Sites listed here are not necessarily endorsed by the CMMR; they are listed for informational purposes only. Full text articles and resources are also provided. If you would like to suggest a site to be added to this listing please visit our "Submit a Site" page.

Visit our review of the Ebonics debate below.

RE-LIVE SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS IN HISTORY, LISTEN TO. . .

Martin Luther King, Jr., delivering his "I have a dream" speech at the March on Washington, 1963.

Video: 30.24 sec (1.3 MB) QuickTime

Audio segment: 33.04 sec (730 K) .au or .wav

Hear the "I Have a Dream" speech in its entirity on a RealAudio version of the segment. (16:14)

Jesse Jackson describing his "Rainbow Coalition" at the Democratic Party's national convention, 1984.

Audio segment: 14.49 sec (330 K) .au or .wav

Hear the Reverend Jesse Jackson Address to the Democratic Convention "God is Not Finished With Me Yet." San Francisco, California, July 17, 1984 on a RealAudio version of the speech. (5:22)

Barbara Jordan's Historical Keynote Address to Democratic National Convention, July 12, 1976.

Congresswoman Barbara Jordan's Keynote Address to the Democratic Convention, 1976 on a RealAudio version of the segment. (3:21)

To download the RealAudio Player consult RealAudio's home page. For the free Player go to the download page.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

FRONTLINE, PBS's public-affairs series presents an in depth look at "The Two Nations of Black America". Thirty years after Martin Luther King Jr's death, how have we reached this point where we have both the largest black middle class and the largest underclass in our history? Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. leads this Frontline report.

Audio excerpts from the Du Bois Institute's 1997 forum "A converstaion on Race" (Requires "RealAudio" software) is included along with interviews of such notables as Eldridge Cleaver, Quincy Jones, Angela Davis, Julian Bond, Cornel West, Jesse Jackson. . . and more.

"A Glimpse of History" Video presentation presents scenes of the Howard University 1968 takeover (Requires "RealPlayer" software). During the sixties, even before students on white campuses demonstrated against the Vietnam War, students on black campuses raised the issue of whether their institutions of higher learning were "relevant" to the needs of the black community. In the forefront of this movement was Howard University in Washington, D.C., then known as the "Harvard for blacks."

Frontlines forum "Join the Discussion" is also provided to answer the questions: Is the black community better of today than it was in 1968? And. . . How can its growing class gap be closed?

To download the RealAudio Player consult RealAudio's home page. For the free Player go to the download page.

African-American Educational Strides

NPR's Larry Abramson reports that according to the U.S. Census Bureau, African-Americans are now just as likely to graduate from high school as are whites. However, Hispanic immigrants are still facing problems in their educational progress.

Hear the report on a RealAudio version of the segment.

To download the RealAudio Player consult RealAudio's home page. For the free Player go to the download page.

Academic Info African American History

An comprehensive, annotated directory of internet resources on black history.

This University of Washington libraries page provides starting points for historical research. Included are the major databases for finding historical information such as catalogs and indexes as well as pertinent web sites.

Selected links to sites hosted by the Smithsonian Institution museums and organizations.

Warning!! the pages of this site contain explicitly graphic materials. Frightening pictorial account of racism in America.

African American Male Research

Research and advocacy in the Interest of the African American national community. African American Male Research aims to provide, consistent, and incisive analysis of the social, economic, and political conditions surrounding the African American male. Summarizes the latest social scientific findings most important to the African American male's interests and status. Provides timely accounts of the most important news developments impacting the Black male's status. Reviews legislation and related policy developments important to the African American male's collective interests.

A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the study of Black history and culture. The Mosaic is the first Library-wide resource guide to the institution's African- American collections. Covering the nearly 500 years of the Black experience in the Western hemisphere, the Mosaic surveys the full range size, and variety of the Library's collections, including books, periodicals, prints, photographs, music, film, and recorded sound.

This Special Presentation of the Library of Congress exhibition, The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship, showcases the Library's incomparable African American collections. The presentation is not only a highlight of what is on view in this major black history exhibition, but also a glimpse into the Library's vast African American collection. Both include a wide array of important and rare books, government documents, manuscripts, maps, musical scores, plays, films, and recordings. This presentation is not yet searchable.

The Library of Congress' Daniel A. P. Murray Pamphlet Collection presents a panoramic and eclectic review of African-American history and culture, spanning almost one hundred years from the early nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, with the bulk of the material published between 1875 and 1900. Among the authors represented are Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummel, and Emanuel Love.

The African and Middle Eastern Reading Room functions as the primary public access point for the African and Middle Eastern Division. Housed in the division are materials in a variety of vernacular scripts, such as Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and Yiddish. The African and Middle Eastern Division plays a key role in providing reference and bibliographic services on a pivotal world area. Covering more than 70 countries and regions, from Morocco to Southern Africa to the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, the division's three sections--African, Hebraic, and Near East- offer in-depth reference assistance and produce guides to the Library's rich and varied collections on this area. They cooperate with other Library of Congress units in developing collections that meet the research needs of a varied constituency. They also maintain contacts with international scholarly and professional organizations that relate to this geographic region.

