Negroes With Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power

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Photo, Rob Williams with Mao Zedong, Negroes with Guns
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This website is a companion to the PBS show on Rob Williams and the Black Power movement. Rob Williams was "the first African American civil rights leader to advocate armed resistance to racial oppression and violence." His radio program for blacks in the South "Radio Free Dixie," broadcast from exile in Cuba, "included cutting-edge music by African American artists, news from the front lines of the black freedom movement and fiery editorials by Rob Williams that railed against 'rump-licking Uncle Toms' and 'Ku Klux Klan savages.'"

The site offers a description of the film along with the film trailer. It also includes a short biography of Rob Williams with several images, as well as background information on "Radio Free Dixie" with ten audio clips including four excerpts from the show and six music clips. "Learn more" includes links to 12 related websites and six books on Black Power, Radio Free Dixie, Rob Williams, and black revolutionaries. A good starting point for research on Williams and his role in the Black Power movement.

Liberian Letters

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Envelope of letter Sampson Ceasar to David S. Haselden, 1834, Liberian. . . site
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Founded in 1816, the American Colonization Society (ACS) advocated sending manumitted slaves and free blacks living in the United States to Africa. The first "repatriated" black emigrants landed in Liberia in 1821. They were not prepared to till the land and the local, displaced Africans were hostile. Most importantly, the American-born blacks were highly susceptible to malaria and yellow fever.

This website offers the opinions of surviving pioneers, including six compelling letters authored in 1834 and 1835 by Samson Ceasar, a freed slave, who wrote to David Haselden and Henry Westfall of Buchannon, VA. An additional 44 letters were sent by former slaves of James Hunter Terrell to Terrell's executor, Dr. James Minor, between 1857 and 1866. The diverse letters not only reflect the complex bonds between former slaves and masters, but underscore the persistently unequal relationship.

Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery

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Image, Frederick Douglass, c. 1817-1895, NYPL
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This attractive exhibit utilizes essays and more than 140 images to explore the 400-year history of slavery in the Americas. The site reminds us that together "the slave trade and slavery represented one of the longest, most sustained assaults on the dignity and self-worth of human beings in the history of humankind." The site's home page offers an introductory essay that presents the central themes of the exhibit. The site is centered around nine thematic presentations on the forging of common identities in slavery; the enslavement process in Africa; the transatlantic slave trade; slave labor and slave systems; the struggle against slavery and the abolition of slavery; family life and social development; religion; language, literacy, and education; and culture. Each image is accompanied by an explanatory caption. There is no search feature available on the site. An informative overview of slavery in the Americas, the site is also of interest to those studying African-American culture.

Geography of Slavery in America

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Image, March 14, 1766 slave ad, Geography of Slavery in America
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Transcriptions and images of more than 4,000 newspaper advertisements for runaway slaves and indentured servants between 1736 and 1803 can be browsed or search on this website. The runaways are primarily from Virginia, but also come from states along the Eastern seaboard and locations abroad. Materials include ads placed by owners and overseers as well as those placed by sheriffs and other governmental officials for captured or suspected runaway slaves. Additional advertisements announce runaway servants, sailors, and military deserters.

"Exploring Advertisements" offers browse, search, and full-text search functions, as well as maps and timelines for viewing the geographic locations of slaves. The site also provides documents on runaways—including letters, other newspaper materials, literature and narratives, and several dozen official records, such as laws, county records, and House of Burgess journals. Information on the currency and clothing of the time, a gazetteer with seven maps of the region, and a 13-title bibliography are also available.

From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909

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Address, Negro education not a failure, Booker T. Washington, 1904, LoC
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From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1822-1909 is precisely what it says, a collection of 396 pamphlets written by African Americans or by non-African Americans writing about slavery, Reconstruction, the colonization of Africa, and other pertinent topics.

According to the website, "[. . . t]he materials range from personal accounts and public orations to organizational reports and legislative speeches." Prominent authors include, but are certainly not limited to, Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.

Material can be browsed by title, author, or subject; or you can run a key word search. If you need more material than what is available in the collection itself, there is a list of external resources with related content.

