Link Friday: Digital History, Fred Shuttlesworth

Writing History in a Digital Age is an attempt to create an entirely “born digital” collection of historical writing, using open source methods and tools to create a volume of essays about how digital media is changing the way historians do what they do. Conceived and edited by Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, it’s an admirable attempt to push the historical profession forward into a new age of writing, evaluating, and publishing scholarly work. (And in that respect it reminds me of Roy Rosenzweig’s long ago experimental “hypertext issue” of the American Quarterly.) It’s open now through November 14th for peer review from any and all comers, so stop by to read and comment on some of the essays (maybe even the one penned by yours truly, “Building a Better Textbook”).

Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, a giant of the civil rights movement, died on Wednesday.  He was a key figure in the Birmingham, Alabama public protest campaign and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and he describes those years in absolutely riveting interviews in the Eyes on the Prize documentary. To see what he and so many others were fighting against, check out these examples of the city’s segregation ordinances on HERB.

Finally, on a lighter note, all the best protest  movements have a sense of humor about themselves. These examples of the Occupy Sesame Street meme on twitter and the web will make  you smile.

Last 5 posts by Ellen Noonan

• Five Years - October 11th, 2012
• Patriotic Celebrations - July 4th, 2012