Under the auspices of the Schlesinger Library, the Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African-American women between 1976 and 1981. The project sought a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society in the first half of the twentieth century. Many of the women interviewed for the project were active in the protest movements of their era. Among these include interviews with Anna Arnold Hedgeman, an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington; Melnea Cass, who organized sit-ins against the Boston School Committee and racial inequality in Boston schools and curriculum; Texas protest organizer Juanita Craft; and Rosa Parks. Access to the audio and transcripts of the interviews are available via the Black Women Oral History Project Guide.

Susan Brownmiller is a journalist and author, well known for her book Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape (1975). In the late 1960s she was widely published in a variety of news publications and went on to write a number of books. She was active in the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970s, and was a co-founder of the New York Radical Feminists. Her continuing interest in women's issues led her to help found Women Against Pornography in 1979. This collection documents her personal and professional life and her activism, including digitized audio recordings of the First Abortion Speakout in New York City available in the finding aid for the Papers of Susan Brownmiller.

Virginia "Toni" Carabillo was a feminist and long-time activist with the National Organization for Women (NOW). She joined NOW in 1966 and one year later helped found the California chapters. She held a number of leadership roles at the state and national levels of NOW. Judith Kay Meuli was an activist with NOW since 1967 and was involved with both the Los Angeles chapter and the national organization in a number of capacities. Together, Carabillo and Meuli wrote "The Feminization of Power" (1988). This collection includes their personal and professional papers, including digitized albums and audiotapes documenting their activities at NOW that can be found in the finding aid for the Papers of Toni Carabillo and Judith Meuli.

Emma Goldman was an anarchist, writer, and lecturer, who agitated for free speech and radical causes in the United States, Canada, and Europe after emigrating from Russia. Leon Malmed, a supporter of anarchist and radical causes, was a fellow Russian emigré, a small businessman in Albany, New York, and a friend and lover of Emma Goldman. The collection is almost entirely correspondence. There are more than 450 letters, postcards and telegrams from Goldman to Malmed. The papers provide information about Goldman, her family, her life and involvement in the anarchist movement, her experience in the Soviet Union, her loneliness and frustration after being deported, the atmosphere in Europe before World War II, the Spanish Civil War, and more personal topics as well. This collection has been digitized and is available in the finding aid for the Letters of Leon Malmed and Emma Goldman.

Beginning in 1974, the March for Life has been an annual rally protesting abortion, held in Washington, DC, on or around the anniversary of the Supreme Court case legalizing abortion, Roe v. Wade. This collection consists of signs carried at the march, photographs, a button, and a hat from the 2017 March for Life. More material may be added later. The March for Life posters have been digitized and are available in HOLLIS Images.

During November 18-21, 1977, twenty-thousand women gathered in Houston, Texas, for the National Women's Conference, an outgrowth of International Women's Year, 1975. The conference aimed to address legal, economic, and social changes needed to ensure equality for women. Twenty-six resolutions on women's rights were proposed, voted upon by delegates, and presented to the Carter administration and Congress for adoption. The opening ceremony speakers included: First Ladies Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford and Lady Bird Johnson, activists Coretta Scott King, Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, Barbara Jordan, Liz Carpenter, and Jean Stapleton. Maya Angelou read the declaration of intent. Recordings of the opening ceremonies and other speeches have been digitized and are available in the finding aid for the Audiotapes of the National Woman's Conference.

Rap-Up is an unofficial 1969 publication published during the Harvard student strike protesting American involvement in Vietnam and the presence of ROTC on campus. Students were also protesting treatment of those students disciplined for an earlier sit-in at University Hall. Rap-Up has been digitized and is available in Harvard's Mirador Viewer.

The Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice opened on July 4, 1983, as a place for women to gather to protest the deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe, specifically the Cruise and Pershing II missiles. It was organized primarily through the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Upstate Feminist Peace Alliance in New York, on the model of, and in support of, the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in England, which had opened two years earlier. The collection includes correspondence, minutes and agendas, workshop material, creative work produced at the encampment, photographs and more. Digital material can be found in the finding aid for the records of the Encampment, and photographs from the collection have been digitized and are available in HOLLIS Images.

The Women's March was a worldwide protest held on January 21, 2017, to advocate legislation and politics concerning women's rights, immigration reform, healthcare reform, climate change, LGBTQ rights, racial equality, freedom of religion, and workers' rights. The rallies were aimed at Donald Trump largely due to his statements and positions which were regarded by many as anti-women or otherwise offensive. The collection consists of t-shirts, hats, a bag, buttons, postcards, etc., and posters and signs carried by marchers. More material may be added later. Posters from the Washington, D.C. Women's March and posters from the Boston, Massachusetts Women's March have ben digitized and are available in HOLLIS Images.

