Recovering Democracy Archives
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Susan B. Anthony, ca. 1870Theodore Roosevelt on a camel
Betty FordEdith AbbottRose Winslow 1916
Harry T. BurnO.O. Howard
D. Pitman-Hughes and G. SteinemPaul Robeson Leading Moore Shipyard Workers in Singing the Star Spangled Banner, Oakland, CA, September 1942
Yelena BonnerBetty FordSusan B. Anthony, ca. 1870Theodore Roosevelt on a camel

Mission

The first mission of the project is to recover speeches and make them accessible to students, educators, and those interested in the voices of U.S. political culture. The second mission is to provide educators with the resources they need to incorporate these speeches and debates into their classrooms. The third mission is to provide users a more expansive vision of democratic engagement and the history of political and cultural ideas in the United States.

As a speech recovery project, RDA is committed to collecting and digitizing seldom remembered speeches from U.S. citizens as well as international orators speaking in the United States. These speeches can derive from anti-war movements, civil rights movements, educational movements, environmental movements, GLBTQ movements, labor movements, religious movements, women’s movements, and other social change and social resistance movements. The project will also feature oratory from political and community leaders whose speeches are seldom remembered in U.S. history, as well as lesser-known speeches of celebrated orators. RDA recovers and authenticates these speeches to make them widely accessible through this open sourced website. RDA also provides important contextual information about each speech. When paired with the project’s teaching-learning materials, RDA offers a unique resource for high school and university educators to incorporate speeches into the classroom in meaningful and innovative ways.

Mission

The mission of the Recovering Democracy Archives (RDA) is to create a digital archive of lesser-known but important public speeches that remain hidden within the vaults of archival repositories or in obscure anthologies and historical publications. RDA is particularly focused on recovering speeches delivered by those challenging barriers that restrict equitable participation in civic life or promote the expansion of civic deliberation.

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Submissions

RDA invites submissions of recovered speeches that fulfill its archival mission from educators, researchers, students, and other contributors. Submissions should include a recovered speech, historical context, and information about copyright restrictions. For more on submission requirements contact Shawn J. Parry-Giles, Ph.D..

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EDITORS

Shawn J. Parry-Giles, Ph.D.
Skye de Saint Felix, Ph.D.
Fielding Montgomery, Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Communication
University of Maryland

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CONTACT

Shawn J. Parry-Giles, Ph.D.
University of Maryland
Department of Communication
2130 Skinner Building
College Park, MD 20742-7635
301-405-6527 | spg@umd.edu

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Questions and Comments

Please contact Skye de Saint Felix 
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