Catalogues

Early Civil Rights Activism: 80 items, 1917-1953

Early Civil Rights Activism: 80 items, 1917-1953

The modern Civil Rights Movement is often considered to have begun in 1954 with the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education. In the decades leading up to this case, however, devoted activists had been working on campaigns against lynching, demanding voting rights, educational opportunities, and housing, struggling for equality in the military during World War II, and drawing attention to notable legal cases that tested the nation’s courts in all of these arenas. This group of pamphlets and ephemera from the early stages of the modern Civil Rights Movement includes many rare and unrecorded items collected by Maurice Rovner, a Buffalo, NY schoolteacher, between the 1930s and the 1950s.

Attica!!!

Attica!!!

In the summer of 1971, prisoners at Attica Correctional Facility – inspired by the burgeoning prisoners’ rights movement – pressed authorities for better conditions.

Pride 2018

Pride 2018

A selection of periodicals, programs, handbills and photos (and a few t-shirts!) relating to LGBT Pride celebrations in honor of Pride month in SF

Political Buttons

A selection from our holdings of political, feminist, LGBT and ethnic movement pinback buttons.

Boycott!

Boycott!

A short list of ephemera, pins, and a few books related to the history of labor-backed boycotts

Fine Press

Fine Press

 A selection of fine press books and limited editions,  with an emphasis on California presses such as Grabhorn and Allen Press,  with a few anarchist fine press books thrown in for a little spice