Kansas Museum of History curators look at a banner that memorializes the 50-year anniversary of a civil rights-era sit-in in Wichita, KS. This sit-in preceded both the famous Oklahoma City, OK and Greensboro, NC sit-ins.
Susan Pearson of Northwestern University, speaking at the Organization of American Historians 2009 meeting, discusses late 19th-century reimagining of the role of the family and the best interests of children, leading to reform in child protection. She holds that this change sprang from change in liberal ideology during this time period.
Donald L. Miller, with Douglas Brinkley and Virginia Scharff, look at the war against Japan in the last years of World War II, including the fighting on Okinawa, the fire-bombing of Japan's main islands, and the development of the atomic bomb and the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The presentation then examines life after the war—Bill Levitt and mass-produced housing and the growth of suburbs; Eisenhower and the beginning of the Cold War; the emergence of teenage culture; Elvis Presley's popularity; and the swelling of the civil rights movement.
Donald L. Miller, with Waldo E. Martin, Jr., and Virginia Scharff, looks at the Progressive era (from 1890 to 1926) as it was experienced by minority groups, including women, African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian and Mexican immigrants.
From the Library of Congress website:
"As an illustrator and journalist, Tracy Sugarman covered the nearly one thousand student volunteers who traveled to the Mississippi Delta to assist black citizens in the South in registering to vote. Two white students and one black student were slain in the struggle, many were beaten and hundreds arrested, and churches and homes were burned to the ground by the opponents of equality. Yet the example of Freedom Summer resonated across the nation. The U.S. Congress was finally moved to pass the civil rights legislation that enfranchised millions of black Americans.
Blending oral history with memoir, We Had Sneakers, They Had Guns chronicles the sacrifices, tragedies and triumphs of that unprecedented moment in American history."
In this episode of the weekly San Francisco Timecapsule, Richard Miller presents some of the reminiscences of author Charles Warren Stoddard (1843-1909) on his childhood in San Francisco.
Dr. Michael Klarman of the University of Virginia School of Law analyzes and interprets the Brown case and its impact on the Civil Rights Movement. He annotates Justice Douglas's conference notes on Brown, tells stories about the justices, details how justices decide cases, explains why Brown was a hard case for many of the justices, and makes conclusions on why they were nonetheless eventually able to reach a unanimous outcome. He discusses the various ways in which Brown mattered and did not matter by linking Brown with the rise of southern massive resistance, violence, and ultimately the enactment of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s. Klarman includes lessons on how and why Court decisions matter, how historians tend perhaps to overemphasize the importance of the Court's contributions to racial change in the U.S., and important reminders about how violence was necessary to prompt most whites to care about the civil rights of southern blacks.
Dr. Lauranett Lee of the Virginia Historical Society explores ways to use oral history and historic preservation efforts to teach history. She is currently completing a commissioned project for the city of Hopewell in which she documents African American history. She discusses the mechanics of constructing a community history project and its applicability for teachers and students. The second half of the session focused on using the cultural landscape to teach history, including a walking tour of the historic Jefferson School.
To listen to this lecture, select "Podcast" under the September 4th session.
Michael Willrich of Brandeis University investigates the birth of the modern welfare state, exploring a time when so many ideas we now regard as "common sense" found their origins. Willrich pays special attention to two court cases: Lochner v. New York (1905) and Muller v. Oregon (1908).
Audio and video options are available.
According to Constitutional Connections, Dr. Marie E. Montoya of New York University focuses "on the collision of legal regimes regarding property rights that followed the U.S.-Mexican War. She guides viewers through interrogation of primary documents, looking at two versions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Taking as its starting point the fictionalized account projected by the American Girl doll Josefina Montoya, she discusses both the benefits and challenges of many children's first engagement with that history: One which takes place in an idyllic age, uncomplicated by questions of contingency and enamored with the myth of progress."