Marching for Civil Rights

Brianna Renaas Junior Division Website

Renaas 2 Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. and I are alike. We both had dreams to achieve. My dream was to present my NHD Project in Washington DC. Dr. King went to DC to help in the revolution to reform Civil Rights. My project took off when I looked at the sample topics provided by National History Day, many of which had to do with blacks. Like Dr King , I reacted and chose to do something about people who were challenged cruelly, yet worked to reform the way they were treated Blacks were being killed because of their race or denied simple civil rights and the ability to work. I decided this topic might not appeal to others as it did me. I proceeded to learn more about Marching for Civil Rights. Starting in the early 1960s, black citizens fought back when law enforcement and whites who thought they were "higher" society started to attack marchers in the South. Blacks tried to march peacefully for voting rights, jobs to support their families, and other freedoms. Some white citizens even helped the civil rights revolution even though the "higher" society was harsh and cruel to both races. I found it beneficial to use the Internet to conduct my research with real deal pictures that have become artifacts of the civil rights era. Tips from my teacher helped me conduct proper and useful searches on the Internet and find at least ten primary sources. My mother, who grew up in North Carolina and Arkansas, suggested relatives might have memories from the Civil Rights movement . I interviewed my grandmother over the phone, due to distance, as opposed to an interview in person as I did last year for NHD. Those who evaluated my project really liked that family connection and input relevant to the topic, so I was sure to keep that information for project competition

Renaas 3 Three years ago my first encounter with National History Day was a website that my project partner and I created which won us runner up at our first state competition. My reaction to receiving that medal was a sense of pride which has inspired me ever since. Every year I have developed new skills and applied them to creating websites. It has been interesting to see what different types of sources look like. This year I learned about embedding documents, something I would have not known if it werent for choosing to participate in the website category. Re- means again, so to reform means to form again. My topic summarized the civil rights revolution in our country. Protesters reacted in response to cruel actions of others. People worked together to redo what had been done to them and reform injustices endured or opinions formed. This is why my topic fits into the theme this year: Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.