ERH 230: Artistic Responses to Social & Political Issues, Lt. Col. Hodde

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"The Federal Theatre Project was founded in 1935 under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration. Established as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, it aimed primarily to provide relief to out-of-work actors and theater professionals by funding of theatre performances across the country and secondarily to bring relevant art in form of theatre to all Americans, particularly those who were suffering economically during the Depression."

"This online presentation includes items selected from the Federal Theatre Project Collection at the Library of Congress. Featured here are stage and costume designs, photographs, posters, playbills, programs, and playscripts, including productions of Macbeth and The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus as staged by Orson Welles, and Power, a topical drama of the period. Selected administrative documents from the project are also available."

"National Black Theatre (NBT) was founded in 1968 by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, an award-winning performer, director, visionary entrepreneur and champion of the Black Arts Movement. NBT has broken ground as the country’s first revenue-generating Black art complex, as the longest-running Black theater in New York City, as acquisitor of the largest collection of Nigerian New Sacred Art in the Western Hemisphere, and as one of the oldest theaters founded and consistently operated by a woman of color in the nation."

University of Georgia's online exhibit of the history of black nationalism.

History, Art & Archives online exhibit by the House of Representatives.

"The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was rooted in the struggle of Americans of African descent to obtain basic rights of citizenship in the nation. Antislavery initiatives had gradually abolished the “peculiar institution” in the Northern states by the 1830s but free blacks were not accorded full citizenship rights. In the South, political and economic dominance of slaveholders hindered discussion of abolition. Discord between the North and South ultimately led to civil war, and finally, emancipation of slaves."