Library of Congress's Blog, page 125

World War 1: The Man Who Killed Jim Crow

(The following is a guest post from Ryan Reft, modern U.S. historian in the Manuscript Division.)

“No son has ever left home whose family had greater pride in him than we have in you,” wrote prominent Washington D.C. lawyer and African American civic leader William LePre Houston to his son, Charles Hamilton Houston in September of 1918. Charles soon sailed for Europe as a Second Lieutenant in the field artillery First Lieutenant in the 368th Infantry regiment of the 92nd division, one of two segregated combat divisions in the United States Army, the other being the 93rd.

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Charles H. Houston. Prints and Photographs Division.

Charles Houston’s dog tags, coat buttons and bullet from his firearm, along with several folders of material related to his World War One service – including diaries spanning from 1918 to 1919 – can be found in the William L. Houston Family papers. The collection reflects the pride, volunteerism and struggles of African-American service personnel and their families during the “Great War.”

Of the 3.7 million soldiers that entered the U.S. military during WWI, 400,000 were black. Many had entered at the behest of African American leaders like W.E.B. Dubois who believed military service would prove that blacks deserved full citizenship. However, racial prejudice conspired to both draft African Americans at a higher percentage than their white counterparts and relegate them to important, but less publicly celebrated roles as camp laborers or as stevedores in European ports. Roughly 42,000 would see actual combat; all under either white American or French officers. Most white American soldiers and officers refused to treat their black peers as equals.

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Dog tag belonging to 1st Lieutenant Charles Hamilton Houston, circa 1918. Manuscript Division.

Stationed in France, Houston would find French racial ideas somewhat more liberal than those of Jim Crow America. African-American culture, notably music and dance, proved widely popular. “[A]ll Paris taken away with ‘Jazz-band’ and our style of dancing,” he wrote in a January 1919 diary entry. “Colored boys all the go.”

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Bullet belonging to 1st Lieutenant Charles Hamilton Houston, circa 1918. Manuscript Division.

Yet, Houston’s experience also sharpened his racial consciousness as the discriminatory policies of the American Expeditionary Forces and racist attitudes of white soldiers heightened his desire for equality. Upon his return to the U.S., Houston embarked on a pioneering law career in civil rights, earning a law degree from Harvard and arguing in front of the Supreme Court as counsel for the NAACP. By slowly dismantling segregation, Houston earned the title “The Man Who Killed Jim Crow.” From his perch as Dean of Howard Law School, he mentored a cadre of civil rights lawyers, most famously Thurgood Marshall.

Houston’s WWI service left an enduring mark. Throughout his life he appealed for an integrated military and defended the talents of his fellow black soldiers to those who would denigrate them: “Our best men, or to put it in figures, our first ten men I would put up against any other ten men from any battery in the camp on theory, practice or what not.”

  World War I Centennial, 2017-2018: With the most comprehensive collection of multi-format World War I holdings in the nation, the Library of Congress is a unique resource for primary source materials, education plans, public programs and on-site visitor experiences about The Great War including exhibits, symposia and book talks.

Here Comes Hayden: New Librarian Gets Busy Start in First Week

Carla Hayden reads to children in the Young Readers Center on Sept. 16. Photo by Shawn Miller.

To say that Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden is all smiles, excitement and curiosity is an understatement. On her first official day in office last Thursday, her inquisitiveness and thirst for all things was almost palpable.

Hayden began her day with a meeting on the National Book Festival.

“This is so exciting,” she said, a phrase she would use repeatedly throughout her day. “This is the first National Book Festival where I’m not a civilian!”

Before the meeting truly began, Hayden was officially welcomed by staff through a series of photos and videos taken prior to her swearing-in. She was clearly delighted, waving back as if staff could actually see her.

With the festival only days away, the meeting was a debrief, offering the new librarian an overview of festival history, organization, fundraising and programming. Hayden was amazed at all the work of such an undertaking and the dedication of festival organizers and volunteers. When told of her activities for the festival, she said, “This is the best meeting to have on my first day.”

One of her many scheduled appearances will include awarding Stephen King a literacy champion award for his body of work and commitment to education.

“He’s so consistent and very generous with his time about education,” she said. “Having worked with a lot of young people, that’s how they got hooked into longer books. Stephen King – he’s bait!”

As the festival meeting concluded, Hayden made sure to walk everyone out of her office, telling them to “eat your Wheaties” for the week and festival weekend ahead.

Before heading to lunch, Hayden had a chance to peruse the newspapers that covered her swearing-in ceremony from the day before and talk about the experience and the staff meet-and-greet that followed. She was full of anecdotes, whether talking about her mother, her “comic-relief” moment during the ceremony or the individual staff she met that afternoon.

