The archive

Primary-source documents

Texts the dominant story under-stocked. Filterable by region, era, and theme. Public-domain works are reproduced in full; in-copyright works are excerpted with source links.

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Americas 1900–1950 Reserved (not yet available)

Black Reconstruction — The Propaganda of History

W.E.B. Du Bois, 1935

The closing chapter of Du Bois's 1935 monumental revision of Reconstruction historiography. The chapter is an audit of how American textbooks were taught to lie about th…

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Americas Pre-1900

Lift Every Voice and Sing (text)

James Weldon Johnson, 1900

James Weldon Johnson's 1900 hymn, set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson. Adopted as the Black National Anthem by the NAACP in 1919. Three stanzas of memory, …

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