Educator and founder of the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina, Charlotte Eugenia Hawkins Brown was active in the National Council of Negro Women, the North Carolina Teachers Association, etc., and was the first black woman to serve on the national board of the YWCA. She lectured and wrote about black women, education, and race relations. The collection features speeches pertaining to Brown's work in the field of education for Black people. The collection has been digitized in its entirety, and access to the digital material is provided in the finding aid for the Papers of Charlotte Hawkins Brown.

Educator, lesbian feminist, writer, and activist Charlotte bunch was active in both U.S. anti-war protests and the women's liberation movement. She developed and taught feminist theory at several universities and colleges, and was the co-founder, editor, and writer for several feminist publications. In 1989 she became a founding director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership. Relevant digital material can be found in the finding aid for the Additional Papers of Charlotte Bunch, including audio recordings of panel discussions and lectures.

Jane Maud Campbell was the head of public libraries in Passaic, New Jersey, and while in that role she became increasingly concerned with the plight of newly arrived immigrants. Campbell joined the North American Civic League in New York City, where she taught immigrants about naturalization and their prospects for employment as American citizens. She was appointed Educational Director for Work with Aliens of the Massachusetts Library Commission in 1913. This collection consists of correspondence, speeches, and photographs. Relevant digital material, including speeches, can be found in the finding aid for the Papers of Jane Maud Campbell.

Catharine Deveney Dunham was a delegate-at-large of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, who delivered speeches at women's and other clubs in Michigan. The papers of Catharine Deveney Dunham include handwritten and typed speeches intended to rally support for such Women's Christian Temperance Union causes as Prohibition, abstinence from tobacco and narcotics, purity of sexual conduct among both men and women, and, in later years, woman's suffrage. Some of the collection has been digitized, mostly typescript transcriptions of speeches. These can be found in the finding aid for the Papers of Catharine Deveney Dunham.

Sattareh Farman-Farmaian was a founder and director of the Tehran School of Social Work, the Community Welfare Center of Iran, and the Family Planning Association of Iran. From 1980 to 1992 she worked for the County of Los Angeles Department of Social Services, Children's Services. She was a delegate to the Bucharest Population Conference (1974), the Tehran International Human Rights Conference (1975), and the Mexico International Conference for Women's Year (1979). She has lectured widely worldwide. This collection consists of audiotape recordings of speaking engagements by and interviews with Farman-Farmaian. Some of these have been digitized and are available in the finding aid for the audiotapes of Sattareh Farman-Farmaian.

Mildred Jefferson was a surgeon and national spokesperson for the pro-life movement. She became the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School in 1951, and became involved in the pro-life movement in 1970. She was a founding member of the Value of Life Committee in Massachusetts (VOLCOM) and subsequently helped form Massachusetts Citizens for Life (MCFL), which was incorporated in 1973. MCFL's efforts led to the founding of the National Right to Life Committee, which comprised 50 state-run organizations. This collection consists of material that documents Jefferson's professional and personal life as well as her activist work. Digitized copies of her speeches are available in the finding aid for the Papers of Mildred Jefferson.

Gerda Lerner was an author, historian, and educator. She was one of the earliest proponents of women's history as a field of study in developing curricular material, in preserving and publicizing source material, in upgrading the status of women in the profession, and in her distinguished research and writing. She created the nation's first Women's History PhD program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and wrote more than a dozen books. Some of her interviews, speeches, and lectures have been digitized and are available in the finding aid for the Additional Papers of Gerda Lerner.

African American activist, author, and priest Pauli Murray started her career as a lawyer and university professor. She served on a study committee for the President's Commission on the Status of Women in Ghana, and earned a J.D.S. from Yale Law School. In the 1970s, Murray had a calling to the Episcopal priesthood and was ordained in National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. in 1977. She served as a priest and wrote five books, and while she was briefly married in the 1930s, her most important relationships were with women. This collection has been partially digitized and made available in the finding aid for the Papers of Pauli Murray, including some of Murray's speeches.

Doris Stevens was active in organizations for the advancement of women both in the United States and internationally. She was a suffrage organizer, a member of the National Woman's Party and the Lucy Stone League, and served as chair of the Inter-American Commission of Women. In 1931 Stevens became the first woman member of the American Institute of International Law. She was also an author and composer. The some of this collection has been digitized and is available in the finding aid for the Papers of Doris Stevens, including copies of speeches made during the 1924 Women for Congress campaign.