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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Government and Your Right To Vote: Voting Rights In America

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Gaining voting rights was difficult over the course of decades, but the debate over who should actually be allowed to cast a ballot remains. Scholars explore the history of the struggle, including the fifteenth and nineteenth amendments,...
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Lesson Plan
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US House of Representatives

“‘The Negroes’ Temporary Farewell,” Jim Crow and the Exclusion of African Americans from Congress, 1887–1929

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Despite some advances made during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, the period from 1887 through 1929, African Americans serving in Congress suffered severe setbacks due to Jim Crow Laws and voter suppression. Class members...
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Lesson Plan
1
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US House of Representatives

Permanent Interests: The Expansion, Organization, and Rising Influence of African Americans in Congress, 1971–2007

For Teachers 7th - 12th
The fourth installment of the seven-instructional activity unit focused on African Americans elected to and serving in the US Congress looks at the period from 1971 through 2007. Class members read a contextual essay that provides...
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Lesson Plan
1
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US House of Representatives

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Groups select a photograph from one of the four eras of African Americans in Congress and develop a five-minute presentation that provides background information about the image as well as its historical significance. The class compares...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Contextualizing a Historical Photograph: Busing and the Anti-busing Movement in Boston

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The anti-busing movement in Boston is the focus of a lesson that asks young historians to examine primary source documents to identify the causes and consequences of busing pupils from one area of the city to another in the attempt to...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Blockbusting: Social and Economic Change through Real Estate

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
"Redlining," "Blockbusting," and "White Flight" may not be terms familiar to young historians. Here's a lesson that introduces middle schoolers to these terms and the actions associated with them. Class members examine a series of...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

African Americans and the Democratic Party

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Why did African American voters switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic party during the Depression Era? That is the question young historians attempt to answer as they study primary source documents from the period. The focus...
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Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

Meet Four Pioneering African American Astronauts

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
An out-of-this-world resource introduces young scientists to four African American astronauts: Michael P. Anderson, Ronald E. McNair, Guion S. Bluford Jr., and Jeanette J. Epps. Groups read biographies of these individuals and prepare...
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Lesson Plan
National Woman's History Museum

Shirley Chisholm, Unbossed and Unbought

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
An engaging resource introduces young historians to Shirley Chisholm, the woman, the Black congresswoman, the activist, and the candidate for President in 1972. Class members study primary sources, watch a video of her announcing her run...
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Lesson Plan
American Institute of Physics

The Physicist's War: Dr. Herman Branson and the Scientific Training of African Americans during World War II

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The mobilization of soldiers for World War II resulted in a worker shortage in the defense industries, especially in the fields of physics and other sciences. The Engineering, Science, and Management War Training program (ESMWT) was...
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Lesson Plan
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Anti-Defamation League

Building Alliances

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Bystander or up-stander? The final lesson in the "Looking Back Reaching Forward" unit asks participants to consider how they can become involved in encouraging change in their school and community. 
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Lesson Plan
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Anti-Defamation League

The Problem We Still Live With?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Norman Rockwell's painting "The Problem We Still Live With" launches a unit study of racism in the United States and segregation in U.S. schools. In the first lesson plan, scholars discuss the painting, review key elements of the Supreme...
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Lesson Plan
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Learning for Justice

The Color of Law: Creating Racially Segregated Communities

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
It is pointed, powerful, and painful! The first of three lessons about laws and practices that support inequality looks at how government policies created and reinforced segregated communities. Young social scientists read excerpts from...
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

"From Citizen, VI [On the Train the Woman Standing]," Claudia Rankine

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Claudia Rankine's poem "From Citizen, VI [On the Train the Woman Standing]," asks readers to consider direct and more subtle forms of prejudice. After discussing the format of the poem, its tone, and the emotions expressed, class members...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rights and Responsibilities: Grass Born to Be Stepped On

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers research an event in history in which rights and responsibilities are involved. They create a movie of the information they find.
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Analyzing Experiences: Carlotta Walls

For Teachers 8th Standards
What was life like in the American South following the Civil War? Scholars watch a video that discusses the aftermath of the Civil War and the events during the Reconstruction Period. Additionally, they continue reading Carlotta Walls...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Bill of Rights: Do I Have a Right?

For Teachers 8th Standards
Aliens have taken over the United States! Citizens can only keep two rights laid out in the first 10 amendments of the Constitution and must figure out which ones are best. Young scholars research the importance of each amendment and key...
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Activity
Digital Public Library of America

Voting Rights Act of 1965

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Despite the passing of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, as well as the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the struggle to ensure fair voter registration and election procedures continues. Young historians...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Homophobia: What is It? What Can We Do About It?

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
A two-part lesson focuses on the sensitive issues of homophobia, discrimination, sexuality, and gender. Middle schoolers discuss individual and institutional discrimination, personal rights, homosexuality, and bullying.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Liberty for All: Voices from the Revolution

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Did the Declaration of Independence really intend to grant liberty for all? Get your class thinking about historical perspective with documents relaying the experiences of women, white men, and African-Americans during the Revolutionary...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Who Knows? Your Privacy in the Information Age

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Teach young adults how to become advocates for their privacy in the modern information age. In a series of five lessons, learners explore their beliefs and opinions about privacy vs. the actual laws regarding who has the right to access...
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Lesson Plan
Bill of Rights Institute

Freedom for All?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What did abolitionists have in common with those working for women's rights? How has the Native American struggle for voting rights differed from the struggles of other groups? Class members examine the 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Voting Rights History

For Students 7th - 12th Standards
Why is voting so important, anyway? Learn more about the importance of exercising a right for which many men and women marched, fought, and legislated with an interactive timeline activity.
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Lesson Plan
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Teaching Tolerance

Parallels Between Mass Incarceration and Jim Crow

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Is history repeating itself? A riveting lesson examines the parallels between mass incarceration in the U.S. and the Jim Crow Laws of the past. Academics review Jim Crow Laws and compare them to mass incarcerations of African Americans....

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