Using Technology to Celebrate and Remember the Civil Rights Movement
April 8th, 2014 | Published in Google Public Policy
Posted by Susan Molinari, VP Public Policy
Technology can help us understand our past and connect with history in extraordinary and meaningful ways. This week, the LBJ Presidential Library is holding a three day Civil Rights Summit to mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and we are proud to provide technology to help support this event.
Over the next three days, we will be live streaming the program so people from all over the world can tune in to hear the panels and speakers, including remarks from four U.S. presidents. Each day will also feature heroes from the civil rights movement, the sports arena and the music industry, as well as panels on new civil rights challenges around immigration rights, gay rights, women’s rights and so much more. We hope you can tune in, but if you miss the live stream, you can find all of the content on the LBJ Library’s YouTube page.
President Jimmy Carter will also be doing a Google+ Hangout on Air Tuesday at 2:00 PM PST. Rock musician Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills and Nash fame will be on Air Tuesday at 2:30 PM PST, and playwright Robert Schenkkan, whose play about LBJ is currently on Broadway, will be on Air Wednesday at 2:00 PM PST.
Finally, Google has teamed up with the National Archives to launch a new collection on the Cultural Institute to capture the history of the passage of the Civil Rights Act online. Much of the content on the site is from the LBJ Presidential Library and features images, letters, telegrams, and video from January 1961 when President Kennedy first takes office to July 1964 when President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law. Here are a few examples of what can be found in the collection:
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Telegram from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to President Kennedy, June 1963
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Request to meet with Kennedy on the day of the March on Washington, August 1963
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964, July 1964
We are honored to be able to help capture this important event and this special exhibit highlighting one of America’s most pivotal moments in history.