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Civil Rights Today (full episode)

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Throughout 2015, events across the nation focused attention on concerns in minority communities and racial perceptions in America, resulting in renewed public dialogue about race relations and other issues of social justice. This ongoing dialogue includes not only questions about the policing of black communities, but also educational inequality and the school-to-prison pipeline, the LGBTQ rights movement, immigration reform, and the rebuilding of our communities. Join us for a special youth town hall discussion about race, racism and other issues of equality in the United States in 2016. Answering these important student questions about activism, education, and building a diverse community are a panel of experts including Robert Henderson from POV's documentary All the Difference. This final episode of Project C encourages students to think critically about current issues of equality, to examine, confront and strive to overcome contemporary injustices in their lives and communities. This live interactive webcast is an innovative platform for the presentation of their solutions to these civics-based issues. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

Material Type: Primary Source

Author: PBS

Duke

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This video segment from Weston Woods presents the story of Duke by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney, and is about Duke Ellington, one of the founding fathers of jazz. When Duke Ellington was young, his parents wanted him to learn to play the piano. Although he began lessons, he was soon lured away by his love of baseball. Later, as a teenager he heard the new musical style called "ragtime" and he was inspired once again to learn to play piano. Soon, he created his own style of music using "hops" and "slides" on the piano. He became a popular entertainer with a flair that attracted many fans.

Material Type: Lesson

Author: The WNET Group

The Place, The March, The Movement

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Martin Luther King Jr. was the featured speaker at a March on Frankfort, Kentucky in 1964, where an estimated 10,000 people gathered in a peaceful protest for civil rights. In 2022, researchers Joanna Hay and Le Datta Grimes, Ph.D., recorded interviews with 10 people who participated in that march as teens or young adults. In this video, interviewees reflect on the importance of place, the march and the civil rights movement.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Authors: KET Education, PBS

The Women, The March, The Movement

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Martin Luther King Jr. was the featured speaker at a March on Frankfort in 1964, where an estimated 10,000 people gathered in a peaceful protest for civil rights. In 2022, researchers Joanna Hay and Le Datta Grimes, Ph.D., recorded interviews with 10 people who participated in that march as teens or young adults. This video focuses on the women who played public leadership roles as well as those who worked behind the scenes.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Authors: KET Education, PBS

The Youth, The March, The Movement

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Martin Luther King Jr. was the featured speaker at a March on Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1964, where an estimated 10,000 people gathered in a peaceful protest for civil rights. In 2022, researchers Joanna Hay and Le Datta Grimes, Ph.D., recorded interviews with 10 people who participated in that march as teens or young adults. Interviewees in this video recall their work with the civil rights movement, including sit-ins and their training in nonviolent protest.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Authors: KET Education, PBS

The Music, The March, The Movement

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Martin Luther King Jr. was the featured speaker at a March on Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1964, where an estimated 10,000 people gathered in a peaceful protest for civil rights. In 2022, researchers Joanna Hay and Le Datta Grimes, Ph.D., recorded interviews with 10 people who participated in that march as teens or young adults. Interviewees in this video explain how music brought protesters together and gave them courage.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Authors: KET Education, PBS

Race, Justice, and the Obama Presidency

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Explore why the 2012 shooting of a black student became a pivotal tension point around race and justice during Barack Obama’s presidency, in these videos excerpted from FRONTLINE: Divided States of America. Trayvon Martin’s death at the hands of a neighborhood watch volunteer ignited passions across the nation. America’s first black president grappled with his response. Obama’s initial silence, followed by carefully guarded words, prompted a backlash—and not just from conservative pundits. Many in the black community were traumatized by the incident and by others like it. Following the shooter’s court acquittal the next year, Obama acknowledged his own experiences as a black American. For many, this was the first time in his administration that he openly spoke for black people.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Authors: Frontline, PBS

The Ongoing Fight - The Vote

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Learn how Black women continue to lead the fight for suffrage rights, 100 years after the passage of the 19th Amendment and 55 years after the Voting Rights Act, in this digital video from The Vote | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Use this video when studying the women’s suffrage movement to explore the leadership role of African American women in the long struggle for voting rights and examine historic and contemporary efforts to suppress the African American vote.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Authors: American Experience, PBS

Protests For Racial Justice: A Long History

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This five-minute video introduces students to the findings of the Kerner commission, a panel of experts President Lyndon Johnson convened to make policy recommendations following the protests, violence and disorder that occurred in over 150 cities in 1967. The commission recommended a series of sweeping changes, including reforms in policing tactics and efforts to reduce urban poverty. But Johnson largely ignored the findings of the study. Useful in helping students make connections between the 1960s and today, the video sets up an engaging class discussion on race, poverty and policing. Content Advisory: This video includes footage of police violence. This resource contains additional material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Authors: PBS, RetroReport

A Quick Reference Guide to Teaching Hard History: A K-12 FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHING AMERICAN SLAVERY

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This framework, with the following components, can be used to help supplement current curriculum or to help guide the creation of new curriculum that more honestly and courageously tells the story of American slavery—one that includes the enslavement of both African and Indigenous peoples.

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: Southern Poverty Law Center

What Was "Freedom Summer"?

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This video from American Experience: “Freedom Summer” introduces the events of 1964, when over 700 students, Black and white, came to Mississippi to help Black citizens register to vote as well as combat other forms of discrimination, such as inadequate schools and lack of legal aid. Organized by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), civil rights activists hoped that the participation of well-educated, middle-class students, many from prestigious universities, would not only bring results but draw the attention of the nation to the miserable standard of living suffered by Black people in Mississippi.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Author: American Experience

Freedom Summer: Freedom Schools

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In addition to helping black residents register to vote and establishing the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, education was another important goal of Freedom Summer. Years of substandard and segregated schools and libraries had contributed to high rates of illiteracy (which, in turn, had led to disenfranchisement) and a lack of knowledge about black history and culture. Volunteers teaching in the Freedom Schools found that adults as well as children were eager to learn. The experience gave many black people newfound hope that things were about to change.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Author: American Experience

Freedom Riders Challenge Segregation

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In this video segment adapted from American Experience: "Freedom Riders," watch newsreel footage, archival photos, and interviews to explore how Freedom Riders made efforts to end the segregation of African Americans in the Southern United States. Even after the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that the segregation of black and white riders on interstate buses was unconstitutional, Southern states continued to enforce local segregation laws. In response, members of both races decided to force the issue and challenge illegal segregation by riding together in buses headed to the South.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Author: American Experience

Freedom Riders Create Change

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In this video segment adapted from American Experience: "Freedom Riders," view newsreel footage, archival photos, and interviews to explore how the Freedom Rides of 1961 brought about the end of racial segregation in interstate transportation. The Freedom Riders, aware that their nonviolent protest would elicit violence from some Southerners attempting to enforce local segregation laws, were determined to continue their protest even in the face of possible arrest. A series of events involving the U.S. attorney general, a U.S. senator, the governor of Mississippi, and a federal agency put an end to discriminatory practices in public transportation. This initial, unambiguous victory for the Civil Rights Movement paved the way for further progress.

Material Type: Lesson Plan, Primary Source

Author: American Experience

The History of Voter Suppression

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Explore the history of voter suppression efforts in the U.S., from the Jim Crow era through the post-1965 Voting Rights Act era, in this video clip from Whose Vote Counts | FRONTLINE. Learn about the strategies that were legally implemented in southern states to disenfranchise Black people, the violent backlash that ensued when Black people challenged these policies, and the events that led up to the signing of the epic 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Authors: Frontline, PBS

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