“This is what you’ve been waiting for,” the auctioneer said directly to me. He was as much a regular at auctions as me – him working as both an auctioneer and a big spender on items he…
Category: civil rights movement
’60s voting poster reminds us of sacrifices
Posted in civil rights movement, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
The poster was folded in half, its aged back exposed and giving no hint of what ideas the other side held. It was lying on top of some contact sheets of black and white photos…
’64 newspaper article on deaths of Miss. civil rights workers
Posted in Black history, civil rights movement, and history
The big bold headline on the framed yellowed newspaper told me plenty about what the editors of the Baltimore News American considered the most significant on Aug. 5, 1964: “U.S Bombs North Vietnam PT Bases,…
Poster of 1964 encounter between King & Malcolm X
Posted in Art, civil rights movement, history, and Photos
No one seemed to want the framed poster of the smiling and jovial Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. The auctioneer’s voice lingered on the call-out for bids, but no hands with numbers…
Some time ago, I wrote a blog post about the Lane mini chests that furniture stores handed out to high school graduates. Lane started making them available in the 1930s with the hopes that these young women would…
Nostalgia: Destination Freedom radio program
Posted in Black history, civil rights movement, history, and Radio
Confronted by so many DVDs at a recent nostalgia convention, my friend Rebecca began looking for some Amos ‘n Andy recordings. She collects African American memorabilia, and a collection is not complete without a few…
King conquers fear and death in “Mountaintop”
Posted in Black history, civil rights movement, and Performers
The hotel room was vintage 1960s with its black rotary phone, flat hard bed and dime-store pictures on the wall. It was the setting for a Broadway play about the last night in the life…
Traveling by Trailways & Greyhound
Posted in Black history, civil rights movement, travel, and Vehicles
My childhood friend Beatrice and I stood by the side of the road, looking, searching for that familiar red-and-cream-colored Trailways bus. We were teens then, headed to the big town of Macon, GA, to see…