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Jim Crow Gateway
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Web sites
Web site Evaluators
Robert W. Dakin - Claremont Middle School, New Hampshire
Melissa J. Marks - Clarion University of Pennsylvania
Barbara Slater Stern - James Madison University, Virginia
Hallie Williamson - Acaciawood School, California
Kent Willmann - Silver Creek High School, Colorado
Web site Reviewer and Compiler
Tori Austin - Education Service Center, Texas
Barbara Slater Stern - James Madison University, Virginia
Site Ratings
| 1 = Poor |
2 = Fair |
3 = Good |
4 = Excellent |
Brown v. Board of Education
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html
This is either a short research paper or a lecture on the Brown v. Board case. It is all text, very informative, all sources are cited with traditional footnotes. You click on the footnote number and it takes you to the footnote source. Students would need to be in 11th or 12th grade and know how to read a footnote page to find the correct source for the citations. There is a "help" area as well as links to other Civil Rights information compiled by the same author. I think if a teacher wanted to "borrow" a canned lecture, this could be easily adapted. I don't think it accounts for bias (there is no biography of the author or the source the Web site links from). The bibliographic resources that are in the reference notes are good, well respected sources.
Overall Rating: 2
Brown v. Board of Education: The Interactive Experience
http://www.digisys.net/users/hootie/brown/
The elementary site is set up as an interactive PowerPoint but the user must go "home" and click the next page to navigate. This is clumsy but works fairly quickly. The information was written on an elementary or middle school level -- certainly not sophisticated enough for a high school course. The audio files downloaded quickly but did not play smoothly and therefore, were useless. They also fell out of context historically. The excerpt from King on the first slide was about 7 years after Brown was settled. This is problematic and oversimplifies things. There should have been links to school issues (as opposed to King's speech which was later and more generalized). In other words, links to Little Rock, or to Virginia's closing of public schools, etc. rather than only to the Civil Rights movement.
Overall Rating: 2
The Ruling
http://www.ghg.net/hollaway/civil/civil31.htm
As part of a larger site on African-American History, this page gives the background for the Brown v. Board of Education case, the outcome of the case, and the "practical workings of the ruling in southern schools." Highlighted is the conflict between President Eisenhower and Governor Flaubus. The site does reflect the opinion of an "avowed Black conservative" and can be utilized to analyze opinions and perspective of a historical event. "A weakness of the site is the absence of primary source documents and research that would support the author's point of view and information."
Overall Rating: 2
The Virtual Scholar: Brown v. Board of Education
http://www.virtualscholar.com/cr/cr1.htm
http://www.virtualscholar.com/cr/cr.htm
This virtual scholar site provides a brief chronicle of events during the 1950s and 1960s related to civil rights. Each account provides an "excellent introduction to the topic." Links to primary source documents such as photographs, quotes, speeches, and Supreme Court cases enhance the accounts and add an element that will strike student interest. The short accounts contain information that is "easy to read and follow with little distraction." This site is appropriate for grades six through twelve.
The lesson plan offers a "walk through the Civil Rights Movement" that is concise and easy to follow. Major events such as Brown v. Board of Education, Freedom Rides, and the March on Washington are listed on the menu bar and enable students to easily "jump back and forth." Also contained in the site are links to biographies of significant individual and prolific personalities of the movement such as Rosa Parks as well as historical letters, diaries, videos, and the text of The 1964 Civil Rights Act. The site is not "flashy", but the content is accurate and easily accessible to high school students.
Overall Rating: 3+
Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/indexes/a.x.html
This site contains curriculum units focused on African-American History created at a Yale University institute. Teachers will have to scroll down the index for African Americans, where they will find many links to curriculum units on various related topics. Much of the content is in "essay form" and is unquestionably a "cornucopia of resources for history teachers." There is a caution given to utilization of some of the essays, as they are "very subjective and lacking in voice and reason of objectivity." Also, there are minor errors in the site "which may indicate the site is not well edited." Teachers could utilize this site for 10th-12th-grade student in courses dealing with the Jim Crow South and civil rights in America.
Overall Rating: 3
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