This website is a detailed look at the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 19551956 as covered in the Montgomery Advertiser. It includes more than 20 oral histories, more than 40 archival news stories, and more than 20 images of the event. A 3,000-word overview section provides details regarding the boycott, the people involved, why it occurred, and the outcome. A biography section includes more details regarding the individuals involved with the boycott. A memorial page for Rosa Parks, one of the most visible figures of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, includes photos, videos, and news articles from the Montgomery Advertiser regarding her death. "Voices of the Boycott" includes oral histories from the participants of the boycott.
The site also includes an archive of stories from the Montgomery Advertiser and the Associated Press regarding the boycott. This includes front page stories, as well as smaller news stories from within the newspaper. Finally a photo gallery contains booking photos, images of speeches, and photos of the events. None of the images in the gallery are graphic in nature.
Though the site is very user-friendly and all information easily accessible, it is somewhat limited in its focus on primary sources directly tied to the Montgomery Advertiser. Still, this website could potentially be useful for educators and students looking to supplement their studies on the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, especially due to the inclusion of the oral histories.
From the Library of Congress:
"The works of photographer Leonard Freed, specifically the photo essay "This Is the Day" about the 1963 March on Washington, is the subject of a lecture and discussion."
From the Smithsonian Institution:
"From its beginnings in the years immediately following the American Civil War, the campaign aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring their voting rights inspired visual documentation and creative representations of its struggles and achievements. This presentation traces these image-based responses to the “Long” Civil Rights Movement, focusing on the evidentiary, fine art, and propagandistic ways in which graphic artists, painters, sculptors, photographers, and architects in the United States acknowledged this social and political crusade, and gave “The Movement” significant artistic form."
From the Smithsonian Institution:
"The National Museum of American History’s civil rights collections grew out of the political turmoil of the 1960s that engulfed the nation’s capital and the country. Some material was collected by curators, several of whom were personally active in local civil rights organizations, and other items were literally left behind on the Smithsonian’s doorsteps. The collection today includes items ranging from 19th century abolitionists broadsides to contemporary protest signs. This presentation will explore how this collection was first formed, look at some of the most significant items in the collection, and discuss what new directions the museum is considering."
From the Smithsonian Institution:
"Smithsonian American Art Museum Chief Curator Virginia Mecklenburg discusses her curatorial perspective on the vision and creativity of African American artists and the various ways these artists have expressed notions of Civil Rights from protest to identity and representation to community."
From the Smithsonian Institution:
"Curator Paul Gardullo and museum educator Anna Forgerson will explore the historical and cultural context of the Civil Rights Movement along with teaching strategies to utilize this information in the classroom. Using artworks selected by conference participants from the Oh Freedom! website, Gardullo and Forgerson will focus on ways to construct meaning through thoughtful, object-based methods in order to begin to understand how the Movement connects to the larger American experience."
From the Smithsonian Institution:
"Join Dr. Elizabeth K. Eder from the online conference project team to explore Oh Freedom!, a new Smithsonian website that uses artwork, music, oral histories, objects, and primary source documents to teach about the Civil Rights movement. Learn how to use the interactive timeline, create and share lessons correlated to national standards, collect images for your classroom, and more."
Milwaukee, WI, has an important civil rights history that not many people know about. In the 1960s, battles raged here over open housing and school desegregation, and teens led much of the movement. Decades later, we still suffer from racial and economic segregation, but how many of our students can explain why? And what would it mean to them to find out that in 1960s Milwaukee, youth protested such inequality?
In 2010, a project team of archivists, digital librarians, students, and historians launched the March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project, an archive of primary sources and contextual materials. But how could we use this resource to help youth learn about their city’s past and feel invested in their communities? This question led to an unlikely partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee History and Archives Departments; an arts education nonprofit, Arts@Large; and a class of high school students with one very dedicated teacher. I say unlikely for two reasons. First, not everyone would combine social studies curriculum with the arts. Second, digital archives are valued for their accessibility, and instead of scaling our efforts up to reach the widest audience, we went the other way and decided to work closely with a dozen students from a school for at risk youth.
The goal of the project was for students to research, design, and build an exhibition on Milwaukee civil rights history. The students had little background in primary source materials, were not terribly fond of history, and knew nothing about museum studies. We started by bringing the students to the university campus and teaching them how to use primary sources. We directed them to certain sources but we also gave them time to explore the text documents, oral history interviews, film footage, and photographs in the collection. Over time it became clear to the students that the research was necessary for the more personally meaningful parts of the project to occur.
The students then worked very closely with museum educator Linda D’Acquisto, author of Learning on Display. She taught them to think in terms of big questions and ideas that could translate into visual displays. Their teacher, Kelly DiGiacinto, pulled in other resources, including local museums, and the students began to ask if they could interview some of the former activists themselves. It was at this point that the students started taking ownership of the project. Listening to recorded oral history was no longer enough; they wanted to take on the role of historian and start asking their own questions. By the time some of the local activists visited the classroom, the students thought of them more as rock stars than relics.
The students titled their exhibition "March to Equality." In addition to the humanities-based research and the construction of the exhibits, they also wrote poetry, created collage, and gave performances that included freedom songs, marching, and skits. The students wanted to make sure that their research showed, so they created QR codes leading viewers back to the primary sources on the archive website. During the exhibition opening, the kids stationed themselves at each of the displays and acted as docents for visitors.
