Civil Rights and Social Justice
HeinOnline Specialist
Additional Resources
American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is a convener, connector, and catalyst for change, increasing the political and economic power of people with disabilities. As a national cross-disability rights organization, AAPD advocates for full civil rights for the over 60 million Americans with disabilities by promoting equal opportunity, economic power, independent living, and political participation.
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), founded in 1979, is a leading national civil rights law and policy center directed by individuals with disabilities and parents who have children with disabilities.
The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. First authored by Alice Paul (1885-1977) and introduced in Congress in 1923, the Alice Paul Institute continues to advocate, educate, and promote the Amendment's ratification.
Established in 1968 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (“The King Center”) has been a global destination, resource center and community institution for over a quarter century.
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law
Formed in 1963, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law works to secure equal justice for all through the rule of law, targeting in particular the inequities confronting African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities. They marshal the resources of the private bar to obtain equal justice for minorities, and are also engaged in environmental justice, judicial nominations, the First Amendment rights of peaceful demonstrators and protestors, and the intersection of race and technology.
Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. Through advocacy and outreach to targeted constituencies, the Leadership Conference works toward the goal of a more open and just society – an America as good as its ideals. It was founded in 1950 and has coordinated national lobbying efforts on behalf of every major civil rights law since 1957.
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation. Their mission is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans. LDF also defends the gains and protections won over the past 80 years of civil rights struggle and works to improve the quality and diversity of judicial and executive appointments.
Founded in 1910, the National Urban League is dedicated to economic empowerment, equality, and social justice. It collaborates at the national and local levels with community leaders, policymakers, and corporate partners to elevate the standards of living for African Americans and other historically underserved groups.
Black History Month (Library of Congress)
This guide provides the legislative history, proclamations, and laws related to establishing and designating Black History Month (February).
Civil and Human Rights Law Portal - Global
This portal from LLMC and sponsored by the Saint Louis University Vincent C. Immel Law Library collects documents, links to governmental and non-governmental organizations, research and educational resources and more on civil and human rights.
Civil Rights in America: A Resource Guide ( Library of Congress)
This guide provides access to Library of Congress digitized primary sources, links to related websites, and a print bibliography.
Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Long Struggle for Freedom (Library of Congress)
This exhibition, which commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, explores the events that shaped the civil rights movement, as well as the far-reaching impact the act had on a changing society. The act is considered the most significant piece of civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.
The Civil Rights Digital Library Initiative represents one of the most ambitious and comprehensive efforts to date to deliver educational content on the Civil Rights Movement via the Web. The struggle for racial equality in the 1950s and 1960s is among the most far-reaching social movements in the nation's history, and it represents a crucial step in the evolution of American democracy. The Initiative is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia and GALILEO.
In conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Library of Congress conducted a national survey of existing oral history collections related to the Civil Rights Movement, and began conducting new interviews with participants. The goal of the project is to make these interviews widely accessible.
Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse
This portal from the University of Michigan Law School collects documents and information from civil rights cases across the United States. Organized by case category, it is available to scholars, teachers, students, policymakers, advocates, and the public to allow greater understanding of historical and contemporary American civil rights litigation.
Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA
Originally founded in 1996 at Harvard University, the Civil Rights Project at UCLA has a mission to help renew the civil rights movement by bridging the worlds of idea and action, to be a preeminent source of intellectual capital within that movement, and to deepen the understanding of the issues that must be resolved to achieve racial and ethnic equity as society moves through the great transformation of the 21st century.
Comic Books and Graphic Novels on Civil Rights (University of Michigan)
Provides useful information about comic books and graphic novels as topics of academic research at the University of Michigan.
Disability Law in the United States: A Beginner's Guide (Library of Congress)
This research guide covers a variety of resources surrounding the Americans with Disabilities Act and other topics related to disability law, including information about relevant federal agencies, service animals, and veterans resources.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice (DEIJ) Resources: DEIJ at Moritz College of Law
This libguide from the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University gathers materials and resources on diversity, equity, inclusion and justice in law schools, and is meant to serve as a resource for faculty, adjuncts, students, staff, and librarians.
Malcolm X Project at Columbia University
Since its inception in 2001, the Malcolm X Project at Columbia University has been concerned primarily with gathering and illuminating new research about El Hajj Malik el-Shabazz through the creation of a web-based version of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the research of Dr. Manning Marable, the project's director.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute (Stanford)
Building upon the achievements of Stanford University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, the King Institute supports a broad range of educational activities illuminating Dr. King's life and the movements he inspired.
National Disability Employment Awareness Month (Library of Congress)
This guide provides the legislative history, proclamations, and laws related to National Disability Employment Awareness Month (October).
The New Georgia Encyclopedia (NGE) is the nation’s first born-digital state encyclopedia. Since 2004 it has provided ready access to authoritative scholarship on a wide variety of topics. All of its entries are written and reviewed by scholars, fact-checked by reference librarians at the University of Georgia, and updated regularly to reflect new information and recent developments
Race, Racism, and Anti-Racism Resources
This libguide from Washington and Lee University library brings together resources on racism and violence against Black people in the United States, including avenues for campus and community action.
This guide from Arizona State University provides resources about racial justice in the United States including information about national social justice organizations, local social justice organizations and government entities, resources for protesters, and research resources including databases, books, law reviews and journals.
