Explore The Civil Rights Era With Google Cultural Institute

February 22, 2016 in Pedagogy

Wouldn't it be great to be able to take your students to any museum in the world to experience our culture first hand? Unfortunately, because of funding and geography constraints, many schools are lucky to stay open, much less fund a trip to even a local museum.

Thanks to Google Cultural Institute, you can now take students on a virtual tour of primary documents, photographs, speeches, videos, and more of historical events and places all over the world — including the civil rights era.

Exhibits include:

These exhibits are full of commentary regarding the original photographs, videos, letters, legislation, and other artifacts of the times.

You can listen to President John F. Kennedy's speech on Civil Rights:

You can view original legislative documents.

Senators Mike Mansfield and Everett Dirksen - Democrat of Montana and Republican of Illinois - have taken President Kennedy's bill, and revised it. Now there are multiple versions. — Senators Mike Mansfield and Everett Dirksen – Democrat of Montana and Republican of Illinois – have taken President Kennedy's bill, and revised it. Now there are multiple versions.

You can see photographs of the people and events of the time.

Members of the Little Rock Nine and Former Governor Faubus at the Eisenhower Presidential Library Civil Rights Conference

This is a wonderful resource for students and teachers. You can also look for other topics to explore here.

Related topics: Edtech Integration, Points of View

About the author

Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.

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Michelle Boyd Waters is the founder of reThink ELA, where she creates research-informed resources that help middle and high school English teachers build stronger communities of readers and writers. After teaching secondary English for 10 years, Michelle has continued working alongside educators and students as a university composition instructor, writing center director, teacher consultant for the Oklahoma Writing Project, and mentor to new teachers. Her work brings together classroom experience, literacy research, and writing center pedagogy to create practical resources that support authentic reading, meaningful writing, and student voice. Through reThink ELA, she helps teachers create classrooms where both students and educators can thrive.