Black history and studies scholar Manning Marable looks at the significance of Malcolm X's work and life to contemporary scholarship and African American identity. Marable focuses on the importance of accurately preserving information and materials on important public figures like Malcolm X and on the dangers of losing and misinterpreting such information.
Black history and studies scholar Manning Marable explores African American perceptions of history and major historical figures, particularly those of the Civil Rights Movement. Marable focuses on how and why African Americans have chosen some figures as representative of Black history and culture—that is, as heroes.
Professor Gerald L. Early discusses cultural observations on Curt Flood, the first player in Major League Baseball to challenge the infamous "reserve clause" which opened the doors to free agency. Early focuses on the significance of sports as a public arena.
Professor Raymond Arsenault discusses the Freedom Rides of 1961, in which participants rode public buses into the South to protest transportation segregation. He focuses on the personal stories of the Freedom Riders.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch discusses the final years of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, focusing on King's attempts to move the Civil Rights Movement into protest of the Vietnam War and King's calls for broader social and economic justice.
Video and audio options are available.
Congressman John Lewis, who at 23 spoke at the 1963 March on Washington as chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, leads a discussion on the planning, implementation, and effect the first March on Washington had on the country. The presentation includes footage of Lewis's 1963 speech at the March.
Hubie Jones, assistant to the Urban Affairs chancellor at the University of Massachusetts, provides an overview of the issue of race, and, in particular, the status of African Americans in Boston over the past 50 years.
Civil Rights Project co-founder and director Gary Orfield and director and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Theodore Shaw examine how researchers and legal advocates can further the aim of advancing civil rights in knowledge and policy. With a look back to the Civil Rights Project's original research agenda and its impact over the past ten years, this discussion considers how research on social equity and civil rights can be successfully extended to include the changing reality of a highly stratified multiracial society with a white minority.
The discussion audio is available as a downloadable mp3 file.
National Archives senior curator Stacey Bredhoff looks at the process involved in compiling the touring National Archives exhibit "Eyewitness," which focuses on eyewitness accounts of events from World War II, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights' Movement's Bloody Sunday March at Selma.
NAACP chairman Julian Bond reviews his experiences as an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement, including helping found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Poverty Law Center. He also talks about the continuing need for social action today, both combating racism and other social issues.
An mp3 version of the lecture audio can be downloaded.