A new interactive website created by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and the Kennedy Library Foundation, presents seven key “chapters” in one of the most tumultuous years in civil rights history. Each chapter on 1963: The Struggle for Civil Rights features primary sources that help students dig into the real stuff of history – film footage, documents, photographs, secret audio recordings – that bring this dynamic era to life.
The chapter on the March on Washington presents the planning, implementation, and aftermath of the March. Students can read telegrams from the event’s planners to the White House, listen in on conversations between the planners and President Kennedy, and read letters from the public in support of and against the March.
To foster your students’ understanding of this era, lesson plans on the March and other topics are available in the “For Educators” section of the website.
The website is part of the Kennedy Library’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom this month.
The Library also held a special conference featuring keynote speaker Congressman John Lewis. C-SPAN’s American History TV captured the event, now available for online viewing. (Congressman Lewis’s keynote begins approximately 2 1/2 hours into the program.)
Congratulations on this excellent website. I’m sure this will benefit teachers, students, and the general public for years to come.
Very nice article. For more on The National Archives and the 1963 March and the Civil Rights Era see the following blog posts:
http://blogs.archives.gov/blackhistoryblog/
http://blogs.archives.gov/mediamatters/2013/08/20/making-the-march/