Barriers to Immigration: The Chinese Exclusion Act

The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first race-based restriction on immigration in American history. Why was the act passed after Chinese immigrants helped build the Transcontinental Railroad? A series of documents, including speeches and...

Class members investigate the Jim Crow Laws, Executive Order 9066, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the Indian Removal Act to gather information about not only the challenges encountered by diverse groups of Americans, but their...

The Statue of Liberty may embrace the huddled masses of the world, but has American society always joined in? After young historians read a passage about the history of American immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on...

To conclude their study of immigration and human rights, class members create a civic engagement project centered on an issue of immigration and designed to influence US immigration policy. They examine examples of attempts to influence...

A gallery of photographs from 19th century America adorn these slides, bringing stark reality to a lesson about immigration and industrialization. The breadth and length of this presentation would lend well to a long-term history unit,...

Possibly helpful in the context of a larger unit, this presentation about 19th-20th century immigration leaves much to be desired. Some useful information about limitations of immigration and the rate of growth could be incorporated into...

Take a closer look at America's shift toward a primarily urban population and into the world's largest industrial power in the early twentieth century. This video reviews the demographics of the first major waves of immigration into the...

For a class learning about Chinese and Irish immigration in America, here's a great starting lesson plan. It has your critical thinkers examining song lyrics, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and a political cartoon, and finally...

Learners research and discuss the consequences of the Sedition Act. They illustrate the difficulty of balancing security needs and personal freedom using an example from John Adams's presidency.

Numerous people from China immigrated to the US during the era of industrialization and expansion. Provide your class with a glimpse into the life of a Chinese immigrant through the poetry they left behind. They then compose a poem of...