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Additional resources for this issue of History Now
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General Resources
Because all of the essays in this issue deal
with only a few decades of one of the most remarkable
popular movements in the United States, many of the
same resources (print, audio, video, and electronic),
will serve several topics.
I'll begin with the most wide-ranging suggestions.
This remains your best starting point for a survey of
African-American history:
Franklin, John Hope, and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. From
Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans.
New York: A.A Knopf, 2000. 8th edition of this path
breaking standard work.
And this comes in handy for any events of the 1960s:
Farber, David, and Beth Bailey, eds. The Columbia
Guide To America in The 1960s. New York: Columbia
University Press, 2001.
The University of Virginia Library's Special Collections
division has an exceptionally good "civil rights"
section at its "Psychedelic '60s” Website:
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/sixties/civil.html
These are recent surveys of the post-World War II civil
rights movement and its precursors:
Aimin, Zhang. The Origins of African American Civil
Rights Movement, 1865-1956. New York: Routledge,
2002.
Cook, Robert. Sweet Land of Liberty?: The African-American
Struggle for Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century.
London: New York: Longman, 1998.
Fairclough, Adam. Better Day Coming: Blacks and
Equality, 1890-2000. New York: Viking, 2001
Levy, Peter B. The Civil Rights Movement.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998. A survey with
a good bibliography.
Sargent, Frederic O. The Civil Rights Revolution:
Events and Leaders, 1955-1968. Jefferson, N.C.:
McFarland & Co., 2004. Emphasis on biographical
sketches and brief narrative entries.
Verney, Kevern. Black Civil Rights in America.
London: New York: Routledge, 2000. A brief introductory
study.
This collection of essays by one of the most prominent
historians of the civil rights movement should also
be useful:
Lawson, Steven F. Civil Rights Crossroads: Nation,
Community, and the Black Freedom Struggle. Lexington:
University Press of Kentucky, 2003.
Now let me explain why you'll miss seeing some citations
you expect. Twenty years ago, WGBH, Boston's public
television station aired one of the most significant
series you could ask for in the history of the civil
rights movement. If you can get your hands on an old
tape of this, you're lucky:
Eyes On The Prize: America's Civil Rights Years.
WGBH Boston; produced by Blackside Inc. and Corporation
for Public Broadcasting. Alexandria, VA: PBS Video [distributor],
1986. 6 videocassettes.
Following the airing, PBS created some incredibly useful
educational materials for use in conjunction with the
series. Unfortunately, copyright claims and counterclaims
mean that the television series itself hasn't been rebroadcast
in years, and all of the materials once available are
now withdrawn. You may be able to find some of the print
products related to the series that were sold more than
ten years ago, but there are no online materials at
the PBS website nor any new printings of these books:
Carson, Clayborne, ed. The Eyes On The Prize: Civil
Rights Reader. New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Viking,
1991.
Cohen, Steven. Eyes On The Prize: America's Civil
Rights Years, 1954-1965: A Sourcebook. Boston,
MA: Blackside, Inc., 1987.
The "Best of History Websites" listings for
civil rights materials will take you to some great online
sources:
http://www.besthistorysites.net/USHistory_CivilRights.shtml
PBS's "African-American World Website" has
a first-rate timeline for the civil rights movement
with helpful links:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/timeline/civil_01.html
“Wikipedia” provides generally reliable
online entries for individual civil rights leaders and
the specific events of the movement for equality in
the 1950s and 1960s. The main entry for “civil
rights movement,” however, has recently been targeted
by Internet vandals and can’t be used with as
much assurance.
Weisbrot, Robert. Freedom Bound: A History of America's
Civil Rights Movement. New York: W.W. Norton, 1990.
These are helpful in thinking through classroom issues
for teaching the civil rights movement:
Armstrong, Julie, Susan Edwards, Houston Roberson,
and Rhonda Williams, eds. Teaching the American
Civil Rights Movement: Freedom's Bittersweet Song.
New York: Routledge, 2002.
Dunn, Joe P. "Teaching the Civil Rights Era: A
Student-Active Approach." History Teacher,
vol. 38 (2005): 455-468.
Levy, Peter B. "Teaching The 1960s With Primary
Sources." History Teacher, vol. 38 (2004):
9-20. This is geared to college teaching, but it can
be useful for advanced placement classes in 9-12 as
well.
Menkart, Deborah, Alana D. Murray and Jenice L. View,
eds. Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching:
A Resource Guide for K-12 Classrooms. Foreward by Congressman
John Lewis. Washington,. DC: McArdle Printing, 2004.
This innovative guide was published jointly by two non-profit
organizations. As it may be hard to find, you might
want to read, first, this review on H-Net which will
help you evaluate the book for your needs:
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=280311137096463
You can also go to this Web companion to that Guide,
“Civil Rights Teaching.Org”
http://www.civilrightsTeaching.org/
The National Park Service provides an excellent
guide to public sites that commemorate and illuminate
the history of the civil rights struggle in the United
States. Check it for places to visit in your area:
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nR/travel/civilrights/
And this book is an excellent guide to sites in your
own region:
Davis, Townsend. Weary feet, rested souls: a guided
history of the Civil Rights Movement. New York:
W.W. Norton, 1998.
You'll find useful ideas, too, in the resources I provided
a year ago (we've revised and updated them) for Martin
Luther King, Jr., in our "Holidays" issue.
/historynow/06_2005/ask2b.php
If you need photos, use this book:
Kasher, Steven. The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic
History, 1954-68. New York: Abbeville Press, 1996.
For a lively website maintained by some of the men and
women who were active in the civil rights movement of
the 1960s andn 1970s, go to "Civil Rights Movement
Veterans":
http://www.crmvet.org
The Gilder Lehrman Collection has a number of items
from the civil rights movement.
Remarkable letter from Governor George Wallace, 1964,
on race relations in Alabama: GLC00295.
(with image)
“I am a Man” poster: GLC06124
(with an image)
RFK 1963 letter on civil rights to JFK: GLC05630
(with image)
Supplemental brief from the United States Supreme Court
regarding Brown v. Board of Education:
GLC05160
MLK inscription in book: GLC05508.158
MLK speech: GLC07706
Poster day after King’s assassination:
GLC06125
Brief in Brown vs. Board of Ed.,: GLC07726
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