

    let let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial Prejudice will soon pass away in the deep fog of misunderstanding will

    51:59

    be lifted from our fear-drenched communities and in some not so not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of

    52:06

    love and Brotherhood will shine over our great nation with other scintillating Beauty

    52:12

    wow is that aspirational are we there yet as a nation I don't think we are I don't

    52:19

    think we're there just yet and it might be some time I'd venture to guess till we are there

    52:25

    so I want to mention that um that special observances are work

    52:31

    that we do on a monthly basis specifically to hold conversations just like this perhaps to go to some of the

    52:38

    tenets of of the letter from Birmingham Jail to detention is there perhaps to

    52:44

    help bring out the tension we may not be the Creator's attention we're acknowledging what's there to have a fruitful constructive discussion

    52:52

    and so that is specifically the purpose of special emphasis programs which would

    52:57

    be occurring even if there wasn't the executive order on advancing racial equity and Outreach to underserved communities or advancing deia and the

    53:04

    federal Workforce we would still be doing this work here today and we will continue to do it because it's

    53:10

    foundational the office of civil rights enforces anti-discrimination laws and we coordinate these programs we look

    53:17

    at our Workforce through the employment cycle by race ethnicity sex and disability

    53:23

    now we are con this work is complemented by our deia work which is wonderful and

    53:29

    it continues to evolve our work and grow it's very different than where it started perhaps in the 60s and 70s but

    53:36

    it's still necessary that we continue to do the work in the office of civil rights the foundational work in addition

    53:43

    to the deia work so again thank you for this excellent example this excellent program of the

    53:51

    purpose for special emphasis programs why this under the law we do these

    53:56

    things at the Department of Commerce and across the federal government it's still very important today so it's wonderful

    54:04

    discussion um so I want to remind everybody that tomorrow also we are having another

    54:11

    event for black history a month the homage exhibit it's going to be actually

    54:17

    exhibition and in the Herbert C Hoover building in the lobby I encourage everybody if you're

    54:23

    physically in the building to to go in and actually uh go to the exhibit and to

    54:29

    touch these articles and hear the curator there we're very excited if you're on not in the DC area

    54:36

    um and you aren't able to go into Herbert C Hoover building tomorrow in the morning specifically we'll be

    54:42

    offering an online way for you to see the exhibit as well uh the curator will

    54:47

    be uh giving a presentation I'll be video uh be a video clip uh and we'll be

    54:53

    sent out later and then there are a number of other events including the event this coming

    54:58

    Friday with our deputy secretary interviewing the Black Chamber of Commerce as well here at the department

    55:04

    uh you name it there are so many different wonderful events to celebrate Black History Month it's a very exciting

    55:10

    thing um in March we are kicking off women's History Month

    55:17

    um and the theme for the 2023 women's history month is celebrating women who tell our stories and the theme

    55:24

    encourages the recognition of women past and presents who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling

    55:29

    including print radio TV stage screen blogs Etc very excited for that theme we

    55:35

    actually already have a speaker who will be coming in you'll be getting more information about that through a

    55:41

    broadcast um the event will happen on March 29th and Aina Peterson who is the founder and

    55:47

    CEO of women LED Global media and entertainment company inner voices artists will be here to speak to us then

    55:53

    so I look forward to seeing everybody then don't forget to visit ocr's webpage

    55:58

    doc dot ocr.gov I'm sorry doc.gov

    56:03

    forward slash OCR uh doc.ocr I'm gonna get it all confused you can uh

    56:11

    you can get to it from uh from the paid the equity page if you're there but hopefully everybody knows how to

    56:17

    navigate we have a list of all our special emphasis programs and other wonderful things for you to be able to

    56:23

    join to support and uplift deia an equal employment opportunity so on that Nick brings it close to our program thank you

    56:29

    all very much and enjoy the rest of your day and we'll see you at a future black history month program the one tomorrow and Friday take care

    56:36

    thank you um Zaire could you stick stay on for just a minute and uh Amina sure

    56:42

    okay

    56:49

    and Sharif are you there Chief's still here

    57:00

    thank you everyone thank you for attending and I don't know if the other Bebo folks

    57:05

    are here that if anybody else some people this year I hope they will pop up

    57:10

    like because I just wanted to thank you all my salary for my camera on Twitter oh like everybody saw

    57:18

    sometimes we um what I have to do is sometimes after these events like open

    57:24

    up a another room so to be like going into the Green Room so we can go into the great room after the event is over

    57:30

    and we can and we can just do a little wrap up in June is here too and and Jerry

    57:36

    yeah so I just wanted to uh again thank you all

    57:41

    for everything you've done all your work everything you did to be here um so there were a couple of questions

    57:47

    that we didn't get a chance to to put up for the audience but um I think they were it was some simple questions but I

    57:55

    can take and put those up for future reference and for the audience

    58:00

    and yeah

    58:14

    oh yeah is it still recording or do we need to

    58:20

    um phone so I can't it's a little delay

    58:25

    yeah thank you for remind

    English (auto-generated)

    AllFrom U.S. Department of CommercePresentationsPolitics NewsRelatedListenableRecently uploaded

    22:22NOW PLAYING

     

U.S. Department of Commerce Presents The Homage Exhibition 

The Homage Exhibition

In honor of Black History Month, on February 23, 2023, DOC hosted the Homage Exhibit at the Herbert C. Hoover Building in Washington, DC. The Homage Exhibit is a privately-owned collection focusing on African American history and culture. Curator and co-owner, Nia McAdoo, led visitors on a unique and fascinating journey through history, from slavery to the 21st century, as she described some of the artifacts in her over 600 piece collection.


