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Brown v. Board of Education: Online Resources

ABA Commission on the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

Websites

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Black/White & Brown
Companion site for the documentary Black/White & Brown: Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka, produced by KTWU (PBS), 2004. Features include resources for teachers, downloadable transcripts of the program and the oral arguments in Brown, and links to other sites.

Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research
This site provides the text of lower court decisions in most of the Brown-related cases, a bibliography of books related to Brown, an orientation handbook to the Brown decision, an online student activity book, and past issues of the Brown Quarterly for classroom teachers.

Brown v. Board of Education: An American Legacy
Special online edition (Spring 2004, Number 25) of Teaching Tolerance magazine, Southern Poverty Law Center. Timeline, interviews, and classroom activities and resources.

Brown at 50: King's Dream or Plessy's Nightmare
A 2004 study by the Harvard University Civil Rights Project on national resegregation trends in American public schools.

BrownMatters.org
A website of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. to commemorate the Brown anniversary, includes a detailed Brown chronology of milestone court cases and other events covering the period from 1933-2003.

Brown v. Board of Education: A Teacher's Resource Guide to Preparing Curriculum Materials, Alonzo N. Smith, National Museum of American History.
Includes extensive annotated bibliography and webography. Will be updated perodically.

Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commission
Website of the 23-member federal commission established by Public Law 107-41 to commemorate the Brown anniversary in 2004. Hosted by the U.S. Department of Education.

Howard University School of Law, "Brown @ 50: Fulfilling the Promise"
Among the resources offered is an online chronology from the sixteenth-century arrival of African slaves on American shores to the 2003 Supreme Court decision in Gratz v. Bollinger.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site
In 1992, Congress established this National Historic Site to commemorate the landmark Brown decision. It consists of the Monroe Elementary School and adjacent grounds in Topeka, Kansas. Administered by the National Park Service. Grand opening on May 17, 2004.

The Civil Rights Era
Part of the African American Odyssey online exhibit from the Library of Congress. Uses primary sources from the Library's collections, including a 1941 memo by Thurgood Marshall on "Saving the Race" and a photograph of NAACP lawyers in front of the Supreme Court following the Brown decision.

Illinois Humanities Council
The Illinois Humanities Council is planning a reenactment of the oral arguments in Brown v. Board for high school teachers and students. It is also planning a year's worth of programming on various aspects of the Brown decision and its legacy. To get on a mailing list for teacher resources prepared by the Council, email your name, address, school affiliation, phone number, and email address to ang@prairie.org. Also visit the Council's website for updates on program plans next year.

Looking Back: Brown v. Board of Education
Companion site to National Public Radio series (December 2003) on Brown. Includes 3-part Nina Totenberg-hosted series on "The Supreme Court Deliberations" leading to Brown and Juan Williams on "Thurgood Marshall and Brown v. Board of Education."

National Register of Historic Places, "We Shall Overcome—Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement"
Featuring 49 historic sites in 21 states (including Illinois) associated with the civil rights movement in the United States, this website provides extensive background on the civil rights movement and essays on the historical significance of each of the featured sites.

National Education Association, Celebrating 50 Years of Brown v. Board of Education
Site provides school integration timeline, lists Brown v. Board of Education classroom and community events taking place each month, and links to resources.

Realize the Dream. Quality Education for All.
This civilrights.org site includes background information about Brown v. Board of Education, as well as a lengthy listing of links to online media, photo galleries, articles, curricula, activities for children, and more.

Separate Is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education
This site by the Smithsonian Natural Museum of American History features sections on history, photos of the exhibit, resources, educational information, a place to post reflections, and more.

University of Arizona, Rogers College of Law: Brown v. Board of Education
This site's features include a timeline of events leading to the Brown decision, case history, ruling, a photo gallery of related images, and a listing of events.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Brown Jubilee Commemoration: An Extended Campus Dialogue
Website includes extensive annotated bibliography of books on Brown for children and young adults.

University of Michigan Library Digital Archive: Brown v. Board of Education
Archive contains documents and images which chronicle events surrounding this historically significant case up to the present. The archive is divided into four main areas of interest: Supreme Court cases; busing and school integration efforts in northern urban areas; school integration in the Ann Arbor Public School District; and recent resegregation trends in American schools. Includes an image gallery, bibliography, and links to related sites.

"What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said: The Nation's Top Legal Experts Rewrite America's Landmark Civil Rights Decision," edited by Yale law professor Jack Balkin (New York University Press, 2001).
Companion website features an interactive civil rights chronology from 1502 to 2000.