Browse Items (29 total)
- Collection: Postwar United States
Virginia Department of Labor and Industry Safety Poster, 1953
“Safety is better than compensation” it a sentiment which echoes—both explicitly and implicitly—through the wording of these safety posters (see link below to view additional images). In these posters, cartoon workers are eaten by machines and lose…
Two Virginia Newspapers Respond to the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education Decision, May 1954
On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Virginia's school system had been segregated since it was established in 1870, and…
The Space Flight of Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr., Poem, c. 1962
John Glenn was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he set a new speed record for traveling from Los Angeles to New York. It was his involvement in the U.S. Space Program, however, that earned him the most fame- a place in American…
The Crime of Being Married, Life Magazine, 18 March 1966
The Racial Integrity Act was introduced in 1924 in the General Assembly as Senate Bill No. 219, then as House Bill No. 311. When the act was passed, it prohibited interracial marriage and defined a white person as someone "who has no trace whatsoever…
Telegram from Major General Kenneth Wickham to Mrs. Carol A. Sowder, 1970
The Vietnam War was a conflict between the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, and South Vietnam whose principal ally was the United States. Many of the issues in Vietnam stemmed from a history of…
Susan Strange Diary Entry, Thalhimers Protest, Richmond, 1960
On February 1, 1960 the “Greensboro Four” sat down at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. By February 5th, hundreds of students had joined the movement to integrate the lunch counters. By the end of March, the movement had…
Robert Kennedy, Visit to Prince Edward County Schools, May 11, 1964
On May 17, 1954, after nearly two decades of legal challenges against racial segregation in public schools and higher education, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that school segregation was…
Resolution against the Fourteenth Amendment by Lee-Jackson Camp, 1958
In 1958, the members of the Lee- Jackson Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans drafted a resolution in which they suggested the Fourteenth Amendment was illegal as it, in their opinion, had not been properly ratified. The justification they used…
Petition from the Citizens of Halifax County, 1955
On May 17, 1954, after nearly two decades of legal challenges against racial segregation in public schools and higher education, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that school segregation was…
Petition from Students at Lane High School to Reopen Schools, Charlottesville, September 1958
On May 17, 1954, after nearly two decades of legal challenges against racial segregation in public schools and higher education, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that school segregation was…