The National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta

While there are numerous institutions have explored the Civil Rights struggle, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights (NCCHR) explores both with an emphasis of the historic and thematic connections between the two. In so doing, the Civil Rights movement is considered in the context of worldwide struggles and actions for Human Rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed on December 10, 1948 as the General Assembly resolutions 217A by the United Nations. A description of the UN document can be found here. A room in the NCCHR is dedicated to delving into these Human Rights and the tragedy of lack of enforcement.

There is so much more, far too much to cover in this blog. The Freedom Riders exhibit honors the multiracial young people, many of them college students, who put their lives on the line in 1961. A lunch counter protest simulation lets visitors absorb how much violence and intimidation the protesters experienced. There is a special exhibit devoted to the 1963 March on Washington where MLK delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech.

Quarter million of us on August 28, 1963

The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell

The artwork of Norman Rockwell was regularly published in the Saturday Evening Post for 43 years. However, the publication had a strict editorial policy that black people could only be shown in subservient roles such as maids or laborers. His last entry in the Saturday Evening Post was a portrait of John F. Kennedy on the cover in December 1963. Frustrated by the policy, Mr. Rockwell moved to Look Magazine under the condition that he would have complete publication autonomy. The painting depicting Ruby Bridges walking to Elementary School in New Orleans escorted by U.S. Marshalls was published as the two page centerfold in the January 1964 issue of Look Magazine.