“To get to work with all those people, it’s really energizing,” she said.

Heading to the Madison Cafeteria for lunch, Hayden was greeted along the way by staff congratulating her on her appointment. She made sure to speak to every one. Hayden made rounds among the cafeteria tables, pausing to take pictures, say hello and thank her colleagues.

She interacted with those she met, grabbing hands for a warm shake, taking note of identification badges to put faces with names, making some sort of connection so the moment was memorable.

Hayden’s afternoon consisted of tours of the Geography and Map and Manuscript divisions. The librarian intends to post to her Twitter account often to highlight treasures from the institution as she discovers them. Her first day was a launching of sorts as she enjoyed hands-on experiences with historical maps, artifacts from the Jay I. Kislak collection, presidential papers and other important documents.

Hayden took a stroll down memory lane while viewing maps from one of the map division’s largest collections. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, which are undergoing a large digitization project, show detailed, accurate and large-scale building “footprints” of individual structures and were often the earliest large-scale urban mapping available for small cities. Hayden had a chance to see a map from 1950 open to the location in Queens, New York, where she went to elementary school, as well as an 1890 map of Baltimore that showed the original location of the Central Pratt Library.

While in the reading room, Hayden spoke with Library staff cartographers and conservators. She was delighted that the institution had in-house mapmakers.

“This is the kind of thing, when you’re talking to kids, to get them into mapping,” she said. “You know, ‘Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?’ These are the type of things to connect to real-life curriculum.” Hayden often commented on practical, education applications of Library resources while on her first day.

She was also shown 3-D objects from the Kislak collection and told they also had items in virtual reality.

When shown beautiful jade and gold pre-Columbian artifacts from the Kislak collection, she slapped on a pair of gloves to examine them.

“Don’t show me anymore, I can’t take it,” she quipped of the collection. “I’m going to be tweeting forever.”

Moving on to the Manuscript Division, Hayden perused letters from Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton and diary pages of Gen. John J. Pershing, among others. Staff had also pulled up Library blog posts highlighting collection items and how they were being used, such as in the Teacher-in-Residence program.

“I’m really glad to see an example of the Teacher-in-Residence program,” she said. “It’s a perfect example of taking Library material and turning it into curriculum.”

Hayden frequently commented on the relationship between Library resources and education, noting on several occasions how collections could be used for curriculum and how important it was for resources to be digitized.

“Sometimes people talk about lack of serendipity in the digital age – usually about books,” she said. “But you can have serendipity in digital too.”

Closing out the week, Hayden, on Friday, spent time in the Young Readers Center for story time with students from Brent Elementary and the Library’s Little Scholars. She read “Click, Clack Surprise” by Doreen Cronin, who was at the National Book Festival on Saturday. She engaged the young audience with questions and even joined in on a song.

Hayden also gave visitors to the Library’s Great Hall a surprise when she briefly interrupted the orientation video to say hello. She was met with resounding applause.

“You think you know about this place,” she said. “So glad to see you! You have to come back!”

The librarian then spent her Friday afternoon participating in a Twitter chat with Discovery for Constitution Day. Classrooms from all over the United States submitted questions for her and other Library staff to answer.

When asked about the types of jobs at the institution, Hayden called many of the staff “Indiana Jones-type librarians.” One could call her that, as well, as she explored the Library Thursday and Friday with a gleam in her eye.

“Amazing is sometimes an overused word,” she said. “But it’s all amazing.”

Library Announces Literacy Award Winners

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced the winners of the 2016 Library of Congress Literacy Awards tonight at the Library of Congress National Book Festival gala. The awards honor organizations working to promote literacy and reading in the United States and worldwide. The awards recognize groups doing exemplary, innovative and replicable work, and they spotlight the need for the global community to unite in striving for universal literacy.

The awards are sponsored by philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who originated the awards program in January 2013. The winners were selected from among applicants in both the United States and abroad. They are:

David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000): WETA Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets was developed by WETA, a PBS member station, to provide resources and services for literacy providers, educators and parents. Reading Rockets disseminates all of its information and resources via its free website. Most of the material is aimed at teachers, parents and caregivers, but Reading Rockets also works with more than 50 national partner organizations to promote literacy and reading. Some of the resources include book and activity suggestions, articles and research briefs, and original series. A set of literacy blogs written by nationally-acclaimed authors, literacy specialists and teachers offers new perspectives on reading and literacy.  

