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This is an important scholarly journal for African American history and a great resource to keep in mind.

The other great thing about having this website, every year they set the official theme. At my after-school program we use the ASALH theme for our own Gallery of Black History every year, this year's theme will be "The history of Black Economic Empowerment." I think the themes are helpful to focus study because there is so many different people and ideas you could potentially cover, it can be overwhelming. Last year I liked that they incorporated Obama and the centennial of the NAACP.

It is always helpful to see what books and other kinds of classroom resources are available. Particularly, these kinds of resources are approved by the organization, so you know that they are quality. Even if you don't want to buy them, getting the names of the books, so you can get them from the library for free is always useful.

This website was created and maintained by the Virginia Center for Digital History, the Carter Woodson Center for African and Afro-American Studies, and the University of Virginia. You can contact these folks about the project via email.

The site emphasizes a great holistic approach to studying an African American community in Virginia after the fall of the Confederate States of America and up through the first half of the twentieth century. They include oral histories, maps of Charlottesville, census reports, city records, political materials, personal papers of residents, newspapers (including two African American papers), as well as images.

For educators, I think this might be a great way to teach Jim Crow and/or Reconstruction in the South through exploratory web quests. If the students have access to computers in a school, they could investigate the website at their own pace and answer essential questions or pose questions themselves for others to answer. Also, teachers could use the primary sources as classroom aides for their students to examine.