  • 0:08

    hi welcome to the Department of

    0:10

    commerce's Black History Month

    0:12

    presentation of homage my name is Terry

    0:14

    batch and I'm in the international trade

    0:17

    Administration Global markets in the U.S

    0:19

    field based in Los Angeles California

    0:23

    my name is Mia McAdoo and the Amash

    0:25

    exhibit is a private collection owned by

    0:27

    my husband and myself we travel all over

    0:30

    the country bringing this exhibit up in

    0:33

    up close and personal to different

    0:35

    communities and so we're really happy to

    0:37

    be here today and to partner with you in

    0:39

    your office so that all of the staff can

    0:42

    get a up close and personal look at

    0:44

    history

    0:47

    so can you tell us about this document

    0:49

    here and what

    0:52

    what yeah so this is one of the older

    0:55

    documents in our collection it's an

    0:57

    inventory of an estate from 1801. so

    1:00

    somebody's passed away and they're

    1:02

    diving up everything that's owned for

    1:05

    children or relatives so this is

    1:08

    everything of value so you can tell that

    1:11

    he's not a wealthy individual

    1:14

    but the most valuable item owned is a

    1:17

    Negro wench which is a black woman

    1:20

    we know from her value that she's past

    1:22

    childbearing age and she's doing cooking

    1:24

    and cleaning in the house

    1:26

    I like to bring this piece out because a

    1:29

    lot of people have ideas of working

    1:31

    plantations with hundreds of slaves

    1:33

    picking a crop when the reality is a lot

    1:36

    of people owned one or two and this

    1:38

    actually proves that you didn't

    1:40

    necessarily need to be wealthy to own

    1:42

    another human being

    1:43

    and so this is one of the items that we

    1:47

    always

    1:48

    start the

    1:50

    exhibit with but we're very intentional

    1:53

    in how we set shows up we want to make

    1:56

    sure we show balance whenever possible

    1:58

    so we would have a piece like this

    2:01

    showing African Americans very much as

    2:03

    property or stereo view cards showing

    2:07

    working plantations next to a document

    2:10

    like this which is signed by Frederick

    2:13

    Douglass and it brings that DC history

    2:15

    in and it's a land transfer Deed from

    2:18

    later in life when he's working for the

    2:20

    federal government right here in D.C

    2:23

    one of my favorite pieces in the

    2:25

    collection is here

    2:27

    and it's a document signed by Macon B

    2:30

    Allen Macon B Allen is born in Indiana

    2:32

    and the 1800s and has dreams of being an

    2:36

    attorney right and so because of racial

    2:39

    restrictions he can't get into law

    2:41

    school

    2:42

    at the time the state of Maine did not

    2:44

    have a racial restriction for sitting

    2:46

    for the bar

    2:48

    so he packs up moves to Maine he does

    2:50

    work with a white abolitionist attorney

    2:52

    and does like an apprenticeship and he's

    2:55

    able to sit for the bar passes and

    2:57

    becomes that first African-American

    2:59

    attorney in the country

    3:00

    this document is dated 1878

    3:05

    during Reconstruction he moves to

    3:07

    Charleston and with two other

    3:08

    African-American attorneys they start

    3:10

    the first black law firm in the country

    3:13

    this document is from when he's a

    3:15

    probate judge in Charleston County and

    3:18

    so after that he's unfortunately run out

    3:21

    of Charleston after reconstruction comes

    3:25

    to D.C where he works for the federal

    3:26

    government and so we tried to pull

    3:29

    pieces that tie into local DC history

    3:32

    government history

    3:34

    and it really shows the depth of the

    3:37

    collection the overall collection has

    3:39

    over 650 pieces and today we have a

    3:42

    little under 200 on display

    3:46

    yeah so this is a Charleston Courier

    3:49

    newspaper from 1834 October

    3:52

    so this is an advertising manager's copy

    3:55

    so the numbers indicate how many more

    3:57

    days an ad has been paid to run

    4:01

    you'll see someone selling church pews

    4:04

    someone's opening a dance school they're

    4:06

    looking for students but the two ads

    4:10

    I'll show you are here and they both

    4:12

    have the same icon which is a runaway

    4:14

    slave ad

    4:15

    the one on top is interesting for a

    4:18

    number of reasons

    4:19

    it's a 100 reward for a missing family

    4:23

    and we say missing because the ad

    4:26

    indicates they don't know if they fled

    4:28

    or if they were kidnapped and resold

    4:30

    which was common

    4:32

    the ad indicates they've been looking

    4:33

    for them for over a year so you see the

    4:36

    time the energy the money they put into

    4:38

    getting property back

    4:40

    we have a woman named Penny she's 35 to

    4:42

    40. she has a teenage son named James

    4:45

    who's 14 or 15 and a two-year-old named

    4:49

    Millie

    4:50

    and in the document Millie is described

    4:52

    as being mulatto so we know she's

    4:54

    biracial more than likely the person who

    4:57

    fathered her is also the one trying to

    4:59

    get them back into enslavement

    5:01

    our collection also has a December 1834

    5:05

    career that ad still appears we know

    5:08

    from our research that it runs until the

    5:10

    following February

    5:12

    so it's a good piece and people always

    5:13

    have questions of what the numbers mean

    5:16

    and how we acquired it and this is one

    5:19

    of the pieces we acquired at a library

    5:21

    auction and so we have a number of

    5:24

    newspapers and we're able to introduce

    5:26

    different events or people movements

    5:30

    through media on this next table I'll

    5:33

    show you an example of that

    5:36

    so this is June 1921 and this is

    5:41

    newspaper coverage out of California on

    5:44

    the Tulsa Race Massacre so you'll see it

    5:48

    says martial law rules thousands in

    5:50

    battle torch applied in Tulsa and so we

    5:54

    get a lot of people who come through the

    5:55

    exhibit and they're like well why don't

    5:57

    you talk about this or that or this

    5:59

    person and since we only deal with

    6:02

    original artifacts and documents we can

    6:04

    only tell the story if we have that

    6:06

    piece that accompanies it and so this

    6:09

    was a piece that we acquired prior to

    6:12

    the 100th anniversary which was in 2021

    6:15

    and so we were able to tell that story

    6:17

    through a library auction where we

    6:20

    acquired this piece so that's a good

    6:24

    example of that

    6:27

    1921 yes and so everything is period and

    6:32

    we talk a lot about

    6:33

    everyday life another piece that I

    6:37

    really love is at the end of this table

    6:40

    um and again it's another local DC Story

    6:43

    one of my favorite things to collect are

    6:46

    press photos

    6:48

    and so typically when you have a picture

    6:51

    that's being used across the country

    6:53

    it's getting picked up by media they

    6:56

    will have and I'm going to flip this