Right to Peaceful Assembly: United States
This legal research report from the Library of Congress provides a brief overview of the Constitutional provisions that protects Americans' right to peaceful assembly and how the Supreme Court has interpreted the limitations of these protections.
This libguide from the Howard University School of Law was compiled for Howard University students and faculty as well as interested members of the public as an introduction to resources on the topics of (1) racial disparity, (2) racial diversity, (3) implicit bias and microaggression, (4) cultural sensitivity, and (5) protests. It was designed as an annotated bibliography focused on selected resources with varying depth of treatment in books, articles (both scholarly and for broad readership), websites, blogs, short videos, and organizations. Resources range from general introductory information to those more focused on law and legal professionals.
Definitive Guide to Disability Inclusion in the Workplace
This guide focuses on disability workplace law in the United Kingdom and explores key aspects of disability in the workplace in depth, providing insight into how inclusive company policies and working styles tend to be (or tend not to be), as well as showcasing key data.
Electric Cars and Accessibility: What Drivers with Disabilities Need to Know
This article from AutoTrader.UK focuses on accessibility issues faced by disabled drivers using electric vehicles, from obtaining parking permits to the pros and cons of using an electric vehicle as a disabled driver.
Financial Literacy in the Black Community
This article from Annuity tackles the systemic issue of the racial wealth gap in the U.S. and how financial literacy can help individuals make a difference in their day-to-day lives.
Neurodiversity in the Modern Workplace
This guide provides an overview of the benefits and challenges of a neurodiverse workforce, as well as guidance on supporting neurodiverse employees.
This article from the NAACP presents biographies of past civil rights leaders for lessons and inspiration as their important work continues into the future.
This article from HISTORY provides an overview of the Civil Rights Movement from Jim Crow south through the Fair Housing Act of 1968, with historical photographs of leaders and moments from the movement.
The Civil Rights Movement Archive (CRMA) is a 501c3 nonprofit corporation based in California. It is a web-based archive dedicated to civil rights workers active in Southern Freedom Movement organizations during the 1950s and 1960s. Its online archive presents original materials, histories, narratives, remembrances, and commentaries related to the movement.
Disability History: The Disability Rights Movement
This article, part of the Telling All Americans' Stories series from the National Park Service, provides an overview of the disability rights movement in America.
This webpage contains a wide variety of articles and resources to help you assert your most fundamental rights. It includes directories of federal and state civil rights offices; the full text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a directory of non-governmental civil rights organizations, step-by-step guides on how to file claims for various types of civil rights violations, and more.
From the Archives: Lyndon B. Johnson Signs Civil Rights Act of 1964 into Law
Video of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law on July 2, 1964.
This article from the January/February 2022 issue of Information Today provides an overview of the origin of critical race theory and details its present-day controversy in American life.
Groups during the American Civil Rights Movement
This article, part of the American Experience series from PBS, provides brief overview of groups active in advocating for and opposing the American civil rights movement, including the Black Panthers, Congress of Racial Equality, the Ku Klux Klan, the Little Rock Nine, and the NAACP.
James Baldwin, the Art of Fiction No. 78
This interview from 1984 was conducted by The Paris Review with James Baldwin. Baldwin was a powerful voice of the civil rights movement, a popular public speaker later in life, and one of the foundational figures of contemporary nonfiction.
Leaders in the Struggle for Civil Rights
This biographical article from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum provides an overview of the main leaders of the March on Washington in 1963.
Malcolm X' Fiery Speech Addressing Police Brutality
Video footage of Malcolm X's May 20, 1962 speech in Los Angeles condemning police brutality.
Martin Luther King, Jr. - I Have a Dream Speech - August 28, 1963
Video footage of the 1963 March on Washington and Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
National Museum of African American History & Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It is the 19th museum of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum, education, and research complex.
Oh Freedom! Teaching African American Civil Rights through American Art
From the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Oh Freedom! presents the Civil Rights movement as a longer, more varied, and ongoing African American struggle for freedom, justice, and equality throughout the course of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.
Poetry and the Civil Rights Movement
From the Poetry Foundation, the poems collected here revisit the heroic struggles of civil rights activists, grouped by the dates of the events they address, which each poem's publication date in parentheses.
President John F. Kennedy's Civil Rights Address
Video footage of President Kennedy's June 11, 1963 televised speech on civil rights.
Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' Speech in its Entirety
A full transcript from NPR of the 'I Have a Dream Speech.'
Responses Coming from the Civil Rights Movement
This article, part of the American Experience series from PBS, provides an overview of the responses radiating through American society as a result of and in tandem with the civil rights movement, including oppositional response. Events covered include the Vietnam War, southern school opposition to integration, anti-freedom rider mobs, and the striking of black sanitation workers in Memphis.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was a student-led American political organization that was active during the Civil Rights Movement. This Digital Gateway presents their work and how their legacy continues today.
Televised Address to the Nation on Civil Rights
Transcript and video of President John F. Kennedy's televised address on June 11, 1963 on civil rights.
Why the Black National Anthem Is Lifting Every Voice to Sing
This article from the Smithsonian Magazine gives a full history of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the hymn that, in 1920, was adopted by the NAACP as the official Negro National Anthem.
Women in the Civil Rights Movement
This essay from the Library of Congress, part of its Civil Rights History Project, includes highlights from the Project's collection of interviews with over 50 women who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement, including Gwendolyn Zeharah Simmons, Ekwueme Michael Thewell, and Ruby Nell Sales.