African-Americans--Biography, Autobiography, and History

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Logo, The Avalon Project
Annotation

This section, recently added to the Avalon Project, contains complete copies of Martin Luther King Jr.'s August 28, 1963, "I Have A Dream" speech; Frederick Douglass' 1855 My Bondage and Freedom; The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, dictated by Sojourner Truth and edited by Olive Gilbert; W.E.B. Du Bois' 1903 The Souls of Black Folk; and Up From Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington. All of the transcripts are legible and available in HTML format.

The Cultural Civil War of the 1960s

Description

Historian Linda Gordon looks at family values during the 1960s, comparing and contrasting the institution of the family and perception of problems in family in the 1960s with such institutions and perceptions both past and present.

The provided site links directly to the Real Media audio file, as it is not associated with a visual webpage.

Rocky Hill Historical Society and Academy Hall Museum

Description

Formed in 1962, the Rocky Hill Historical Society's first mission was to save the Academy Hall. The Hall was built in 1803 as a navigation school to teach young sailors and future sea captains. Today the town's history is accessible to the public through the museum, library, and programs located in Academy Hall. The library contains book collections, manuscripts, stories, oral histories, photographs, and maps, and is open for research. The Academy Hall Museum displays artifacts, farm implements, military items, maritime history, technology, and costumes.

The museums offers exhibits and research library access.

9/11 and the War on Terror

Description

Professor and author Noam Chomsky discusses the current "War on Terrorism" in the context of earlier perceptions of terrorism and national threat, including the Cold War and World War II.

The link provides direct access to the video, as no visual webpage exists as a gateway.

Radicalism and the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.A.

Description

Dr. Simon Hall, Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Leeds, lectures on the shift of some activists away from nonviolent protest to radicalism during the Civil Rights Movement. He looks at activists' disillusionment with the federal government and the change in focus of organizations like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, which became the Student National Coordinating Committee).

The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.A.

Description

From the History Faculty website:

"In recent years historians of the civil rights movement have moved their focus away from the charismatic leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. to explore the role played by 'ordinary people' in the struggle for racial equality. While not denying King's importance as a tactician, figurehead and orator historians have argued that, at root, the civil rights movement was a people's movement and that the countless inspiring contributions made by local blacks was a critical component of the movement's success."

"After setting out the problems that the civil rights movement sought to tackle, the presentation charts some of the civil rights movement's major tactics—litigation, boycotts and direct action, and voter registration drives—emphasizing the importance of ordinary African Americans and their allies to these efforts. The presentation ends with a re-consideration of King's role, highlighting his importance as a 'bridge' between the local campaigns and national politics."

Dr. Simon Hall, Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Leeds, presents this lecture.