    6:58

    over

    6:59

    on the back of it they'll have a date

    7:02

    stamp and a description of the original

    7:04

    wire or article

    7:07

    now this is a group of Howard University

    7:11

    students

    7:12

    and they're at the Attorney General's

    7:14

    conference on crime

    7:16

    this is 1934 and they're looking to have

    7:19

    lynching recognized as a federal hate

    7:22

    crime

    7:23

    we know that just happened

    7:25

    you'll see that they're standing next to

    7:29

    one another this is day two of that

    7:31

    student protest on day one they're

    7:33

    arrested because they're protesting on

    7:36

    day two they come out they stand side by

    7:37

    side which is not

    7:39

    a protest it's people standing in line

    7:42

    what you'll see if you take a closer

    7:44

    look is that they all have the nooses

    7:46

    around their neck

    7:48

    because they're unable to hold signs and

    7:50

    so they do this silent protest with the

    7:52

    Noose to protest lynching and so that's

    7:55

    another powerful piece that has a local

    7:58

    DC tie-in

    8:03

    so

    8:04

    just right here and I see that we have

    8:06

    madam CJ Walker yeah noted on the on

    8:10

    this piece yeah definitely so madam CJ

    8:13

    Walker we know is the first

    8:14

    African-American woman to be a

    8:16

    millionaire in this country and she's

    8:18

    based out of Indianapolis

    8:20

    this is actually her headquarters that

    8:23

    she built from the ground up and it

    8:25

    still stands we were there maybe two

    8:27

    weeks ago and so we were able to see the

    8:29

    building and it's very much still in use

    8:31

    and so madam CJ Walker makes her

    8:34

    Millions from black hair care and so one

    8:37

    thing that's really cool and I'll show

    8:39

    you

    8:40

    these are original product tins

    8:42

    and so this is the gloss scene

    8:45

    that really put her on the map so not

    8:48

    only did she create products but she

    8:51

    created beauty schools where

    8:53

    African-American women could come to

    8:56

    learn the trade to start their own

    8:57

    businesses and contribute to the greater

    9:00

    economy

    9:01

    um this is another one it's a temple

    9:04

    solve and this one actually still has

    9:07

    product in it yeah

    9:09

    and so

    9:11

    um it's always pieces that we like to

    9:14

    um showcase but an interesting story on

    9:17

    the back end is that my husband and I

    9:20

    have to know what's important to history

    9:22

    before

    9:24

    the general public right so we can

    9:25

    acquire the pieces and so we acquired

    9:28

    our madam CJ Walker tins and artifacts

    9:32

    prior to the Netflix special

    9:34

    post Netflix special the prices are

    9:37

    inflated and so we can no longer acquire

    9:40

    those pieces the same thing with the

    9:43

    paper we talked about with the Tulsa

    9:45

    Race Massacre once a hundred years hit

    9:48

    people knew about it so they're

    9:50

    searching for the artifacts related to

    9:52

    it and so we have to know

    9:55

    what is culturally important

    9:59

    um before everyone else does if that

    10:01

    makes sense

    10:03

    um

    10:04

    this is another piece that has a local

    10:07

    tie-in and again a pressed photo like I

    10:10

    said I'm very drawn to those pieces

    10:12

    and so this is Lois

    10:15

    Lipman and she's the first

    10:16

    African-American woman to have a

    10:18

    professional job at the White House and

    10:21

    one thing about press photos and I'll

    10:24

    turn it sideways is they'll tell you the

    10:27

    date

    10:29

    and let's look on the back to see if

    10:31

    this one I can't remember if this one

    10:33

    has a cutout so it's 1953 and this is

    10:37

    August 16th

    10:39

    the exhibit uses period language so Lois

    10:44

    is assistant to presidential assistant

    10:46

    Sherman Adams and she's the first negro

    10:49

    to work as a White House secretary

    10:52

    she worked for the Eisenhower

    10:53

    headquarters in New York in 1952 and was

    10:57

    given the job after the inauguration and

    11:00

    so she right exactly exactly

    11:04

    there's one thing that I like to show

    11:08

    people

    11:09

    with the exhibit you have the ability to

    11:13

    look at somebody's trajectory right and

    11:16

    so I'll give you two examples of that

    11:19

    the Fort Worth mind is the

    11:21

    African-American newspaper out of Texas

    11:26

    um here

    11:27

    I always like to point out it's a member

    11:29

    of the associated negro press like the

    11:33

    Associated Press they had a division for

    11:35

    African-American papers and this is

    11:38

    March 1957. Martin Luther King

    11:42

    is speaking at a graduation in Kentucky

    11:45

    but he's not a household name yet

    11:48

    and so the paper has to describe him to

    11:52

    tell you why you should care that he's

    11:54

    speaking at graduation so what it says

    11:57

    is he is the pastor of Dexter Avenue

    12:00

    Baptist Church in Montgomery and it

    12:03

    tells you that he's the president of the

    12:05

    Montgomery Improvement Association that

    12:07

    did the Montgomery Bus Boycott so that's

    12:09

    the light bulb when people read it

    12:12

    because they know Rosa Parks they know

    12:14

    the bus to boycott but they did not know

    12:16

    Martin Luther King Jr yet

    12:19

    and so we know that in a few years he's

    12:22

    a household name everyone knows him he

    12:24

    no longer would need that same

    12:26

    introduction

    12:28

    another example of that is this 1956

    12:32

    press photo

    12:33

    you have authoring Lucy who's

    12:35

    integrating the University of Alabama

    12:38

    but her attorneys are from the NAACP

    12:42

    so she's actually represented by

    12:44

    Thurgood Marshall who we know becomes

    12:45

    the first African-American on the

    12:47

    Supreme Court and Constance Baker Motley

    12:50

    who's tucked in

    12:52

    um there and she's the first

    12:53

    African-American woman to be appointed

    12:56

    as a federal judge and so

    12:59

    again in a few years everyone knows

    13:01

    Thurgood Marshall everybody knows

    13:04

    Constance Baker Motley but in 1956 this

    13:07

    is what got them to those positions and

    13:09

    it talks about the just the caliber of

    13:12

    attorneys working for school integration

    13:14

    through the NAACP so those are a few

    13:17

    pieces that I like to point out

    13:19

    as well

    13:25

    we get a lot of questions about how we

    13:28

    acquire our artifacts and I mentioned

    13:31

    earlier that a lot of newspapers will

    13:34

    come from newspaper auctions and I'll

    13:36

    show you an example of this so this is

    13:38

    September 18 1963 and this is the

    13:42

    Detroit Free Press and they're covering

    13:44

    the funeral of the little girls who were

    13:46

    murdered in the church bombing in

    13:48

    Birmingham

    13:49

    um but if you take a peek in here you'll

    13:52

    see that it was added to the archives on

    13:55

    September 20th 1963.

