60 items
A young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Read by Rory O'Maley , who is King George in the North American Tour of Hamilton. Published in 1990 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Order The Wall at the Gilder Lehrman...
Inside the Vault: The March on Washington
On August 28, 1963, 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The event was covered by approximately 3,000 members of the press. The documents discussed illustrate the...
Inside the Vault: Robert F. Kennedy's Report on Civil Rights
At the end of 1962, President John F. Kennedy asked his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, to compile a report on the civil rights enforcement activities of the Justice Department over the previous year. In this report,...
African American Voting Rights
African American Voting Rights from The Gilder Lehrman Institute on Vimeo .
Marc J. Selverstone - "The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam"
Marc J. Selverstone, an associate professor in Presidential Studies, heads the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where he edits the secret White House tapes of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B....
Ken Burns - "Our America: A Photographic History"
Ken Burns, the producer and director of numerous film series, including The Roosevelts: An Intimate History and Country Music , founded his own documentary film company, Florentine Films, in 1976. His landmark film, The Civil War ,...
The Right to Vote, Part 4: The Civil Rights Era to the 2000s
The Right to Vote: Part 4 The Civil Rights Era to the 2000s
How has access to the vote expanded and contracted over the past sixty years? Scroll through to view the exhibition (above). Recorded readings of select components...
The Battle to Expand Access to the Ballot from 1920 to 2000
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> Access this essay as a PDF , including key vocabulary terms and discussion questions, or read the text of the essay below. State and local governments have primary responsibility for setting the...
Beverly Gage - "G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century"
Beverly Gage is a professor of twentieth-century American history at Yale and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Order G-Man at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided....
Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Gwendolyn Mink - "Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress"
Judy Tzu-Chun Wu is a professor of history and Asian American studies at the University of California, Irvine. Gwendolyn Mink is the daughter of the late Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink of Hawaii. Order Fierce and Fearless at the...
Inside the Vault: Twentieth-Century Voting Rights
On August 3, 2023, our curators were joined by Dr. Barbara Perry, Gerald L. Baliles Professor and director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, to discuss materials related to twentieth-century...
Jonathan Eig - "King, A Life"
Jonathan Eig is a best-selling author. Order King, A Life at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting our programs!
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Free Speech in US History, 1917-1988
Click here to download the middle school lesson unit. Click here to download the high school lesson unit.
Infographic: The Vietnam War Military Statistics
Download Infographic as PDF Questions for Discussion In what year were the greatest number of US service members stationed in Vietnam? In what year were there the greatest number of US battle deaths in Vietnam? How many...
Fredrik Logevall - "JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956"
Fredrik Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and a professor of history at Harvard University. Order JFK at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an...
Inside the Vault: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
On the November 4, 2021, Inside the Vault , our curators are joined by Dr. Barbara Perry, the Gerald L. Baliles Professor and director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and Gilder Lehrman Master...
Jeff Nussbaum - "Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History"
Jeff Nussbaum is a speechwriter and adjunct professor of public communications at American University. Order Undelivered at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided...
Eric Foner, Kathleen DuVal, and Lisa McGirr - "Give Me Liberty! An American History"
Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University. Kathleen DuVal is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lisa McGirr is a Charles Warren Professor of American...
Inside the Vault: Dwight D. Eisenhower's Views on Vietnam in 1967 and 1968
On October 6, 2022, our curators discussed documents pertaining to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s views on Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. They were joined by Professor Michael J. Birkner of Gettysburg College, who described Eisenhower’s evolving...
Inside the Vault: "Meanwhile Back at the Branch..."
On November 3, 2022, our curators were joined by Barbara Harris Combs of Kennesaw State University. Professor Combs discussed the NAACP pamphlet Meanwhile Back at the Branch... and the many ways in which civil rights activists worked...
Steven A. Steinbach and Maeva Marcus - "With Liberty and Justice for All? The Constitution in the Classroom"
Steven A. Steinbach teaches US history and government at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC and Maeva Marcus is a professor of law at George Washington University. Order With Liberty and Justice for All? at the Gilder...
Tomiko Brown-Nagin - "Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality"
Tomiko Brown-Nagin is dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Daniel P. S. Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, and professor of history in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Order Civil Rights Queen at the...
James Traub - "True Believer: Hubert Humphrey's Quest for a More Just America"
James Traub is a historian, journalist, and scholar. Order True Believer at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting our programs!
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Race and Renaissance: African Americans in Pittsburgh Since World War II
Professor of History and Social Justice and Department Head, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Trotter talks about his recent book, Race and Renaissance: African Americans in Pittsburgh Since World War II .
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The Origins of the Cold War
The Cold War was more than the product of post-World War II tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union argues John Lewis Gaddis, Robert A. Lovett Professor of History at Yale University. Rather, it was the product of...
The March on Washington: A Virtual Tour
Join Dr. Clayborne Carson, Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, for a virtual tour of the 1963 March on Washington.
"Let the Word Go Forth": Symbols and Images in JFK’s Inaugural Address
University of Virginia historian Barbara Perry describes John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, including background information on the President’s life and family, the writing of the speech, and major accomplishments of his...
The United Nations and the international community, 1967
In this 1967 letter, Dr. Israel Goldstein, a prominent American rabbi and Zionist, comments on the United Nations as a peacekeeping organization. After World War II, Goldstein, with other rabbis, had lobbied members of the newly...
Guided Readings: Major Social Issues of the 1960s
Reading 1: Civil Rights The separate but equal doctrine has failed in three important respects. First it is inconsistent with the fundamental equalitarianism of the American way of life in that it marks groups with the brand of...
Guided Readings: American Foreign Policy in the 1970s
Reading 1 Why are we in South Vietnam? We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954 every American President has offered support to the people of South Vietnam. . . . We have made a national pledge to help South Vietnam...
Infographic: The Civil Rights Revolution: Interpreting Statistics
African American Voter Registrations Questions to Think About What difference did the Voting Rights Act make in black voter participation in the states that had been part of the Confederacy? In which states was the impact greatest?
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Study Aid: Great Society Legislation
President Lyndon Johnson announced his Great Society program during his State of the Union address in 1964. He outlined a series of domestic programs that he promised would eliminate poverty and inequality in the United States. By the...
Martin Luther King Jr.: His Legacy as Seen Through the Mississippi Summer Freedom Project
Background Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 21, is celebrated by Americans each year to remember and recognize the life and work of the man. Martin Luther King Jr., however, represents far more than the contributions of a single...
Securing the Right to Vote: The Selma-to-Montgomery Story
Essential Question What conditions created the need for a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, and what did that march achieve? Background Throughout American history, African Americans have struggled to gain...
The Promise of Democracy
Source JFK’s Radio and Television Report to the American People on Civil Rights, June 11, 1963 , John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (full text and audio available) Background Information This document will be used to...
First Day of Integration at Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas
Sources Students Entering School Building , National Park Service Book: Daisy Bates, The Long Shadow of Little Rock (1962), or online at Civil Rights Teaching Background Information On the first day of integration at Central High...
Evaluating Lyndon B. Johnson’s Character and Efforts during the Civil Rights Era
Background Information In 1969 Thomas Baker conducted an interview with Roy Wilkins, executive directory of the NAACP, based on Wilkins’s experiences with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. This abridged version of the...
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