The world has seen many events and movements related to the struggle for human and civil rights over the centuries, and a number of these have been memorialized in monuments, museums, and online websites. Many of the struggles over human and civil rights have a strong basis in religious and/or moral values of the people and cultures in which they occur.
For this assignment, choose a monument, museum, or online websites dedicated to memorializing an important struggle in human history. Find additional artifacts that further exemplify the importance of the event or movement. Cover the following information in your initial post:
- Briefly describe the monument, museum, or online website you have chosen. Provide information as to why the event was memorialized and make a connection between the event and the historical culture, including what you have learned about at least one of the themes (morality or religion) from the required readings for this unit.
- Provide a least one embedded photo of the museum, monument, or from the website and at least two embedded photos of additional artifacts. Include them in your initial post. Be sure to see the information about embedding photos under Additional Resources on the course site home page, so you know how to embed photos. Pictures must be embedded in your initial post, and they should be documented.
- Describe the significance of the monument, museum, or website, along with the 2 additional artifacts. Do you believe they represent the event they are commemorating well? Why or why not?
- Research and discuss why a culture would choose to memorialize such an event. What purposes does it serve for cultures and societies? Cite your research.
- Briefly reflect on what you learned in order to conclude your writing assignment.
As always, you must reply to at least two original posts on the forum. Consider the following questions in your responses to your classmates:
- What interested you the most about their topic?
- Share at least one thing you learned from their post and provide at least one new item that relates to their topic (picture, artifact, article, video, etc.). Be sure to briefly explain what you are contributing.
Here are some examples of movements that have been memorialized in museums and monuments. You may choose from this list, or you may select another topic, provided it meets the requirements.
The American Revolution
Myths of the American Revolution:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/myths-of-the-american-revolution-10941835/?no-ist (Links to an external site.)
Museum of the American Revolution: https://www.amrevmuseum.org/ (Links to an external site.)
African American Civil Rights:
The National Museum of African American History: https://nmaahc.si.edu/ (Links to an external site.)
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Monument: https://www.nps.gov/mlkm/index.htm (Links to an external site.)
Civil Rights Trail: https://civilrightstrail.com (Links to an external site.)
The Holocaust
Virginia Holocaust Museum (Richmond, VA): http://www.va-holocaust.com/ (Links to an external site.)
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC): http://www.ushmm.org/ (Links to an external site.)
International Civil Rights Museum (Greensboro, NC): http://www.sitinmovement.org/ (Links to an external site.)
Women’s Suffrage and Other Women’s History Issues
National Women’s History Museum: https://www.nwhm.org/ (Links to an external site.)
The Early Women’s Rights Movement: http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/WIC/Historical-Essays/No-Lady/Womens-Rights/ (Links to an external site.)
Properties Related to Women’s History: https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/wom/#feature (Links to an external site.)
Native American Culture and Rights
Native American Voices (Philadelphia, PA): http://www.penn.museum/sites/nativeamericanvoices/exhibition.php (Links to an external site.)
National Museum of the American Indian: http://www.nmai.si.edu/ (Links to an external site.)
Chinese Forced Labor Camps
Laogai: “Reform Through Labor” in China: http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1534&context=hrbrief (Links to an external site.)
Japanese American Internment Museum
http://www.californiamuseum.org/post/japanese-american-incarceration (Links to an external site.)
There are more historical rights movements all over the world throughout history, so please feel free to choose one of your own if you do not want to research one from the above list.