Civil rights movement

This collection includes buttons, flyers, newsletters, pamphlets, papers and statements related to social justice movements and actions in Chicago. The digital photographs depict nine protest rallies and marches that took place between 2016 and 2020 including the Women’s March.

CORE, a national civil rights organization, began in Chicago in 1942, with protests to force desegregation of restaurants and other public accommodations. These archives cover the period of the early and mid-1960s, when Chicago CORE’s membership was at its height. Records include meeting minutes, correspondence, flyers, programs, news clippings and photographs.

Herbert Hill served in the 1950s and 1960s as labor director of the NAACP, where he was one of the most effective voices raised against racial discrimination by unions. He was later a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin. His collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts and published articles written by Hill.