The Movement History Initiative

10/25/2026

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10/23/2026

"VOTEless People Are Hopeless People."

A longstanding voting rights slogan, these words also appear on a sample South Carolina voter literacy test from 1964. The phrase captures why voting rights became such a central demand of the Civil Rights Movement

Activists across the South understood the transformative power of the vote. They knew political participation was a path toward self-determination and justice. Access to the ballot offered a way to influence the future of their communities and challenge systems built to exclude them.

The struggle for voting rights was ultimately an act of hope: hope for freedom, hope for a more inclusive democracy, and hope that change was possible. Across generations, people turned that hope into fierce action, organizing and mobilizing to secure the right to vote.

Photos and digital materials from https://buff.ly/o8t0HMC

10/22/2026

📼 From our archive, about archives. For National Archives Month, we're running this one back.

"To tell the story of how we won is to tell the story of our journey."
-Malu Brooks

Originally shared from our "We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Test Until it Comes Intergenerational Organizers Conversation" that was held September 6-10, 2023 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

▶️Full Clip Here: https://youtu.be/QyAx1vABZ-g

10/21/2026

REGISTRATION IS STILL OPEN!

Our partners at the Mississippi NAACP are hosting their 81st Annual Mississippi State Conference NAACP Convention & Policy Institute on November 5–7, 2026, at the Golden Nugget Casino Resort in Biloxi, Mississippi.

This year’s theme, “We the People,” is both a declaration and a call to action! At a moment when voting rights, representation, and access to democracy remain at the forefront, the 81st Convention will bring together NAACP members, community leaders, advocates, faith leaders, young people, and partners from across Mississippi to strengthen our collective power and advance a more just and equitable state.

Learn more and register here: https://buff.ly/kPl2xgB

Purchase your ticket to the 81st Freedom Banquet with keynote speaker NAACP National Board Chairman Leon Russell using this link:

🔗 https://buff.ly/JX7T4hB

REGISTRATION CLOSES ON OCT. 23RD!

10/21/2026

10/19/2026

Are YOU qualified to vote?

For generations of Black Americans across the South, that question came with a test. Literacy exams, registration applications, poll taxes, and bureaucratic hurdles were used to deny voting rights and preserve the power of white supremacy. Many of these tests were intentionally confusing, arbitrary, and nearly impossible to pass. Registrars could decide who passed and who failed, often applying different standards to Black and white applicants.

The documents featured here, from Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama, reveal some of the obstacles that ordinary Black Americans faced simply for trying to participate in democracy. They also help explain why voting rights became a central battleground of the Civil Rights Movement. Across the South, activists organized voter registration drives, challenged discriminatory laws, and risked harassment, arrest, and violence to ensure that Black communities could exercise a right that had long been denied.

The vote was never freely given. It was fought for, won through struggle, and defended across generations. As we look back on this history, we remember both the barriers and the people who overcame them, and the enduring power of a vote hard-won through collective struggle.

Photos and historical materials from https://buff.ly/o8t0HMC

Visit CRMVET.org and SNCCDigital.org to learn more about Movement History.

10/18/2026

Today, we celebrate the birthday of Ivanhoe Donaldson, a SNCC organizer whose journey into the movement began with a call for solidarity. While studying engineering at Michigan State, he organized a campus food drive and delivered supplies to the Mississippi Delta after officials cut off federal food assistance to thousands of Black families in retaliation for voter registration efforts. Arrested and jailed on false charges shortly after arriving, he emerged even more committed to the struggle for freedom.

As a SNCC field secretary, Donaldson helped lead voter registration organizing in Mississippi, working alongside local communities under the constant threat of violence. A steadfast advocate for Black self-determination, he believed lasting change depended on the leadership, power, and participation of the people most affected by injustice.

Today, the Rubenstein Library at Duke University preserves the Ivanhoe Donaldson Papers, a collection that helps document his life, organizing, and contributions to the freedom struggle. Learn more about Donaldson and explore his story at SNCCDigital.org.

📷: Danny Lyon, CRMVET.org, SNCCDigital.org, SNCCLegacyProject.org, & SamePassage.org

10/16/2026

What does it take to become a voter?

In 1963, photojournalist Bob Adelman set out to answer that question. Birth of a Voter follows Rev. Joseph Carter to West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, as he attempts to become the first Black person to register to vote there in 61 years. After an earlier registration attempt led to his arrest, Carter faced pressured, intimidation, and the possibility of violence. Still, he returned.

Originally published in Ebony magazine and later reprinted by CORE, the article captures the freedom struggle at its most personal: not mass marches or headline-making speeches, but the fierce determination of ordinary people who risked everything to claim rights long denied to them.

The full article can be found at the John Hope Franklin Research Center. It's one of many stories preserved in the archives and across collections, waiting to be rediscovered, explored, and connected to the broader history of the movement.

"Birth of a voter," article by Bob Adelman, CORE (reprinted from 1963 Ebony Magazine), 1963?", Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) "NOW" exhibit photographs and related materials, 1963-1967

10/12/2026

Today, we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Joyce Ladner, whose life reflects the powerful connection between education, activism, and the freedom struggle. Inspired to act after the murder of Emmett Till, Ladner became part of a generation of young Mississippians who transformed fear and outrage into organized resistance through SNCC, voter registration campaigns, and direct-action protests.

From helping organize voter registration drives in Mississippi and support for the 1963 March on Washington to earning a Ph.D. in sociology, Ladner carried the lessons of the movement into a distinguished career as a scholar, author, educator, and advocate. She later served in leadership at Howard University, including as interim president, continuing a lifelong commitment to expanding opportunity and advancing social justice.

Learn more about Joyce Ladner and other SNCC veterans at SNCCDigital.org

📷️: CRMVET.org, PDAspeakers.com, & TIME

10/12/2026

On Indigenous Peoples' Day, we honor the Native peoples whose generations-long fight for sovereignty and self-determination has helped shape a broader tradition of freedom struggle and activism in this country.

Preserving movement history means recognizing the many ways people have fought for freedom, the relationships and solidarities built across communities, and a lesson echoed throughout the Civil Rights Movement: no community wins freedom alone.



📷️: Manuel Balce Ceneta