The Aframian WebNet is an unique centralized repository of afrocentric links that serves as a cyberspace launching pad to the numerous sites on the World Wide Web that are by, about and/or of interest to African Americans ("AFRAMIANS").

America's journey through slavery is presented in four parts. For each era, you'll find a historical Narrative, a Resource Bank of images, documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries, and a Teacher's Guide for using the content of the Web site and television series in U.S. history courses.

Africa Online is Africa's gateway to the Internet. The service chronicles the daily lives of African communities with daily news reports by local African news networks, and from various NGOs. The broader service features Home Pages for various African countries, interest groups and individuals, on-line reference materials.

An independent archives, library, & museum dedicated to preserving African-American & ethnic history and culture at Tulane University. With more than 10,000,000 documents, the Amistad today is acknowledged as the nation's largest independent African-American archives.

The Archives of African American Music and Culture is a center devoted to the research and study of African American music and culture. Collections include audio and video recordings, photographs, original scores, and oral histories, among other artifacts and ephemera related to popular, religious, and art musics, and Black radio. The archives conducts collaborative resarch with such units as the Afro-American Arts Institue and the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University, the Smithsonian Institution and the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.

Black Excel is a college admissions and scholarship service for African-American students. Since its founding in 1988 by Isaac J. Black, Black Excel has helped young people and their parents all across the country to navigate the difficult college admission process.

CLIMB is a collaboration of like-minded individuals who seek to improve the accuracy and content of historical and cultural artifacts on the Internet. In particular, CLIMB aspires to be a central jumpstation for individuals and organizations interested in Black content on the Web.

Extensive list of annotated links to African American sites that explore the African American experience. Also provides link to award winning educational and heritage CD ROM game, Black Quest, that celebrates, preserves and reinforces the African American culture, legacy and history.

Features 600 informative articles and is beautifully illustrated with historical film clips and audio recordings, as well as hundreds of photographs and other images. The Related Internet Links and Bibliography sections provide excellent source material and areas for further study, as does the Study Guide for Students, which is organized around six classroom activities, each with their own teacher recommendations, technical tips, and scholastic bibliographies.

From Louisiana State University libraries, profiled here are African American men and women who have contributed to the advancement of science and engineering. African American chemists, biologists, inventors, engineers, and mathematicians have contributed in both large and small ways that can be overlooked when chronicling the history of science.

This Web provides access to the Internet-based resources developed by HBCUs, as well as to other educational, historical, and cultural materials of interest to the HBCU community and other educators with an interest in HBCUs. It is presented by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education (ERIC/CUE) and is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Education Research and Improvement.

The Internet African American History Challenge helps you sharpen your knowledge of African American history. Includes biographical profiles of some important 19th century African Americans and an informative, fun to take cyber-challenge that is ideally suited for classroom usage.

The Journal Of Negro Education

The Journal of Negro Education is a refereed scholarly periodical at Howard University. It is one of the oldest continuously published periodicals by and about blacks. The Journal was launched with a threefold mission: first, to stimulate the collection and facilitate the dissemination of facts about the education of black people; second, to present discussions involving critical appraisals of the proposals and practices relating to the education of black people; and third, to stimulate and sponsor investigations of issues incident to the education of black people. It reflects the international scope of interest in educational issues affecting people of African descent and other people of color throughout the world.

Researching, publishing, and disseminating historical and current documents that focus on the history and culture of African-Americans and other groups, their relationships, interactions, and contributions to the development and growth of this country.

A website maintained in Germany, features quotes, speeches, interviews, poems and Ossie Davis's eulogy. Also has additional links to other Malcom X resources.

This Directory contains secondary documents written about Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as primary documents written during King's life. The folks at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Project at Stanford University continuously update and improve this site.

The NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is the oldest, largest and strongest Civil Rights Organization in the United States. The principle objective of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States. The NAACP is committed to achievement through non-violence and relies upon the press, the petition, the ballot and the courts, and is persistent in the use of legal and moral persuasion even in the fact of overt and violent racial hostility.

Magazine for Southern California African Americans.

The main purpose of the Universal Black Pages (UBP) is to have a complete and comprehensive listing of African diaspora, forced scattering of Africans to the New World by means of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonization, related Web pages at a central site. The UBP is an information service which resides at the Georgia Institute of Technology but is not affiliated with the Institute. Included among the topics are: Educational Opportunities/Activities, Schools and Student Organizations, The Diaspora, History, Art, Life, and Music.

Literature and History written by and on African Americans. Brings together texts which capture a wide range of experience in Black American history. Featured writers include Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, and Maya Angelou. This site also has links to important resources for the study of Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright.

AFRICAN AMERICAN

FULL TEXT RESOURCES AND ARTICLES

• African Languages at the K-12 Level

  by Patricia Kuntz. Although the teaching of African languages at the elementary and secondary levels is rare, a number of schools offer one or more of the following major African languages at these levels: Arabic (North Africa), Hausa (West Africa), Swahili (East Africa), Wolof (Senegal), Yoruba (Nigeria), and Xhosa and Zulu (South Africa). This digest suggests these programs have adequate instructional materials, learning time, effective teaching practices, and curricula designed by scope and sequence.

