AVOICE Online

AVOICE: African Americans in Congress

The AVOICE: African Americans in Congress Web site, found at www.avoiceonline.org, is designed to capture and preserve the rich history of political and legislative contributions of blacks for future generations. This virtual online library is a central source of information about historical and contemporary African-American policy issues important to researchers, academics, educators and students.

This project was developed by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Capturing the history of the participation and contribution of African Americans in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate is central to the policy development and educational mission of the CBCF. The devastation that accompanied Hurricane Katrina in 2005 brought to light the fragility of historical artifacts. For this reason, the CBC has taken the initiative to collect, store, and disseminate this particular history by using technology to preserve it against all known odds.

The project was made possible by the generous financial support provided by Dell Inc. The digitization and Web architecture for this project was provided by the University of Texas at Austin. Its content partner is the Moorland Spingarn Research Center-Manuscripts Division at Howard University, which is the official repository of the CBC Archives.

Our objectives for this site include enabling African Americans to become more familiar with the political issues of the past as a basis for understanding the political and legislative reality they face today. We also want to encourage young people to pursue careers in government based on the shining examples of previous leaders.

This site is organic. History is being made every day by African-American legislators. We will preserve those events and add to the site continuously. We will provide interactive learning tools that highlight the history of African-American political involvement in Congress and promote civic engagement among the youth.

The Avoice Web site is a comprehensive and qualitative resource for teachers, scholars, students and people interested in American legislative history. This site is for you. Please enjoy and share with your friends and colleagues.