    13:58

    so what would happen something major

    14:01

    would happen they would take 50 copies

    14:04

    put them in the archives but then in 20

    14:07

    years 30 years they say okay do we still

    14:09

    need this and if the answer is no

    14:12

    they'll pare it Down Auction the rest

    14:14

    and now especially since everything is

    14:17

    being digitized they don't need as many

    14:20

    hard copies that have been saved over

    14:22

    the years so they will auction those to

    14:24

    raise money and so we're able to acquire

    14:26

    those pieces that way but whenever you

    14:29

    see that an item was sent to an archive

    14:32

    that sort of the story behind that we

    14:36

    talked about Thurgood Marshall on the

    14:38

    previous table

    14:40

    and this really gives you a greater

    14:44

    insight to the work that they were doing

    14:45

    for school integration

    14:48

    this is a fundraising letter sent by the

    14:51

    committee of 100 which is a organization

    14:54

    working to raise funds for different

    14:57

    initiatives this fundraising letter is

    15:01

    in support of the legal defense fund and

    15:04

    what it says is that in 1964 the NAACP

    15:08

    legal defense fund spent 1.4 million

    15:11

    dollars

    15:13

    um to fight School integration and it

    15:16

    goes on to say that they fought

    15:18

    they filed 84

    15:21

    suits in 15 states to desegregate

    15:25

    universities local school boards and

    15:27

    things like that and what the list

    15:30

    letter also says is with more money we

    15:32

    can do more but it really talks about

    15:35

    the fight the NAACP

    15:38

    had in school integration across the

    15:42

    country but I always like to point that

    15:44

    figure out the the cost right because

    15:47

    1.4 million dollars you guys would know

    15:50

    better than me what that means in

    15:51

    today's dollars but you know it's a

    15:54

    substantial budget just for the school

    15:56

    integration cases so that's definitely

    16:00

    something that I like to highlight

    16:02

    so this is a press photo again one of my

    16:04

    favorite things to collect and this is

    16:06

    on Channing Phillips

    16:08

    and Channing Phillips ran the Washington

    16:11

    DC campaign for Robert F Kennedy after

    16:16

    he's assassinated

    16:18

    the D.C delegation nominates Channing

    16:21

    Phillips for president as a son as a

    16:24

    favorite son and so Channing Phillips is

    16:28

    actually the first African-American to

    16:30

    be nominated for president it was a

    16:33

    symbolic move because he had worked so

    16:35

    closely with that campaign but he is

    16:38

    still the first African-American to be

    16:40

    nominated for the president

    16:45

    yeah and a lot of these names would be

    16:48

    lost to history right and so what we do

    16:50

    is try to amplify those voices those

    16:53

    events that people don't really know

    16:56

    about and again it has really cool DC

    16:59

    connection

    17:00

    one of the pieces that I really like in

    17:04

    our collection is a hand typed

    17:07

    so it's a hand typed report and it's the

    17:10

    annual report from 1968 of the NAACP and

    17:15

    it's the regional youth field director's

    17:18

    report and so it really does a deep dive

    17:21

    into all of the initiatives they were

    17:24

    working on and what happened in the

    17:26

    aftermath of MLK's assassination

    17:30

    and so it tells you everything that the

    17:33

    youth were doing for employment for

    17:36

    voting rights for integration in 1968

    17:40

    but it's a powerful report and it really

    17:43

    goes deep into you know what was being

    17:45

    done like boots on the ground and it's a

    17:47

    really interesting read

    17:50

    so what is

    17:54

    this Martin Luther King Jr right this is

    17:56

    from Coretta Scott King it is and so

    17:58

    what you'll see is this is from October

    18:00

    1st 1968. so this is months after her

    18:04

    husband's assassination and you'll see

    18:06

    it's signed Coretta Scott King

    18:08

    so we know that well into 1970 Coretta

    18:12

    Scott King responds personally to all

    18:14

    letters of prayer offers of concern

    18:17

    flowers and we have a Connecticut couple

    18:19

    that had Mass said for her and her

    18:21

    children and so what she's asking not

    18:25

    only saying thank you but she's asking

    18:27

    them to continue her husband's work as

    18:30

    they strive towards peace Justice and

    18:32

    Brotherhood and so we know she's thrust

    18:34

    into the national Spotlight following

    18:36

    his assassination but it really shows

    18:38

    her grace

    18:40

    in the midst of her own grief and

    18:43

    raising her children after the

    18:44

    assassination that she would personally

    18:46

    respond to these letters yeah

    18:49

    and so we're gonna

    18:52

    oh this is a good one

    18:54

    this is an original campaign poster from

    18:57

    Shirley Chisholm 1972 and her Ann Arbor

    19:01

    Michigan office and so we know Shirley

    19:04

    Chisholm is the first African-American

    19:06

    woman to uh

    19:09

    run on the national ticket and so this

    19:12

    is one of her buttons as well yes so a

    19:15

    lot of people love to see this piece

    19:17

    when we have it on display nice

    19:21

    so we're gonna keep on I love all the

    19:24

    Black Culture yeah Michael Jackson yes

    19:26

    Stevie Wonder right Sugar Ray Leonard

    19:29

    yes and so throughout

    19:33

    um from the 40s until our current our

    19:36

    last table in the collection we do

