Inside the Vault: Black Enfranchisement and Education

Selected Gilder Lehrman Collection Items on Exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum

Join us on Thursday, January 5, 2023, from 7 pm to 8 pm ET as our curators discuss documents from the exhibition Fighting to Learn: Black Enfranchisement and Education in the Gilder Lehrman Collection, with Dr. Jesse Erickson, Astor Curator of Printed Books and Bindings at the Morgan Library & Museum.

Items to be discussed:

• 1870 engraving of five African American members of Congress
• The Work of the Afro-American Woman by Gertrude Bustill Mossell, 1894
• A 1907 envelope from the Board of Education addressed to Josephine B. Bruce

These materials explore the Black community’s persistent struggles for emancipation, enfranchisement, and the right to quality education, highlighting how these efforts have intersected during the past century and a half. From the Civil War to the Little Rock Nine, the key moments and figures represented here describe, in part, a multigenerational political project of resistance and respectability.

This event is for teachers, students, and their families—and everyone with an interest in history!

Registrants will be sent a Zoom meeting link and instructions in the confirmation email. In addition, PD certificates will be sent to K-12 educators who attend the entirety of the program.

Register here for the event and learn more about Inside the Vault here, including the Inside the Vault Archive.