Songs of the Times: American Concerns in 19th Century Campaigns

Campaign propaganda has evolved from 1952 through the presidential election of 2008. A social studies activity prompts class members to analyze the devices used in ads and political cartoons, noting strategies they believe would work to...

The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, and the protests that followed the 2014 shootings, are the focus of a current-events activity that asks class members to brainstorm and research possible strategies to address the...

How do nineteenth-century texts by African American and Native American writers contribute to the country's ideals of freedom and individuality? Learners explore the topic by watching and discussing a video, reading biographies, writing...

Campaigns to gain voting rights for women during the 19th and 20th centuries took place on both the state and federal level. After examining primary sources that document both types of campaigns, class members debate the merits of the...

High schoolers analyze campaign messages about tariffs in a 19th-century campaign song. They read and discuss the lyrics, complete an analysis worksheet, and identify the intended audience of the song's message.

Pupils analyze a variety of primary source materials related to lynching (news articles, letters written to or written by prominent Americans, pamphlets, broadsides, etc.) in order to assess the effectiveness of the anti-lynching...

Learners simulate the election process with one group acting as politicians and others acting as the constituency with concerns specific to their assigned area of the country. They give speeches, take polls, and elect a leader based on...

Students explore protest songs. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students examine issues-based music by summarizing lyrics and revealing inferences, generalizations, conclusions, and points of view found in the songs.

Although the campaign for Woman Suffrage in the United States began with the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, six decades later the leaders of the movement could claim victories in only four, sparsely-populated Western states, Colorado,...

Students research and analyze the campaign that was conceived by Dr. Martin Luther King, The Poor People's Campaign. The concepts of poverty and cultural diversity along with the Civil Rights Movement is also covered in detail within...