Civil Rights Resource Guide

External Web Sites

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, from PBS

The site includes resources about the civil-rights activist Bayard Rustin.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site

The site consists of the Monroe Elementary School, one of the four segregated elementary schools for African-American children in Topeka, and the adjacent grounds.

The Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925

This compilation of printed texts traces how Southern African Americans experienced and transformed Protestant Christianity into the central institution of community life. It includes The barbarous decision of the United States Supreme Court declaring the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional and disrobing the Colored race of all civil protection : the most cruel and inhuman verdict against a loyal people in the history of the world : also the powerful speeches of Hon. Frederick Douglass and Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, jurist and famous orator. Search this collection, using the phrase "civil rights," to find other items related to civil rights.

Civil Rights Digital Library

The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Civil Rights Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale.

Civil Rights Oral History Interviews provided by Washington State University

This site focuses on Washington state residents with ties to the Civil Rights Movement. Includes an interview with Flip Schulke, who photographed James Meredith’s (University of Mississippi’s first African American student) first day at the University of Mississippi, and other interviews with participants in the movement.

Explore Martin Luther King Jr., from PBS

Celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with this special collection of videos and web-exclusive features from trusted public media partners. Each of the features below is a window into a documentary or program about MLK and his legacy on civil rights and equality in the U.S.

February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four

Companion to a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Independent Lens film about four college students who, in 1960, "began a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in a small city in North Carolina. The act of simply sitting down to order food in a restaurant that refused service to anyone but whites is now widely regarded as one of the pivotal moments in the American Civil Rights Movement." Features biographies, photos, related links, and lesson plans.

Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore

Devoted to "one of the forerunners of the civil rights movement in America," who "did groundbreaking work in Florida [during the 1930s and 40s] in registering African American voters, investigating lynchings and police brutality, and fighting for equal education for blacks and whites." Includes letters from the NAACP organizer, a timeline (1896-1968), teacher's guide, interactive map, comments on Moore's legacy, and investigations of his unsolved murder.

Henry Ford Museum: Rosa Parks Bus

This site includes information about Rosa Parks and the story behind the bus in which she made history.

The King Center

This site provides links to information about Martin Luther King Jr., as well as a complete transcript of the MLK assassination conspiracy trial.

The Legacy of Medgar Evers, from National Public Radio (NPR)

This site for a radio show includes information about the legacy of the 1963 murder of Mississippi civil-rights leader Medgar Evers. The story notes that "once the leader in the number of lynchings in America, today Mississippi leads in the number of elected black officials." Includes audio of the show, Evers speaking, and the "Ballad of Medgar Evers," sung by the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) Freedom Singers. Also includes links to related material.

Looking Back - Brown v. Board of Education, from National Public Radio (NPR)

In a series of stories, NPR explores the high court's decision and its repercussions.

The Malcolm X Project at Columbia University

Since its inception in 2001, the Malcolm X Project at Columbia University has been concerned primarily with gathering and illuminating new research about El Hajj Malik el-Shabazz through two major initiatives: 1) the construction of a robust, web-based, multimedia version of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and 2) the research and development of a biography of Malcolm X written by Dr. Manning Marable, the project’s director.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, from the Seattle Times

The Seattle Times presents an excellent collection of essays, sound clips, and photographs, as well as reflections from people who knew the civil-rights leader.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University

The King Papers Project, initiated by the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, has been developed to host a definitive collection of King's most significant correspondence, sermons, speeches, and unpublished manuscripts.

The Murder of Emmett Till, from PBS

The site includes information about the killing of Emmett Till that mobilized the Civil Rights Movement.

National Museum of American History: Separate Is Not Equal, Brown v. Board of Education

This exhibition commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education judicial case.

Oh Freedom Over Me

Like the 2000 American Radio Works series on which it is based, this site documents the events of the 1964 "Freedom Summer" voter-registration drive in Mississippi. Read or listen to transcripts from the series and interviews with Freedom Summer alumni, or click through the slideshow.

Remembering Jim Crow

This 2001 American Radio Works documentary covers the pre-civil rights Jim Crow South. It is a mix of history, first-person narratives, slideshows, and reference material that draws heavily from "Behind the Veil," the oral history project from Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies.

Reporting Civil Rights

The site presents the reporters and journalism of the American Civil Rights movement. Find writer profiles, a timeline for 1941 through 1973, and "Perspectives on Reporting," which features personal recollections from reporters active in that era. A companion to the two-volume set from the Library of America, Reporting Civil Rights.

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow

The four-part PBS documentary explores the "crushing subordination" for Southern blacks in an exploration of racial segregation from the end of slavery to the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development

The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development was co-founded in February 1987 by Mrs. Rosa Parks and Ms. Elaine Eason Steele, in honor of Raymond Parks (1903 – 1977). It is the living legacy of two individuals who committed their lives to civil and human rights. The site includes a biography, photo gallery, and timeline.

SNCC 1960-1966: Six Years of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

Covers the first six years of the organization's history, presenting its stand and activities on nonviolence, the Vietnam War, white liberalism, feminism, and Black Power. Also find profiles of prominent members John Lewis, Julian Bond, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, Ella Baker, and Stokeley Carmichael, and information on events (sit-ins, Freedom Rides, the Freedom Ballot, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and the 1963 March on Washington). Includes a timeline and sound files.

Teaching With Documents: Beyond the Playing Field - Jackie Robinson, Civil Rights Advocate, from the National Arhives and Records Administration

The National Archives and Records Administration holds numerous records relating to Jackie Robinson, many of which pertain to his period of civil-rights advocacy. Several belonging to that time have been reproduced on the site for educators teaching courses that involve civil-rights events and issues, character education, and effective citizenship skills.

Television News of the Civil Rights Era, 1950-1970, from the University of Virginia

The project aims to collect, digitize, and present television news footage from the period in streaming video format and to make these valuable materials available to scholars, teachers, and students. The project is currently a research work in progress.

Toward Racial Equality: Harper's Weekly Reports on Black America, 1857-1874

Text and Imagery taken from Harper's Weekly dating from 1857-74 on the subjects of the Civil War, slavery, Reconstruction, and culture and society. Some of the information here relates to the later Civil Rights Movement. There is also a link to information about the nineteenth century Ku Klux Klan hearings.

Troy University: Rosa Parks Library and Museum

The site includes information about the life of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement, from the National Park Service

This site includes background information on the civil rights movement plus photographs of important events and more than forty significant historical sites.