Unit Plan
The Newberry Library

Newberry Library: Anti Statism in u.s. History

For Students 9th - 10th
Newberry Library digital collections presents a lesson using primary sources from which students explore the concept of "anti-state" sentiment and examine the reasons writers and politicians protest the authority of the federal...
Primary
Calisphere: University of California Libraries

University of California: Calisphere: 1950s 1970s: Struggles for Social Justice

For Students 9th - 10th
The protests of the 1960s and 70s are highlighted in original photographs. The informational text and overview discuss what groups were fighting for social justice, what the issues were and how these groups made their voices heard.
Primary
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

For Students 9th - 10th
This oral history transcript from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute documents the tumultuous life and leadership of the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, who survived a bomb attack that destroyed his home.
Article
Stanford University

Martin Luther King, Jr. And the Global Freedom Struggle

For Students 9th - 10th
This article takes readers through the events leading to the expansion of the Civil Rights Movement to the north through a major non-violent campaign protesting unfair housing practices in Chicago.
Website
George Washington University

George Washington University: Tiananmen Square, 1989, the Declassified History

For Students 9th - 10th
An Electronic Briefing Book on the Tiananmen Square protests that is divided into five sections: Student Demonstrations in 1985-86, On the Brink, The Crackdown, The Aftermath, and Ten Years after Tiananmen. Site includes a collection of...
Lesson Plan
Center For Civic Education

Center for Civic Education: Black History Month

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A collection of six lessons for Grades 5 and up for Black History Month. The lesson plans explore the use of nonviolence in history, particularly with respect to the civil rights movement and African American history.
Primary
George Mason University

George Mason University: Between the Wars: Wwi and the Crusade for Conformity

For Students 9th - 10th
The text of 3 U.S. Supreme Court cases on Free Speech during WWI. These cases deal with literature criticising the U.S. involvement in WWI. Includes the text of the Espionage Act under which war protesters were arrested.
Handout
University of Groningen

American History: Documents: The Virginia Resolution of 1798

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource presents the full text of the Virginia Resolution of 1798, in which the General Assembly of the State of Virginia protests the enactment of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.
Website
Other

African National Congress: Resistance and Negotiation [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
A scholarly discussion of Gandhi's strategy of passive resistance for the people of South Africa in their struggle for equal rights.
Primary
Yale University

Avalon Project: Alien and Sedition Acts

For Students 9th - 10th
This timeline provides links to the texts of the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions that protested them.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Teachers: 1963 March on Washington and Its Impact (Lesson Plan)

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A lesson plan that examines the events and conditions that led to the 1963 March on Washington and the impact of the march on civil rights in the United States. Students learn about the concept of "separate but equal" and the philosophy...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Asking, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
Attempts by African Americans to petition for their civil rights are described within this resource. This include attempts by the black citizens of Charleston to ask for civil rights by petition rather than demand them with protest.
Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Sncc and Core

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), two groups that played pivotal roles in organizing nonviolent protests during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Boycotting, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
A memoir describing the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott by Jo Ann Gibson Robinson titled, "The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It." This text describes the importance of African American women in initiating the well-known...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Poetry, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
This study of black protest poems from the early part of the twentieth century through the late sixties can provide insight into the issues African Americans faced during that time and the ways they responded to them. Works from seven...
Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Images, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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.
Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the 1963 protest that culminated with Dr. Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech.
Lesson Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Connecting: Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Teachers 9th - 10th
An article that makes a case for black engagement with the American political system. This resource provides a link to Bayard Rustin's "From Protest to Politics", where he encourages African Americans to begin a "revolution through the...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Theater, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Arming, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource offers a memoir that examines the role of armed self-defense in the civil rights movement. An excerpt from the text "Negroes with Guns", by Robert Williams is made available here, describing his approach towards civil...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Reasoning, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
Brochures and a speech from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference describing the organization's philosophy, its strategy, and its position on voting rights, civil disobedience, and segregation.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Voting: Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
The efforts to secure African American voting rights in Mississippi are described within this resource. Anne Moody's, "Coming of Age in Mississippi", a four-part memoir recounts her childhood and young adulthood in racist rural Mississippi.
Website
Other

Pro Democracy Protests in China

For Students 9th - 10th
This collection of solicit papers by China specialists and on-the-spot observers of the extraordinary events that exploded across the breadth of China in the spring of 1989 view the prodemocracy movement in the provinces as well as in...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Stories of Freedom and Justice

For Students 9th - 10th
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the student sit-ins at the Greensboro, NC. lunch counter, the NAMH has produced this excellent collection of resources centered on the theme of freedom and justice. Experience this important part of...