You have each had a chance to mingle and learn a little about historical figures who fought for change over multiple centuries of U.S. history. Now is the time to pick one of the people you have learned about, and go deeper into who that person was and what they were about. You may not be familiar with the historical context of your figure's life, but in your research you will learn. As a class we will eventually get to your time period, and at this point you can step in as teacher with your expert knowledge and presentation. You will also then have prior knowledge to connect our class learning to. If you are interested in someone not in the group we studied, come and talk with me about it and we can see what material exists to support your research. Your research will include primary sources such as letters or speeches they may have written, as well as secondary sources. As you research and learn about this person, you will be attempting to answer the following questions: 1. What significant events in this person's life shaped their social commitment? 2. What did the person want to accomplish or change? 3. What did they accomplish? 4. What methods did this person use to try and effect change? 5. What, if anything, about their life reminds you of something in your own life? Is there anything in their life that you relate to, or that is similar to feelings or experiences you had? 6. What meaning doe this person's life have for you today? 7. Find at least three quotes from the individual that you agree with or you think are somehow significant, and explain why. Your written answers to these questions will be turned-in with your final write-up. Time to begin your research! The links below will help you develop a sense of who "you" are: Voices of a People's History In this first link, you will find a description of a very special project and website, VOICES, inspired by Howard Zinn. VOICES is a non-profit arts, education and social justice organization active throughout the United States. It was founded in 2007 by a group of activists, artists and educators, led by historian Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove, who together edited the book Voices of a People's History of the United States. VOICES came together as a result of enthusiastic audience response to occasional readings from the book Voices, held across the country starting in 2003, and to ongoing requests from readers and audiences for educational material and more performances. The site offers us a engaging way to encounter primary historical sources, and each performance is well-documented. Since 2003, there have been over 60 VOICES performances in 16 different states. The readers are a combination of professional actors and musicians, as well as novices. Under the "Watch" link on the homepage, you can view video clips of many of the performances. See if you can find your historical character in the list of clips featured. Additionally, VOICES has a MySpace page that allows people to comment and network around the material. The site, familiar to many of you I am sure, has additional video clips of the performances, as well as blogs and comments and additional links. This site does not offer much in the way of depth or content, but it is a very powerful tool in letting people respond and have discussion around the topic. You can also become a "friend" of the page, and show your support. Library of Congress : Virtual Programs and Services This database is a valuable collection of documents, historical collections, and exhibits. The Library of Congress is a reliable and well-maintained digital source that is frequently updated. They do an excellent job of creating what is called a webliography, which documents online sources in a subject area. By using the search engine of the site, you can pull up materials on many of the historical figures we are studying, such as Frederic Douglass and Harriet Tubman. There are special pages such as the African American Site that offer a rich variety of information on African American contributions to our history. There is also a special page for American Women, which is a gateway to online learning about women's contributions to history and culture. This is just the tip of a large iceberg; spend some time exploring this great resource. Library of Congress: America's Story from America's Library This site is also published by the credible Library of Congress, and it is targeted toward young adult readers. The page is colorful and the text is simpler to read, so it could be a good starting point to get a basic overview of your figure. Unfortunately, there is not much depth or breadth to this section of the site, but timelines and photos are included. Profiles are provided for nine activists and reformers of varying genders and ethnicities. Infoplease This is another great site to a get a basic overview of reformers and activists in American history. It contains an alphabetical list of over a hundred historical figures with a very brief description of the type of work they did. This is a wonderful place to survey what is out there if you still have not decided on someone to research. Each name is linked to a biographical passage and additional information. The site is part of Infoplease, created by Pearson Education Group. Pearson is a global publishing company of textbooks, so remember to be critical of what you read. This information may be biased. The site is unfortunately host to many commercial advertisements as well, so try and ignore the ads and get what you can that's useful. African-Americans in History The Africans in America Web site is a companion to Africans in America, a six-hour public television series. The Web site chronicles the history of racial slavery in the United States -- from the start of the Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century to the end of the American Civil War in 1865 -- and explores the central paradox that is at the heart of the American story: a democracy that declared all men equal but enslaved and oppressed one people to provide independence and prosperity to another. Africans in America examines the economic and intellectual foundations of slavery in America and the