Media Resources

In this American Radio Works podcast and website, partially funded by NEH,  Stephen Smith presents the story of Thurgood Marshall's remarkable career. In 1967, Marshall became the first African American named to the United States Supreme Court; but his most significant legal victory came when Marshall was on the other side of the bench, arguing the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. Before he joined the Supreme Court, he was the nation's leading civil rights lawyer.

This episode of BackStory examines how women have influenced politics in the United States. From bread riots during the Civil War to the suffrage movement to campaigns for the Presidency of the United States, women have organized, marched, petitioned, and brought about change through grassroots movements and from within institutions of power. 

Ken Burns delivered the 2016 Jefferson Lecture on May 9, 2016.

Professor James O'Hara, a Trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society, discusses an NEH-funded project to digitize the Society's library of rare, out-of-print, and fragile books about Supreme Court justices from the Washington administration to today.

This episode of BackStory explores the history of presidential inaugurations and pays particular attention to the historical significance of specific transitions during contentious times in U.S. history. 

This episode of BackStory explores the history of gay rights in the U.S., with segments on the career of Harvey Milk and a look at movements for change in California, New York, and the Midwest. Supplemental materials for studying gay rights are also provided. 

This media resource highlights the NEH-funded project, Unladylike2020, and includes questions to guide students through the viewing of the one-hour special and short videos, along with resources for independent research.

This media resource features three videos that address a series of questions about The Papers of the War Department, a collection that provides insight into a broad range of issues, events, and trends that occurred during the Early Republic. It also includes additional research questions and resources to help students delve deeper into the documents. 

Although only 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution have been ratified, thousands of proposed amendments have been introduced in Congress or circulated in public petitions. The Amendments Project compiles, classifies, and analyzes these proposed amendments to the Constitution. In addition to providing an overview of constitutional history and the amendment process, the site enables advanced search and filtering of the amendments database, making it an effective hands-on introduction to using search tools for research.