Professor Diana Schaub reviews the life and views of Booker T. Washington, contrasting Washington's policy of gradualism to the views of abolitionist and civil rights spokesperson Frederick Douglass.
Link dead.
Professor David Tucker looks at the views of religion, government, and the ideal American citizen and way of life presented in early 20th-century writing and contrasts them with the views on the same subjects held by the Founding Fathers. He uses writing by the authors Flannery O'Connor (19251964), Herbert Croly (18691930), and Howard W. Kellog.
Historian Anthony Sammarco follows the development of downtown Boston from the city's early years to the present day. He focuses on the area called Downtown Crossing, following the Great Boston Fire of 1872, and examines the commercial shopping establishments that replaced pre-fire residences and churches. His presentation includes slides.
This feature is no longer available at WGBH.
From the Facing History and Ourselves website:
"Facing History and Ourselves' newest online seminar, 'Choices in Little Rock,' is a rich and engaging exploration of the 1957 desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The seminar traces the legal and personal struggles of African Americans from Jim Crow America through the landmark supreme court decision on Brown v. Board of Education, and ultimately, to the courageous actions of nine young men and women determined to make desegregation a reality. Their efforts would lead to a crisis that historian Taylor Branch once described as 'the most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War.'
This online seminar takes place over seven weeks. Each week, participants will engage in a variety of activities that will include reading materials, viewing video clips, creating journal entries, and participating in online facilitated discussion forums. Participants are expected to complete approximately four hours of work each week at their own pace.
Each participant will receive a copy of our teaching guide, Choices in Little Rock, as well as some additional resources, prior to the start of the seminar."
This American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) Burials and Memorializations database features over 224,000 records of individuals buried or memorialized in ABMC cemeteries and memorials worldwide. Covering 24 cemeteries in 10 foreign countries and 3 additional memorials in the U.S., this database provides online access to burial information of those killed in action primarily during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
Additional individuals include veterans, active duty military, and civilians. The database also provides information on individuals in the Corozal American Cemetery (Panama) and the Mexico City National Cemetery (Mexico), including civilians and veterans of the Spanish-American War and the Civil War.
The database interface allows students to search by name, war or conflict, service or serial number, branch of service, unit, service entry location, cemetery/memorial, date of death, and keyword. Users can also search for service members who are missing in action and Medal of Honor recipients who are buried or memorialized by ABMC.
This organization of the material allows the user to explore a wealth of information. Students can research the geographic distribution of burials or explore representation among military branches in individual cemeteries. The ABMC database allows users to focus on who is buried and memorialized and to explore the experiences of individual soldiers as well as patterns and commonalities.
Students, for example, could begin to explore the number of women who served as nurses during World War I and the Influenza epidemic of 1918, or the experiences of the 100th Infantry Battalion of the U.S. Army during World War II. Or they could chose to search for an individual from their home state or community and use the database’s information as a starting point to research the life of this individual. They can download search results and print, email, or share individual records.
This valuable research and teaching resource is accompanied by a robust “Education Resources” section featuring interactive timelines and campaign narratives, cemetery or memorial-specific mobile apps, publications, videos, lesson plans, and curriculum ideas. The “Flying Yanks: American Airmen in WWI” interactive, for example, provides historical background for students exploring the air war in WWI, a timeline and map with primary sources, as well as individual stories of airmen.
Students can use the database in conjunction with the learning materials to enrich their understanding of U.S. military history, memorialization, public history, and numerous other historical topics.
A project of the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, The March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project preserves the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Milwaukee, WI. In the late 1960s, the open housing movement worked to break down housing restrictions that segregated the city's population. Milwaukee residents of all ages and walks of life supported or opposed this movement.
The site features more than 150 digitized primary sources from the period, including oral histories, letters to organizations, support and hate letters, meeting minutes, Henry Maier's 1967 mayor's log, speeches, press releases, photographs, official reports and research studies, video clips, curriculum and programming from Freedom Schools (alternative schools children could attend during school boycotts), and more. Sources can be searched by keyword and browsed by media type (audio, documents, photos, or video) or collection (materials are divided into 10 collections by relationship to prominent individuals and groups in the movement). Visitors can add sources to "My Favorites" and review them as they browse.
