Students will analyze historical and contemporary primary sources to examine how citizens persevered to overcome injustice and affect change during the 1960s civil rights era and consider the lessons the first March to Selma in 1965 provides for us today. Enduring understanding: Time, place, and culture influence our perspectives on people and issues. Essential question: How can we strive to overcome injustice? Lesson materials We Shall Overcome sheet music (curator note) … [Read more...]
Collection Spotlight: Civil Rights History Project
May 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Civil Rights History Project collection is a direct result of the 2009 Civil Rights History Project Act. This law mandated the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to conduct a survey of existing civil rights oral-history collections and enhance these collections by recording new interviews with people who contributed to the movement. This collection features new oral histories focused on the recollections of previously … [Read more...]
Primary Source Learning: Protest & Reform Primary Source Set
January 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about protest and reform in the United States. (For background information, check the bibliographic records for dates then review the relevant sections of the American Memory timeline.) Related primary source collections highlighted on the TPS-Barat Primary Source Nexus are linked to below. The story may be in digital or print form. It could be nonfiction, fiction, poetry, or even a song. Click on each thumbnail image below to … [Read more...]
Today in History: First March from Selma
March 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Today in History–March 7–the Library of Congress features the first civil rights march from Selma, Alabama to the state capital in Montgomery, which was led on this day in 1965. Unfortunately, the marchers, which numbered about 600, had scarcely left Selma when they were were brutally assaulted by heavily armed state troopers and deputies. The ugly incident garnered national attention and just two weeks later marchers regrouped and marched under protection of the National Guard. On March 25, … [Read more...]
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