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.

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