In addition, a downloadable map shows the division of Milwaukee neighborhoods in 1967 and the path of the Aug. 28 open housing march, and a timeline tracks local and national events from 1954 to 1976. A glossary of key terms gives the context for more than 60 acronyms, names, places, and other terms, and a bibliography lists more than 40 primary sources and more than 50 secondary sources.
Teachers may need to do a little extra legwork to contextualize the primary sources, but the collection can bring Civil Rights Movement history home to Wisconsin students, particularly those in Milwaukee and the surrounding area. Teachers nationwide can use the materials to explore the work of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), NAACP Youth Council, and local institutions like Freedom Schools and integration committees.
Students analyze two pictures from the mid to late 20th century—a recreation room, and a set of wedding gifts—and use objects in the picture to identify differences between the past and the present.
This lesson uses everyday objects from the past to facilitate the development of two foundational historical thinking skills for young students:
The lesson begins with the teacher introducing an object from his or her own past that is unfamiliar to students, and a discussion of what that object’s purpose might have been. Then, students observe photographs of everyday items from the 1960s and 1970s to identify both familiar and unfamiliar objects.
Activities 2 and 3 focus on students acting as “historical detectives,” as they generate hypotheses for the purposes of unfamiliar objects in the pictures, and then brainstorm methods for verifying these hypotheses—including interviewing older family members for additional information. Finally, students construct their own historical narratives about an object by creating a museum label for that object. In activity 4, students repeat the process using an object found in their own home.
This lesson walks students through the steps of historical inquiry and introduces them to key historical concepts (historical context and evidence) in an engaging and age-appropriate way.
Yes
Yes
Several other museum exhibits from the mid to late 20th century are available here, and may be useful for augmenting the lesson as well as providing background for teachers.
Yes
While no reading of text is required, students write during the interview process, as well as in the final activity, creating museum labels.
Yes
This is the central feature of the lesson.
No
While no reading is required, close analysis of the photographs and attention to time period is necessary.
Yes
Yes
Discussion questions are provided to help students analyze unfamiliar objects, as well as a chart for students to organize information gained from interviewing older family members about “mystery objects.”
No
While no specific assessment or criteria is provided, the final activity allows students to engage in the inquiry process independently, and may be used to assess student understanding.
Yes
Yes
Students view a variety of documents and artifacts related to the short-handled hoe, migrant labor, and the United Farm Workers. They then draw on these sources to develop an online museum exhibit for the hoe.
This lesson uses a simple farming tool, the short-handled hoe, to introduce students to migrant labor in California and the farm worker labor movement.
After a brief introduction to the hoe and the bracero program that brought workers to California from Mexico, students explore a variety of artifacts to understand the context of the hoe’s use, as well as the United Farm Workers’ role in the 20th-century labor and civil rights movement. Students then draw from these varied sources to create an online museum exhibit centered on the hoe.
One of the great strengths of this lesson is that it starts with what seems a simple artifact, the short-handled hoe, but leads students towards more complex thinking, including grappling with the artifact’s larger symbolic and political meanings and its historical significance. The lesson also provides an excellent opportunity for teaching about historical context because placing the short-handled hoe in the context of the other artifacts and documents clarifies the meaning of this particular artifact (labeled a “barbaric instrument” by one doctor).
While the lesson provides only minimal structure, teachers will appreciate the wealth of companion resources, including historians’ commentary, images of other farming tools, and primary sources related to California farm labor, and the work of César Chavez and the United Farm Workers.
Yes
Yes
In addition to a brief introduction, teachers can find additional resources listed here.
Yes
While many of the primary sources are artifacts, others are written documents. In addition, in the final activity, students must give a written justification for items included in their exhibit.
Yes
Students create a thesis statement for their exhibit and have to explain why they chose each of the items in their exhibit. Ideally, this explanation should connect to the thesis.
Yes
Yes
No
Teachers may want to provide additional support for struggling readers and English Language Learners in understanding some of the historical documents.
No
While no specific assessment is provided, teachers may use the culminating activity as an assessment. Criteria for assessment would need to be established.
Yes
Yes