Because the students became so deeply invested in the project, they now see their city in a different way. A social studies teacher who visited the exhibit said, "The passion and knowledge that the students . . . showed was truly amazing. I was also impressed by their poise and delivery of the information which connects to language arts standards.” The teacher goes on, “The student who was my tour guide said that this experience ‘gave her pride for the city she lived in and showed her that there are people fighting for what is right instead of just the horrible, negative things you see on the news.’ I thought she captured the success of the project in those words . . ."
To watch the students grow over the course of the project has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my career. They not only learned about local civil rights history through primary sources and oral histories, they have taken ownership of that history. They now see themselves as Milwaukee's new leaders. And they have not stopped. In December, they just finished leading a series of Milwaukee civil rights bus tours.
Explore the March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project's resources for yourself in Website Reviews.
How did segregation affect your local area? Professor Anthony Pellegrino dug deep into the history of a segregated school he passed every day. Turn to your local museums and historical societies to make your own discoveries!
Don't have the time or resources to help your students create a physical exhibit? Try online tools like Museum Box, and guide students through curating digital exhibits.
ARC offers more than 78,000 digital government resources. Materials include textual records, photographs, maps, architectural drawings, artifacts, sound recordings, and motion pictures dating from the colonial period to the recent past. ARC includes items on presidents, the military, war, immigration, Japanese-American internment, slavery, science, prisons, federal programs, the environment, the National Park Service, foreign affairs, civil rights, African Americans, and American Indians.
To begin a search, click on the yellow "search" button near the top left of the ARC webpage. The search engine is clearly organized and invites queries on specific historical materials or general themes. To access digitized materials only, check the box marked "Descriptions of Archival Materials linked to digital copies." The site continues to expand, though, as it stands, it provides an exceptional collection of government material.
The summer of 2011 offers moviegoers several productions based on superheroes and comic books. Thor. X-Men: First Class. Green Lantern. Captain America: The First Avenger. Cowboys & Aliens. Hollywood has discovered that comic book movies are more than a passing fad, resonating with audiences who connect with the humanity behind the costumes. As a result, comic book-based films have grown over the last decade—both in production and ticket sales— with many more movies to be released over the next few years (The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-man, Iron Man 3, and The Avengers to name a few.)
Teachers can use the popularity of superhero films to expand students' understanding of American culture. University of Idaho professor of history Katherine Aiken explored the use of comic books to teach U.S. history in a recent essay published by the Organization of American Historians' Magazine of History (Vol.24, no.2-April 2010). Aiken concluded that because comic books reflect larger social issues in U.S. society, they can help students examine how U.S. artists addressed issues of race, gender, nationalism, and conflict in popular publications.
Some educational publishers, for their part, have produced illustrated history stories and graphic novels to capture younger readers' attention, such as tales from the Revolutionary War. While history-based graphic novels are a useful supplement to course materials, studying comic books provides a different focus in the classroom. Analyzing U.S. popular culture can help teachers and students contextualize the origins of comic books, explore how events in history shaped the evolution of this medium, and assess the ability of comics to address larger social concerns.
A few approaches for connecting comic books to U.S. history include:
Comic books, therefore, can help diversify the teaching of American history and allows teachers to address important issues in a novel yet useful way. However, educators should take caution. Over the last few decades, comic books have shifted to a more mature audience and as a result the depiction of violence has become more graphic. Similarly, educators should be mindful of issues or artists that oversexualize characters.
As is the case with any material to be used in the U.S. history classroom, comic books should be previewed beforehand. Educators, however, can find plenty of "classroom-friendly" comics online or at a local comic book store. For example, the Pulitzer Prize-winning comic, Maus, commonly found at most school libraries, is a different take on Nazism and the Holocaust. Comic book companies have also increased their number of "kid-friendly" titles, easily found at bookstores like Barnes & Nobles and department stores such as Target. Finally, the first Saturday in May is "Free Comic Book Day" each year—a good chance to explore several titles at a local comic book store.
A final note:
Interdisciplinary approaches to using comic books in the classroom are also helpful for the history teacher. Art educators often argue that reading and making comics encourages students to become more skilled at critically examining texts—full of complex concepts and human relations. Students and teachers can use comics to bridge the gap between personal experiences and history, examine the connection between comics and social groups (such as the "art world" and ethnic groups,) and to deconstruct the medium in order to gain a better sense of what issues affected society. The marriage of visuals and text also helps reach reluctant readers and bring the classroom teacher closer to youth culture. Similarly, language arts specialists find that engagement enhances reading fluency— even in the elementary years. Low-level readers, in various studies, demonstrate greater engagement with visual texts like comic books.
History teachers can benefit from collaborative uses of comic books across disciplines. Either by working with a language arts or art teacher, or adapting diverse approaches to visual literacy in the history classroom, the use of comic books is helpful for working with others. Students will also find similar collaborative benefits in outside research and work. Whether they develop digital timelines using tools like Dipity or generate a Google Map to assess the geographic connections of comic book characters to U.S. history, digital tools are ideal for collaborations inside and outside the classroom. (Note: The Dipity and Google Map links show examples of how to use American comic books to teach U.S. History.)
Teacher James Carter offers a basic primer on how to help students create their own comic books, as well as a lesson plan that can be adapted to history content.
Comics in the Classroom offers some ideas on how to incorporate comic into social studies and how to develop lesson plans.