LibGuides: History Unbound: Social Justice

1964 Rochester Riot

1964 Rochester Riot Photographs
A New York Heritage primary source image collection from Rochester Public Library.

Collections and Sets on Social Justice

A History of Social Welfare
This project includes the digitization of manuscripts, early journals, narratives, reports, letters, photographs, prints, paintings, audio and video clips that document the history of social welfare in the United State...
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This project includes the digitization of manuscripts, early journals, narratives, reports, letters, photographs, prints, paintings, audio and video clips that document the history of social welfare in the United States, emphasizing two foci: the historical development of social welfare services, programs and policies in the state of New York; and in a parallel fashion, the history of social welfare provisions in the form of policies, programs and services by and for African Americans.

Mattachine Society of New York. "Homosexuals Are Different . . ." Poster, 1960s. NYPL, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Mattachine Society of New York Records.

Scottsboro Trials Collection
In the 1930s, nine young African-American men were tried for raping two white women in a train freight car in a groundbreaking case that tested the limits of race relations in the United States.
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Cornell Law alumnus Samuel S. Leibowitz (J.D. '15) represented these teenagers, who came to be known as the "Scottsboro Boys," in several proceedings. He kindly gave several important original documents and artifacts to the Cornell Law Library.
The NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom
A Library of Congress primary source set and teachers guide
1969: The Year of Gay Liberation
A primary source rich online exhibit from the New York Public Library.
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The year 1969 marked a major turning point in the politics of sexuality in America. Same-sex relationships were discreetly tolerated in 19th-century America in the form of romantic friendships, but the 20th century brought increasing legal and medical regulation of homosexuality, which was considered a dangerous illness. This change in attitude was accompanied by pockets of resistance, spaces that gays and lesbians carved out for their erotic self-expression. Sometimes these spaces were hidden, like the gay bars in Greenwich Village and Harlem that were frequented only by those in the know. Sometimes they were in plain sight, like the homoerotic subtexts and in-jokes of Hollywood movies. The repression of homosexuality reached its peak in the 1950s with the McCarthy era. During the paranoia of the Cold War, gays, lesbians, and transgender people were seen as a corrupt, lurking menace, easily used as pawns by communists.
Fifth Freedom Newspaper
The Fifth Freedom was a periodic free newspaper of the Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier, Western New York's most prominent early gay rights organization.
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In being the official written mouthpiece of the region's first systematic gay rights organization, The Fifth Freedom expresses the earliest codified and widely distributed literature of the gay community within the region. With the publication of this digital collection, scholars now have universal access to this seminal civil rights-centric material. Covering the time period between 1970 and 1983, the literature of The Fifth Freedom necessarily comments on not only the self-expression of a largely "invisible" self-identified group in the years that followed the Stonewall riots and preceded the onset of the more well-known AIDS epidemic, but also upon the larger Western New York and American culture overall. The newspaper content as well as editorial direction both chronicle and critique a unique time in both American and world-wide history, as seen and expressed by an active, though underdocumented, population.
Africana Age
This primary source, multimedia, interactive online exhibit from the New York Public Library explores global Diasporan and African cultures, with a large mass of materials on the United States experience.
Working Lives: A Guide to the Records of the New York State Factory Investigating Commission in the New York State Archives
Union Labels, 1901-1943.
Collection of union labels distinguishing products made by a particular union.
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In 1889, in response to growth in the number of labor unions, New York State passed a law offering unions an opportunity to register their labels, names, brands, or other devices with the Secretary of State. It was thought that this procedure of officially recognizing the uniqueness of each labor association or union logo would help avoid the confusion that might result from similar designs.

The law was amended in 1943 to substitute the Department of Labor as the registering agency. Hundreds of labels were registered during the period from 1901 to 1942, the time period represented by these images.
Postcards of female and male impersonators and cross-dressing in Europe and the United States, 1900-1930
Dating between 1900 and 1931, with one postcard from 1955, the images play with depictions of race, colonialism, desire, and questions related to LGBT history. The collection supports research and teaching for gender and sexuality studies, performance studies, language and literature.

Political Campaign Memorabilia

Political memorabilia are a particularly rich resource for understanding the transformation of American politics across the 19th and 20th centuries, documenting expanding avenues of activism and electioneering, shifting political party platforms, and the culture of nominating conventions. Beyond their immediate goal of promoting political candidates and their parties, these physical objects also served to simplify complex personalities and issues, and generate and maintain emotional bonds between candidates and constituencies. Through their texts, imagery, design and materials, campaign memorabilia offer direct access to lives of everyday people and their concerns.

Cornell’s Political Campaign Memorabilia Collections

Bread and Roses Strike of 1912: Two Months in Lawrence, Massachusetts, that Changed Labor History

Exhibit Home

The Bread and Roses Strike of 1912 exhibit from the Digital Public Library of America is divided into six themed primary source driven collections with exploratory text and multiple pages.

Activism Exhibition - Digital Public Library of America

Activism in the U.S. Exhibit Home

The links contained here from the DPLA are for guided exhibits on 20th century activism in the US. Most exhibit sections have 4-5 primary source images/documents.

This Land Is Your Land: Parks and Public Spaces

This Land Is Your Land: Exhibit Home

This Land Is Your Land: Parks and Public Spaces is an exhibit of the Digital Public Library of America. Each themed resource collection is linked below by title.