New Freedom Summer Photos

The Newseum has a new interactive online exhibit in honor of Black History Month.

Brownballed? Desegregation without integration is an invitation to dysfunction

The Black Commentator weighs in.

Civil Rights Veterans Tell Their Own Stories

It's a simple website, but it's rich and frequently updated. Check out the Civil Rights Movement Veterans website.

New in the Media Section: Eyes On the Prize Interview Transcripts

Washington University and Blackside, Inc. have made full transcripts available of several of the interviews from the award-winning series on the Civil Rights Movement. Several of the transcripts relate specifically to Brown v. Board of Education, including interviews with the Elliot family (Briggs v. Elliot) and Judge Constance Baker Motley (the first woman on the Brown v. Board legal team).

You can browse the interviews in one of two ways:
1. go to the sixth box on the Media page of the archive,
2. or follow this direct link.

Freedom School Curriculum

This summer marks the 40th Anniversary of Freedom Summer, the massive voter registration effort that spawned the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and ultimately marked a major turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. The Freedom Schools were an important part of the effort to prepare African Americans to exercise their rights as citizens. Now, Education and Democracy has put the curriculum materials that were used 40 years ago online. Click on the image above to follow the link.

Also, be sure to check out the Robert Moses archive, which has a wealth of material on the historic and contemporary work of the architect of Freedom Summer.

From Jim Crow to Civil Rights

On Findlaw, Elaine Cassel reviews Michael J. Klarman's,From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Search for Equality. (Oxford Univ. Press 2004)

A 1957 conversation between Martin Luther King, Jr. and J.Waites Waring

The Internet Archive has an invaluable 1957 interview on the "New Negro" and the state of Civil Rights with Rev. Martin Luther King and Judge J. Waites Waring, the judge who played a key role in the Briggs v. Elliot case.

The discussion includes reflections on the impact of Brown v. Board of Education. The interviewer is Richard Heffner who is still interviewing notables all these years later.

In retrospect, one of the more compelling moments in the show is when Heffner asks whether the two men think the violent resistance to civil rights will continue. Both men are optimistic -- King even suggests that the violence might die down in a matter of months.

King: "The violence that we are experiencing now is indicative of the...fact that the diehards are realizing that this system is at its dying point, and this is a last-ditch way to hold on to the old order."

Waring:"I think we are going forward. We are going forward inexorably; we've got to win. It's a question of whether we are going to win in the short term or the long term."

You can download the video or watch it as a video stream.

Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. Marks Brown Anniversary With $50 Million for Civil Rights

Investment banker Alphonse Fletcher announced May 17 that his company will donate $50 million to individuals and organizations working to complete the unfinished work of the Civil Rights movement. A committee is being formed to determine how the funds will be distributed. Fletcher, 38,is a prominent investor philanthropist whose firm, Fletcher Asset Management, has met with remarkable success since it was founded in 1991.

How to Sample Commemorative Events Online

Many of the commemorative events of the past week have webcasts that are archived online. If you follow this link,you can browse through an array of Brown-focused websites, listed in shaded boxes of alternating colors. The 15th box, entitled, "50th Anniversary Commemorative Websites," has links that are listed by state. One major event that's worth checking out:

New York: Brown Plus 50: A Renewed Agenda for Social Justice -- this highly acclaimed conference includes a webcast featuring some of the litigants in the original Brown cases. Part of this event was also webcast on Court TV. That broadcast can also be accesed from the Major Media Coverage of the website.. The conference paid tribute to the Hon. Robert L. Carter, who was one of the attorneys who argued the Brown cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of the NAACP. Many of the participants were particularly impressed by Judge Carter's argument that it was time to stop celebrating Brown and start focusing on the solutions to today's obstacles in achieving educational equality.