    19:38

    feature a lot of black Publications so

    19:41

    the jet magazines which was a weekly and

    19:45

    it was pocket sized it was meant to be

    19:46

    shared and left at the beauty salon or

    19:49

    the barbershop and this is one that I

    19:51

    just have fond memories of another piece

    19:55

    that people love is this s is for soul

    19:58

    sister this is it's so cute yeah and so

    20:02

    this is uh Chicago Teachers who are

    20:05

    looking to have culturally culturally

    20:08

    relevant items in their classroom they

    20:10

    took pictures of their students and made

    20:12

    instead of a for apple A is for afro

    20:15

    right and so it's a really cute

    20:17

    collection and we have the entire

    20:18

    collection

    20:19

    um

    20:21

    firm eyes

    20:24

    I think I remember

    20:25

    yeah definitely

    20:28

    a lot of what we do with the exhibit

    20:31

    really speaks to the power of the first

    20:33

    person to do something so the power of

    20:37

    one we have Wilder who becomes the first

    20:40

    African-American governor of Virginia

    20:43

    we have David Dinkins who's the first

    20:46

    African-American mayor of New York City

    20:48

    and it's important that people see who

    20:52

    lay that framework but since it's set up

    20:55

    as a timeline it's also important to see

    20:57

    how recent this was right and so as you

    21:01

    go through people are able to look at

    21:04

    and see things very differently when

    21:06

    it's set up the way it is today

    21:08

    we have a lot of DC on this table like a

    21:11

    lot of Washington DC so when Carol

    21:14

    Mosley Braun runs for Senate out of

    21:17

    Illinois and she wins her election we

    21:20

    have the Million Man March in 1995

    21:22

    that's right in DC right right exactly

    21:26

    we have Barack Obama and his historic

    21:30

    run and win we have the protests and

    21:34

    support of Justice Jackson

    21:37

    during her hearings and Kamala Harris

    21:39

    and so we like to end on a note where

    21:43

    people can identify with it's current

    21:45

    they know these stories they can

    21:47

    remember where they were those types of

    21:50

    feelings and so that is what we bought

    21:53

    today and it's been absolutely great

    21:55

    sharing this with you thank you you're

    21:58

    very welcome I love it

    22:00

    lightning yes and for our colleagues

    22:03

    that are not in the building yes we

    22:05

    still get to experience the homage

    22:07

    exhibit so it's really good that we're

    22:09

    capturing this definitely thank you

    0:08

    hi welcome to the Department of

    0:10

    commerce's Black History Month

    0:12

    presentation of homage my name is Terry

    0:14

    batch and I'm in the international trade

    0:17

    Administration Global markets in the U.S

    0:19

    field based in Los Angeles California

    0:23

    my name is Mia McAdoo and the Amash

    0:25

    exhibit is a private collection owned by

    0:27

    my husband and myself we travel all over

    0:30

    the country bringing this exhibit up in

    0:33

    up close and personal to different

    0:35

    communities and so we're really happy to

    0:37

    be here today and to partner with you in

    0:39

    your office so that all of the staff can

    0:42

    get a up close and personal look at

    0:44

    history

    0:47

    so can you tell us about this document

    0:49

    here and what

    0:52

    what yeah so this is one of the older

    0:55

    documents in our collection it's an

    0:57

    inventory of an estate from 1801. so

    1:00

    somebody's passed away and they're

    1:02

    diving up everything that's owned for

    1:05

    children or relatives so this is

    1:08

    everything of value so you can tell that

    1:11

    he's not a wealthy individual

    1:14

    but the most valuable item owned is a

    1:17

    Negro wench which is a black woman

    1:20

    we know from her value that she's past

    1:22

    childbearing age and she's doing cooking

    1:24

    and cleaning in the house

    1:26

    I like to bring this piece out because a

    1:29

    lot of people have ideas of working

    1:31

    plantations with hundreds of slaves

    1:33

    picking a crop when the reality is a lot

    1:36

    of people owned one or two and this

    1:38

    actually proves that you didn't

    1:40

    necessarily need to be wealthy to own

    1:42

    another human being

    1:43

    and so this is one of the items that we

    1:47

    always

    1:48

    start the

    1:50

    exhibit with but we're very intentional

    1:53

    in how we set shows up we want to make

    1:56

    sure we show balance whenever possible

    1:58

    so we would have a piece like this

    2:01

    showing African Americans very much as

    2:03

    property or stereo view cards showing

    2:07

    working plantations next to a document

    2:10

    like this which is signed by Frederick

    2:13

    Douglass and it brings that DC history

    2:15

    in and it's a land transfer Deed from

    2:18

    later in life when he's working for the

    2:20

    federal government right here in D.C

    2:23

    one of my favorite pieces in the

    2:25

    collection is here

    2:27

    and it's a document signed by Macon B

    2:30

    Allen Macon B Allen is born in Indiana

    2:32

    and the 1800s and has dreams of being an

    2:36

    attorney right and so because of racial

    2:39

    restrictions he can't get into law

    2:41

    school

    2:42

    at the time the state of Maine did not

    2:44

    have a racial restriction for sitting

    2:46

    for the bar

    2:48

    so he packs up moves to Maine he does

    2:50

    work with a white abolitionist attorney

    2:52

    and does like an apprenticeship and he's

    2:55