global economy that prospered from it. And it reveals how the presence of African people and their struggle for freedom transformed America. The Web site is based upon years of extensive research undertaken by the PBS television series team, a process which has uncovered and collected diverse and seldom-seen historical documents as well as fascinating and little-told stories. The Web site developers have endeavored to provide this material to our audience in an accessible, structured, and understandable fashion. Based on the typical quality of PBS educational programming, we can consider this site to be a reliable secondary source. The site is structured into four parts, corresponding to the periods covered by the episodes of the companion television series. For each part, there is a Narrative, which relates the history of the period and provides links to specific entries in the Resource Bank. The Resource Bank is a compilation of over 400 items, comprised of People and Events entries (in-depth biographies and historical notes), Historical Documents (annotated visual materials and texts), and Modern Voices (commentaries excerpted from the original interviews with experts who appear on-camera in the television series). The Teacher's Guide provides a context for teachers and students to use the Web and the television series in and out of the classroom. American Women's History This
database
provides access to digital collections of
primary
sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the
history of women in the United States. These diverse collections
range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to
Katrina Thomas's photographs of ethnic weddings
from the late 20th century. You can search the database using subject, states, time periods, and primary source type. It was created by Ken Middleton, a reference libararian at Middle Tennesse State University. He holds a Masters degree in Women's History, and recieved support from his colleagues in creating the site. Because the site is created by a librarian with expertise in the content field it covers, the quality and validity of the site is exceptional. Discovering American Women's History Online Native American History This site from the University of Washington Library contains general history, tribal and regional history, electronic texts, and images. This is a HUGE collection of materials, and they is even representation of Native People in all regions of the country. There are also additional pages on WA state and the Pacific Northwest if you want to research more local resources and history. There are additional links to reputable sites such as the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the New York Public Library. Overall, the quality and reliability of this site is high. University of Washington, Native American History GBLTQ History The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Historical Society (GLBTHS) collects, preserves, and interprets the history of GLBT people and the communities that support them. They sponsor exhibits and programs on an on-going basis based San Francisco, as well as online exhibits. Currently these include: DYKES ON BIKES®: Capturing the Moment: The Photojournalism of Rick Gerharter Council on Religion and the Homosexual Additionally, there is a companion offering of the Passionate Struggle exhibit that is a free audio walking tour of Harvey Milk's Castro. For anyone researching Harvey Milk, this would be a great source to check out. The site is maintained by a professional organization with archivists on staff. The information is comparable to that which you would find in a museum, and is therefore a reliable place for research. Unfortunately, the contributing authors to all the exhibits are not listed. However, the site is created and run by the GLBT community advocating for themselves, and therefore the history presented is done so with integrity. Cesar Chavez The mission of the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, a (501(c)(3)) non-profit charitable organization, is to maximize human potential to improve communities by preserving, promoting and applying the legacy and universal values of civil rights leader Cesar E. Chavez. It started in 1993, and has a professional staff with a site manager. The site is rich with information in various formats, including timelines, audio clips, videos, speeches, and photo galleries. There are also additional resources featured, a calendar of events, and ways for youth to get involved. The staff of this foundation seem committed to spreading the vision and work of Chavez, and the content and site is presented in an organized and professional manner. There is little evidence however of authors citing sources or scholarship, so read what you find with caution and examine what is based on primary sources and what is not. Asian American History This Web site was designed and developed to support the teaching of American History in K-12 schools and colleges and is supported by the Department of History and the College of Education at the University of Houston. The materials on this Web site include a U.S. history textbook; over 400 annotated documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, courtesy of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, supplemented by primary sources on slavery, Mexican American, Asian American, and Native American history, and U.S. political, social, and legal history; succinct essays on the history of film,ethnicity, private life, and technology; multimedia exhibitions; and reference resources that include a database of annotated links, classroom handouts,chronologies, glossaries, an audio archive including speeches and book talks by historians, and a visual archive with hundreds of historical maps and images. The site's Ask the HyperHistorian feature allows users to pose questions to professional historians. The website offers a variety of ways for students and teachers to actually do history. We have created 72 inquiry-based interactive modules that we call eXplorations. Because the website is part of a higher education institution, we can assume that there is high quality scholarship featured in its resources. |