Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site - Claiming Citizenship: African Americans and Works Progress Administration (U.S. National Park Service)

August 1 - September 30, 2010

Traveling Exhibit

The photographs in this exhibition illustrate the lives of African American people at work, at home, and in various public venues. Topics include: claiming/enacting; expertise and authority; public dignity; community bonds; rights to associate/organize; financial sovereignty; legal personhood.

Put more concretely, the photographs illustrate African Americans claiming citizenship by claiming the right to sustain family, earn a living wage, possess economic security, receive health care, be educated persons, purchase goods, engage in civic life, vote, and have a publicly acknowledged history.

Free and open to the public daily from August 1 to September 30, 2010, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, at Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, 1515 SE Monroe Street, Topeka, Kansas, 66612.

For more information, call the Brown Foundation at (785) 235-3939 or send an email by clicking here.

African American girl standing and reading with other children and teacher in the background.

Marjorie Collins

Reading lesson in an African American school. Washington, D.C., March 1942.

Two African American children being examined by a doctor with a nurse standing nearby.

Photograph used in Lincoln, Nebraska’s Sunday papers.

Nursing and Visiting Housekeepers Health Week (Children’s Day) at Urban League Building.

African American man looking through a surveyor's scope.

Civilian Conservation Corps enrollee. Beltsville, Maryland, 1940.

African American child standing in corn field.

Jack Delano

One of the children of Farm Security Administration (FSA) client, Harry Handy. The plot of corn, as well as the rest of the garden, was provided by FSA aid.

Three African American students using microscopes.

Gordon Parks

Students using microscopes at Bethune-Cookman College. Daytona Beach, Florida, 1943.

An African American man writing at a desk.

An African American youth doing some writing in a beginner's class in adult education. New Orleans, Louisiana, September 1936.