About This Exhibition:
“The stakes are too high for government to be a spectator sport,” said the late Barbara Jordan, the first African American woman elected to Congress from the state of Texas. Today, voting in the presidential election is every American’s right, but doing so is only one facet of what it means to be an active and engaged citizen. There are 1,460 days between presidential elections, and countless discussions and decisions on important matters are made in between.
In The Stakes Are Too High: Voting, Civic Engagement and Political Participation, visitors will gain insight into how and why they need to stay civically engaged in between election days. Through government documents, informational pamphlets, flyers, campaign buttons, scrapbooks and other historical materials, the exhibition explores the topics of voter education, voter participation, voter registration and civic engagement.
Credits
This exhibition is curated by John Caldwell, political and public policy papers archivist; Kaitlyn Tanis, history and social sciences librarian.