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Lesson Plan
Newseum

The Freedom to Make a Change

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
As part of a study of the First Amendment, young historians research instances when individuals or groups used the First Amendment to change the United State's laws or policies. Teams are each assigned a different case study. With the...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Fannie Lou Hamer and Voting Rights

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
To understand the challenges Black voters faced in Mississippi, middle schoolers first gather background information about Fannie Lou Hamer and then read her testimony given during the 1964 Democratic Nation Convention. After a...
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Lesson Plan
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University of Arkansas

Promises Denied

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
"Promises Denied," the second instructional activity in a unit that asks learners to consider the responsibilities individuals have to uphold human rights, looks at documents that illustrate the difficulty the US has had trying to live...
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Lesson Plan
1
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Teaching Tolerance

Parallels Between Mass Incarceration and Jim Crow

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Is history repeating itself? A riveting lesson examines the parallels between mass incarceration in the U.S. and the Jim Crow Laws of the past. Academics review Jim Crow Laws and compare them to mass incarcerations of African Americans....
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Lesson Plan
iCivics

I Can’t Wear What?

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Can schools ban t-shirts picturing musical groups or bands? Your young citizens will find out with this resource, which includes a summary of a United States Supreme Court case from the 1960s about a similar dispute over students wearing...
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Activity
Digital Public Library of America

The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A primary source set of photographs, videos, newspaper articles, and FBI reports provides insight into race relations during the 1960s, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing, and the murder of Emmitt Till. Designed to be used to...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

LBJ and Voting Rights

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Challenges to voting rights is not a new thing. Using President Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 "The American Promise" speech on voting rights as a starting point, young historians research current voting rights laws and challenges.
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Lesson Plan
North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies

Journey of Reconciliation, 1947

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
After examining the Jim Crow laws and reading primary source materials about the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, class members create historical markers that honor riders and their journey.
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Lesson Plan
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Teaching Tolerance

Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Legal Action: The Supreme Court

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
A social justice lesson focuses on the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia which struck down laws that prohibited marriages between African Americans and white Americans. The lesson begins with class members examining a photograph of...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Government and Your Right To Vote: Voting Rights In America

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Gaining voting rights was difficult over the course of decades, but the debate over who should actually be allowed to cast a ballot remains. Scholars explore the history of the struggle, including the fifteenth and nineteenth amendments,...
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Interactive
2
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Judicial Learning Center

The Players in the Courtroom

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Courtrooms are complicated. In addition to the many rules, there are a number of people whose jobs are not very clear to the casual courtroom observer. With the resource, individuals identify some of these roles and review more...
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Interactive
2
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Judicial Learning Center

Your Day in Court

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Whether out of choice or necessity, people want to know what will happen on a typical day in court. A helpful lesson walks scholars in the field of criminology through the trial process from opening statements to the final verdict. 
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Interactive
2
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Judicial Learning Center

The Appeal Process

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Why doesn't the Supreme Court hear testimony from witnesses? How do they complete an entire proceeding in less than two hours? A helpful lesson guides scholars of criminology through these and other questions by explaining how appeals...
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Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Egalitarian America

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
What does a true American represent? Scholars investigate the equal rights era of the 1960s and 1970s in the 20th installment of a 22-part series on American history. Using photographic, magazine, written, and video evidence, groups...
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Lesson Plan
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Judicial Learning Center

Judicial Independence: What’s Wrong with This Court?

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Why is it important for judges to operate independently of politics or other branches of government? Scholars ponder the question as they examine video clips, case studies, excerpts of the US Constitution, and an interactive computer...
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Unit Plan
Film Education

Gone with the Wind Study Guide

For Students 9th - 12th
The 1939 Oscar-winning Gone with the Wind, is the focus of an informational packet designed to be used with a viewing of the film. As part of their analysis, media students respond to a series of discussion points about the influence of...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

The Freedmen's Bureau: Success or Failure?

For Teachers 6th - 9th Standards
What is freedom? The United States grappled with the question at the end of the Civil War after four million enslaved people were freed. Using circulars and images from the Reconstruction period, individuals examine how successful the...
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Handout
PBS

Democracy in Action: Freedom Riders

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
This is a must-have resource for every social studies teacher covering the civil rights movement. Through an engaging video and detailed viewing guide, young historians learn about the Freedom Riders, and discover how everyday...
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Lesson Plan
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Facing History and Ourselves

Emmett Till: Choosing to Remember

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Mamie Till, the mother of Emmett Till and civil rights activist, believed that her son's murder was the last straw before public outrage over racial injustice spilled over into the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century. A history...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Blockbusting: Social and Economic Change through Real Estate

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
"Redlining," "Blockbusting," and "White Flight" may not be terms familiar to young historians. Here's a lesson that introduces middle schoolers to these terms and the actions associated with them. Class members examine a series of...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Launching the Text: Building Background Knowledge of the Jim Crow South

For Teachers 8th Standards
Pictures and photographs help build background knowledge about a topic. Scholars participate in a gallery walk to learn more about the Jim Crow era of US history and the desegregation of schools following Brown v. Board of Education....
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PPT
National Woman's History Museum

Women's Suffrage Movement

For Students 9th - 12th
The National Women's History Museum offers a 20-slide presentation that details the history of the Women's Suffrage Movement from its creation in the 1830s through the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.
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Activity
Constitutional Rights Foundation

Suppressing the Vote

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Voting rights have expanded over time, but some voters are still being suppressed. A thought-provoking resource explores the history of voter suppression in the US and efforts to remove roadblocks to voting. Young historians learn about...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Extending Suffrage to Women

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Votes for women! The activity highlights the push for the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote. High school scholars learn how the Fifteenth Amendment giving African American men the right to vote helped to spark the...

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