Black Employees of the Library of Congress and Ethnic Employees of the Library of Congress collection

Black Employees of the Library of Congress (BELC) was founded in 1970 and Ethnic Employees of the Library of Congress (EELC) was founded in 1973 to improve conditions of Black and other minority employees at the Library of Congress. Items include copies of correspondence, clippings, a history of the organization, a publication by the group titled Ethnic Racial Brotherhood first published in 1980, and copies of Ethnic Racial Review first published in 1975 (both unbound). Some of the issues with which the groups concerned themselves have included the support of a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, a suit brought by Mary F. Berry, et al to enjoin President Ronald Reagan from removing them as Commissioners of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the candidacy of Jesse L. Jackson for president of the United States (1983).