The American Prize ($50,000): Parent-Child Home Program

The Parent-Child Home Program develops school readiness in children with disadvantages by combining intensive home visits with weekly gifts of books and educational materials. Early-literacy specialists model good practices to educate parents about the importance of parent-child interaction, give them the tools needed to inculcate early literacy skills in their children, and encourage them to see themselves as active participants in their children’s educations. In this program, community-based early literacy specialists visit participating families twice a week for two years. When families complete the program, the staff helps parents enroll their children in quality preschools or kindergartens.

The International Prize ($50,000): Libraries Without Borders

Libraries Without Borders (LWB) supports community development in 20 countries around the world through the promotion of literacy. Each community’s needs are assessed and context-specific programs are developed to meet them. One of LWB’s signature programs is the Ideas Box, a portable classroom, media center and library that can be installed in 20 minutes. The box expands to create a pop-up space covering over 330 square feet and includes a satellite internet connection, laptops and tablets, a library with both paper books and e-readers, and a built-in cinema.

The Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program is also honoring 14 organizations for their implementation of best practices in literacy promotion. These organizations are Afghanistan Center at Kabul University, Kabul; Cell-Ed, Los Angeles; Chicago Literacy Alliance, Chicago; Cooperative Summer Library Program, Washington, D.C.; Ethiopia Reads, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; GIZPCP, Kabul; Library for All, New York; National Center on Adult Literacy – International Literacy Institute, Philadelphia; NCLANA, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand; New York City Department of Homeless Services, New York; Rumie Initiative, Toronto; Sipar, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Student and Parents in Cooperative Education, Thorndike, Maine and Ze Peao School Programme, João Pessoa, Brazil.

The video below talks about the award, the award winners and the importance of literacy.

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New Twitter Feed, @LibnOfCongress

As they say in the Twitterverse, ICYMI (In Case You Missed It), the Library of Congress has a new Librarian of Congress. And a new Twitter feed! Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden will be taking to social media to post about her work at the Library and the discoveries she makes along the way. Make sure to follow her at @LibnofCongress.

The Librarian’s Twitter account joins several other Twitter accounts, along with a variety of other social media like Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and iTunesU. You can stay in touch with the Library and learn new ways to use its resources through this collection of social media technologies and bulletin services.

Pic of the Week: Oath of Librarianship

Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts swears in Carla Hayden as 14th Librarian of Congress, along with Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Ryan and Hayden’s mother, Colleen Hayden. Photo by Shawn Miller.

On Wednesday, Carla Hayden was sworn-in as the 14th Librarian of Congress. Her appointment marks a couple of milestones for the institution: she is the first woman and the first African-American to serve in the role.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts administered the oath of office to Hayden, who used President Abraham Lincoln’s Bible from his first inauguration to take the oath. Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan and Sens. Roy D. Blunt and Barbara A. Mikulski also participated in the ceremony.

“It is an honor to be nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate to lead one of the greatest institutions of our nation, and of the world,” Hayden told the audience at the ceremony. “I am truly grateful and humbled by this selection.

“Today, through the power of technology, thousands around the country are able to watch this ceremony live. This is the opportunity to build on the contributions of the Librarians who have come before, to realize a vision of a national library that reaches outside the limits of Washington.”

Hayden’s comments were met with resounding applause, echoing through the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building.

“Public service has been such a motivating factor for me, in my life and my career. When I received the call from the White House about this opportunity, and was asked, ‘Will you serve?’ Without hesitation I said ‘yes,’’ concluded Hayden. “But we cannot do it alone. I am calling on you, both who are here in person and those watching virtually, that to have a truly national library, an institution of opportunity for all: it is the responsibility of all.”

Welcome Carla Hayden!

Library of Congress employees gathered for a photo op to share today to welcome 14th Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on her first official day at the institution. Posing for photos were staff from the Library’s main campus on Capitol Hill, Taylor Street Annex in Northwest D.C. (which is home to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped), the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va., and the Fort Meade facility in Maryland.

“Library of Congress staff members are considered to be the ultimate in terms of professional librarianship,” Hayden said in an interview for the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. “So I’m really excited about getting their input and taking advantage of their experience as we work together to chart a course to the future.”

We invite you to welcome the Librarian in the comments below!

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Library staff gather in the Great Hall to pose for a photo for the new librarian. Photo by Shawn Miller. 

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Library staff at the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped campus at Taylor Street gather to welcome Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. Photo by Shawn Miller. 

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Library staff at the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation pose for a welcome photo. Photo by Shawn Miller.

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Staff members at the Library’s Fort Meade facility pose for a photo in honor of the new Librarian of Congress. Photo by Steve Herman. 

