Atlanta History Center
What if YOU Lived During Jim Crow?
Young historians envision what life was like for African Americans living in the Jim Crow South through hands-on, experiential activities.
Digital Public Library of America
The Fifteenth Amendment
Fifteen primary sources provide a context for a study of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The packet captures the excitement for the changes promised by the amendment as well as the backlash against it.
Curated OER
Reconstruction: "Healing Wounds, Mending Fences"
Students examine material on the Civil War Era to develop an understanding of the major issues that were resolved. This six lessons unit provides a closer glimpse into our nation's political and ethical history.
Digital Public Library of America
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their eyes Were Watching God has been highly praised and severely criticized for its depiction of African American folk culture. A set of primary source materials, including photographs, articles, essays, and...
Teaching Tolerance
Civil Rights Activity Book
An activity booklet includes a timeline of the movement, a song, and various informational reading passages on leaders, events, and the Civil Rights Memorial in Washington DC. Reading response questions and word puzzles are sure to...
Curated OER
Sanctuary: Quail Island Banks
Learners explore visual arts by examining a diorama in class. In this geography lesson, students examine an island off the coast of New Zealand and identify the physical attributes of the land. Learners answer study questions...
Curated OER
The Cotillion or One Good Bull is Half the Herd, a Black Arts Movement novel by John O. Killens
Students study late twentieth-century African American satirical literature as well as its cultural antecedents. they analyze and discuss, within the contexts of race and gender, the social criticism of the middle classes presented by...
Curated OER
OK in Oklahoma? All-Black Communities
Young scholars read to discover the African-American migration to Oklahoma following the Civil War and the eventual settlements of thirty-two all-black towns. To present their findings, students will write position papers and participate...
Curated OER
Integration of Education
Students explore the history of Civil Rights and how the struggle for Civil Rights and the Second Reconstruction, transformed society and politics in the United States in the 1950s. Then they identify why American Schools are integrated...
Curated OER
Negro Leagues Baseball and the Law
Students examine historical law and its impact on Negro Leagues Baseball and Black Americans. Students identify and research laws contributing to segregation or integration, and choose one law to reenact in a historically accurate manner.
Exploratorium
Far Out Corners
Construct a three-dimensional optical illusion when your class is exploring vision and how the eye and brain work together. Three concave corners are mounted inside of a black box, but as a light is shined upon them, they appear to be...
Curated OER
"Logs of Straw: Dendrochronology"
Students act as dendrochonologists working to reconstruct a 50 year climatic history. They make a personal timeline.
Curated OER
Women and the Civil War Era
Learners explore feminism and explore the different roles of women and how they have changed over time. They read books about women in this period and evaluate the past, observe the present, and make assumptions about the future.
Curated OER
Zora Neale Hurston:Fighting Jim Crow through the All-Black Community
Students explain the importance of equality of opportunity and equal protection of the law as a characteristic of American society and evaluate the validity and credibility of different historical interpretations.
C-SPAN
14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause
Two Supreme Court cases, Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education take center stage in a lesson about the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Class members research both cases to compare and contrast the rulings.
Curated OER
Jim Crow Lesson Plan
Jackie Robinson's attempt to earn a spot on the 1946 Brooklyn Dodgers provides learners with an opportunity to examine the Jim Crow laws and revisit issues of segregation and integration. "The Unconquerable Doing the Impossible: Jackie...
Curated OER
AFRICAN-AMERICAN HOMESTEADERS
Students analyze the factors that inhibited and fostered African American attempts to improve their lives during Reconstruction, the role of class, race, gender, and religion in western communities, and the challenges diverse people...
Curated OER
The Jim Crow Era
Students examine how African-Americans were affected by the Great Depression. In this African-American history lesson plan, students conduct independent research on the social conditions of the time period using the suggested resources....
K20 LEARN
The Bank Of Justice: Civil Rights In The US
To launch a study of racial segregation and integration, young historians first watch a news video about a prom in Georgia that was first integrated in 2013. They then compare the goals in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to King's "I Have a...
American Institute of Physics
Historical Detective: Edward Alexander Bouchet and the Washington-Du Bois Debate over African-American Education
Young scientists meet Edward Alexander Bouchet who, in 1876, was the first African American to receive a PhD in Physics. This two-part lesson first looks at the debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois about the type of...
Curated OER
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Students examine the impeachment proceedings of Andrew Johnson. In this U.S. Constitution lesson, students listen to their instructor present a lecture on the details of Andrew Johnson's impeachment and Reconstruction. Students...
Curated OER
Traveling Southern Style: A Lesson on the Jim Crow Laws
Third graders create a poster of a travel route. In this discrimination lesson, 3rd graders read The Gold Cadillac and use it to discuss the problems African Americans faced while traveling south in the 1950's. Students compare three...
Curated OER
Latinos and the Fourteenth Amendment: A Primary Document Activity
Students explore Latinos and the Fourteenth Amendment. In this government and law lesson, students analyze the ruling in Hernandez v. Texas. Students predict how the United States would be different if the court had made an alternated...
Huntington Library
The Poetry and Prose of Langston Hughes
Eleventh graders discover the poetry of Langston Hughes. In this social issues lesson plan, 11th graders experience the views of Langston Hughes. Students read Hughes' poetry and discuss the basic theme. Students evaluate the political,...