Civic Season

Check Out A Starting Point for Bitesized Ways to Stay Informed.
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | A Starting Point, United States
A Starting Point is a video-based civic engagement platform created by Chris Evans, Mark Kassen, and technology entrepreneur Joe Kiani. ASP’s mission is to create a bipartisan channel of communication and connectivity between Americans and their elected officials with the goal of creating a more informed electorate.

Explore videos and materials at AStartingPoint.com.

Freedom and the Future of Learning
2099-01-01 00:00 (Pacific/Niue) | got history?, United States
At this historic moment, in-between Juneteenth and July 4th, Got History is pleased to invite you to join a 1-hour long experience on Friday, July 1, at 12pm EST featuring UnTextbooked podcasters to reflect on the question of “How Can Better History Learning Foster Freedom?” We are hosting this as part of the inaugural Civic Season, a new kind of collaborative summer festival hosted by Made By Us and Civics Unplugged to strengthen our democracy. This interactive session will give you the opportunity to hear about approaches to enhancing freedom through learning history in and with communities, and to meet people who share the vision of a future in which every person can thrive.

What’s your Civic Superpower? Take the Quiz!
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Made By Us, United States
There are many ways to pitch in when it comes to shaping the future of our nation — from demonstrating to investigating. Whether you prefer being on the front lines or working behind the scenes, you’ve got that historical figure energy – so figure out how you can use it. Ready to find out what strengths you bring to the table? Take the quiz, then read on to get inspired by figures in the past – and learn how you can take action today. Bonus: we even have curated guides to Civic Season for your superpower! It’s basically your enneagram type but for making change.

Make Your Mark in the Civic Season Zine
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Made By Us, United States
You asked for it, we delivered – a magazine just for Gen-Z to tell OUR story. CVCSZN Zine: Our Public Square is a digital magazine, a scrapbook of sorts weaving our personal and local histories into a shared vision for our country. It is the story of where we came from and where we’re going – and you’re the primary source! This is your chance to add your art, share a reflection, show-off your selfie from a kickoff party, record a video with poems, rants, or wishes, and comment on the many threads from other civic superheroes. Have your say. The Zine is what you make of it!

Share What You Stand For with the iconic Civic Season Poster-Generator
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Made By Us, United States
The Globe Poster Printing Corp. was founded in 1929 in Baltimore, MD. In the decades following, Globe developed a signature style – bold, blocky and vibrant – and became the go-to printer for everything from culture to politics to music (think Jimi Hendrix! Aretha Franklin! The Rolling Stones!). Today, through the Globe Collection and Press at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Globe styles continue to power people and movements.
We’re bringing this historic style to life, for you, this Civic Season through a partnership with Show Of Hands and iconic posters designed with the Globe style.
You can get your limited-edition poster at any Civic Season kickoff event, or use our online poster-generator to make your own! Celebrate what you stand for – post a pic to social and tag @historymadebyus!

Suffrage Walking Tour of Salt Lake City
2099-01-01 00:00 (Pacific/Niue) | Better Days, 300 N. State Street, Salt Lake City, UT, 84103, United States
Did you know that the first women to vote under equal suffrage laws were in Utah? And that they were the only women whose voting rights were revoked by Congress? Utah women’s political participation was controversial because of the practice of polygamy, and their right to vote was attacked as soon as they cast their first ballots in 1870. Retrace the steps of the first voting women in Salt Lake City while learning about the contentious and complicated twists and turns of their history. From gaining the right to vote in 1870, losing it in 1887, and restoring it in Utah’s 1896 constitution, Utah suffragists knew how to lobby, parade, petition, and persuade to win women’s voting rights, decades before the passage of the 19th Amendment.
You can print out your own self-guided walking tour of Salt Lake’s suffrage sites, explore them online, or pick up a printed guide at Council Hall on 300 N. State.

Add Your Personal History to the Record with StoryCorps
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Made By Us, United States
This is your chance to contribute your perspective, your vision, and your personal history to the record. We’ve partnered with StoryCorps, giving people of all backgrounds, typically two at a time, the opportunity to record meaningful conversations and archive the recordings at the Library of Congress. Capturing an interview couldn’t be easier: You invite a loved one, or anyone else you choose, to one of the StoryCorps recording sites to share a 40-minute conversation. During this year’s Civic Season celebration, between Juneteenth and July 4th, sign up to record a conversation at the Atlanta History Center location here or catch us on the West Coast as part of our mobile tour here.
Not going to be at one of these events? No problem! You can use the StoryCorps App or StoryCorps Connect and make a plan to record anywhere. When you sign up with the app, use the code civicseason to add your story to our collection!

