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Reveal Digital

Help uncover untold stories of Civil Rights

Join libraries and archives funding and providing content for Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements, an open access primary source collection on JSTOR.

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Contribute content
A poster with a black eagle holding a dynamite stick in its beak, surrounded by green text reading “M.E.Ch.A.” and “La Unión Hace La Fuerza.”

Preserving grassroots activism for future generations

Everyday citizens were the heart of the Civil Rights Movement—organizers, students, and community members whose work shaped history but remains largely unseen. This collection brings together their letters, photographs, and publications to tell a fuller story of the movement across Black, Latine, Indigenous, and Asian American communities.

Explore the collection on JSTOR

Make these stories accessible to all

Funding this collection directly supports digitization, rights clearance, and long-term preservation through Portico. Contributors retain full ownership of their materials while ensuring they are freely accessible to researchers, educators, and the public worldwide. Once funded, the collection will open to everyone—forever.

Fund this collection
A group of striking workers marches with signs calling for autonomy, amnesty, and due process.
A man shouts during a civil rights demonstration, with a large protest sign about segregation visible behind him.

Share your institution’s Civil Rights materials

Libraries, archives, and cultural organizations of every size—public or private—are invited to contribute materials that document local activism, organizing, and cultural expression. Every contribution helps deepen understanding of the movement and connects your collections to a global audience.

Contribute content

How libraries and archives are making an impact

Group of Black women standing beside a train car under a sign reading “National Association of Colored Women en route to Convention, Los Angeles,” with one woman looking out from the train doorway.

See how contributed archives amplify women’s leadership and civil rights history

Ella P. Stewart’s scrapbooks show how a single contributed archive can transform research. This resource reveals how library-held materials—photos, letters, clippings, and organizational records—become vital open-access sources that enrich scholarship on Black women’s civic and civil rights leadership.

See for yourself
Vintage portrait of a Black man holding a camera up to his eye as he prepares to take a photograph.

Explore how donated photographs unlock community memory and new research

The Lynch Family Photographs illustrate how even partially unidentified collections can become invaluable once digitized and shared. See how contributor archives support genealogical research, preserve Black family histories, and invite community collaboration to reveal forgotten stories.

Discover the impact
A young Black boy sits beside a statue of Abraham Lincoln, holding a protest sign reading “The Law” with a drawing of a Ku Klux Klan hooded figure. The handwritten caption below reads “Support Alabama 1963.”

Learn how libraries power Reveal Digital’s open access primary source collections

This behind-the-scenes look shows how library funding and archival contributions make Reveal Digital possible—building open-access collections centered on social movements and marginalized voices. Discover how your library’s support fuels digitization, preservation, and global research access.

See why it matters

Join the libraries making this possible

We’re working toward a $2.5 million goal to make this open collection a reality. Each new funding partner brings us closer to preserving these vital histories for all.

79%

$1,989,000 of $2,502,925 goal

68

backers

Become a funding partner
View image credits from this page
A poster with a black eagle holding a dynamite stick in its beak, surrounded by green text reading “M.E.Ch.A.” and “La Unión Hace La Fuerza.”

M.E.CH.A. La Union Hace La Fuerza. January 1, 1967. Posters, 1967-1979. California State University, Los Angeles. Gloria Arellanes Papers (California State University, Los Angeles)
“Series: Latine”, Part of Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements, Reveal Digital. https://jstor.org/stable/community.40030656.

A group of striking workers marches with signs calling for autonomy, amnesty, and due process.

Phiz Mezey. Peter Radcliff (Front) and Arthur K. Bierman (Second from Left) Picketing with San Francisco State Faculty on Campus. January 1, 1968. Phiz Mezey Photographs and Papers (San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library), Part of Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements, Reveal Digital. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.39882139.

A man shouts during a civil rights demonstration, with a large protest sign about segregation visible behind him.

Phiz Mezey. Minister Holding Picket Sign with Demonstrators Outside Cadillac Dealership on Van Ness Avenue. January 1, 1964. Phiz Mezey Photographs and Papers (San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library), Part of Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements, Reveal Digital. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.39882096.

Ella P. Stewart and other members of the National Association of Colored Women en route to their annual convention in Los Angeles, circa 1950.

Vintage portrait of a Black man holding a camera up to his eye as he prepares to take a photograph.

Photograph of Mr. Harrison Williams Holding a Camera.

A young Black boy sits beside a large bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, holding a protest sign with a drawing of a Ku Klux Klan hooded figure labeled “THE LAW.” The handwritten caption at the bottom reads “Support Alabama 1963.”

Phiz Mezey. Child holding picket sign while sitting on the lap of Lincoln monument outside City Hall. 1963. San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library. Reveal Digital.