Martin Luther King, Jr. and the U.S Civil Rights Movement
Here is a collection of resources for listening practice that focus on race relations and the struggle for equal rights in the United States.
Crossroads Café Videos (click on a link to watch the video)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ethnicity and Race Relations in the United States--Short Videos: (click on the link to watch)
Ethnicity and Race Relations in the United States: Multi-Media
Ethnicity and Race Relations in the United States: Audio: (click on the link to listen)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Listening. The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr., Part 1. Listen to this news story from Voice of America radio spoken in "Special English." Special English is spoken more slowly and with a simpler vocabulary than a regular news broadcast. You can also read a transcript of the story while you listen.
- Listening. The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr., Part 2. This is the second part of the broadcast from Voice of America (VOA) in "Special English." Just click on the arrow at the top of the screen to listen and read at the same time.
- Multi-media: The Montgomery Bus Boycott background. This website is dedicated to telling the story of the famous bus boycott in December of 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. This is an event that changed US history, and you can read, watch, and listen to the story here. This is a fascinating site!
- Video. Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have A Dream" speech. This video shows Dr. King's famous speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. on August 28, 1963. You can also download and read the text of Dr. King’s speech.
Ethnicity and Race Relations in the United States--Short Videos: (click on the link to watch)
- Immigration: A Key Element in American History
- Race in America
- Racism in the United States
- The Mexican-American Experience
- Anti-Chinese Sentiments
- Advances Against Discrimination
- Equality in Practice?
- Causes of the Civil Rights Movement
- Civil Rights Legislation and Equal Opportunity
Ethnicity and Race Relations in the United States: Multi-Media
- PBS Frontline: "A Class Divided" One day in 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Jane Elliot, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into two groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. Her lesson taught them about the roots of discrimination. See the video of her famous 1968 lesson, and watch the reunion with her students 15 years later. This is a super program! Click on "Introduction" first and read the background information before watching the video.
Ethnicity and Race Relations in the United States: Audio: (click on the link to listen)
- Listening. Teenage Diaries. Jeff in Boston: "Halfrican" More and more these days Jeff finds himself thinking about race and being forced to answer the question "What are you?" Read the transcript of Jeff Rogers' radio diary while you listen. Presented by National Public Radio (NPR).
- Listening. Story Corps: “They wanted me to stop seeing Daddy...” An inter-racial couple tell their daughter about how they met and about the challenges that their relationship posed for their families.
- Listening. Story Corps: “We had to do a good deed every day...” John Hope Franklin, the late scholar of African American history, tells his son, John, about being a Boy Scout during the 1920s.
- Listening. Story Corps: “He asked me, 'How many black jelly beans are in the jar...'” Theresa Burroughs tells her daughter Toni Love about registering to vote back in the days of segregation.
- Listening. Story Corps: “What was the saddest moment of your life?” Sam Harmon tells his grandson, Ezra Awumey, about a moment of very painful irony that he experienced in his younger days while visiting the nation's capital.
- Listening. Story Corps “We were really pioneers. We were the Jackie Robinson of the Air Force.” Roscoe Brown, Jr., tells his friend Javier Henriquez about being a Tuskegee Airman in Europe in World War II.
- Listening & Reading. NPR Morning Edition. “A minister Recalls the Pain of Segregation” The Rev. James Seawood, who grew up in tiny Sheridan, Arkansas, recalls what it was like when schools were segregated.