Host Your Own “Feast of Reason” Convo
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Made By Us x Monticello, United States
Whether you’re gathering for Juneteenth or July 4th, on a picnic or a BBQ, Thanksgiving isn’t the only time of year you can entertain a debate over a meal. And there’s no better time to get some support for having better conversations that widen the lens on how we understand our past, present and future. When Thomas Jefferson convened people around the dinner table for debates and discussions, the United States wasn’t an idea everyone agreed upon – and as an enslaver advocating for independence, he brought his own contradictions to the table. Nearly 250 years later, we’re still wrestling with who we’ll become as a nation, as a society, as a world – in coffee shops and around the kitchen table. Made By Us founding partner, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, has you covered with their Feast of Reason conversation card deck that helps you navigate the strong opinions many of us hold about “civic issues” so that breaking bread together can bring us closer. Download the cards and get ready to savor a great discussion!

Follow Made By Us on Social Media!
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Made By Us, United States
Love history memes? Want to learn about the history that was missing from your textbooks? Looking for ways to stay involved after Civic Season? Follow us at @HistoryMadeByUs on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date! Don’t miss out on all the cool stuff that Made By Us is doing year-round!

Get in the Game
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | AllVoteNoPlay, United States
“Whether you realize it or not as an athlete, you have a great impact and influence amongst peers and young people and others and this is a time to use it.” – Senator Cory Booker
Watch Senator Cory Booker, former Stanford football player, talk about his belief that “Democracy is not a Spectator Sport.”
After you watch this short video, discuss how you and your team – in sports, school or your community – will “get on the field” to support Democracy.

Sign up to Join All Vote No Play Day in November
2099-01-01 00:00 (Pacific/Niue) | AllVoteNoPlay, United States
The #AllVoteNoPlay nonpartisan guide of civic drills is focused athletes become great teammates who will grow into strong citizens. This playbook is for team leaders, coaches or athletes who want to help their teams exercise their power of voting and celebrate what it means to be a great citizen.
Join the growing roster of coaches and athletes who made #AllVoteNoPlay a day ON for civic engagement in over 30 states in 2021!

Calling all Athletes: Map Your Power
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Citizen University, United States
Calling all athletes and athletes-in-training. You’re stronger than you think! How about flexing your civic muscles by mapping out the access to power that you have?
Citizen University has outlined three strategies that you can use to ensure you’re stepping up: 1) Get literate in power 2) Map where power flows 3) Refine your argument to move to action.

Does an amendment give you the right to vote?
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, United States
You’ve likely heard, perhaps on the news or in the classroom, that the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave or granted African American men the right to vote. It’s a turn of phrase that works as a shorthand. Unfortunately, it’s also a bit misleading.

Meet Anna Dickinson: Trailblazing orator and political firebrand
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, United States
At only 21 years of age, Dickinson cemented her status as one of the most famous abolitionists in the nation. But it was a shocking news article that sparked her first foray into public activism when she was just 13 years old.

Peaceful transfers of power? Not a guarantee in early America
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Monticello, United States
Journalists and commentators have invoked historic precedents to contextualize the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. While unprecedented in many ways, those events are also part of a long history of bitter partisanship and political violence in the United States. Thomas Jefferson’s election in 1800 offers an example: the peaceful transfer of power was anything but a foregone conclusion. Historian Lindsay M. Chervinsky discusses historic examples of sedition, violence, and mob action in the early decades of American history.

