Sharing a link to NARA historian Jessie Kratz's introductory post to a series this month at the Prologue blog, Celebrating Black History Month | Prologue: Pieces of History. As a historian, I appreciate how Jessie first effectively places history in context:
"Like many government agencies, the National Archives has a checkered past when it comes to hiring and promoting African Americans.
In the early years of the 1930s and 1940s, black employees faced extreme prejudices and were mostly limited to more manual and unskilled behind the scene jobs.
Very few African Americans held professional archivist positions, and those who were able to get those jobs were not promoted at the same pace as their white colleagues.
The Civil Rights era saw black employees begin to make greater gains in securing higher profile positions."
Records and oral history interviews enable us better to understand the past. My thanks to Jessie for writing this post and enhancing knowledge of NARA's own past.