Dr. James Armstead - The Civil War Amendments The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution individually marked important milestones in American history and collectively served to satisfy the war aims of the Lincoln administration. These new freedoms changed American Society in so many unanticipated ways and set the stage for a living…

Vanessa Adams-Harris - Unsung Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement From the children here in Oklahoma with Clara Luper in Oklahoma City, a young Claudette Colvin who at age 15 refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, to the Citizenship Education Program throughout the south and its rural communities. Just who, what…

Thursday, May 30th -- Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson (1912-2007) Johnson served as First Lady of the United States (1961-1969) as the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson and had a front-row seat  to many of the major events of the 1960s. Lady Bird was an unlikely but surprisingly influential civil rights activist. Born and raised…

Rebecca Jimerson - Coretta Scott Kin and the "Freedom Concerts" This workshop will present the storied history of the Freedom Concerts. Combining poetry, narration, and music to tell the story of the Civil Rights movement. Concluding with participants staging a Freedom Concert. Handouts to be circulated to workshop attendees.  

Dr. Leslie Goddard - The Lady Bird Special In October 1964, the Lady Bird Special train pulled away from Washington D.C. Over the next four days, the train carried First Lady Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson on a whistle-stop tour of eight Southern states to garner support for Lyndon B. Johnson's presidential campaign in the face…

Friday, May 31st -- Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) Thurgood Marshall was a civil rights layer and activist his entire professional life. As head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, he acted as legal counsel on some of the most important cases in U.S. history and helped construct a legal strategy that desegregated America in the mid-20th…

Dr. Doug Mishler - The Supreme Court's Role in American Life We will cover not just the Warren Court but peruse a variety of Supreme Courts from the first of John Marshall up to the Robert's Court today. We will explore how the Court has been called upon to decide cases that have an immense…

Dr. James Armstead - Plessy vis a vis Brown The Supreme Court responded to the legal challenge against state sanctioned involuntary segregation in 1896 with an attempted social compromise using the tortured language of the separate but equal doctrine to support the status quo. This doctrine denied the intent of the equal protection clause of…

Saturday, June 1st -- Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) King was an American author, activist, civil rights leader, and the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. Her activism started before her marriage, then complemented and influenced her husbands' political work, and continued long after his death. Coretta's musical background influenced her work and she kept music…