Join a Collective Video Response to "A Hard Road to Freedom"
2099-01-01 00:00 (Pacific/Niue) | Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, NC, United States
A Hard Road to Freedom: Positively Impacting the Present
View a video on the Black experience on North Carolina’s Outer Banks during the Civil War and early Reconstruction that includes period photography and drawings. Viewers ages 18-30 participate by answering lending input related to the video that will be turned into a video response to A Hard Road to Freedom and viewable on the museum’s website.
A Hard Road to Freedom informs viewers of the struggle of enslaved and formerly enslaved people that flocked to Hatteras Island and Roanoke Island, NC during the war to seek freedom, refuge, and work. Viewers can gain an understanding of a transitional and complex time in history where society was battling views of enslavement and freedom. The video brings to the fore the challenges faced by African Americans in the 1860s. It highlights the successes and failures of the Freedman’s Colony on Roanoke Island -where the Union Army was encamped and where more than 2,000 African Americans flocked between 1862-1867. The video also invites dialogue on how the past helps us understand the present and inform the future.
With the latter in mind, the 2022 Civic Season program includes a questionnaire created to illicit response and provoke thought on how, with knowledge, people can gain understanding and bring people closer to one another in an inclusive and humanitarian sense. The goal is to provoke self-reflection, inspire action, and examine the role history education can play by following this little-known chapter of history to modern day. In the end, the goal is to make a lasting personal and emotional impact that motivates positive action.
Questionnaire
This questionnaire will be posted on our website and open to viewers between the ages of 18-30. The criteria for choosing questionnaire answers to include in the subsequent video will be those that share positive ideas and reflective thought to make a difference in life.
Participants also will provide an image of themselves or one that they identify with in a positive way to be included with their answers that will be combined to create a collective video response to A Hard Road to Freedom. The response will be called Positively Impacting the Present and posted on the museum website with A Hard Road to Freedom.
1. How did this video affect you emotionally and intellectually and why?
2. What image(s) in the video moved you the most and why?
3. Do you feel the Freedman’s Colony was successful? Explain.
4. What could have been done to improve conditions in the Colony? How would your idea be implemented?
5. How can you reach your age demographic with your message?
6.How can this video influence your future actions?
7. Share an idea or plan to make a difference through a community program or a personal action based on equality, inclusion, and the specific needs of a community.
8. How does this video affect your views on the presentation of history in education?
9. Does social inequity affect your life? If so, how, and how have you managed?
10. Has history affected your life and how?
11. What role does language play in promoting inclusion?
12. What is the most important thing you learned by watching this video?
13. How can understanding the past inform the future?

Collect Stories of Your Community
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Memria.org, United States
Memria provides software and services to help organizations create story collection and story sharing projects for their communities

America We Want To Be: Founding Aspirations
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Living Room Conversations, United States
When the Declaration of Independence was written, not everyone was included in the famous statement about “pursuit of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” And while the aspirations expressed in our founding documents resonate for some more than others, there are many views regarding the degree to which we have advanced these aspirations for everyone. Some focus more on the great strides we have made; others point to how far we still need to go. Some believe that focusing on the past prevents forward progress; others think we still need to come to terms with our shadow side. This conversation guide walks folks through exploring this topic together.

Beyond the Battlefield: Redefining Trauma
2099-01-01 00:00 (Pacific/Niue) | Fort Monroe Authority, 30 Ingalls Rd. , Fort Monroe, VA, 23651, United States
Join us for the first installation of our new exhibit at the Casemate Museum — Beyond the Battlefield: Redefining Trauma.
Visit our museum and take a historical deep-dive into topics of mental health struggles in the military from the perspective of lived experiences at Fort Monroe found within our archival collection, beginning in May for #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth! Explore the lives of four individuals’ stories from 19th century Fort Monroe and how they coped with the trauma they suffered.
Save the dates for a special guest speaker series!
Visit us on Saturday, July 16, 2022 from 1-2 p.m. Karie Murrillo from Fleet & Family will talk about Mind, Body, Mental Fitness. This program will be at the Visitor & Education Center at Fort Monroe, 30 Ingalls Rd.
Exhibition Dates: May 14 through September 11, 2022
Cost: FREE!
Pick up your timed entry ticket for the Casemate Museum at the front desk of the Visitor and Education Center located at 30 Ingalls Road, Fort Monroe, VA 23651.

Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation Podcast
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Heritage Conservation Programs, University of Southern California, United States
Glimpse the future of heritage conservation from some of the people shaping it: graduate students at the University of Southern California. Why do we save places? For whom? Who decides? Hear how emerging leaders explore these and other issues through groundbreaking research deeply rooted in their personal passions and identities. You’ll learn about the “racing of space” in a Black enclave of Venice, CA; rebuilding the Old City of Aleppo after war; sites of racial violence and havens of substance use recovery; fictional history and acoustic heritage; and so much more. You’ll also hear how alums are transforming what we know as “historic preservation” into a people-centered practice that works for everyone. Catch up on the first two seasons and look forward to Season 3 in the fall! Listen at saveas.place or wherever you get your podcasts (search the full title, Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation).

Harriet Beecher Stowe and Slavery: Short Film
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Fourth Wall Films, United States
In this excerpt from the Emmy-nominated “Becoming Harriet Beecher Stowe”, Harriet is exposed to the realities of slavery during the years she lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. These life-changing experiences shape her as a person and prepare her to write her influential novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.

Track Legislation on Congress.gov
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Library of Congress, United States
Have you ever wanted to track the progress of a piece of legislation the same way you track a pizza delivery? Well you can! Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public–and features a bill tracker!

