From PBS:

Built around the landmark 1954 legal case Hernandez v. Texas, the film interweaves the stories of its central characters with a broader story of the civil rights movement. It also brings to life the heroic post-World War II struggle of Mexican Americans fighting to dismantle the discrimination targeted against them.

Curators of the Kansas Museum of History describe the history of a German Schuetzen rifle in the museum's collection. The rifle was used in a shootout with members of Jesse James's gang in 1875, killing one member.

From the National Constitution Center website:

"With the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states' rights views became the seventeenth president of the United States. In a surprising turn of events, Andrew Johnson was charged with the reconstruction of the defeated South, including the extension of civil rights and suffrage to African American Southerners. It quickly became clear that the president supported the enactment of 'black codes' and would block efforts to force Southern states to guarantee full equality for African Americans, igniting a fierce battle with congressional Republicans. Acclaimed author David O. Stewart returns to the Constitution Center to discuss the impeachment trial of President Johnson, which became the central battle of the struggle over how to reunite a nation after four years of war."

To listen to this lecture, scroll to "Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson," which is the June 26, 2009 post.

Donald L. Miller, with Waldo E. Martin, Jr., and Virginia Scharff, looks at the 1960s in the U.S., including the taking-off of the Civil Rights Movement, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson's views of the movement, the Vietnam War and protest that arose against it, and the Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon's resignation.

From the Maine Humanities Council website:

"Elizabeth D. Leonard is the John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Professor of History at Colby College, where she has taught since 1992. Leonard is the author of three books on the Civil War era, and she is under contract to write the biography of Joseph Holt, Lincoln's judge advocate general. In this talk, she explores Holt's role in the manhunt that followed the assassination. She also delineates the arguments that took place between those who were determined to avenge Lincoln's death (and the war itself) and those who aimed to forgive the rebel South and forget the plight of the recently freed slaves."

From the Lincoln Online Conference website:

"Through a selection of images of nationally important Lincoln artifacts, participants . . . explore the life and times of this extraordinary figure. Each object will convey an aspect of Lincoln's character and experiences. The presentation is based on a new exhibition of the same name showcasing more than 60 historical treasures associated with Lincoln's life from an iron wedge he used to split wood in the early 1830s in New Salem, Ill., to his iconic top hat he wore the night he was shot at Ford's Theatre (both of which will be discussed during this session). The webcast—led by Harry Rubenstein, chair of the Division of Politics and Reform at the National Museum of American History—will tell a new and very intimate story of the life and legacy of this remarkable individual."

Free registration is required to access the webcast.

Donald L. Miller, with Pauline Maier; Waldo E. Martin, Jr.; and Stephen Ambrose, looks at the growing tensions, from 1846 to 1861, that finally led to the Civil War. The presentation examines the issue of slavery and its expansion; the Compromise of 1850; the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin; reactions to the Fugitive Slave Act and the U.S. Supreme Court Case Dred Scott vs. Sandford; John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry; and the election of Abraham Lincoln as leading to the South's secession.