Read Works
Read Works: Boys Only Girls Only!
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text debating single-sex schools. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
PBS
Pbs: Eyes on the Prize: "No School in Our State Will Be Integrated"
In this 1962 speech, Mississippi governor Ross Barnett defies the Supreme Court's order to admit James Meredith to the University of Mississippi claiming the federal government was interfering in a state matter.
Other
International Civil Rights Center: Explore History: Civil Rights Movement
In 1960, four students at North Carolina A&T University decided to protest segregation laws by staging a sit-in at the Woolworth store lunch counter. Their action sparked a nation-wide protest by students that spread from just...
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Supreme Court: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1955)
Transcript of the Supreme Court's opinion in the 1955 Brown II case decision, which placed increased emphasis on implementing the 1954 Brown decision to desegregate public schools, thus overturning the 1896 decision in Plessy vs....
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred D. Taylor
Selected (8) reading passages (grades 6-10) to pair with "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred D. Taylor. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry tells the story of the Logan family combating racial tension and segregation in Mississippi during...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Barbara Johns
The amazing story of Barbara Johns, the 16-year-old who called a strike and walk out to protest the overcrowding of Robert Russa Moton High School.
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Race and the Community
Discusses the issues of cultural and racial differences and how these should be addressed in schools. Includes objectives and lesson activities.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Seeing Integration From Different Viewpoints
What does the world look like through someone else's eyes? Guide learners in using colorful paper glasses to examine a story of school desegregation from multiple perspectives.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980: Massive Resistance and the Little Rock Nine
Read about resistance to desegregation and the nine African American students who dared to integrate Little Rock's Central High School.
National Women’s History Museum
National Women's History Museum: Little Rock Nine
Imagine showing up to your first day of school and being greeted by an angry mob and the National Guard. Learn what happened to the "Little Rock Nine".
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Documenting Brown: Mendez v Westminster
This 1946 federal court ruling marked a victory for Mexican Americans and chipped away at the "separate but equal" doctrine, declaring segregated schools based on national origin unconstitutional.
Other
Louis D. Brandeis School of Law: Harlan's Great Dissent
An article from the University of Louisville about Justice John Harlan, who courageously cast the sole dissenting vote in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, which approved of the principles of separate but equal.
Library of Virginia
Virginia Memory: Virginians Respond
In this lesson, students use primary sources to explore how Virginians responded to the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court in 1954 that called for an end to school segregation. They look in particular at Virginia's...
The Newberry Library
Newberry Library: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Urban North
Learning resource using primary sources in which students study de facto segregation in the North following the Civil War and examine how African-Americans responded to segregation and racism compared to the South.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Documenting Brown: Gong Lum v Rice
The Supreme Court's 1927 opinion in Gong Lum v. Rice affirmed legalized school segregation.
Other
Learning for Justice: Brown v. Board: An American Legacy
An article celebrating the 50th anniversary of the famous Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision. Features background information, a timeline of integration of schools, interviews, and links to many other activities and resources covering...
Library of Congress
Loc: African American Odyssey: The Civil Rights Era
This two-part feature on African American history offers an in-depth look at the events of the 1960's civil rights movement. Discusses voting rights, laws, military segregation, freedom rides, sit-ins and the NAACP. Includes historic...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Civil Rights Movement
This lesson on the Civil Rights movement is organized into three sections: "Identifying the Need for Change," "Ordinary People in the Civil Rights Movement," and "Historic Places in the Civil Rights Movement."
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Brown Reactions: Judge Brady
This 1954 statement from Tom Brady, a founder of the White Citizens' Council movement, expresses opposition to the Brown decision.
University of California
History Project: Chicago Race Riot, 1919
This lesson plan for high school students explores the race riot in Chicago in the summer of 1919. Students are asked to explain the reasons for the riot and address the questions in the lesson plan. Included are excerpts from 26 primary...
Digital History
Digital History: To the Heart of Dixie
In the early 1960s civil rights activists put the ban on segregation to the test. In 1961, "Freedom riders," boarded buses headed south to test the federal ban on segregated travel. And in 1962, the University of Mississippi was ordered...
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Brown vs Board of Education
Comprehensive overview and detailed facts about Brown vs Board of Education, a 1954 Supreme Court case won by NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall against school segregation.
Thomson Reuters
Find Law: u.s. Supreme Court: Swann v. Board of Education (1971)
The decision for Swann vs. Board of Education of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, concerning the integration and desegration of public schools.
University of Missouri
Famous Trials: Brown v Topeka Board of Ed. (1951)
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka is widely known as the Supreme Court decision that declared segregated schools to be "inherently unequal." The story behind the case, including that of the 1951 trial in a Kansas courtroom, is much...