ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Freedom of Speech and Automatic Language
Contains plans for four lessons that use the "Pledge of Allegiance" to discuss the concepts of freedom of speech and automatic language. Ties in well with novels that deal with First Amendment rights such as Laurie Halse Anderson's...
PBS
Pbs News Hour Extra: Supreme Court Considers Free Speech and Protests
Hateful as these actions may seem to many people, do groups still have the right to protest under the First Amendment? Read about the case that the Supreme Court is considering involving protests at a military funeral.
Read Works
Read Works: Don't Know Much About Liberty
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read about the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in classifying and categorizing.
Read Works
Read Works: American Government the Bill of Rights Part Ii
[Free Registration/Login Required] This informational text passage explains a few parts of the Bill of Rights. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and establishes...
Teaching American History
Teaching American History: Speech on Veto of the Mc Carran Internal Security Act
Read this impassioned speech given by President Harry S. Truman in which he gave his justification for vetoing the McCarran Internal Security Act, claiming that it would help Communists rather than root them out, as the act intended.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Read about the March on Washington on August 28, 1963 where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Read about the 1963 protest that culminated with Dr. Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech.
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library: "The Four Freedoms"
In his pivotal inaugural address in January 1941, FDR readies the nations for what he sees as our inevitable involvement in WWII. Read the full text of this infamous speech to understand the nation's mindset at this point in history.
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Supreme Court: Times Film Corp. V. City of Chicago (1961)
Read the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in Times Film Corp. v. City of Chicago, a 1961 case that focused on free speech and obscenity.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Truman vs. Dewey
Read about one of the most surprising political defeats in American history. The election of 1948 between President Harry Truman and Thomas Dewey was supposed to be a landslide. Find out about Truman's stand on policies, and read about...
Northern Illinois University
Ishs: The Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917 and 1918 [Pdf]
From the 1994 spring volume of the Illinois Historical Journal comes this interesting and somewhat shocking account of how those who did not agree with the U.S. involvement in World War I were treated. Read how the basic right of freedom...
Boston College
Boston College: Feiner v. New York
Read the text of court opinions regarding the 1951 Feiner v. New York Case. Includes footnotes to Justice Hugo Black's opinion.
University of Maryland
Voices of Democracy: John F. Kennedy, "Address: "The President and Press" 1961
Read President John F. Kennedy's speech, "The President and the Press," which he delivered before the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA) on April 27, 1961. In this speech, he attempted to explain and justify the Bay of Pigs...
University of Missouri
Exploring Constitutional Conflicts: Exploring Constitutional Law
Although the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, its interpretation is open to many opinions, causing great controversies. Students can read the Constitution as well as the many issues that surround the document. If that proves...
Boston College
Boston College: Schenck v. United States
Read the decision of this landmark Supreme Court decision involving the 1917 Espionage Act Schenck v. United States (1919).
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: The First Amendment
This resource presents lessons on the First Amendment. It contains many resources for use with children, and links to primary source documents.
Other
Freedom Forum: First Amendment Struggles & Triumphs
Find out how the First Amendment serves citizens in real life by reading about Daniel Ellsberg, Mary Beth Tinker, and Alton T. Lemon, all of whom were principal litigants in landmark Supreme Court cases regarding the freedom of expression.
Digital History
Digital History: A Bill of Rights? [Pdf]
There was no Bill of Rights attached to the original Constitution, but it was a topic of discussion. Read a reconstruction of speeches of delegates to the Constitutional Convention who debated for and against the inclusion of a way to...
CommonLit
Common Lit: "I Have a Dream" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to over 250,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In this speech, King discusses racial...
Nobel Media AB
The Nobel Prize: The Nobel Peace Prize 1975
Read about the Soviet nuclear physicist, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (1921-1989 CE), who received the 1974 Nobel Peace Prize for his "Struggle for human rights, for disarmament, and for cooperation between all nations." This website is...
Other
Behind the Scenes: The Mc Carran Internal Security Act
Read about the origins and impact of the McCarran Internal Security Act which President Harry Truman called "the greatest danger to freedom of speech, press and assembly, since the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798." Find out how a fear of...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Arsenal of Democracy
Although Americans remained isolationist in their thinking, President Roosevelt understood that the European allies needed help against the Germans. Read about the incremental ways America became involved in World War II in Europe...