    able to sit for the bar passes and

    2:57

    becomes that first African-American

    2:59

    attorney in the country

    3:00

    this document is dated 1878

    3:05

    during Reconstruction he moves to

    3:07

    Charleston and with two other

    3:08

    African-American attorneys they start

    3:10

    the first black law firm in the country

    3:13

    this document is from when he's a

    3:15

    probate judge in Charleston County and

    3:18

    so after that he's unfortunately run out

    3:21

    of Charleston after reconstruction comes

    3:25

    to D.C where he works for the federal

    3:26

    government and so we tried to pull

    3:29

    pieces that tie into local DC history

    3:32

    government history

    3:34

    and it really shows the depth of the

    3:37

    collection the overall collection has

    3:39

    over 650 pieces and today we have a

    3:42

    little under 200 on display

    3:46

    yeah so this is a Charleston Courier

    3:49

    newspaper from 1834 October

    3:52

    so this is an advertising manager's copy

    3:55

    so the numbers indicate how many more

    3:57

    days an ad has been paid to run

    4:01

    you'll see someone selling church pews

    4:04

    someone's opening a dance school they're

    4:06

    looking for students but the two ads

    4:10

    I'll show you are here and they both

    4:12

    have the same icon which is a runaway

    4:14

    slave ad

    4:15

    the one on top is interesting for a

    4:18

    number of reasons

    4:19

    it's a 100 reward for a missing family

    4:23

    and we say missing because the ad

    4:26

    indicates they don't know if they fled

    4:28

    or if they were kidnapped and resold

    4:30

    which was common

    4:32

    the ad indicates they've been looking

    4:33

    for them for over a year so you see the

    4:36

    time the energy the money they put into

    4:38

    getting property back

    4:40

    we have a woman named Penny she's 35 to

    4:42

    40. she has a teenage son named James

    4:45

    who's 14 or 15 and a two-year-old named

    4:49

    Millie

    4:50

    and in the document Millie is described

    4:52

    as being mulatto so we know she's

    4:54

    biracial more than likely the person who

    4:57

    fathered her is also the one trying to

    4:59

    get them back into enslavement

    5:01

    our collection also has a December 1834

    5:05

    career that ad still appears we know

    5:08

    from our research that it runs until the

    5:10

    following February

    5:12

    so it's a good piece and people always

    5:13

    have questions of what the numbers mean

    5:16

    and how we acquired it and this is one

    5:19

    of the pieces we acquired at a library

    5:21

    auction and so we have a number of

    5:24

    newspapers and we're able to introduce

    5:26

    different events or people movements

    5:30

    through media on this next table I'll

    5:33

    show you an example of that

    5:36

    so this is June 1921 and this is

    5:41

    newspaper coverage out of California on

    5:44

    the Tulsa Race Massacre so you'll see it

    5:48

    says martial law rules thousands in

    5:50

    battle torch applied in Tulsa and so we

    5:54

    get a lot of people who come through the

    5:55

    exhibit and they're like well why don't

    5:57

    you talk about this or that or this

    5:59

    person and since we only deal with

    6:02

    original artifacts and documents we can

    6:04

    only tell the story if we have that

    6:06

    piece that accompanies it and so this

    6:09

    was a piece that we acquired prior to

    6:12

    the 100th anniversary which was in 2021

    6:15

    and so we were able to tell that story

    6:17

    through a library auction where we

    6:20

    acquired this piece so that's a good

    6:24

    example of that

    6:27

    1921 yes and so everything is period and

    6:32

    we talk a lot about

    6:33

    everyday life another piece that I

    6:37

    really love is at the end of this table

    6:40

    um and again it's another local DC Story

    6:43

    one of my favorite things to collect are

    6:46

    press photos

    6:48

    and so typically when you have a picture

    6:51

    that's being used across the country

    6:53

    it's getting picked up by media they

    6:56

    will have and I'm going to flip this

    6:58

    over

    6:59

    on the back of it they'll have a date

    7:02

    stamp and a description of the original

    7:04

    wire or article

    7:07

    now this is a group of Howard University

    7:11

    students

    7:12

    and they're at the Attorney General's

    7:14

    conference on crime

    7:16

    this is 1934 and they're looking to have

    7:19

    lynching recognized as a federal hate

    7:22

    crime

    7:23

    we know that just happened

    7:25

    you'll see that they're standing next to

    7:29

    one another this is day two of that

    7:31

    student protest on day one they're

    7:33

    arrested because they're protesting on

    7:36

    day two they come out they stand side by

    7:37

    side which is not

    7:39

    a protest it's people standing in line

    7:42

    what you'll see if you take a closer

    7:44

    look is that they all have the nooses

    7:46

    around their neck

    7:48

    because they're unable to hold signs and

    7:50

    so they do this silent protest with the

    7:52

    Noose to protest lynching and so that's

    7:55

    another powerful piece that has a local

    7:58

    DC tie-in

    8:03

    so

    8:04

    just right here and I see that we have

    8:06

    madam CJ Walker yeah noted on the on

    8:10

    this piece yeah definitely so madam CJ

    8:13

    Walker we know is the first

    8:14

    African-American woman to be a

    8:16

    millionaire in this country and she's

    8:18

    based out of Indianapolis

    8:20

    this is actually her headquarters that

    8:23

    she built from the ground up and it

