The African American Museum and Library at Oakland is dedicated to discovering, preserving, interpreting, and sharing the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West for present and future generations.
The museum offers exhibits, library access, and occasional recreational and educational events.
NAACP Chairman of the Board Julian Bond talks about the views of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his emphasis on improving conditions for the working class as a whole. Bond criticizes current abuses and denials of civil rights and quality-of-life issues, and considers the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court cases on affirmative action.
Economist and author Dr. Julianne Malveaux delivers the keynote address for MIT's Annual Breakfast Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., contrasting the values and goals of the civil rights movement with enduring direct and indirect abuses and denials of civil rights.
Professor Eric Foner traces the development of the concept of "freedom" in the U.S., beginning with the nation's founding and continuing up to 2005 (the present day at the time of the lecture). He focuses on race relations and fights by minorities for civil liberties as focus points for the definition of freedom.
President Obama's new Summer of Service Initiative—United We Serve—calls on Americans to make community service part of their daily lives, and on June 25, The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership (JTHG) at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park unveiled a ground-breaking service-learning program in keeping with this initiative. Seventy students from Harpers Ferry Middle School launched their own historic research and preservation project: Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student. These students created six mini-movies examining the October 6, 1859, John Brown raid on the Harpers Ferry arsenal. These videos are now on view at the historic site and online to help students from around the globe connect to that history.
Beginning in January, the middle school students conducted research, then wrote, edited, and designed their project. The use of iPods, cell phones, and YouTube engaged the students, and the project promoted both leadership qualities, collaborative learning, and critical thinking skills. As the project introductory video explains, "It's critical for students to be connected to stories in their own backyard . . . and technology immediately attracted them."
John Brown's raid was polarizing, and historians continue to reexamine its meaning and impact. In researching and developing their project, students explored these controversial interpretations, examining contradictory primary sources and interviewing historians and current residents of the area. They explored the contours of the narrative: John Brown and 21 supporters (both black and white and including two of his sons) planned to seize the arms stored at the arsenal, then retreat into the Allegheny Mountains and fortify a base to encourage, assist, and defend additional slave insurrections and escapes.
Brown was an ardent and militant abolitionist, and in 1837 he declared, "Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery." He aided fugitive slaves, worked with free blacks to resist the Fugitive Slave Law, and fought against proslavery forces in the battles of Bleeding Kansas leading the Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856—his response to pro-slavery attacks on settlers in Lawrence.
After Harpers Ferry, Brown envisioned an interracial, utopian community in the mountains with shared labor, shared resources, and shared property. It was a tall order for the small band of 22 men and it failed—not surprisingly in view of the numbers of civilians and members of the armed forces of the U.S government arrayed against Brown and his men. Brown was tried and executed for treason, murder, and fomenting insurrection.
The aftermath of Harpers Ferry reverberated throughout the nation, and the middle school students explored various responses to define their own opinions. Abolitionists called Brown a martyr and grieved at his execution; proslavery southerners believed him a madman, symbolic of the North's egregious intentions toward the south. Moderate abolitionists rejected his violent tactics, but supported his ideals. Abraham Lincoln called him a "misguided fanatic."
The student's research led most to conclude that John Brown was neither good nor bad, but a man committed to a cause, and their videos chart the processes and the path toward their conclusions. They also demonstrate that a useful historical argument isn't confined to text-based narrative: rap, music, reenactment and dance are among other interpretive methods. Presentations such as John Brown: Children of the Raid are among the videos that demonstrates the unique perspectives of historical inquiry students brought to their examination of primary sources (with background music from the Harpers Ferry Middle School Concert Band).
As part of the project, students wrote a letter to Malia and Sacha Obama, daughters of President Barack Obama, explaining their project and inviting them to the project opening. Don't miss press releases, process videos, and other background materials about the project.
Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student is the outcome of a variety of collaborative efforts to make history relevant to young people. It is a program created, developed, and sponsored by The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership created at the request of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) and Harpers Ferry National Historic Park.
The East Tennessee Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the unique history of Eastern Tennessee and its people. To this end, the society operates the Museum of East Tennessee History. Permanent exhibits include a historical overview off the area, addressing the Cherokee, frontier life, the Civil War, the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, the Tennessee Valley Authority, country music, and the Civil Rights Movement. The museum also presents a recreated early 20th-century streetscape, including period dentist and drug store settings and an original streetcar.
The society offers exhibits, period rooms, genealogy workshops, school tours and scavenger hunts, curriculum-based programs, curriculum-based outreach programs, and educator workshops and summer institutes. The website offers lesson plans and genealogy resources for use in the classroom.
Point Lookout State Park is a peninsula, initially explored by John Smith in 1612. The site suffered British raids during both the Revolutionary War and War of 1812. The use of the word "lookout" in the park's name originates in the peninsula's use as a watch station for British naval activity within the Chesapeake Bay. Still later, the site was used to contain Confederate prisoners of war between 1863 and 1865. Several of the prison guards were African Americans, previously enslaved in the South. Today, features in the park include a U.S. Navy lighthouse; Civil War-era earthworks from Fort Lincoln; reconstructed barracks, officer's quarters, and the partial prison pen; and graves, now open, which originally held Confederate dead.
The park offers exhibits, a nature center, outdoor activities, and self-guided tours of Fort Lincoln.
The Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial is the site of the greatest World War II era domestic disaster. On July 17, 1944, munitions ships being loaded for the Pacific theatre combusted, killing 320 men. The 202 African American men killed account for a full 15 percent of African American World War II deaths. The disaster brought attention to Navy munitions handling and the segregation of military units.
The memorial offers guided tours. Access to the site requires at least two weeks notice, providing time for Army clearance to be achieved.
The George Washington Carver National Monument presents the early life and impact of George Washington Carver (1864-1943). Carver conducted experiments with peanut farming which would eventually bolster the economy of the South, suffering from the downturn of the cotton industry. The site includes Carver's boyhood home, built in 1881; family cemetery; and birth site. Visitors to the site also learn about Carver's interests in rocks, wood carving, and art, among other hobbies.
The monument offers hands-on programs which focus on 19th-century life, nature programs, guided tours, Junior Ranger activities, a 3/4-mile nature trail, a fourth-grade art and essay contest, curriculum-based field trip programs, outreach programs for students, traveling trunks, and rental videos. The website offers an education packet, curricula, and suggested reading for students.
The Constitution is a classroom (and U.S. ideological) staple. As the platform from which U.S. history shapes itself, it is crucial that your students understand the Founding Fathers and their documents. The Bill of Rights Institute exists to help educators present this material.
The website brings together a variety of resources from introductions to and copies of primary source documents to a wide selection of resources specifically for educators. The latter includes Constitution Day resources such as an interactive game on living without the Bill of Rights, another that provides interesting background information on all of America's infamous founding figures, and an essay contest. Browsing through the educator resources also brings to light lesson plans, Bill of Rights-related current news articles which have been selected for classroom appropriateness, information on 24 of the Founding Fathers, summaries of major Supreme Court cases, and the ability to search the site by choosing a major topic such as "criminal procedure."
The student resources are largely the same as the Constitution Day resources, although links are provided to a number of relevant videos and an "Americapedia," which identifies and describes civic values, portions of the Constitution, major political documents, major Supreme Court Cases, and names to know.
Educators may also be interested in seminars and webinars. Two previous webinars are available online.