Youth Lobby Guide
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | American Battlefield Trust, United States
Written by youth, for the youth — the Youth Lobby Guide provides America’s young people with the knowledge they need to become active in the political process and ensure their voices are heard by their elected officials! Speaking from experience lobbying their senators and representatives in Congress to consider full funding for the American Battlefield Protection Program, members of the American Battlefield Trust’s Youth Leadership Team developed the Youth Lobby Guide as a set of simple steps. Passion and drive are at the root of the best conversions, and the guide will lead you through the rest!

How We Became America: The Untold History (Videos)
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | American Battlefield Trust, United States
How We Became America: The Untold History shines light on stories that don’t always make it into the classroom. This free collection of short, riveting history videos is designed for teachers and students alike but can be enjoyed by all. Untold is here to fill in the gaps of knowledge that exists outside of our history textbook and brings new stories to life.
While the initial series premiered last year, a new installment of 15 videos was introduced in 2022 with an eye toward the American Civil War. A conflict of immense depth, the Civil War is explored through several lenses in the Untold series. Viewers will learn about such things as the vital and diverse roles of women during the war, the emergence of new technologies and innovations, how the camera changed the way war was viewed by the mass public, the great weight of the two-minute Gettysburg Address, the evolution of medical kits and how they empowered medics in the field, how Native Americans chose sides in the war and why Black soldiers put their lives on the line to preserve the Union. And at no longer than three minutes, they are sure to hold even the shortest of attention spans.
How We Became America: The Untold History stems from the partnership between the American Battlefield Trust and the Driving Force Institute for Public Engagement (DFI), and this latest Civil War installment received generous financial support from the HTR Foundation.

Young People Shake Up Elections (History Proves It)
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Smithsonian National Museum of American History, United States
With and without the vote and throughout American history, young people have been a force to be reckoned with as they take action and stand in support of the issues that matter most. In 2020 this legacy will continue; millions of young people will be eligible to vote in American elections for the first time and countless more will likely participate in the electoral process in other ways. The Young People Shake Up Elections (History Proves It) video series from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History shares 10 stories of young people shaping and changing elections throughout American history.
The Videos
Each video features a cast of teens telling two stories of young people impacting American electoral politics and reflecting through critical dialogue on what it means to be a young person participating in elections today. The videos end with a prompt to spark conversation among your students about the public issues they care about and how they might take part in the upcoming elections.

Revolutionary Story Time: D is for Democracy
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | American Independence Museum, United States
Each Revolutionary Story Time provides you with a story, a little history, some activities and a lot of fun! Our latest edition features “D Is for Democracy: A Citizen’s Alphabet” by Elissa D. Grodin. This book is an alphabet book that explores many topics related to the creation and workings of American government and American society. Activities include holding your own election, creating a personal motto, and illustrating the preamble to the US Constitution.

Gerrymandering and Redistricting
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | New American History, United States
How might citizens help shape the future of Congressional representation and combat Gerrymandering?
The founders included “The People” in the redistricting process for a reason. Communities of Interest are one element of the process to create a fair district.

Online Exhibition "Chez Baldwin: An Exploration of the Life and Works of James Baldwin"
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, 1400 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 21560, United States
Chez Baldwin is a digital exhibition that explores James Baldwin’s life and works through the lens of his house in St. Paul de Vence, France, where he resided the last seventeen years of his life. Photographs of the interior and exterior of the house, a medieval villa, grace the pages of the section titled “Power of Place.” For Baldwin, his home in St. Paul was an enormously powerful place for writing, healing, and gathering.
The exhibition’s core also includes four additional stories that provide an introduction to Baldwin, insight into his international travels as well as details about his civil rights activism, and an overview of his literary career. Images of collection objects acquired from the house are integral to Chez Baldwin.
Also featured is a Learning Lab for teachers where a Baldwin literary achievements timeline, a listing of resources, links to NMAAHC public programs about Baldwin, and notes by authors who have recently written about Baldwin’s life in St. Paul can be found.

Racial Equity Resources
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Living Room Conversations, United States
The motto of Living Room Conversations is respect, relate, connect. We know that in the pursuit of racial equity, individual conversations are not the final stop in the journey. Conversations can help us better understand individual bias and racism, as well as consider how racism is part of our systems and institutions.
Our hope is that these conversation guides and resources will be one step in your process, and that you will use insights gained from the conversations to determine next steps for you and your community.

Living Room Conversations LIVE: Juneteenth
2099-01-01 00:00 UTC | Living Room Conversations, United States
In this Living Room Conversation LIVE, six Black community leaders gather to share what Juneteenth means to them, offer ways others can honor this day, and consider their vision for continued liberation.
Join us in this Living Room Conversations LIVE to witness a heartfelt conversation exploring themes of race, freedom, Juneteenth celebrations, and liberation.
