Right wing activists and think tanks have long advocated burying parts of American history that do not reflect well on the country. Historians have begun sounding alarms about valuable images and documents in the Library of Congress that chronicle these events potentially being at risk for removal or destruction—a common theme when authoritarians take power.
Individuals are currently selecting topics that interest them and saving materials to hard drives (not the cloud) to restore the LOC after the storm has passed:
- Go to loc.gov > Digital Collections
- Find a historical topic that interests you and may be at risk of deletion (e.g. Native American removals, enslavement of Africans, Japanese American internment, Jim Crow, My Lai Massacre, forced sterilizations, segregation in schools, lynching, Tulsa Race Massacre, Wounded Knee Massacre, covert support of overseas coups and assassinations)
- Create a dedicated folder on your hard drive and a spreadsheet in that folder.
- Select an image and download to the folder. All are public domain.
- Copy description, author, the LOC registration number, and file name of the image.
Repeat ad infinitum with images, audio recordings, manuscripts, etc.