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.

Julie Novkov, Associate Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at the University of Albany, SUNY, provides an overview of 230 years of struggles for equality, focusing on the role of the Constitution and the courts in movements for African American and women's rights.

Audio and video options are available.

Julie Novkov, Associate Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at the University of Albany, SUNY, provides an overview of 230 years of struggles for equality, focusing on the role of the Constitution and the courts in movements for African American and women's rights.

Audio and video options are available.

Eric Arnesen, Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Chicago addresses the interplay between the African-American experience between Reconstruction and the Great Migration, the U.S. Constitution, and shifting democratic ideals.

Video and audio options are available.

John Lloyd of California State Polytechnic University looks at the transition of the ideological and political conflicts that led to the Civil War and that continued during the war from conflict over the maintenance of the Union to conflict over the existence and continuation of slavery.

John Lloyd of California State Polytechnic University looks at the political and ideological conflicts between the North and South that led up to the Civil War, including the extension of slavery into the territories and debate over the Fugitive Slave Law.

This podcast from the Milwaukee Public Museum describes the life of an early African-American family in 1800s Milwaukee.

To listen to this lecture, scroll to "The Sully Watson House" under "2007 Milwaukee Digital Media Conference," and select "Download File."

Mark Grimsley of Ohio State University discusses the soldiers who fought in the Civil War from a social history perspective, looking at who they were, where they came from, and why they fought. He looks particularly at African-American experiences and participation in the war, at conscription, and at the manipulation and suppression of aspects of the war's social impact and breadth.

Michael Johnson of Johns Hopkins University discusses slavery from an educator's perspective, looking particularly at his own techniques for teaching the subject. He examines the topic from a broad view, establishing context for his later discussion of Frederick Douglass. This lecture was delivered as part of "America in the Civil War Era: A History Institute for Teachers," held May 17-18 at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI, sponsored by the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Wachman Center and by the Clausen Center for World Business, Carthage College and Adult Education, Carthage College.

Audio and video options are available.

This podcast describes the signature exhibit at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, which covers the entire Civil War and some of the war's most famous artifacts, including Robert E. Lee's camp gear and JEB Stuart's plumed hat.