Education Exhibit Coming Soon

The Avoice Virtual Library will launch a new exhibit on CBC involvement in shaping education legislation and reform in late fall 2010. Paying specific attention to the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), its amendments and its reauthorizations, the exhibit will trace how African Americans in Congress have participated in the transformation of education for all students in the United States.

Intern's Experience

Don P. Jason III joined the Avoice Virtual Library Team as an intern for the summer of 2010. During his time with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), Jason had the opportunity to work with researchers at Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC), the official repository for the papers of the Congressional Black Caucus. There Jason searched through archives for documents from the CBC archives to include in the upcoming Avoice exhibit on U.S. education policy which is set to launch in late fall 2010. Jason also had the opportunity to use document scanners and other technology to digitize documents in the collection to use on the Avoice Website and make available to researchers who frequently visit MSRC.

Read more about the experience.

Avoice Heritage Celebration

On February 24, 2010, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation commemorated Black History Month by hosting the Avoice Heritage Celebration at the Hyatt Regency Washington in Washington, D.C. The event recognized and honored individuals and organizations that exemplify the spirit of the Foundation's Avoice Virtual Library Project. Dr. John Hope Franklin (posthumously), the Shomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, McDonald's USA, Ms. Joellen Elbashir of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, and former Representatives William L. Clay, Sr. of Missouri and Louis Stokes of Ohio were honored with Avoice Heritage Awards for their outstanding commitment to the importance of African-American history in public life.

Read more about the Avoice Heritage Awards.

New Avoice Resource For Educators!

The Avoice Virtual Library is proud to announce the launch of a new For Educators Section! This collection of lesson units features classroom activities, vocabulary lists, worksheets, timelines, bibliographies and other resources for teachers. Each unit is designed to meet national educational standards and draws on the extensive primary sources in the Avoice collection to give teachers a way to incorporate digitized documents, photos, video and other online resources into their classroom history, social studies, political science and environmental science lessons.

Check out the three lesson units available now:

The Voting Act of 1965

The Anti-Apartheid Movement

The Environmental Justice Movement

Dear Rep. Shirley Chisholm...

Honoring Representative Shirley Chisholm's Historic Leadership

On September 25, 2009, Avoice hosted an issue forum honoring the historic leadership of the CBC's first female member, Rep. Shirley Chisholm, at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 39th Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC. Panelists spoke about Rep. Chisholm's leadership on education issues, her run for President, how she helped open the halls of Congress for other women and their own personal reflections of "Ms. C."

As part of the session, Avoice asked current CBC members and many of Rep. Chisholm's former staffers to compose letters sharing what they remember most about Rep. Chisholm and why she made a difference in their lives and the lives of the American people. This touching collection is now a part of the Avoice archives.

View the Avoice Tribute Booklet (PDF required).