Civil Rights Movement Archive
Teacher Recommendations
Here are recommendations by teachers in the 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Teacher Institute The Civil Rights Movement: Grassroots Perspectives from 1940-1980 for the Civil Rights Movement Archives website.
Ben Phillis
high school social studies teacher
New York, New York
When it comes to locating primary sources or largely forgotten stories about the Civil Rights Movement, the website Civil Rights Movement Archives is undoubtedly one of the best resources available. Including pictures, events, documents, and people, Civil Rights Movement Archive is essential to proper research and teaching of the movement at the secondary level. I am so grateful to the Civil Rights Movement Archive for compiling emotionally moving and intellectually stimulating content to make an in-depth teaching of the movement easier.
Raymond Brookter
media specialist
Laurel, Mississippi
I stumbled across this site a few years ago in doing research on voting in Mississippi, and have used it for students seeking out primary sources for research papers, teachers seeking out materials to increase strategies for teaching concepts of justice, equality, and freedom, and for a local community linking its past progress with future activism. The archival material is rich in its detail and for both the novice researcher and the seasoned writer what can be found within the links provides one "aha" moment after another.
Yeshi Gusfield
high school U.S. history teacher
San Francisco, California
This website database is a goldmine of primary source documents, movement history from a detailed grassroots perspective, and links to other great teaching resources. I used it to successfully find 2 great sources for a lesson I was planning on the Freedom Summer. The first was the exact document I was looking for - a speech by Vincent Harding to a mostly white audience of volunteers at the orientation at the beginning of the project. The second, I found just poking around, provided a brief overview of the organization's goals and values that provided the perfect intro to the lesson. The website is organized in a variety of ways that can allow you to find something really specific or just explore. I will definitely be sending students to this site for their own independent research needs.
Jordan Dietrich
high school social studies teacher
Elk Grove, California
Civil Rights Movement Archive is a teacher’s rabbit hole dreams! Any document or picture I need for a lesson or presentation is here. I appreciate that it is easy to navigate and links to additional resources, including Civil Rights Movement Archive’s contact information. The possibilities to bring this rich history to my students is endless.
Tracey Barrett
high school social studies teacher
Durham, NC
The Civil Rights Movement Archive site houses documents that I have not seen or found anywhere else. It is organized chronologically as well as thematically, making it convenient to pull a single document for classroom use or as a resource for my students to use for research.
Bethany Hobbs
high school U.S. history teacher
Brattleboro, Vermont
While developing a case study for my 10th grade U.S. History class, I turned to Civil Rights Movement Archive for information about Anne Braden. But then I found myself staying on the site to peruse the photos, speeches, and other primary source documentation that is presented in the collection. What an amazing resource!
Lynne Schneider
English and journalism teacher
Jackson, Mississippi
As an English teacher in Mississippi, I have worked hard to include civil rights lesson in my curriculum, which is primarily focused on American literature and its historical context. The Civil Rights Movement Archive website is an amazing source for many primary documents, such as photographs, publications, reports, speeches, letters, and other documents. The site includes countless first-person narratives from Mississippi civil rights movement veterans, as well. It is a comprehensive resource that I have just begun to tap and I am excited to continue expanding my curriculum and my own knowledge by utilizing this website.