add videos for Simple Justice, etc...
Presidents Kennedy and Johnson:
Extra Credit: John Kennedy - Watch the following clips on JFK and write a minimum 1 page summary relating what you've learned to what we discussed in class.Extra Credit Biography Channel - John F. Kennedy - View the following short video overview on President John F. Kennedy and then go to the Biography website below to learn more about him. Be sure to view all the related pages in the biography section. For extra credit, write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what was discussed in class.
http://www.biography.com/people/john-fitzgerald-kennedy-9362930
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/kennedys/
Extra Credit: President Lyndon Baines Johnson - Watch the following movie on the life and presidency of LBJ on the following site and write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what we discussed in class.
Extra Credit: Johnson's Path to War - A tragedy of LBJ's presidency is that he is not remembered so much for all that he did domestically for Americans (he being one of the presidents who did more more for Americans domestically than almost any other president), but for the escalation of the US in the Vietnam war. Vietnam took away from LBJ's real passion of making the US into a "Great Society" and he was drawn into a conflict in Vietnam over the containment of communism. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned about LBJ's path to the Vietnam war, relating it to what we discussed in class.
Extra Credit: LBJ for Kids - Go to the site and write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned about the presidency and programs of LBJ. Relate what you learned to what we discussed in class. http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/lbjforkids/main.htm
Extra Credit: Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Revisited - Robert Francis Kennedy was U.S. attorney general during his brother John F. Kennedy's presidency (1961–63). As a liberal Democrat, he fought hard against labor racketeering and did much to support civil rights for African Americans. After his brother's death in 1963, he stepped down from attorney general. In 1968, he announced his bid for the presidency. While on the campaign trail, he was assassinated. View the following information (websites and videos) related to the June 5, 1968 assassination of "Bobby" Kennedy. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned about his assassination and related events since then.
RFK Assassination Motive Discussed
RFK's Funeral Ceremony
Brother Edward "Teddy" Kennedy Pays Tribute to Big Brother, RFK - (so heartbreaking!!)
Lawyers for Convicted RFK Assassin Sirhan Sirhan Argue that He Was Hypnotized, April 30, 2012
RFK Assassination Witness Says There Were Two Shooters - click on link below to watch the CNN reports
The African American Civil Rights Movement:
Extra Credit: Civil Rights Overview - Watch the following movies about the civil rights movement and the system of Jim Crow segregation. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what we discussed in class.
KKK, Then and Now...
Extra Credit: Civil Rights Activists - Watch the following movies about Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks and write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what we discussed in class.
Extra Credit: Roads to Memphis - Click on the link below to watch the PBS film "Roads to Memphis". On April 4, 1968, escaped convict James Earl Ray shot and killed Dr. Martin Luther King. This is the fateful narrative of the killer and his prey, set against the seething, turbulent forces in American society at that time. Also view the interactive website. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what we discussed in class. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/memphis/player/
Extra Credit: Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. - Watch the various clips of speeches from MLK ranging in numerous topics. When done, write a minimum 1 page summary of his thoughts and your thoughts on what he is saying.
1. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail":
2. "I have a Dream": Speech from the March on Washington in August 1963. Click on the link below to see the text of the entire speech.
3. "MLK on War/Why I am opposed to the Vietnam War": MLK was staunchly against the Vietnam war and spoke of this often, making President LBJ feel betrayed by the civil rights leader. For King, civil rights, issues of poverty, and the war were all moral issues that needed to be confronted and resolved.
4. "I am a Man" from Sanitation Workers Strike in Memphis, Tennessee April 1968
5. "I Have Been to the Mountaintop" - MLK's 'prophetic' last speech before his death the next day - Click on the link below to see the text of the entire speech.
6. "MLK on Malcolm X" - Malcolm and Martin did not agree on the same strategy for gaining equality. See what MLK has to say about that...
Extra Credit: Freedom Riders: Click on the link below to watch the PBS film "Freedom Riders" which is about the powerful and inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever when from May until November 1961, more than 400 Black and White Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism. Also view the interactive website. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what we discussed in class.
