Trials, Triumphs, and Transformations: Tennesseans’ Search for Citizenship, Community, and Opportunity

Tennessee’s history between the end of the American Civil War (1865) and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act often gets ignored. This historic period offers insights into the transformations that took place, including challenges and achievements, as Tennesseans searched for citizenship, community and opportunity. Citizenship—what that has meant and how that has changed—is at the heart of this digital exploration into Tennessee history and culture. This digital collection’s objects, songs, photographs, paintings, and documents often reveal the challenges faced by Tennesseans as they pursued the rights and benefits of citizenship.

Collection available at dsi.mtsu.edu/trials

Unique Content
A curated collection of rare, hidden, and unique items uncovered from collaborative partnerships including universities, public libraries, state and local archives, museums, and historical societies across the state. The collection includes interpretive layers such as scholarly essays, lesson plans, interactive visualizations and metadata records.

Produced by the James E. Walker Library, in partnership with the Center for Historic Preservation and funded, in part, by the Tennessee Board of Regents Office of Academic Affairs and the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, a unit of the National Park Service.

Project Update: This scholarly digital research collection was awarded Honorable Mention for the Garfinkel Prize in Digital Humanities at the American Studies Association Conference in November 2018.

A visual copy (PDF) of the collection introduction is available for download here.