Today in History: President Johnson signs Voting Rights Act into law

On August 6, 1965, surrounded by civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. The landmark piece of legislation was designed to enforce the 15th Amendment and prohibited states from imposing any race-based voting qualifications that would abridge the right of any citizen to vote. In particular, the legislation prohibited the imposition of … Read more »

Today in History: Poet Wendell Berry born in 1934

Poet Wendell Berry was born on August 5, 1934 in Kentucky to a family of tobacco farmers. He has won numerous awards for his work, including the National Humanities Medal. Berry was also selected as the 2012 Jefferson Lecturer, which recognizes distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.

Berry spent his childhood working on his father’s farm. After attending the Millersburg Military Institute and then the University of Kentucky, Berry pursued a … Read more »

Blogger Spotlight: Back to School

Each Friday, we compile a list of our favorite education posts from around the web. Now that summer is drawing to a close, this week’s posts focus on getting back into the classroom mindset. 

Is America a republic or a democracy? Read Peter Levine’s discussion of our political origins.  

Are you smarter than an 8th grader? See how you stack up against this 1912 exam Joanne Jacobs uncovered. … Read more »

Today in History: Author Herman Melville born in 1819

Famed American author Herman Melville was born on August 1, 1819 to a well-respected New York family. The author, best known for penning Moby Dick, had a tumultuous literary career, with early acclaim giving way to sharp criticism.

Growing up, Melville was not a particularly gifted student; Melville’s father described him as “backward in speech and somewhat slow in comprehension…of a docile and amiable disposition.” Despite his early lack … Read more »

Honoring an American Hero’s Bravery at the Hanoi Hilton

Pilot George “Bud” Day spent more than five years as a prisoner of war at the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. He bravely refused to cooperate with his captors and only provided false information so as to not harm fellow American soldiers. On Saturday, Medal of Honor recipient Bud Day passed away at the age of 88, surrounded by his family in Shalimar, Florida, but his legacy as … Read more »

Voices Across Time: American History Through Music

The University of Pittsburgh has partnered with the Society for American Music to create lesson plans which analyze famous historical songs. The Voices Across Time series includes more than 60 in-depth lesson plans which combine songs from similar eras and weaves them into thematic units.

Themes of the lesson plans are diverse, with units exploring the colonization of the New World, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the … Read more »

Today in History: Alexis de Tocqueville born

On July 29, 1805, French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville was born in Paris. Tocqueville is most famous for his two-volume work, Democracy in America, which includes his observations about American political and social culture from a two-year tour of America.

Tocqueville was born into a wealthy aristocratic family and served in the French government as the deputy of the Manche department in Valognes from 1830–1851. In 1831, Tocqueville … Read more »