Extra Credit: Malcolm X - Make it Plain: Click on the link below to view the interactive PBS website for the film "Malcolm X: Make it Plain". This site chronicles Malcolm X's remarkable journey from his birth on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, to his assassination at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City on February 21, 1965. His compelling story is told through the memories of people who had close personal and working relationships with him. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what we discussed in class. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/malcolmx/gallery/index.html
Emmett Till
Background on the Story of Emmett Till - In August 1955, a fourteen-year-old black boy whistled at a white woman in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till, a teen from Chicago, didn't understand that he had broken the unwritten laws of the Jim Crow South until three days later, when two white men dragged him from his bed in the dead of night, beat him brutally and then shot him in the head. Although his killers were arrested and charged with murder, they were both acquitted quickly by an all-white, all-male jury. Shortly afterwards, the defendants sold their story, including a detailed account of how they murdered Till, to a journalist. The murder and the trial horrified the nation and the world. Till's death was a spark that helped mobilize the civil rights movement. Three months after his body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, the Montgomery bus boycott began.
Extra Credit: The History of Emmett Till - Watch the following movie that gives a broad overview of the murder of Emmet Till. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what we discussed in class.
Here a link to an article about the 2005 reopening of the case http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2009/07/even_in_death_no_rest_for_14ye.html. Watch the movie and check out the articles. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned.
Extra Credit: The Murder of Emmett Till - Click on the link below to view the interactive PBS website for the film "The Murder of Emmett Till". This site tells the story of the murder of 14 year old Emmett Till. The link will take you to the page that describes how just months after Emmett Till's murder trial, Look magazine published "The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi," in which murderers Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam confessed to the crime explained how they tortured and murdered Emmett. You can also click on the link to read the actual Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what we discussed in class .
- PBS site with resources - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/
- Look Magazine editorial where the murderers describe the details of how they murdered Emmett Till - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/sfeature/sf_look_confession.html
Extra Credit: Fixed to Fail, The Emmett Till Murder Trial -
The FBI responded quickly to the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. On September 6 1955, less than two weeks after the kidnapping and murder, and less than a week after the body was recovered, J. Edgar Hoover wrote to the Attorney General that the case did not merit an investigation because no civil liberties had been violated and no kidnapping had occurred which would cause the FBI to get involved. It took a little less than 50 years for the FBI to open an investigation of the Emmett Till case in 2005. The following movie discussed segregation, the Southern justice system, Brown vs. the Board of Education, Citizen Councils, and earlier killings of blacks in Mississippi that year and how this case was "fixed to fail". Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, related it to what we discussed in class. The following is a link to a related site with further resources. http://www.headcity.com/FixedToFail/emmettTillMurderTrial-2.html
The Psychological Impact of Segregation Dr. Kenneth Clark's Doll Tests
Background on the Kenneth Clark Doll Tests: During the 1940s, psychologists Kenneth Clark and his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark designed a test to study the psychological effects of segregation on black children. In 1950 Kenneth Clark wrote a paper for the White House Mid-Century Conference on Children and Youth summarizing this research and related work that attracted the attention of Robert Carter of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Carter believed that Clark's findings could be effectively used in court to show that segregation damaged the personality development of black children. On Carter's recommendation, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund engaged Clark to provide expert social science testimony in the Briggs, Davis, and Delaware cases. Clark also co-authored a summation of the social science testimony delivered during the trials that was endorsed by thirty-five leading social scientists. The Supreme Court specifically cited Clark's 1950 paper in the Brown decision. In the "doll test," psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark used four plastic, diaper-clad dolls, identical except for color. They showed the dolls to black children between the ages of three and seven and asked them questions to determine racial perception and preference. Almost all of the children readily identified the race of the dolls. However, when asked which they preferred, the majority selected the white doll and attributed positive characteristics to it. The Clarks also gave the children outline drawings of a boy and girl and asked them to color the figures the same color as themselves. Many of the children with dark complexions colored the figures with a white or yellow crayon. The Clarks concluded that "prejudice, discrimination, and segregation" caused black children to develop a sense of inferiority and self-hatred.