    8:25

    still stands we were there maybe two

    8:27

    weeks ago and so we were able to see the

    8:29

    building and it's very much still in use

    8:31

    and so madam CJ Walker makes her

    8:34

    Millions from black hair care and so one

    8:37

    thing that's really cool and I'll show

    8:39

    you

    8:40

    these are original product tins

    8:42

    and so this is the gloss scene

    8:45

    that really put her on the map so not

    8:48

    only did she create products but she

    8:51

    created beauty schools where

    8:53

    African-American women could come to

    8:56

    learn the trade to start their own

    8:57

    businesses and contribute to the greater

    9:00

    economy

    9:01

    um this is another one it's a temple

    9:04

    solve and this one actually still has

    9:07

    product in it yeah

    9:09

    and so

    9:11

    um it's always pieces that we like to

    9:14

    um showcase but an interesting story on

    9:17

    the back end is that my husband and I

    9:20

    have to know what's important to history

    9:22

    before

    9:24

    the general public right so we can

    9:25

    acquire the pieces and so we acquired

    9:28

    our madam CJ Walker tins and artifacts

    9:32

    prior to the Netflix special

    9:34

    post Netflix special the prices are

    9:37

    inflated and so we can no longer acquire

    9:40

    those pieces the same thing with the

    9:43

    paper we talked about with the Tulsa

    9:45

    Race Massacre once a hundred years hit

    9:48

    people knew about it so they're

    9:50

    searching for the artifacts related to

    9:52

    it and so we have to know

    9:55

    what is culturally important

    9:59

    um before everyone else does if that

    10:01

    makes sense

    10:03

    um

    10:04

    this is another piece that has a local

    10:07

    tie-in and again a pressed photo like I

    10:10

    said I'm very drawn to those pieces

    10:12

    and so this is Lois

    10:15

    Lipman and she's the first

    10:16

    African-American woman to have a

    10:18

    professional job at the White House and

    10:21

    one thing about press photos and I'll

    10:24

    turn it sideways is they'll tell you the

    10:27

    date

    10:29

    and let's look on the back to see if

    10:31

    this one I can't remember if this one

    10:33

    has a cutout so it's 1953 and this is

    10:37

    August 16th

    10:39

    the exhibit uses period language so Lois

    10:44

    is assistant to presidential assistant

    10:46

    Sherman Adams and she's the first negro

    10:49

    to work as a White House secretary

    10:52

    she worked for the Eisenhower

    10:53

    headquarters in New York in 1952 and was

    10:57

    given the job after the inauguration and

    11:00

    so she right exactly exactly

    11:04

    there's one thing that I like to show

    11:08

    people

    11:09

    with the exhibit you have the ability to

    11:13

    look at somebody's trajectory right and

    11:16

    so I'll give you two examples of that

    11:19

    the Fort Worth mind is the

    11:21

    African-American newspaper out of Texas

    11:26

    um here

    11:27

    I always like to point out it's a member

    11:29

    of the associated negro press like the

    11:33

    Associated Press they had a division for

    11:35

    African-American papers and this is

    11:38

    March 1957. Martin Luther King

    11:42

    is speaking at a graduation in Kentucky

    11:45

    but he's not a household name yet

    11:48

    and so the paper has to describe him to

    11:52

    tell you why you should care that he's

    11:54

    speaking at graduation so what it says

    11:57

    is he is the pastor of Dexter Avenue

    12:00

    Baptist Church in Montgomery and it

    12:03

    tells you that he's the president of the

    12:05

    Montgomery Improvement Association that

    12:07

    did the Montgomery Bus Boycott so that's

    12:09

    the light bulb when people read it

    12:12

    because they know Rosa Parks they know

    12:14

    the bus to boycott but they did not know

    12:16

    Martin Luther King Jr yet

    12:19

    and so we know that in a few years he's

    12:22

    a household name everyone knows him he

    12:24

    no longer would need that same

    12:26

    introduction

    12:28

    another example of that is this 1956

    12:32

    press photo

    12:33

    you have authoring Lucy who's

    12:35

    integrating the University of Alabama

    12:38

    but her attorneys are from the NAACP

    12:42

    so she's actually represented by

    12:44

    Thurgood Marshall who we know becomes

    12:45

    the first African-American on the

    12:47

    Supreme Court and Constance Baker Motley

    12:50

    who's tucked in

    12:52

    um there and she's the first

    12:53

    African-American woman to be appointed

    12:56

    as a federal judge and so

    12:59

    again in a few years everyone knows

    13:01

    Thurgood Marshall everybody knows

    13:04

    Constance Baker Motley but in 1956 this

    13:07

    is what got them to those positions and

    13:09

    it talks about the just the caliber of

    13:12

    attorneys working for school integration

    13:14

    through the NAACP so those are a few

    13:17

    pieces that I like to point out

    13:19

    as well

    13:25

    we get a lot of questions about how we

    13:28

    acquire our artifacts and I mentioned

    13:31

    earlier that a lot of newspapers will

    13:34

    come from newspaper auctions and I'll

    13:36

    show you an example of this so this is

    13:38

    September 18 1963 and this is the

    13:42

    Detroit Free Press and they're covering

    13:44

    the funeral of the little girls who were

    13:46

    murdered in the church bombing in

    13:48

    Birmingham

    13:49

    um but if you take a peek in here you'll

    13:52

    see that it was added to the archives on

    13:55

    September 20th 1963.

