Enhancing Historical Biography Through Digital Storytelling

Description

Christy Keeler of Clark County School District, NV, discusses the creation and use of digital stories in history classrooms. She presents an example of digital storytelling, "At Lincoln's Hand"; and looks at how students can use primary sources and research combined with emotive narration, music, and sound effects to craft effective digital stories.

The Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation

Description

The National Constitution Center presents veteran film and television writer Jonathan Hennessey discussing his graphic novel The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation, in which Hennessey uses the popular medium of graphic art to illustrate and breathe new life into the U.S. Constitution, the ideas it expresses, and its history.

To listen to this interview, scroll to the December 15, 2008 program.

"Worth a Lot of Negro Votes": Black Voters, Africa, and the 1960 Presidential Campaign

Description

Associate editor and professor of history at Indiana University, John Nieto-Phillips speaks with Professor James Meriwether about his article, "'Worth a Lot of Negro Votes': Black Voters, Africa, and the 1960 Presidential Campaign." When John F. Kennedy telephoned Coretta Scott King to express sympathy for her jailed husband, he had little idea that his two-minute call would move to center stage in the 1960 presidential election. That call, James H. Meriwether argues, has obscured Kennedy's broader efforts to secure the support of black voters while not alienating white voters in the no longer "solid South." Kennedy drew on the growing transnational relationship black Americans had with an ancestral continent undergoing its own freedom struggles, revealing that he was more interested in Africa than in civil rights. Africa, the newest frontier for Kennedy, became a place where he could show his Cold War credentials, find common ground with black American voters, and strengthen his chances to win the presidency.

The Doctrine of Discovery, Native America, and the U.S. Constitution, Part Two

Description

How can U.S. citizens today view Native American history through a Constitutional lens? In answering that question, Bob Miller, Lewis & Clark Law School professor and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, uncovers the history of Federal Indian Law. Professor Miller describes the Doctrine of Discovery's long reach, from the founding of the colonies through the writing of the Constitution all the way to Russia planting its flag on the Arctic seafloor in 2007.

Liberty, Checks and Balances, and the Constitution, Part Two

Description

Idaho State University Political Science Professor David Gray Adler examines what he describes as the great constitutional crisis of the day: the usurpation and abdication of constitutional roles by President and Congress. Building his argument on the concerns of the Framers, Dr. Adler points to the endangerment to liberty posed by the erosion of checks and balances.

Audio and video options are available.