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April 2009 - The "Conversation About Race" panel talks about the controversial doll test and how society can begin to correct deep-seated self-esteem problems within the African-American community. See the link below to the related website for the documentary. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24165209/ns/msnbc_tv-documentaries/
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Extra Credit: Civil Rights Activist Viola Liuzzo, White Mother of Five Murdered for her Civil Rights Activism - Viola Liuzzo was a White ecivil rights activist from Michigan and mother of five who belonged to the NAACP at the height of the civil rights movement. Inspired by the efforts of African Americans in the South to obtain the right to vote, she left her home in Detroit to participate in the Selma-to-Montgomery, Alabama march for Black voting rights in 1965. While shuttling marchers in her car, she was shot and killed by one of the Klansmen in a nearby car. She was the only White woman killed in the civil rights movement and her death shocked the world. She marched with Martin Luther King from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest discrimination. Afterwards, Liuzzo and her African American co-worker Leroy Merton drove marchers to the airport. On one trip, they were spotted by four Ku Klux Klansmen who guessed that a White woman and a Black man traveling together were civil rights activists. The Klansmen followed the pair and decided to kill them. After driving alongside Viola's car, one of the men put his arm out of the window and fired his gun, hitting Viola in the head twice, killing her instantly. Leroy was uninjured and was able to get the car under control before it crashed. Leroy survived. The Klansmen were arrested, tried, and acquitted by an all-White Alabama jury. President Johnson ordered them re-tried under federal law, for conspiring to deprive Liuzzo of her civil rights. They were convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Check out the links below to this site that describes the events in more detail - you won't want to miss this one! Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what was discussed in class.http://www.biography.com/people/viola-gregg-liuzzo-370152
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAliuzzo.htm
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1377
Below is a short slide show created by Viola’s daughter, going from her mother in the march to her murder the in 1965 to the election of Barack Obama in 2008, which would have made her mother joyous.
Extra Credit: Civil Rights Activists Receive The 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom - The Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor. It is presented to those who have made important contributions in public and private endeavors for the U.S. The medal was created by President Harry S. Truman to honor civilian service in World War II. For 2010, President Obama awarded the honor to two civil rights workers, amongst others. Read the summaries and watch the clips of the following recipients John Lewis and Sylvia Mendez. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what has been discussed in class.
Recipient: Congressman John Lewis - John Lewis is an American hero and a giant of the Civil Rights Movement. He served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), helped to organize the first lunch-counter sit-in in 1959 at the age of 19, and was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington. In May 1961, he participated in the initial Freedom Ride and in 1964, he helped to coordinate the Mississippi Freedom Project, and, in 1965, he led the Selma-to-Montgomery march to petition for voting rights where marchers were brutally confronted in an incident that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Eight days later, President Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress, condemned the violence in Selma, and called for passage of the Voting Rights Act, which was enacted within months. Lewis, who almost lost his life battling for equal rights during the civil rights era, has since 1987 continued his service to the nation as the U.S. Representative for Georgia. He said, “If you don’t believe there’s been change in this country, I invite you to walk in my shoes.”
Recipient Sylvia Mendez - Sylvia Mendez is a civil rights activist of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. As an eight-year-old, her parents attempted to enroll Mendez in an all-white school in their community, but were denied entry at and were told to go to the school for Mexican children. Her father and other parents sued and prevailed. The Mendez v. Westminster case was a landmark decision in the civil rights movement against segregation. Mendez currently travels around the country giving speeches on the value of a good education. See more below for more on Mendez.
You can watch the entire ceremony and see all the recipients in the White House footage below.
You can watch the entire ceremony and see all the recipients in the White House footage below.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4DIf42GYg0ISkl5LXBzZFpfUUU
Extra Credit: The Brown-eyed, Blue-eyed Discrimination Experiment - The following movie is about an Iowa schoolteacher who, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in 1968, gave her third-grade students a first-hand experience in the meaning of discrimination. This is the story of what she taught the children, and the impact that lesson had on their lives.
Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned. You will find this one interesting! Read more at the following site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/
The Chicano-Latino Civil Rights Movement:
http://racerelations.about.com/od/historyofracerelations/a/BrownandProudTheChicanoMovement.htm
Extra Credit: Chicano! - Below is the introduction for the film series "Chicano" about the Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, also known as El Movimiento, and was an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment. The Chicano Movement encompassed a broad cross section of issues—from restoration of land grants, to farm workers' rights, to enhanced education, to voting and political rights, as well as emerging awareness of collective history. For extra credit, click on the link below. There are four movies available from the series: "Taking Back the Schools", "Quest for homeland", "Fighting for political power", and "Struggle in the fields". You can watch one or all for extra credit points each. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned per movie, relating it to what we have discussed in class.
Link to episode overviews - http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol3/chicano/chicano.html
Series trailer
Extra Credit: A Class Apart - Click on the link below to watch the PBS film "A Class Apart" which is about how a small-town Texas murder emerged into a landmark civil rights case. It is the little-known story of the Mexican American lawyers who took Hernandez v. Texas to the Supreme Court, challenging Jim Crow-style discrimination. Also view the interactive website. Write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what we discussed in class.
