The Sad, Stately Photo Of Nixon's Resignation Lunch : The Salt : NPR
18: Turbulent 1960s
Alexander Butterfield - Nixon; Untold Stories - 2007
It's tough to find a more candid, genuine and unadorned sharing of White House stories than this Alexander Butterfield presentation in 2007. Butterfield was the aide who worked very closely with Nixon in the White House and the source of the testimony that revealed the recording system. This could be used with students, though teachers would be most interested in this.
He Was a Crook: Hunter S. Thompson on Nixon - The Atlantic
Perhaps an energetic teacher could find some way to work this piece or some portion of it into a class or activity, but it is really for teachers when they have the time to immerse themselves in good writing and authentic, American political hatred. It has always had a place in our democracy, but here it is in pure, unadulterated form.
Here are handy excuses for Nixon Backers
Art Buchwald of the Washington Post wrote this column on July 12, 1973, satirizing the common responses of Nixon supporters to Watergate criticism. It surfaced with more popularity in July of 2017, when some noticed how the language here sounds so familiar. This provides another example of how history echoes and rhymes.
1972 Nixon Campaign Internal Memoranda
This 172 pdf document can be skimmed by students to get an idea of how the president's viewed the race against McGovern in 1972. Teachers can direct students to "Ctrl-F" through "abortion", "crime", "experience", "Cold War" (and others). The questions to explore touch upon how reflective this is of the political climate in the early 1970s. More importantly, were these issues important to people, or made important to people through these campaigns?
Nixon before resignation and full speech, August 8, 1974 - YouTube
Moments before he goes on-air to resign as President of the United States, Richard Nixon is calm and collected, joking with staff as they set up the pool feed. This is a 22 minute "raw", unedited video of the preparations for the speech. Teachers can show how the president of the United States prepares for a presentation - listen to him research sections of the speech.
Network (1976) - How To Write Satire - YouTube
This movie should be a "must" for US History classes. At the very least, teachers can watch this to get a sense of what the movie is about and how it foretells what will eventually happen in the infotainment industry. The 6 minute video does dig in deep to the screenwriting process though
Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising
Advertising is not part of the taught narrative canon but its value as a primary source of the second half of the 20th century is considerable. Teachers can simply set students loose in these tobacco ads - how can they help us understand the United States through this period?
e-WV | Exhibit: The Kanawha County Textbook Controversy
In summer and fall 1974, the most violent protest over public school textbooks in our nation’s history erupted in Kanawha County, West Virginia. The disagreement stemmed from the selection of textbooks for the 46,000 students attending the county’s 124 public schools. By the time the dispute died down in early 1975, the county had been split into separate camp
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (Official Video 2019) - YouTube
The music of the late 1960s set to the images of 2019
The LGBTQ Rights Movement: An Introduction
The book explores the broader diversity of the LGBTQ community, especially in terms of race and ethnicity, creating a collective portrait of the LGBTQ movement that reflects this diversity. The book is divided between a readable, detailed, concise historical chronology and individual biographies of key figures in the history of the LGBTQ movement.
Truth Tobacco Industry Documents
Treasure trove of primary source documents related to smoking and the tobacco industry utterly unknown to the taught narrative canon of American history, but available to teachers nonetheless. Throw out that Jungle reading you've been using for years and give vaping students an experience in how the corporate sausage is really made
1971 (2014) - Full Documentary - YouTube
Documentary detailing the 1971 burglary of an FBI office in Media PA and subsequent exposure of FBI's illegal infiltration of the anti-war movement. Perfect to put alongside a Pentagon Papers lesson to illustrate distrust of government in the 1970s
Watergate Articles On Impeachment, by Barbara Jordan, 1974 (Speech) - video
James Farmer | JFK Library
Small collection of letters from James Farmer to John Kennedy regarding the Bus Riders, James Meredith, and the operation in Birmingham in 1962
Watts Riots - 1965 | Today in History | 11 Aug 16 - YouTube
2:45 newscast video of the Watts riots, short enough to show students are part of a lesson, HW or video DBQ. What language is used to describe what happened? How does the music shape the impression of the viewer? How can this fit into the Civil Rights movement or the growing conservative movement at the time?
Howard W. Smith's addition of the word "sex" to the Civil Rights Act in an attempt to have the bill voted down
Howard Smith opposed the Civil Rights Bill in 1964 so he added the word "sex" to the bill, protecting women from employment discrimination. He thought that adding this to the bill would guarantee that it would fail. He was wrong. The legal protection of women in employment provided by the Civil Rights act was an accident
Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution | The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute
Delivered just 5 days before his death, this speech of Martin Luther King touches on themes that are relevant 54 years later. This was his last Sunday sermon. The "Rip Van Winkle" reference and sleeping through a revolution is a sermon theme he had used for many years, it occurs in several speeches from 1959 on
How Jackie Robinson Helped Defeat a Trump-Like Candidate - The Atlantic
African-American quotes regarding the 1964 Republican convention that nominated Barry Goldwater have a resonance in today's politics.
Malcolm X | City Desk (1963) - YouTube
Malcolm X answers the question "What is your real name?" In answering the question he explains much about the African-American experience in history. Students could be asked to analyze the 3 minute exchange he has with the interviewer, focusing on the response of the interviewer. How much does this teach us about the unique cultural heritage of African Americans?
The "Mississippi Burning" Trial: An Account
Teachers should consider highlighting elements of this story to show students connections between the protests of 2020 and the full extent of white resistance to integration in the 1960s
Lyndon B. Johnson : Civil Rights Statements (1964) | U.S. Embassy & Consulate in the Republic of Korea
A quick exercise in class can have students looking at the quick description of the Civil Rights Act on the US Embassy in Korea's website. The Embassy chose the words "after lengthy debate" rather than the words over the vigorous opposition of southern Congressmen and the longest filibuster in American history (57 days). Both of the descriptions are factually correct, but the reader walks away from with an entirely different understanding of the CiviL Rights Act. Be aware that this is happening to you as the reader of any description of the past, the writer is shaping your understanding of the event through the words used.
Historic Stock Footage Archival and Vintage Video Clips and Photo Images from CriticalPast
This is a commercial site and the materials are watermarked. Still, as the "raw data" of still and video images it can provide insight into certain eras.
Vintage stock footage and millions of stock photo images comprising one of the world's largest royalty-free archival footage collections. All broadcast quality and available for immediate download in HD and SD formats, including professional screeners.
Buttons of the Sixties
Links to images of about 30 buttons from the 1960s
Vietnam War Documents
Collection of documents from Vassar College
1968: a timeline of events
1968: Timeline This timeline focuses on some major events of 1968. When necessary or indicated, contextual background material, or certain subsequent events will be referenced in the text. This brief document cannot hope to touch on all or even most of the important happenings in what was perhaps an uniquely "eventful" year, but focuses especially on events referred to in the text of the interviews.
Psychedelic '60s: Home Page
Literary tradition and social change from Special Collections Department at University of Virginia
Berkeley Free Speech Movement, 1963-64
Narrative summary by David Burner at University of Pennsylvania
The History of Psychedelia - BBC
Companion site for BBC Documentary
FSM-A the Free Speech Movement Archives Home Page
Information and links from Regents of the University of California