Freedmen and Southern Society Project

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Print, Emancipation Scene
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Maintained by Steven F. Miller of the University of Maryland, this site provides 44 primary documents relating to the emancipation of African American slaves between 1861 and 1865. It includes a letter by General William T. Sherman explaining why he refused to return fugitive slaves to their owners; an 1864 letter from Annie Davis, a Maryland slave, to President Abraham Lincoln asking him to clarify her legal status; a description by a Union general of a bloody battle at Milliken's Bend, LA, where a brigade of black soldiers fought; and documents from the federal and Confederate governments relating to significant events.

The documents—transcribed from originals housed at the National Archives—are accompanied by sentence-long annotations, as well as an authoritative chronology of events leading to legal emancipation.

This site is part of a larger effort underway by the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, "supported by the University of Maryland and by grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities" to publish the multivolume Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867.

Finishing the Dream: Learning from the Civil Rights Era

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Screenshot, Remembering the Godmother of Civil Rights. . . , Finishing the Dream
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This subsection of the NBC Learn website offers 132 streaming short videos related to the civil rights movement.

Videos include commentaries following major events (closely or years in retrospect), original testimonies, and video of events such as the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Topics include Emmett Till, bus boycotts, Brown v. Board of Education, the Freedom Riders, Little Rock, African American attendance at the University of Mississippi, Medgar Evers, the March on Washington, the Birmingham Church Bombing, Malcolm X, 1964 voter registration volunteer disappearances, and King's assassination.

The last section, Finishing the Dream, contains footage from four town hall events, which brought together activists, educators, religious leaders, and high school and college students for discussion of issues related to the civil rights movement.

The 132 videos are divided into subsections by year, beginning with 1954 and continuing through 1968. All videos include a transcript. Select the clip, and the word "transcript" will appear to the right of the video. Click it to bring up a scrollable transcript alongside the film.

You may also be interested in exploring further on the NBC Learn website. However, the majority of the content is subscription-based. You can sign up for a 30-day free trial, though, in order to test the waters.

Documenting the American South

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Image for Documenting the American South
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Nearly 1,400 documents address aspects of life in the South from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The database features 10 major projects.

The First Century of the First State University presents materials on the beginnings of the University of North Carolina. Oral Histories of the American South offers 500 oral history interviews on the civil rights, environmental, industrial, and political history of the South. First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860–1920 offers 140 diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and ex-slave narratives. North American Slave Narratives furnishes about 250 texts.

The Library of Southern Literature makes available 51 titles in Southern literature. The Church in the Southern Black Community, Beginnings to 1920 traces the role of the church as a central institution in African American life in the South. The Southern Homefront, 1861–1865 documents non-military aspects of Southern life. The North Carolina Experience, Beginnings to 1940 provides close to 600 histories, descriptive accounts, institutional reports, works of fiction, images, oral histories, and songs.

North Carolinians and the Great War offers 170 documents on the effects of World War I and its legacy. Finally, True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students at the University of North Carolina analyzes 121 documents written by students. All projects are accompanied by essays from the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.

Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive

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Photo, V. J. Gray and L. Cress, Herbert Randall, 1964, Civil Rights in Miss...
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These 150 oral history interviews and 16 collections of documents address the civil rights movement in Mississippi. Interviews were conducted with figures on both sides of the movement, including volunteers and activists as well as "race-baiting" Governor Ross Barnett and national White Citizens Council leader William J. Simmons.

Document collections offer hundreds of pages of letters, journals, photographs, pamphlets, newsletters, FBI reports, and arrest records. Approximately 25 interviews also offer audio clips. Users may browse finding aids or search by keyword. Six collections pertain to Freedom Summer, the 1964 volunteer initiative in Mississippi to establish schools, register voters, and organize a biracial Democratic party. One collection is devoted to the freedom riders who challenged segregation in 1961. Four explanatory essays provide historical context. Short biographies are furnished on each interviewee and donor, as well as a list of topics addressed and 30 links to other civil rights websites.

Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Digital Archive

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Image, Search page graphic
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A joint project between college students and a nonprofit organization, this site collects the documents, recollections, and other media relating to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Many of the documents were submitted by visitors to the website, and the site actively solicits additional resources.

Materials include 10 documents, five video files that document interviews and panel discussions, and links to 15 outside Brown sites. The Interactive section features six interactive activities, including a map showing Jim Crow laws in various states and communities. The site includes relatively few primary sources, but the individual stories featured are valuable.