Link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4DIf42GYg0IUDBpY29hem5nLUE
Background to Mendez vs. Westminster, Mexican-Americans and Desegregation of California Schools: While Brown v. Board of Education remains much more famous, Mendez v. Westminster School District (1947) was actually the first case in which segregation in education was successfully challenged in federal court. Finally giving Mendez its due, Philippa Strum provides a concise and compelling account of its legal issues and legacy, while retaining its essential human face: that of Mexican Americans unwilling to accept second-class citizenship. In 1945 Gonzalo and FelÃcitas Méndez, California farmers, sent their children off to the local school, only to be told that the youngsters would have to attend a separate facility reserved for Mexican Americans. In response the Méndezes and other aggrieved parents from nearby school districts went to federal court to challenge the segregation. Uniquely, they did not claim racial discrimination, since Mexicans were legally considered white, but rather discrimination based on ancestry and supposed “language deficiency” that denied their children their Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection under the law. Unlike Plessy v Ferguson (1896), which focused on racial discrimination and upheld the constitutionality of segregation based on race in public accommodations under the doctrine of "separate but equal," the plaintiffs in Mendez v. Westminster argued that the students were segregated into separate schools based solely on their national origin.
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In the video segment below, Sylvia Mendez recalls the conditions that triggered the lawsuit and her parents' involvement in the case.
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Asian-American Civil Rights Movement:
Extra Credit: Background to the movement - What exactly was the Asian-American Civil Rights Movement? In the 1960s and ’70s, Asian Americans mobilized for a slew of political causes, including the development of ethnic studies programs in universities, the end of the Vietnam war and reparations for Japanese Americans placed in internment during World War II. For extra credit click on the following website and write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what was discussed in class. http://racerelations.about.com/od/historyofracerelations/a/RevisitingtheYellowPowerMovement.htm
Extra Credit: The Murder and Legacy of Vincent Chin - Vincent Chin was a Chinese American beaten to death in June 1982 in Detroit Michigan by Chrysler plant superintendent Ronald Ebens, with the help of his stepson, Michael Nitz. The murder generated public outrage over the lenient sentencing the two men originally received in a plea bargain, as the attack, which included blows to the head from a baseball bat, possessed many attributes consistent with hate crimes. Many of the layoffs in Detroit's auto industry, including Nitz's in 1979, had been due to the increasing market share of Japanese automakers, leading to allegations that Chinese American Vincent Chin received racially charged comments before his death. The case became a rallying point for the Asian American community, and Ebens and Nitz were put on trial for violating Chin's civil rights. Because the subsequent Federal prosecution was a result of public pressure from a coalition of many Asian ethnic organizations, Vincent Chin's murder is often considered the beginning of a pan-ethnic Asian American movement of the 1980s. For extra credit, watch the following videos and click on the link below and write a minimum 1 page summary about what you learned, relating it to what was discussed in class. http://www.vincentwhofilm.com/timeline/index.php
Extra Credit: Seattle's Asian American Civil Rights Movement - Go the link for the webpage and write a minimum 1 page summary of what you have learned about the topic, relating it to what was discussed in class. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/aa_intro.htm
Extra Credit: A Concise History of Asian American Civil Rights Movement - Click on the link to the pdf which gives a nice broad overview of the Asian American civil rights movement. Write a minimum 1 page summary of what you have learned about the topic, relating it to what was discussed in class.
Extra Credit: Some Asian Americans (Pacific Islanders) Who Have Made a Difference - Click on the link to the site and view some people of Asian American/Pacific Islander heritage who have impacted US history. Write a minimum 1 page summary of what you have learned about the people, relating it to what
was discussed in class http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/asian-american/notables.htm
Extra Credit: Quantum Leap episode, The Color of Truth - Quantum Leaper Sam experiences racism firsthand when he leaps into the body of Jesse Tyler, an elderly black man in Alabama in the pre-Civil Rights era South of 1955. Sam's modern-day racial attitudes cause consternation and unrest among the townsfolk, leading to brutal consequences. And, while Sam's true mission is to save the life of his elderly white employer Ms. Trafford, Sam also believes he has been sent to initiate the cause of civil rights in the town. For extra credit, click on the link to watch the episode and write a minimum 1 page summary of what you have learned , relating it to what was discussed in class.
Link to episode - http://www.hulu.com/watch/63210