Library of Congress
Loc: Protection of the American Citizen
Around 1877, there was a rise in segregation and obstacles were imposed to keep African Americans from voting. Bishop B.W. Arnett spoke out against these laws in a pamphlet entitled "The Black Laws". Read the entire pamphlet or select...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Read about the action of Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, triggering a massive bus boycott led by Martin Luther King, Jr. The boycott became the impetus for a Supreme Court ruling that...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: The Divided South
Overview of the challenges African Americans in the South faced and attempts to overcome the rising issues of discrimination and segregation after Reconstruction.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Civil Rights for Kids: African American Civil Rights Movement
Kids learn about the history of the African-American Civil Rights Movement including segregation, Jim Crow laws, protests, Martin Luther King, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act on this site.
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Supreme Court Rules on School Desegregation
This thoughtful unit explores the history of school desegregation legislation, including a discussion of the impact of the Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education decisions. A six-week plan of lessons, along with other sample...
The Henry Ford
Henry Ford Museum: Rosa Parks Bus
An absolutely fascinating tale of the actual bus that Rosa Parks was riding in that sparked the Civil Rights Movement. Information on the quest to restore this bus is shared.
Curated OER
History Matters: Separate but Equal: The Plessy v. Ferguson Case
Read the judgment of Supreme Court justice, Henry Billings Brown, who wrote for the majority in the Plessy v Ferguson decision that codified the idea of "separate but equal" in the American justice system until it was overturned by Brown...
Read Works
Read Works: Civil Rights on a City Bus
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read about Rosa Parks and her non-violent protest of segregation laws in the South. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Plessy vs. Ferguson Case
Article provides an overview and detailed facts about the impact of the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson case on racial segregation.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Civil Rights for Kids: Glossary and Terms
Kids learn about Civil Rights glossary and terms including segregation, Jim Crow laws, disabilities, apartheid, suffrage, poll tax, and more. Definitions and words you need to know.
Digital History
Digital History: Plessy v. Ferguson
A very thorough explanation of the famous Supreme Court decision about Plessy v. Ferguson. It upheld the idea of "separate but equal," which was in effect until Brown v Board of Education in 1954. See who opposed the decision, and read...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: The Civil Rights Movement: 1919 1960s
Article provides an overview of the Civil Rights Movement in America between 1919 and the 1960s with detailed discussion on racial equality, nonviolence and passive resistance, and segregation.
Library of Congress
Loc: Photographs of Signs Enforcing Racial Discrimination
Photographs taken in the 1940s of various public places that had posted signs for "White" and "Colored."
Scholastic
Scholastic: The Progresssive Era
This Grolier On-line Encyclopedia article hits the main points of the Progressive Era stretching from the 1890s until just after the end of World War I.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement:african Americans and the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps
One of the New Deal programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps, provided over a quarter of a million young black men with jobs and was thus another arena of the struggle for greater equality. This lesson explores that struggle and its...
OpenStax
Open Stax: Contesting Futures: America in 1960s: Civil Rights Movement Marches On
An examination of the civil rights movement of African Americans in the 1960s. Discusses the different forms of protest, the influence of Martin Luther King, Jr., the rise of Black Power, the Black Panthers, and Malcolm X. This is...
![Digital History: Equality Postponed [Pdf] Website](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Digital History: Equality Postponed [Pdf] Website")
Digital History
Digital History: Equality Postponed [Pdf]
Read the background of the controversial Supreme Court decision in the Plessy v Ferguson case. Follow the arguments for and against "separate but equal." [pdf]
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Plessy vs. Ferguson" by Jessica Mc Birney
A learning module that begins with "Plessy vs. Ferguson" by Jessica McBirney accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online through free...