The Problem We All Live With

Norman Rockwell's painting, "The Problem We All Live With", is currently hanging in the White House. Here is a video of the President talking with Ruby Bridges, the young girl, depicted in the painting, being escorted into a newly desegregated school.

Ansel Adams' Photos of Manzanar

From the Denver Post's PLOG, a collection of Ansel Adams' photographs taken at Manzanar War Relocation Center in California, where nearly 10,000 Japanese Americans were interned during World War II.

From the Archive: Japanese Internment at Manzanar

Extraordinary, Ordinary Family

Here is Condoleezza Rice's appearance at the National Press Club to promote her book Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me. A very fascinating talk about growing up in Birmingham, Alabama in the 50's and 60's.

Note the first 5 minutes is introduction, so you can skip over that.

19th Amendment - 90 years later.

On August 26, 1920, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the 19th Amendment's adoption, guaranteeing women the right to vote. To a mark this anniversary here is a video of Lili Taylor reading Susan B. Anthony's statement to the court after she was convicted of voting illegally in the 1872 presidential election.

Strange Fruit

Eighty years ago today—August 7, 1930—two African-Americans where lynched in Marion, Indiana. A photograph of the lynching inspired Abel Meeropol to write the song Strange Fruit, which was subsequently made famous by Billy Holiday's recording. I have previously posted a video on Holiday's performance of the song on my music blog.

NPR has a radio segment including an interview with a third man who narrowly escaped lynching that day, as well as people who witnessed the event.

Strange Fruit: Anniversary Of A Lynching

For Neda

This is the HBO documentary about Neda Agha-Soltan, the women shot on the street in Tehran one year ago today on June 20, 2009. A cell phone video of the event was posted on the internet and almost instantly she became a symbol of the Iranian government's repression.

The Promise

The New Yorker has a great photograph and video montage of surviving members of the civil rights movement.

The Promise