Harlem 1900-1940: An African American Community

Harlem 1900-1940: An African American Community is an online exhibit created and produced in 1991 by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library. Focusing on Harlem from 1900-1940 the exhibit contains graphic and photographic images from the Schomburg Center collection. Subjects include the Schomburg Center itself, political movements, education, sports, social organizations, religion, the Harlem Hospital, theater, business and music. The exhibit also highlights the life and times of a number of individuals including Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, among others. This site is useful for those interested in the Harlem Renaissance. It contains a wealth of information and hyperlinks to various individuals, organizations, and events. The exhibit also includes a section dedicated for teachers with a bibliography for young readers and curriculum ideas.

Greensboro Sit-Ins: Launch of a Civil Rights Movement

This interactive project is dedicated to the Greensboro Sit-Ins. Originally created in 1998 and updated in 2004 the site provides a wealth of primary sources for those looking to research the sit-ins. With nearly one hundred audio recordings with sit-in participants the site contains video clips and a photo gallery. The section on the media provides newspaper articles from the 1960s about the sit-ins. The news stories are primarily from the News & Record, which chronicled the participants' reactions as they walked from East Market Street to the store where they sat without service the first day and many other days. This website is unique in that the viewer can hear the participants tell the stories themselves. The site also contains a timeline, resources available on the sit-ins at the Greensboro Public Library, an electronic bulletin board, where visitors can write what they think or remember about the sit-ins, and links to other civil rights and black history sites.

Bobby Seale

BobbySeale.com is a website created by one of the original founders of the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale. Most of the site is dedicated to Seale’s various projects including books, films, and speaking engagements. However, the site also provides a photo tour of the Black Panther Party. Included in the tour are many famous photos of various Panthers and events in Panther history with captions explaining their significance. The site also contains an archive of Panther newspapers and posters along with a section dedicated to the women of the Black Panther Party. Not only does this site provide primary documents, photos, and a history of the Panthers, but the site itself is a primary document. Since it is created by Seale, a co-founder of the Party, it provides an invaluable resource for those researching the history of the Black Panther Party.

The Sojourner Truth Institute of Battle Creek

The Sojourner Truth Institute of Battle Creek was established as part of the Battle Creek Community Foundation in 1998 to shed light on the history of Sojourner Truth and her work. Using this site as a tool, the Battle Creek Foundation's goals are to educate and promote projects that represent the ideals and principles Truth stood for. The Institute is located in North Washington and houses one of the most extensive archives of Sojourner Truth artifacts and records in the United States. The site contains numerous photos, an in-depth timeline, library and bibliographies, archives section, virtual art gallery, and instructional aides for teachers. For those looking to incorporate the story of Sojourner Truth into their teaching curriculum of United States history this site is a good place to start.

Seattle Black Panther Party

History and Memory Project

The Seattle Black Panther Party History and Memory Project is part of the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project based at the University of Washington. This site contains the most extensive collection of materials dedicated to the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party and offers a different perspective than the archives and exhibits, which focus on the Party as a whole.By discussing only on the Seattle chapter, the project sheds light on African American history at the local level. Those interested in history specifically regarding the city of Seattle and the Black Power Movement would benefit greatly from this site. The archive includes oral histories (audio and video), photographs, documents, Black Panther Party publications, over one hundred newspaper articles, and the complete transcript and exhibits from the 1970 Congressional Hearings into the activities of the Chapter.

Voices of Civil Rights

Voices of Civil Rights started in 1994 as a joint venture of AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), and the Library of Congress. This site is part of a larger project called the Voices of Civil Rights National Bus Tour. A team of journalists traveled around the country (70 days, 39 cities) collecting civil rights oral histories from August to October 2004. Voices includes photos, video, and blogs from the journalists. Thousands of personal stories and oral histories of the Civil Rights Movement are available for research. The creators of the project explain that it is the world's largest archive of personal accounts of civil rights history and the entire collection will eventually be held at the Library of Congress. Other features of the site are an online archive of the oral histories, music video, photo gallery, and a timeline of the civil rights movement. Adding an interactive map, journals, and recordings, this site provides a new way to look at the civil rights movement and oral histories.

The Malcolm X Project

The Malcolm X Project was created in 2001 by Dr. Manning Marable and the Institute of African-American Studies at Columbia University. For those interested in the life of Malcolm X the website includes a multimedia version of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The Project presents The Autobiography text online with hyperlinks, audio, video, and images throughout. The website also includes an oral history section, which provides interviews with those who personally knew Malcolm X as well as historians of the period. The chronology section offers an in-depth timeline, which includes photos and summaries of various events throughout Malcolm X’s life. The section dedicated to the Government provides the user with several Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) documents. There is also a journal, published articles, and section where the user can hear, through audio, Malcolm's speaches and interviews. Clearly this site and project are a work in progress. However, Marable is perhaps the leading historian on the life of Malcolm X, so for those interested in Malcolm X specficially regarding new and fresh perspectives on his life this website may be of value.