This 28-minute mini-documentary, intended for 11th and 12th grade students, focuses on the stories of young people who took part in the civil rights movement protests of the 1950s and the 1960s. It begins with the story of the Little Rock Nine, the first African American students to attend Central High School, AR, following Brown v. Board of Education; continues with interviews with people who participated in the movement as children and teenagers; and ends with present-day examples of struggles for civil rights.

Curriculum to complement the video is available at the same URL as the video, below.

University of Iowa associate professor Marshall Poe interviews Steve Gillon, Resident Historian for the History Channel and University of Oklahoma professor, on his book The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After: Lyndon B. Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President.

University of Iowa professor Marshall Poe interviews Jennifer Burns about her book Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, on the life and times of Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand.

From the Library of Congress website:

"In the early 1960s, the multitalented musician, filmmaker, and photographer John Cohen journeyed to eastern Kentucky to document the songs of church-goers, miners, and farmers, and the rural community that produced and sustained their uniquely American sound. The result was The High Lonesome Sound, a classic 1963 documentary film than evocatively illustrates how music and religion help Appalachian people maintain their dignity and traditions in the face of change and hardship. Featuring master traditional musician Roscoe Holcomb, Cohen's film also documented how different musical strands are synthesized in the playing of an individual performer. In this presentation, Cohen discussed the making of his influential documentary, its initial reception, and its continued impact in the shaping of documentary filmmaking and ethnographic research on traditional culture both in the United States and abroad."

David Ward, historian at the National Portrait Gallery, gives an overview of the life of Albert Einstein, in relation to a portrait of the scientist by Max Westfield.

From the Constitution Center website:

"2009 marks the 70th anniversary of one of the most dramatic concerts in American history: world famous African American contralto Marian Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. In a conversation moderated by scholar Sheldon Hackney, award-winning historian Raymond Arsenault tells the story of Marian Anderson, one of the most enduring and iconic figures of the civil rights movement. Through immense raw talent and unrelenting determination, Anderson overcame racial prejudice to inspire all Americans and to become one of the greatest singers of her time."

To listen to this lecture, scroll to the August 12th, 2009, program.

From the Library of Congress website:

"Author Ralph Eubanks discusses his personal story that began with his grandparents: James Richardson, a white man from a middle-class family, who defiantly married Edna Howell, a light-skinned black woman in 1914 in Alabama."

From the Library of Congress website:

"The John W. Kluge Center held a panel discussion on 'Building the Bomb, Fearing Its Use: Nuclear Scientists, Social Responsibility and Arms Control, 1946-1996.' Speakers were Mary Palevsky, Black Mountain Institute fellow at the Kluge Center, along with Hugh Gusterson, William Lanouette and Martin J. Sherwin. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, statesmen and scientists confronted the unprecedented destructive power of nuclear weapons, according to Palevsky. Early postwar efforts for international control of atomic energy failed, and by the mid-1950s both American and Soviet scientists had invented the hydrogen bomb, a weapon of greater destructive potential than the atomic bomb. Yet arms-control efforts were ongoing even during the Cold War's darkest days. Within a year of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, prohibiting nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underwater and in outer space.

International treaty negotiations directly affected the daily lives of thousands of American scientists, engineers and support personnel who designed, built and conducted the tests of new weapon designs. Some of the questions that these scientists and statesmen encountered still exist today, and those questions are the basis for the panel discussion."

Film critic Michael Sragow discusses the work of director Victor Fleming (1889-1949), who directed films across genres, including Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.

From the Lemelson Center website:

"Andy Bozanic talks about his research, supported by a fellowship from the Lemelson Center, on the history of the acoustic guitar. In this podcast, Bozanic explains how the unique qualities of the acoustic guitar—its portability, affordability, and adaptability to different styles of music—brought it into the mainstream of American music in the 20th century."