    13:58

    so what would happen something major

    14:01

    would happen they would take 50 copies

    14:04

    put them in the archives but then in 20

    14:07

    years 30 years they say okay do we still

    14:09

    need this and if the answer is no

    14:12

    they'll pare it Down Auction the rest

    14:14

    and now especially since everything is

    14:17

    being digitized they don't need as many

    14:20

    hard copies that have been saved over

    14:22

    the years so they will auction those to

    14:24

    raise money and so we're able to acquire

    14:26

    those pieces that way but whenever you

    14:29

    see that an item was sent to an archive

    14:32

    that sort of the story behind that we

    14:36

    talked about Thurgood Marshall on the

    14:38

    previous table

    14:40

    and this really gives you a greater

    14:44

    insight to the work that they were doing

    14:45

    for school integration

    14:48

    this is a fundraising letter sent by the

    14:51

    committee of 100 which is a organization

    14:54

    working to raise funds for different

    14:57

    initiatives this fundraising letter is

    15:01

    in support of the legal defense fund and

    15:04

    what it says is that in 1964 the NAACP

    15:08

    legal defense fund spent 1.4 million

    15:11

    dollars

    15:13

    um to fight School integration and it

    15:16

    goes on to say that they fought

    15:18

    they filed 84

    15:21

    suits in 15 states to desegregate

    15:25

    universities local school boards and

    15:27

    things like that and what the list

    15:30

    letter also says is with more money we

    15:32

    can do more but it really talks about

    15:35

    the fight the NAACP

    15:38

    had in school integration across the

    15:42

    country but I always like to point that

    15:44

    figure out the the cost right because

    15:47

    1.4 million dollars you guys would know

    15:50

    better than me what that means in

    15:51

    today's dollars but you know it's a

    15:54

    substantial budget just for the school

    15:56

    integration cases so that's definitely

    16:00

    something that I like to highlight

    16:02

    so this is a press photo again one of my

    16:04

    favorite things to collect and this is

    16:06

    on Channing Phillips

    16:08

    and Channing Phillips ran the Washington

    16:11

    DC campaign for Robert F Kennedy after

    16:16

    he's assassinated

    16:18

    the D.C delegation nominates Channing

    16:21

    Phillips for president as a son as a

    16:24

    favorite son and so Channing Phillips is

    16:28

    actually the first African-American to

    16:30

    be nominated for president it was a

    16:33

    symbolic move because he had worked so

    16:35

    closely with that campaign but he is

    16:38

    still the first African-American to be

    16:40

    nominated for the president

    16:45

    yeah and a lot of these names would be

    16:48

    lost to history right and so what we do

    16:50

    is try to amplify those voices those

    16:53

    events that people don't really know

    16:56

    about and again it has really cool DC

    16:59

    connection

    17:00

    one of the pieces that I really like in

    17:04

    our collection is a hand typed

    17:07

    so it's a hand typed report and it's the

    17:10

    annual report from 1968 of the NAACP and

    17:15

    it's the regional youth field director's

    17:18

    report and so it really does a deep dive

    17:21

    into all of the initiatives they were

    17:24

    working on and what happened in the

    17:26

    aftermath of MLK's assassination

    17:30

    and so it tells you everything that the

    17:33

    youth were doing for employment for

    17:36

    voting rights for integration in 1968

    17:40

    but it's a powerful report and it really

    17:43

    goes deep into you know what was being

    17:45

    done like boots on the ground and it's a

    17:47

    really interesting read

    17:50

    so what is

    17:54

    this Martin Luther King Jr right this is

    17:56

    from Coretta Scott King it is and so

    17:58

    what you'll see is this is from October

    18:00

    1st 1968. so this is months after her

    18:04

    husband's assassination and you'll see

    18:06

    it's signed Coretta Scott King

    18:08

    so we know that well into 1970 Coretta

    18:12

    Scott King responds personally to all

    18:14

    letters of prayer offers of concern

    18:17

    flowers and we have a Connecticut couple

    18:19

    that had Mass said for her and her

    18:21

    children and so what she's asking not

    18:25

    only saying thank you but she's asking

    18:27

    them to continue her husband's work as

    18:30

    they strive towards peace Justice and

    18:32

    Brotherhood and so we know she's thrust

    18:34

    into the national Spotlight following

    18:36

    his assassination but it really shows

    18:38

    her grace

    18:40

    in the midst of her own grief and

    18:43

    raising her children after the

    18:44

    assassination that she would personally

    18:46

    respond to these letters yeah

    18:49

    and so we're gonna

    18:52

    oh this is a good one

    18:54

    this is an original campaign poster from

    18:57

    Shirley Chisholm 1972 and her Ann Arbor

    19:01

    Michigan office and so we know Shirley

    19:04

    Chisholm is the first African-American

    19:06

    woman to uh

    19:09

    run on the national ticket and so this

    19:12

    is one of her buttons as well yes so a

    19:15

    lot of people love to see this piece

    19:17

    when we have it on display nice

    19:21

    so we're gonna keep on I love all the

    19:24

    Black Culture yeah Michael Jackson yes

    19:26

    Stevie Wonder right Sugar Ray Leonard

    19:29

    yes and so throughout

    19:33

    um from the 40s until our current our

    19:36

    last table in the collection we do

    19:38

    feature a lot of black Publications so

    19:41

    the jet magazines which was a weekly and

    19:45

    it was pocket sized it was meant to be

    19:46

    shared and left at the beauty salon or

    19:49

    the barbershop and this is one that I

    19:51

    just have fond memories of another piece

    19:55

    that people love is this s is for soul

    19:58

    sister this is it's so cute yeah and so

    20:02

    this is uh Chicago Teachers who are

    20:05

    looking to have culturally culturally

    20:08

    relevant items in their classroom they

    20:10

    took pictures of their students and made

    20:12

    instead of a for apple A is for afro

    20:15

    right and so it's a really cute

    20:17

    collection and we have the entire

    20:18

    collection

    20:19

    um

    20:21

    firm eyes

    20:24

    I think I remember

    20:25

    yeah definitely

    20:28

    a lot of what we do with the exhibit

    20:31

    really speaks to the power of the first

    20:33

    person to do something so the power of

    20:37

    one we have Wilder who becomes the first

    20:40

    African-American governor of Virginia

    20:43

    we have David Dinkins who's the first

    20:46

    African-American mayor of New York City

    20:48

    and it's important that people see who

    20:52

    lay that framework but since it's set up

    20:55

    as a timeline it's also important to see

    20:57

    how recent this was right and so as you

    21:01

    go through people are able to look at

    21:04

    and see things very differently when

    21:06

    it's set up the way it is today

    21:08

    we have a lot of DC on this table like a

    21:11

    lot of Washington DC so when Carol

    21:14

    Mosley Braun runs for Senate out of

    21:17

    Illinois and she wins her election we

    21:20

    have the Million Man March in 1995

    21:22

    that's right in DC right right exactly

    21:26

    we have Barack Obama and his historic

    21:30

    run and win we have the protests and

    21:34

    support of Justice Jackson

    21:37

    during her hearings and Kamala Harris

    21:39

    and so we like to end on a note where

    21:43

    people can identify with it's current

    21:45

    they know these stories they can

    21:47

    remember where they were those types of

    21:50

    feelings and so that is what we bought

    21:53

    today and it's been absolutely great

    21:55

    sharing this with you thank you you're

    21:58

    very welcome I love it

    22:00

    lightning yes and for our colleagues

    22:03

    that are not in the building yes we

    22:05

    still get to experience the homage

    22:07

    exhibit so it's really good that we're

    22:09

    capturing this definitely thank you

Guidance and Regulation

·        

Executive Order 13583, Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce, August 18, 2011

·        

Executive Order 11478, Equal employment opportunity in the Federal Government

·        

29 Code of Federal Regulation, Part 1614.102(b)(4), Federal implementation of the Civil Rights Act