Diploma certificate for Katie Lee Ammons from Vaiden Negro High School. Vaiden, MS, May 1966. Signed by school principal, Percy Hathorn (the school would later be named after him). Brass and ribbon badge attached to lower left. Housed in an 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. portfolio with leatherette covered boards, and a printed image of the high school building on silk/satin interior cover. Accompanied by a 3 1/2 x 5 in. silver gelatin portrait of Ammons in her cap and gown. Verso bears Civil Rights-era photographer Johnnie Crump's Vicksburg, MS stamp along with penciled identification, "K. Ammons."

Vaiden, Mississippi is a very small community along the Tallahachie River, where the body of the murdered Emmett Till was found in 1955. The town saw a great deal of violence against African American residents, including lynchings and the so-called "Carroll County Courthouse Massacre" of 1886, in which a group of armed white men rode up to the courthouse and fired upon the Black plaintiffs and Black attending citizens, leaving 10 dead immediately and 13 more dead from wounds thereafter. The armed mob was targeting 2 half-Black brothers for suing a white man.

The Lincolnite. Vol. VIII, No. 1. 40pp., 8 x 11 in., staple-bound yearbook published in 1933 by the Lincoln High School, an important African American school in Kansas City, MO, where legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker went to school from 1934-1935 but withdrew after one year to pursue his music career. This yearbook was published one year before Parker was a student at the school. Filled with photos of staff and students.