Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Historian's Perspective: Winning the Vote: History of Voting Rights
[Free Registration/Login Required] Historian-authored three-part overview looks at the history of voting rights in America, touching on all the critical moments in American history when voting rights were first denied then granted to...
Read Works
Read Works: The Struggle for Equality
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about heroic African Americans including Rosa Parks, Langston Hughes, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, and Barbara Jordan. A question sheet is available to help students build...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Harcourt: Biographies: Linda Brown 1943
Read a brief summary of the life story of Linda Brown whose civil rights experiences were the basis for the famous historical case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
Scholastic
Scholastic News: Kids Who Fought for Change
Read a first-hand account of a child of the civil rights movement, and learn about the struggles of fighting for change.
PBS
This Far by Faith: Civil Rights to Black Power: A Faith Forged in Albany
This segment from This Far by Faith, a documentary film about spiritual journeys of African Americans, explores civil rights and the Albany Movement.
Read Works
Read Works: Famous African Americans Muhammad Ali: The Greatest
[Free Registration/Login Required] Biographical information about the famous boxer Muhammad Ali is contained in this passage. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and...
American Battlefield Trust
American Battlefield Trust: Civil War Biography: Robert Gould Shaw
Biographical profile of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who led the 54th Massachusetts, one of the first-formed African American regiments of Union soldiers.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Forward: Protest
An article that describes an NAACP meeting with Woodrow Wilson and excerpts from the film "Birth of a Nation." The text examines the gains and setbacks that mark the period of 1907 to 1917 for black Americans.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Separating: Making of African American Identity: V. 3
Article summarizes and provides links to audio and text versions of a speech made by Malcolm X one month after he left the Nation of Islam over a disagreement with its leader Elijah Muhammad. Includes questions for discussion.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Image of Community, 1939, Making of African American Identity
This resources illustrates how artist Augusta Savage (1892-1962) embodied the virtues of self-help, self-reliance, and close-knit cohesion of the black community in her sculpture Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp).
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Black Psyche, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
Woodcuts that explore the effects of segregation on the black psyche. Links to Elizabeth Catlett's "The Negro Woman," a series of fifteen linoleum cuts are provided, as well as a summary of their meaning.
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.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Theater, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
A manifesto and scenes from a play illustrating black protest in the theater. LeRoi Jones's short manifesto, "The Revolutionary Theatre," and Douglas Turner Ward's, " Day of Absence" encapsulates the mindset of many black writers and...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Images, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
This article review examples of black protest in art by Claude Clark and Charles White. Links to images and supplemental resources are provided here as well.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Community on Film, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
Excerpts from a 1941 film that depicts black and white communities in Kannapolis, NC, by H. Lee Waters (1902-1997). This two part film characterizes the differences in economy, community, and values of two separate cultures.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Community and Culture, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
An attempt to define community as a shared culture. In this article and review, critic, poet, and playwright Larry Neal (1937-1981) applies the principles of self-determination espoused by Stokely Carmichael and others to the arts and...
PBS
Africans in America: John Brown's Black Raiders
This page provides information on the black men who took part in John Brown's Raid. Includes quotes of associates referring to the men.
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: Separation and Power, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
An essay that examines the relationship between racial separation and power. In this essay Stokely Carmichael advocates for the coalescence of political and economic power within the black community in a way that liberates and insulates...
Thurgood Marshall Website
Thurgood Marshall: Supreme Court Justice and Civil Rights Advocate
A short biography of Thurgood Marshall, plus interviews with him, a link to articles about Justice Marshall and speeches by him, and a photo gallery.
Black Past
Black Past: Oscar De Priest (1871 1951)
Encyclopedia entry providing biographical details on the life of civil rights activist and politician, Oscar DePriest.
Mocomi & Anibrain Digital Technologies
Mocomi: Nelson Mandela Biography
Useful biographical information, achievements, and quotes of Nelson Mandela, South African civil rights leader.
Black Past
Black Past: Lulu B. White (1900 1957)
A biography of Lulu Belle Madison White. She was a prominent civil rights advocate with the NAACP in Texas.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: Black Troops in Union Blue
Activity on African American troops in the Union Army. Students read article for background information, answer questions, then analyze and write about the controversies in a piece to be published in a mock Frederick Douglass's Paper.