Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Supreme Court Rules on School Desegregation
This thoughtful unit explores the history of school desegregation legislation, including a discussion of the impact of the Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education decisions. A six-week plan of lessons, along with other sample...
US National Archives
Our Documents: Desegregation of the Armed Forces(1948)
Read a brief overview of the history behind this executive order that integrated the segregated military and then read a copy of the complete original text.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
Jfk Presidential Library: Integrating Ole Miss: A Civil Rights Milestone
This site lets visitors learn about the integration of the University of Mississippi firsthand through the actual letters, recorded telephone conversations, and images of those who made history.
Google Cultural Institute
Google Cultural Institute: Desegregation at Little Rock Central High School
When state and local authorities fail to uphold the Federal Court orders for integration at Central High School, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to enforce those orders. Using an array of photos and primary source...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Seeing Integration From Different Viewpoints
What does the world look like through someone else's eyes? Guide learners in using colorful paper glasses to examine a story of school desegregation from multiple perspectives.
Other
Watson.org: African American History: School Integration
A history of the attempt to integrate schools in Little Rock, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Boston.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Ambiguity of Integration: Making of African American Identity
A painting and a photograph illustrating some of the problems posed by racial integration. Norman Rockwell's illustration is compared to the experiences of Ruby Bridges.
PBS
Pbs: American Experience: Eyes on the Prize: School Desegregation, 1957 1962
As part of a much larger site from PBS' American Experience's series, Eyes on the Prize, look through this multifaceted site that traces the resistance to implementing school desegregation ordered by the Supreme Court and shows the...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Desegregation Integration, Making of African American Identity: V.3
This resource presents James Farmer (1920-1999), a major figure in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, and the distinction he draws between integration and desegregation, two terms often used interchangeably and often confused.
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: Lampooning Injustice: Paul Conrad and Civil Rights
In this lesson, 11th graders look at the work of Paul Conrad, a political cartoonist, who often explored issues around civil rights, including Brown v. Board of Education and school desegregation. Includes background information for the...
Other
Learning for Justice: Brown v. Board: An American Legacy
An article celebrating the 50th anniversary of the famous Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision. Features background information, a timeline of integration of schools, interviews, and links to many other activities and resources covering...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Integrating Central High Melba Pattillo Story
This is the story of Melba Pattillo, one of the nine African American students who were the first to enter Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her story is very informative, and the site ends with a reflection question of how...
Other
Global Nonviolent Action Database: The Albany Movement
Learn comprehensive details about the Albany Movement which was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance and its goal which was the enfranchisement of the black voter and full integration of all public facilities. Although...
Digital History
Digital History: Simple Justice
Follow the civil rights quest for integrated schools from the beginning in 1849 through the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. the Topeka Board of Education and the struggle that ensued for decades following in the most reluctant...
Read Works
Read Works: School Colors
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about desegregation and the experiences of the Little Rock Nine. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
My Hero Project
My Hero: Ruby Bridges
Chosen as a Freedom Hero, Ruby Bridges faced the incredible task of integrating an elementary school during the Civil Rights Movement.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Documenting Brown: Brown v Board of Education, 1955
The Supreme Court's opinion in Brown II reflects the struggle between federal and state governments on how and when school desegregation would occur.
A&E Television
History.com: Greensboro Sit Ins
The Greensboro Sit-In was a critical turning point in Black history and American history, bringing the fight for civil rights to the national stage. Its use of nonviolence inspired the Freedom Riders and others to take up the cause of...
Digital History
Digital History: To the Heart of Dixie
In the early 1960s civil rights activists put the ban on segregation to the test. In 1961, "Freedom riders," boarded buses headed south to test the federal ban on segregated travel. And in 1962, the University of Mississippi was ordered...
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Supreme Court: Swann v. Board of Education (1971)
The decision for Swann vs. Board of Education of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, concerning the integration and desegration of public schools.
Library of Congress
Loc: With an Even Hand, Brown vs. Board at Fifty
A special exhibit at the Library of Congress to commemorate the Brown vs. Board of Education 50 year anniversary.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Civil Rights Movement
This lesson on the Civil Rights movement is organized into three sections: "Identifying the Need for Change," "Ordinary People in the Civil Rights Movement," and "Historic Places in the Civil Rights Movement."
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Civil Rights Special Collection
Multimedia collection of video, primary text documents and audio on Civil Rights, especially Brown vs. Board of Education.
NBC
Nbc Learn: Finishing the Dream: 1962 1963: Standoffs
A collection of archival video clips highlighting the efforts of African Americans to fight racial segregation in education. Looks at the struggle of James H. Meredith to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962, and the resulting...