First Word: The 14th Librarian of Congress

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Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress. Photo by Shawn Miller.

(The following is a feature in the September/October 2016 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM.)

Carla Hayden discusses her decision to become a librarian and her plans as the new Librarian of Congress.

You are about to be sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress. How does that feel?

It’s such an honor to be nominated by the president and sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress. As a career librarian it’s really almost a dream come true. The confirmation process was really an eye-opener for me in so many ways, because I got to meet legislators that are committed to not only the nation’s history, but making information available. So many of the legislators were historians. There were a few that were actually musicians and that really had an interest in the Library of Congress. It was just a wonderful thing that made me very pleased that I was confirmed, and that I’ll have an opportunity to work with people who understand the importance of the Library of Congress.

When did you decide to become a librarian?

Librarianship really has been an adventure for me. To find out that there was a profession that was dedicated to making books, reading and knowledge available to people, that just seemed ideal. When I discovered that librarianship was a profession, I was coming out of undergraduate studies and thinking about what I was going to do next. I saw a colleague who had just graduated and they said, “They’re hiring people at the Chicago Public Library.” So I went and became a library associate. Within a week I was assigned to a small storefront library on the south side of Chicago, working with a young lady who was going to graduate school. She was on the floor, in jeans, having story time with children with autism. I thought, “Wait a minute. This is a different type of profession. You’re bringing things right to people.” I was hooked. Seeing what libraries could do in communities and how they could help people just opened my eyes.

So, at this point in my career, to be part of an institution like the Library of Congress is the ultimate in terms of what started with getting hooked on the profession back then.

How do you think your perspective will be reflected in the institution during your tenure?

As the first woman and the first African American to hold the position of Librarian of Congress, I think my perspective will be part of a continuum of the past librarians who came from different professions and backgrounds. There have been lawyers. There have been librarians. There have been publishers and authors and historians and scholars. So I think that I will be adding on to their different perspectives. While being a caretaker, I’ll be someone who is carrying the torch, too.

What do you see as the biggest challenges for the library?

The biggest opportunity for the Library is to make its wonderful treasures available to people in various formats using technology as a tool. So many collections are already digitized and available online. The opportunity to work with potential donors and those who are interested in seeing these treasures made available to everyone will be a wonderful adventure.

We also must make sure that while this is happening we’re taking care of the basic responsibilities of the Library as well—serving Congress, maintaining a robust Copyright Office that makes sure that creators and the users of content are served effectively and making sure that everyone has access to the Library’s collections.

What is your vision for the nation’s library under your stewardship?

My vision for the Library of Congress is to make people aware that it is part of their national heritage and that everyone can find something in the Library of Congress—or produced by the Library—that relates to them, their classroom curriculum or where they want to go in life.

“Librarians are,” as the t-shirt slogan says, “the original search engines.” Library of Congress staff members are considered to be the ultimate in terms of professional librarianship. So I’m really excited about getting their input and taking advantage of their experience as we work together to chart a course to the future.

What I hope to accomplish with the dedicated staff of the Library in the next 10 years of my appointment is to make more of the collections accessible in various formats. If we can make an increasing number of collections available digitally—especially those that are heavily used or tied in with school curriculums around the country— I think would be quite an accomplishment.

More from Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden:

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You can read this issue of the LCM in its entirety, along with past issues, here.

World War I: Conscription Laws

(The following is a guest post by Margaret Wood, a legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress.)

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Six weeks after the declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917, ch. 1, 40 Stat.1, Congress passed the Selective Service Act. Initially, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress had hoped the needed 1 million men would volunteer for the army. But when by May only about 73,000 men had signed up, it was clear other measures needed to be taken.

The United States had experimented with conscription laws during the Civil War. The Confederacy had passed the first such law () on . The Union followed by passing a conscription law on March 3, 1863, ch. 75, . Both Union and Confederate subscription laws allowed for a number of exemptions as well as including the very unpopular measure of “substitutes,” which allowed wealthy men to pay for someone to serve in their stead.

However, the World War I Selective Service Act, ch. 15, 40 Stat. 76, specifically forbade the use of substitutes. This law, which was passed on May 18, 1917, applied to all “male citizens, or male persons … who have declared their intention to become citizens, between the ages of twenty–one and thirty.” The law directed that quotas for each state should be established based on the state’s population. The law also addressed the issue of exemptions based on moral objections, as well as occupation. Those exempted from the draft included federal and state officials and judges, religious ministers, seminary students and any person who was found to be a “member of a well-recognized religious sect or organization … whose existing creed or principles forbid its members to participate in war in any form.” However as the law went on to state, “no person so exempted shall be exempted from service in any capacity that the President shall declare to be noncombatant.” The law also exempted persons in certain classes or industries, including workmen in armories and those in agriculture whose work was “necessary to the maintenance of the Military Establishment.”

