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.
Graduate student Rachel Reinhard explores the African American struggle to realize voting rights in Mississippi during and following the Civil Rights Movement.
In this Library of Congress presentation, the children of author and civil rights activist M. Carl Holman—Kinshasha Holman-Conwill, Kwasi Holman, and Kwame Holman—reflect on the character of their father, who also served as the director of the National Urban Coalition.
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."
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.
Four guided investigations designed to teach students how to read primary sources and construct historical narratives lie at the heart of this website. Topics are: the Spanish-American War, the Scopes Trial, Social Security, and Rosa Parks. Each topic includes a short introductory video, a timeline of events, a central question, and extension activities. For example, the Rosa Parks investigation poses the question: "Why did the boycott of Montgomery's buses succeed?"
After completing a simple login, students read annotated documents—including letters written by the boycott organizers, a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. and an interview with a woman working in Montgomery—and answer guiding questions, and draw on their responses to answer the question. The website also includes a useful introduction to the idea of historical thinking.
Especially since the 1950s, civil rights litigation has done much to influence government institutions. This website presents at least partial information on 2,243 injunctive civil rights cases (those seeking policy change and not money). These cases are divided by category. "Jail Conditions" and "Prison Conditions" contain the most cases, with roughly 550 each. "Immigration" and "Juvenile Institutions" also include more than 150 each. Other categories include: "Mental Health Institutions," "Mental Retardation Institutions," "Child Welfare," "Nursing Home Cases," "Policing Cases," "Public Housing," "Equal Employment," and "School Desegregation," among others.
A good place to begin is the "Featured Cases" section on the website's homepage, which highlights cases from the collection that are being litigated currently and/or that are particularly relevant to current events. Cases are fully searchable by name, type, issue, district, circuit, state, causes of action, attorney organization, and people involved in the case. In addition, links to 141 case studies written by law students, professors, journalists, and policy advocates provide in-depth information on a specific case or issue, such as the Urban Institute's "Baseline Assessment of Public Housing Desegregation Cases." New material is added regularly.
According to the Library of Congress Webcasts summary, in this video, "Joseph Kip Kosek, assistant professor at George Washington University, discussed the impact of radical Christian pacifists on American democratic theory and practice, at the Library of Congress. Kosek, the author of Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy and a former fellow of the Library's John W. Kluge Center, talked about his book. According to Kosek, in response to the massive bloodshed that defined the 20th century, American religious radicals developed an effective new form of nonviolent protest, one that combined Christian principles with new uses of mass media. Greatly influenced by the ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi, these 'acts of conscience' included sit-ins, boycotts, labor strikes and conscientious objection to war. Beginning with World War I and ending with the ascendance of Martin Luther King Jr., Kosek traces the impact of radical Christian pacifists on America."
My 8th-grade students will interview a veteran and then do independent research on those battles and locations. Do you have suggestions of sites my
students can hit that would have info about the various branches of military and info about battles, ships, planes, etc. where these vets served?
There are a number of wonderful sites for someone looking for background information about World War II, and the experiences of military men and women abroad and at home. Unfortunately, while there is considerable general information, the experiences of specific veterans can be widely varied—extending across the globe, and over land, sea, and air. Given the large number of units and the many changes in deployments over the course of the war, it can be difficult to find information about specific units on the web.
As a starting point, to transport your students back into the period you might start with some of the very broad overviews of the war by sites such as the History Channel. And (with proper warnings about the way they exaggerate and oversimplify) you might have them look at one of the War Department’s Why We Fight documentaries.
As they try to get a closer understanding of the specific experiences of particular service people and their units, your students can look at the materials prepared by the military services, which have substantial resources on the web (though they are a pretty clunky). For information on ground forces, they should check out the Army’s U.S. Center for Military History. Much of the material here consists of digitized version of print publication (hence the rather look), but it provides very comprehensive information about particular events.
The Naval History Center offers similar information for the U.S. Navy and Marine corps. Those are probably your best sources for information on the web at the unit level.
The National Archives also offers a treasure trove of information digitized from their collections, which includes everything from enlistment records of particular soldiers to photographs from the period. It can be hit-or-miss the closer you try to get to a specific person or unit, but it does provide some excellent examples of their specific experiences at the time.
Finally, the Library of Congress’s Veteran’s History Project provides a model of the kinds of information students might want to gather from each of the veterans they interview. Each interviewee in the database has a small fact sheet summarizing the key elements of their careers, and also offers digitized recordings of interviews with service men and women.
These are the best sources of information about World War II I have found on the web, though there are dozens of other sources available out there of widely varied quality. Most of the other sites are either extremely dated or are quite general summaries of broad themes and specific battles or events, but these sites should get your students started and on the right track.
The Clinton House was first built in 1765, and is notable for being actively used when Poughkeepsie was the capital of New York during the years from 1777 to 1783. Today, the home is open to the public as a historic house museum and has been restored to its state during the late 1700s.
The house offers guided tours. The website offers visitor information and a brief history of the home.