C-SPAN American Political Archive

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Logo, C-SPAN.org
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This website, which draws from C-Span Radio, is a useful resource for researching or teaching 20th-century American political history. It assembles audio recordings from such sources as the National Archives, presidential libraries, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress. It "presents interviews, debates, oral histories, news conferences, and speeches with past presidents, legislators, and other important figures in American politics." Selecting "Past APA programs available online" provides the full list of 29 archived programs. Program subjects include persons such as W.E.B. DuBois; Indira Gandhi; Eleanor Roosevelt; NASA astronauts; Presidents Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Dwight Eisenhower, and Gerald Ford; and Civil Rights leaders A. Philip Randolph, Malcolm X, and Thurgood Marshall. They also include thematic topics such as the Reagan presidency, women in journalism, ex-slave narratives, Iraq war stories, Congressional leaders, the voices of World War II, and American POWs. Many of the topics feature multiple programs.

All programs are recordings of the original C-SPAN Radio program and must be listened to as originally broadcast. Playback of the programs requires media player software to be installed (free downloads can be accessed from the site).

The above recordings appear to no longer be available on the C-Span website. The history section, http://www.c-span.org/History/, suggested as an alternative offers full video programming, often discussions of historical topics. However, the page appears to feature recent video, with over 2,000 "recent events" which cannot be sorted or searched. Video search does not offer an option to select material on historical topics, so searching will pull from the entire C-Span website. As a result, the site offers a great deal of undoubtedly useful material which is nearly impossible to access. Unpublishing.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project

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martin luther king
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Featuring texts by and about Martin Luther King Jr., this regularly updated website currently contains more than 1,400 speeches, sermons, and other writings, mostly taken from five volumes covering the period from 1929 to 1968. (These are listed in the Published Documents section under Papers.)

In addition, sixteen chapters of materials published in 1998 as The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. are available. The website presents important sermons and speeches from later periods, including "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," the March on Washington address, the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, and “Beyond Vietnam.” Additional materials include an interactive chronology of King's life, two biographical essay, over twenty audio files of recorded speeches and sermons, and twelve articles on King. More than thirty photographs complete the website.

The King Papers Project is valuable for studying King's views and discourse on civil rights, race relations, nonviolence, education, peace, and other political, religious, and philosophical topics.

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Documenting Our Past: The Teenie Harris Archive Project

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Photo, Charles Teenie Harris, c. 1950-1970, Documenting Our Past
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This archive of 1,500 photographs taken by Teenie Harris, photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, "one of the largest and most influential Black newspapers in the country," documents African American urban life in Pittsburgh from the 1930s to the 1960s. This is a sample of the 80,000 images that make up the full collection. Many of the images have not been identified and the site's authors ask assistance (a submission form accompanies each image).

Visitors can browse the collection through 15 galleries of 100 images each. They can also comment on images and view the comments of others. Following the link to the Teenie Harris image collection in the Historic Pittsburgh Images Collections at the University of Pittsburgh allows visitors to browse the 541 images that have been identified with full captions. The site also offers a chronology of Harris's life. This site is useful for researching the history of Pittsburgh and its African American community as well as urban history or African American history in general.

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The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Vietnam Era Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/29/2009 - 19:05
Description

Dr. Kent Germany, professor of history at the University of South Carolina, argues that the rise of suburbs and the decline of the inner city factored into the larger struggle for civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s and set up the conditions exposed by Hurricane Katrina.

Portrait of Medgar Evers

Description

Smithsonian curators examine a photograph of civil rights activist Medgar Evers (1925-1963), looking at what it says about the tension between racial groups at the time and the call for social change an accumulation of such media objects can communicate.

John Hope Franklin: The Historian and the African American Experience

Description

Distinguished historian and lifelong civil rights activist Professor John Hope Franklin joins archivist Allen Weinstein and Dr. Lonnie Bunch, director of the new National Museum of African-American History and Culture, to discuss his careers as educator, scholar, and activist.

To watch this interview, scroll to "John Hope Franklin," and select "Watch the Video."

History of Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

Description

Congressman Conyers leads a discussion of the legislative history of efforts to establish a federal holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the continuing significance of the Reverend Dr. King's life. The Congressional Black Caucus and its co-founder Rep. Conyers were leaders in that effort. After their presentations, the panelists responds to audience members' questions.

In November 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed into law legislation declaring the third Monday in January as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday, to celebrate the birthday and life of the slain civil rights leader. It had been 15 years since Dr. King's assassination.

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