This website is a detailed look at the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 19551956 as covered in the Montgomery Advertiser. It includes more than 20 oral histories, more than 40 archival news stories, and more than 20 images of the event. A 3,000-word overview section provides details regarding the boycott, the people involved, why it occurred, and the outcome. A biography section includes more details regarding the individuals involved with the boycott. A memorial page for Rosa Parks, one of the most visible figures of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, includes photos, videos, and news articles from the Montgomery Advertiser regarding her death. "Voices of the Boycott" includes oral histories from the participants of the boycott.
The site also includes an archive of stories from the Montgomery Advertiser and the Associated Press regarding the boycott. This includes front page stories, as well as smaller news stories from within the newspaper. Finally a photo gallery contains booking photos, images of speeches, and photos of the events. None of the images in the gallery are graphic in nature.
Though the site is very user-friendly and all information easily accessible, it is somewhat limited in its focus on primary sources directly tied to the Montgomery Advertiser. Still, this website could potentially be useful for educators and students looking to supplement their studies on the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, especially due to the inclusion of the oral histories.
From TED-Ed:
"The idea that youth is wasted on the young? Wrong. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the creators of Superman were all under 30 when they wrote themselves into history. In this inspirational TEDYouth 2011 Talk, Brad Meltzer encourages us to dream big, work hard, and stay humble."
In her article “Adolescents’ Perspectives on Racial Diversity in U.S. History: Case Studies from an Urban Classroom,” Terrie Epstein looks at how different racial groups are incorporated into historical narratives about the American past. She describes interpretations that address the “great paradox” where both democratic ideals and gross inequalities coexist, and asks, how do students make sense of this story? How, she asked in this study, do student views about race shape the way they understand the historical experiences of racial groups?
Epstein, a professor in the School of Education at Hunter College in New York, analyzed the end-of-year historical narratives of ten 11th graders—five African Americans and five European Americans. She was interested specifically in students’ explanations of three components: racial groups’ experiences, the government role in shaping these experiences, and the existence of a common national history or identity.
She asked each of the students to select the 20 most important historical actors and events from a set of 51 captioned picture cards and explain their choices. What Epstein found was that adolescents’ own racialized identities significantly influenced how they understood history. White students and African American students generally understood the historical experiences of racial groups through distinct historical narratives—one of expanding freedoms, and the other of ongoing racial inequality.
Epstein found that white students generally told positive stories about a nation shaped by those of European descent—a nation that from its inception represented the principles of individual rights and democratic rule. When explaining events directly related to African Americans, Indians, and women, students recognized that these group’s members lacked fundamental rights. Nevertheless, each student constructed a national history and identity in which all Americans shared birthrights to democratic rights and protections and these rights had expanded over time.
African American students tended to create stories of American history characterized not by expanding freedoms, but by relations of racial domination and subordination. African Americans were at the center of their stories, fighting for freedom and equality; white historical figures, on the other hand, were significant as oppressors or as allies in that struggle. Overall, these students constructed a distinct historical narrative in which democratic principles and practices only applied to whites and racial oppression marked the experiences of African Americans, Indians, and Japanese Americans.
How might history teachers begin to think about synthesizing the seemingly contradictory historical themes of expanding democracy and ongoing racial inequality? Epstein suggests that history teachers help students understand that particular forms of democracy and racial inequality existed in every historical period. She concludes that discussions of the indivisible legacies of democracy and racial hierarchy might enable young people to construct narratives in which the racialized extensions and exclusions of democracy marked all Americans’ experiences and perspectives.
- “What rights and freedoms did various groups of people have at this time?”
- “How did that represent a shift (or not) from previous historical periods?”
- “How can we explain these shifts and constancies?”
The following examples illustrate pieces of students’ oversimplified narratives of “expanding freedoms” or “ongoing racial inequality.”
Andrea’s perspective on American history:
On the Founding Fathers: “People who started country; made the rules and regulations. Decided how everyone was going to live, like the moral values. Everyone looked up to them; role models of that time.”
On the Declaration of Independence: “How we got our freedom from the British”
On the Constitution and the Bill of Rights: “The backbone of today. All our amendments and rules were started from the Constitution. Our freedoms; freedom to bear arms and speech.”
Maya’s perspective on American history:
On the Founding Fathers: “Group of men formed the Constitution. When they made the Constitution, they didn’t include black people. They were just thinking about themselves, wanted to better themselves.”
On the Declaration of Independence: “How does it relate to black people?”
On the Constitution: “Sounds good when you read it, but how does it relate to black people?”
On the Bill of Rights: “I can’t say they applied to black people because there was still slavery, lack of freedom for black people.”
Epstein, Terrie. “Adolescents’ Perspectives on Racial Diversity in U.S. History: Case Studies from an Urban Classroom.” American Educational Research Journal 37(1) (2000): 185214.
In this 107-second video clip, we see a high school student checking his ideas against the available evidence. In reading a leaflet from the civil rights movement, he encounters a name from a previous document and assumes that she is a white civic leader. The second document, however, raises questions for him about the woman's position. Flipping back and forth between sources, he comes to a reasoned conclusion about who Jo Ann Robinson is and develops a more nuanced understanding of what the civil rights movement was like. The accompanying written commentary points out the clues that the student uses to inform his reading. Find the documents the student reads here (see "Robinson" and "Leaflet").
Created in anticipation of the 50-year anniversary of the monumental Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, this website covers four general areas. These include Supreme Court cases, busing and school integration, school integration in Ann Arbor (home of the University of Michigan), and recent resegregation trends in America. The site contains a case summary and the court's opinion for each of 34 landmark court cases, from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
Brown includes transcripts of oral arguments, as well. Visitors can also read the oral histories of five members of the University of Michigan community who remember the Brown decision and its impact. There are more than 30 photographs of participants in the Brown case and other civil rights activists, as well as a collection of documents pertaining to desegregation in the Ann Arbor Public School District. A statistical section details the growing number of African Americans in Michigan and Ann Arbor schools from 1950 to 1960.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement was covered on news stations around the country. This website provides 230 of these video clips from two local television stations in Roanoke, Virginia. Clips feature both national events, such as the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy, as well as footage of local school desegregation, protests, and interviews on the street.
Accompanying this footage are 14 oral histories (several from Virginians with firsthand knowledge of the Prince Edward Public Schools closing), and 23 documents that chronicle the official development of Massive Resistance in Virginia, in particularly the involvement of Senator Harry F. Byrd. "Essays and Interpretation" provides important historical context and analysis, with detailed pieces on "Virginia's Massive Resistance to School Desegregation" and the development of television news coverage of the Civil Rights Movement in Virginia and Mississippi.
A panel of scholars reviews the landmark school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education and debates whether the case led to true improvement in the life conditions of African Americans.
A panel discusses and debates the troubled desegregation of schools in Little Rock, AR, and the move towards desegregation in general. Ernest Green, one of the nine African American students who attended Little Rock's desegregated school, speaks as one of the panelists.
Black history and studies scholar Manning Marable looks at the significance of Malcolm X's work and life to contemporary scholarship and African American identity. Marable focuses on the importance of accurately preserving information and materials on important public figures like Malcolm X and on the dangers of losing and misinterpreting such information.
Black history and studies scholar Manning Marable explores African American perceptions of history and major historical figures, particularly those of the Civil Rights Movement. Marable focuses on how and why African Americans have chosen some figures as representative of Black history and culture—that is, as heroes.