Ultimately the regulations issued by the president divided up the men subject to conscription into five classes. This law directed the president to create local draft boards in each county that were to consist of three or more members who were to determine all questions of exemption in their jurisdiction. The law further set up district boards that could hear appeals from the county draft boards.

Between Aug. 6-19, 1918, the House Committee on Military Affairs held hearings to consider expanding the ages between which men should be drafted.  Secretary of War Newton D. Baker testified at the hearing that, “There are two ways of fighting this war. One is to make every possible effort and win it soon, and the other is to proceed in a somewhat more leisurely fashion and win it late.” Congress appears to have preferred the first method, and a little less that two weeks later amended the Selective Service Act (ch. 166, 40 Stat. 955). This law made all men between the ages of 18 and 45 subject to the draft. The penalties for evading the draft remained the same. The evader would be charged with a misdemeanor and subject to a year of imprisonment unless the evader was subject to military law, in which case they would be tried by a court-martial. Congress anticipated a shortage of “manpower” and directed that soldiers’ wives should not be disqualified from working for the government because they were married women.  Indeed, 10 years after the war, Congress held hearings about the effect of the universal draft and conscription in times of war.

World War I Centennial, 2017-2018: With the most comprehensive collection of multi-format World War I holdings in the nation, the Library of Congress is a unique resource for primary source materials, education plans, public programs and on-site visitor experiences about The Great War including exhibits, symposia and book talks.

New Day for “Today in History”

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September 6 entry in the Library’s “Today in History” web feature

(The following post was written by Peter Armenti, literature specialist in the Library’s Digital Reference Section and a regular contributor to the poetry and literature blog, “From the Catbird Seat.”)

For nearly 20 years, the Today in History feature has been one of the most popular areas of the Library of Congress website. Drawing heavily from our digitized content in order to highlight people, events and activities associated with each day of the year, Today in History is an important portal for educators, students and lifelong learners interested in learning about American history and culture.

In August, Today in History received its first major redesign in nearly a dozen years, and the redesigned collection can now be accessed from the Library’s home page. In addition to a streamlined look that allows easier navigation among Today in History’s 542 essays, the collection also offers an email alert service where you can subscribe and receive daily notices about the day’s featured items.

When Today in History launched in 1997, the Library’s digitized content was limited primarily to some two-dozen collections that then formed our American Memory collections. During the years, the number of those collections grew, and they provided content for new entries and for existing entries to be enhanced. Those collections are now being fully integrated into the larger Library website, while additional digitized collections are regularly added to our online offerings.

We hope you’ll subscribe to this daily feature and look forward to a historical highlight each day in your inbox. We’ll also promote Today in History on our Twitter feed and on our Facebook page, so watch for us there.

Carla Hayden Swearing-In To Be Broadcast on YouTube

Carla D. Hayden will be sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress in a historic ceremony in the Thomas Jefferson Building Wednesday, Sept. 14 at noon. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the Library of Congress YouTube channel. The YouTube broadcast will be captioned.

The ceremony marks two milestones: Hayden will become the first woman and the first African-American to serve as Librarian of Congress. She plans to take the oath using a book, drawn from Library collections, with historic connections of its own: the Lincoln Bible.

Hayden has recently overseen the renovation of the central branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, a four-year, $112 million project, and has also led $40 million in renovations to other units within the 22-branch Pratt system. The system is named for the businessman and philanthropist who financed its founding in 1886.

Longtime chief executive of the Enoch Pratt Free Library system in Baltimore and a former president of the American Library Association,  Hayden took the helm of the Baltimore system in 1993, winning strong praise for her work to ensure that the city’s library system offers a broad array of services to assist citizens from all walks of life, from access to books and other learning materials to computer access and job information. A program of outreach into neighborhoods served by the Pratt libraries included after-school centers for teens, offering homework assistance and college counseling; a program offering healthy-eating information for residents in areas with insufficient access to high-quality food; programming in Spanish; establishment of an electronic library, and digitization of the Library’s special collections.

Hayden first served as a children’s librarian in the Chicago Public Library system, eventually rising to the post of deputy commissioner and chief librarian in that system. She also taught Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh. She received Library Journal’s 1995 Librarian of the Year Award, and served as president of the American Library Association 2003-2004.