In this archival footage, the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, discusses the issues of desegregation at Central High School in Little Rock. Nine African-American students, known as the Little Rock Nine, were met with protesters when they entered the all-white school.
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NBC's Katie Couric talks with the original Little Rock Nine. In 1957, nine African-American students entered Central High School in Little Rock, AR, hoping to end segregation.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court decision that allowed "separate but equal" conditions for blacks and paved the way for widespread segregation in the south.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes how the production demands of World War I draw blacks and whites from rural areas to factory jobs in the cities. However, along with that migration came racial tension.
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This seminar explores how an economically and politically powerless racial minority wrested dramatic change from a determined and entrenched white majority in the American South. It will examine the changing nature of protest from the 1940s to the 1950s; the roles of Martin Luther King, Jr., local movements, and women; and the relative importance of violence and nonviolence. Participants will discuss how they can use the experiences of schoolchildren, teachers, and students in the crises of the 1950s and 1960s to bring home the realities of the Civil Rights Movement in the classroom. Topics include the Little Rock Nine and their teachers in 1957, students and sit-ins, and the use of schoolchildren in the 1963 Birmingham demonstrations.
NBC's Lester Holt revisits the story of Rosa Parks who was prepared to go to jail and fight for her rights when she was denied a seat on the bus. Within days of her arrest Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called on black citizens to boycott public buses until demands for equal treatment were met.
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This Institute will explore segregated education in Virginia and trace the efforts of African Americans who fought for quality schools in the years before Brown v. Board of Education. It will examine Brown and both efforts to implement and resist the decision in Virginia. Finally, it will look at the legacy of Brown. Participants will interact with historians and educators and will take part in lectures, discussions, and workshops and go on field trips to Farmville and the state capitol. They will work with Virginia Historical Society staff to explore teaching strategies and the Society's resources.
From Bombingham to Selma, Montgomery to Tuskegee, Alabama's people and places left an indelible mark on the world in the 1950s and 1960s. From Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver to the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Alabama citizens have been at the forefront of the crusade to improve African Americans' lot in life in the United States. Selma's citizens began a march in 1965 to protest the killing of one man. This day became known as Bloody Sunday. Now the citizens of Selma have created a people's museum so the world will not forget those tumultuous days and will remember the people's stories. Teachers in this workshop work with noted scholars, converse with living legends, participate in discussion groups, meet foot soldiers of the movement, and travel to key sites of memory dedicated to the preservation of the history of the modern Civil Rights Movement.
This seminar examines legal segregation in the American South from its origin in the 1890s until its demise by the end of the 1960s through the autobiographical writings of the most prominent interpreters of the era, black and white, male and female. Participants will explore the reasons for segregation's rise and fall and its legal, social, and moral aspects.
A project of the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, The March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project preserves the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Milwaukee, WI. In the late 1960s, the open housing movement worked to break down housing restrictions that segregated the city's population. Milwaukee residents of all ages and walks of life supported or opposed this movement.
The site features more than 150 digitized primary sources from the period, including oral histories, letters to organizations, support and hate letters, meeting minutes, Henry Maier's 1967 mayor's log, speeches, press releases, photographs, official reports and research studies, video clips, curriculum and programming from Freedom Schools (alternative schools children could attend during school boycotts), and more. Sources can be searched by keyword and browsed by media type (audio, documents, photos, or video) or collection (materials are divided into 10 collections by relationship to prominent individuals and groups in the movement). Visitors can add sources to "My Favorites" and review them as they browse.
In addition, a downloadable map shows the division of Milwaukee neighborhoods in 1967 and the path of the Aug. 28 open housing march, and a timeline tracks local and national events from 1954 to 1976. A glossary of key terms gives the context for more than 60 acronyms, names, places, and other terms, and a bibliography lists more than 40 primary sources and more than 50 secondary sources.
Teachers may need to do a little extra legwork to contextualize the primary sources, but the collection can bring Civil Rights Movement history home to Wisconsin students, particularly those in Milwaukee and the surrounding area. Teachers nationwide can use the materials to explore the work of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), NAACP Youth Council, and local institutions like Freedom Schools and integration committees.