1215
King John of England is forced to sign the Magna Carta by members of the English aristocracy. Although intended for the nobility, the document forced the king to respect certain rights of his subjects and imposed legal limits on his power.
The horrors of World War II, the new and frightening power of the atomic bomb, and the Nazi genocide of Jews and of others deemed unworthy to live shocked the consciences of people all over the world in 1945. This capacity and desire to destroy whole populations of humanity prompted First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to warn that "In the end...we are 'One World' and that which injures any one of us, injures all of us."
Welcome to Day 3. Today we’ll focus on reasons human rights was controversial in the post-war United States and why “civil” rights, instead, became the focus. This session will also model a literacy strategy known as close read activity.
Welcome to Day 4. The end of the first meeting of the Human Rights Commission in February of 1947 marked the drafting of the document first referred to as the International Bill of Rights, later known as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Welcome to Day 5, our final session of the week. Today we’ll focus on the legacies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that was not given the rule of law over the laws of individual sovereign states but nonetheless holds a great deal of influence over human rights legislation and promotion since its inception.
1215
King John of England is forced to sign the Magna Carta by members of the English aristocracy. Although intended for the nobility, the document forced the king to respect certain rights of his subjects and imposed legal limits on his power.
Henry Buxbaum, a WWI veteran from Friedburg recalls an experience with virulent antisemitism on a train ride.
In 1935, W. E. B. Du Bois published an influential book titled Black Reconstruction in America. This audio excerpt, from a chapter titled “The Propaganda of History,” questions the ways in which Reconstruction was being studied and taught at the time.
Elmore Nickleberry and Taylor Rogers, two former sanitation workers from Memphis, share their memories of the events leading up to the 1968 sanitation strike, as well as their participation in the strike itself.
The Hitler Youth Movement was an essential part of the Nazi Party's ideology and plan for the future. By the start of World War II in 1939, about 90% of "Aryan" children- girls and boys- in Germany belonged to Nazi youth groups. This audio reading explains through the eyes of Erika Mann, a German opposed to the Nazis, how the Hitler Youth groups operated.