• Classroom Materials On African American Studies

  Annotated bibliographies and ERIC abstracts highlighting classroom materials for African American studies and students. The documents and journal articles have been entered into the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database. Most documents can be ordered from original sources or from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service, 1-800-443-ERIC.

• The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.

  This page contains a few of King's more famous works and includes some of the material found in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.at the MLKJ Website at Stanford University. Included are the Letter from Birmingham Jail, August 28th Address at March on Washington (The "I Have a Dream" speech), Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, and the I See The Promised Land (aka "I've Been To The Mountaintop", King's last sermon). Free registration may be required.

• School Programs For African Males

  by Carol Ascher. Educators know all too well that they alone cannot solve the social and economic problems in the U.S. that so severely limit opportunities of African American males. Nonetheless, many educators and other concerned citizens are introducing new practices targeted specifically to their unique needs. Efforts are also being made to decrease the suspension and expulsion rates of black males, to lower their representation in general tracks and special education programs and raise it in programs for the gifted and talented, and to improve the recruitment and training of teachers and counselors in predominatly black schools. This digest article explores these topics.

EBONICS

• A Way With Words

  OCRACOKE, N.C. April 7 -- In recent years, much debate has centered on how schools should teach students who speak a foreign language. But what's almost never debated, and is little understood, is dialect. A 75 student K 12 school on an island on the outer banks of North Carolina is playing a role in helping young residents understand the history of their unique dialect and, possibly, keep remnants of the "Ocracoke brogue" alive. Includes: "A Sampler of the Ocracoke Brogue," and "Beyond Ebonics." (Education Week)

• Dialect Education: Not Only for Oakland

  by C. T. Adger. This digest suggests that under-informed about what dialects are, how they relate to each other, and what functions they fulfill, people have voiced views about language in society that cannot be scientifically justified.

• Ebonics and Culturally Responsive Instruction

  by Lisa Delpit. This article takes a closer look at some of the connections between language, teaching and cultural identity.

• Ebonics Information Page

  Center for Applied Linguistics Ebonics information page provides resources that CAL has been disseminating to those interested in information about Ebonics, or African American vernacular English, information about Ebonics, or African American vernacular English.

• Embracing Ebonics and Teaching Standard English: An Interview with Oakland Teacher
  
  

  by Carrie Secret. This 31-year veteran of Oakland classrooms explains the effects of the Standard English Proficiency program, which recognizes the systematic, rule-governed nature of "Black English" while helping students learn Standard English, and how respect and cultural awareness can help teachers reach their students.

• English Dialect Use and Student Educational Achievement and Employment Opportunities
  
  

  Annotated bibliographies and ERIC abstracts about issues of English non-standard dialect. The documents and journal articles have been entered into the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database. Most documents can be ordered from original sources or from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service, 1-800-443-ERIC.

• English Lesson

  January 23, 1997 transcript of PBS television report on the ebonics debate.

• Full Text of Ebonics' Resolution Adopted by Oakland Board of Education - December 18, 1996
  
  

  Resolution of the board of education adopting the report and recommendations of the African-American Task Force; a policy statement and directing the superintendent of schools to devise a program to improve the English-language acquisition and application skills of African-American students.

  - Amended Resolution of the Oakland Board Of Education - January 15, 1997

  
  

• "I 'on Know Why They Be Trippin'"

  by Theresa Perry. An essay on the political furor that greeted the Oakland School Board's resolution on Ebonics, and some of the issues that were glossed over during the noisy national debate that followed.

• If Ebonics Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?

  by Wayne O'Neil. A linguist addresses some of the more common questions about Ebonics and the Oakland School Board resolution, and some of the misconceptions about the resolution spread by the mainstream media.

• Linguistic Society of America Resolution on the Oakland "Ebonics" Issue

• Regional and Social Dialects

  The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) position paper on regional and social dialectal varieties of English.
  
  

• Senate Testimony on Ebonics

  Testimony submitted by William Labov, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, Past President of the Linguistic Society of America, member of the National Academy of Science.

• The Ebonics Controversy in My Backyard: A Sociolinguist's Experiences and Reflections

  by John R. Rickford. A Sociolinguists, from the Department of Linguistics at Stanford University, discussion of the controversial language debate on Ebonics.

• The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language and the Education of African American Children

  The national debate on Ebonics did little to clarify the misunderstandings about the history of thelanguage or to help educators develop curriculum. Delpit, Perry, and the other writers in thisvolume offer background history that excavates the race and power dynamics surrounding the development of the language, and discuss how an understanding of Ebonics may affectclassroom practice. From Rethinking Schools Urban Education Journal.
  
  

• Vernacular Dialects in U.S. Schools

  by Donna Christian. Children from different backgrounds come to school speaking a wide variety of dialects. Should our schools try to teach all students to use a standard dialect? If so, how? If not, how should different dialects be handled in the school setting? What impact does speaking a non-school dialect have on students' academic success and on their interactions with others in and out of school? These complex and controversial questions are discussed in this digest article.

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