The Presidency and Civil Rights: A Personal Memoir: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A CBS program produced by Bergen Community College with the title The Presidency and Civil Rights: A Personal Memoir. It consists of a white DVD (a) and a paper program (b).

The white DVD (a) has the program title, date, and college logo printed on it and the program is part of a nationally televised series called The American Presidency: The Men and the Office and features former president of the NAACP Roy Wilkins chronologically discussing the consequences of various presidencies on the lives of African Americans. It opens with Wilkins describing the importance of the "American Dream" to African Americans and how some state-sanctioned institutions such as slavery and the Supreme Court have historically imposed racial inferiority on them. Through a combiniation of narration by Wilkins as well as archival imagery and audio, the program touches on the impact of numerous presidents and African American activists such as Presidents Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and President Lyndon B. Johnson. It also touches on other issues such as the death of Medgar Evers; the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church; as well as the impact of the Civil Rights Act.

The paper program (b) is white and has a sketch of a silhouette sitting at the Resolute desk. The Bergen Community College logo can be seen below the sketch as well as text that reads [THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: THE MEN and THE OFFICE].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1970s
• Produced by: Bergen Community College, American, founded 1965
• Produced by: CBS Broadcasting, Inc., American, founded 1927
• Subject of: Roy Wilkins, American, 1901 - 1981
• Subject of: President Herbert Clark Hoover, American, 1874 - 1964
• Subject of: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, American, 1882 - 1945
• Subject of: President Harry S. Truman, American, 1884 - 1972
• Subject of: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, American, 1890 - 1969
• Subject of: President John F. Kennedy, American, 1917 - 1963
• Type: sound films
• Type: color films (visual works)
• Type: DVDs
• Medium: aluminum and polycarbonate with paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: Diameter: 4 11/16 in. (11.9 cm)
• Dimensions: Duration: 31 min., 35 sec.
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Civil Rights
• Topic: Communities
• Topic: Education
• Topic: Politics
• Topic: Race relations
• Topic: Television
• Topic: United States History
• Object number: 2022.90.4.1ab
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture,Gift of Dr. Philip Dolce on behalf of Bergen Community College
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Bergen Community College Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.