Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Historian's Perspective: Winning the Vote: History of Voting Rights
[Free Registration/Login Required] Historian-authored three-part overview looks at the history of voting rights in America, touching on all the critical moments in American history when voting rights were first denied then granted to...
![Letter From Birminghham Jail [Pdf] Primary](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Letter From Birminghham Jail [Pdf] Primary")
Other
Letter From Birminghham Jail [Pdf]
This letter shares Martin Luther King's reflections about his involvement in peaceful demonstrations. The letter provides historical information about the plight of African Americans throughout history and why he and others are so...
NBC
Nbc Learn: Finishing the Dream: 1962 1963: Standoffs
A collection of archival video clips highlighting the efforts of African Americans to fight racial segregation in education. Looks at the struggle of James H. Meredith to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962, and the resulting...
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Emmett Till" by Jessica Mc Birney
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: Race and Voting in the Segregated South
Article and activity in which students read and analyze the historic challenges faced by African Americans as they sought to gain an unimpeded right to vote in the segregated South followed by activity asking students to evaluate current...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Reasoning, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
Brochures and a speech from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference describing the organization's philosophy, its strategy, and its position on voting rights, civil disobedience, and segregation.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Old Timers, Newcomers
An editorial cartoon and a newspaper article illustrating the tensions between members of established African American communities in the North and Southern migrants. Links to both resources are provided within this site.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Poetry, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
This study of black protest poems from the early part of the twentieth century through the late sixties can provide insight into the issues African Americans faced during that time and the ways they responded to them. Works from seven...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Concerned White Citizens of Alabama Scrapbook
These materials document the philosophy and activities of the Concerned White Citizens of Alabama, who fought for racial equality and voting rights for African Americans; from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Eleventh Commandment Flyer
This flyer from the 1962 Birmingham selective buying campaign encourages African Americans to boycott discriminatory businesses; from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
Other
African National Congress: Resistance and Negotiation [Pdf]
A scholarly discussion of Gandhi's strategy of passive resistance for the people of South Africa in their struggle for equal rights.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Citizenship, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
Public addresses, letters, and narratives about the absence of and the need for citizenship rights for African Americans. Links to resources used to lobby for equal rights are provided at the top of the page.
PBS
African American World: Profiles
Use this site to find out the history of African Americans on an easy to use timeline dating from the 1400s to the present. You can also learn about African American arts and culture and read about the contributions of some specific...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: The Slave Experience: Legal Rights and Government
Using primary materials and oral histories, PBS tells the story of the slaves' legal rights and their position with the US Government.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Associations (I), Making of African American Identity: V. 2
Newspaper articles that illustrate how benevolent and charitable societies fostered racial solidarity among African Americans in late-nineteenth-century America are provided. Links to these articles can be found on the second page.
Library of Congress
Loc: After Reconstruction: Problems of African Americans
After reading a collection of primary texts, students will identify problems facing African Americans in the South following Reconstruction and propose solutions to those problems. In addition to providing guidelines for teachers leading...
Library of Congress
Loc: Experiencing War: African Americans: Fighting Two Battles
Online personnel narratives by African American soldiers who participated in World War II.
The History Cat
The History Cat: African Americans After the War
Provides a discussion of what life was like for African Americans after slavery ended, focusing on the Freedman's Bureau, Freedman schools, and the Ku Klux Klan.
Civil War Home
Home of the American Civil War: Black Codes in the Former Confederate States
Read about the black codes in various states enacted as a result of Johnson's lenient Reconstruction plans. From "Trial by Fire, A People's History of the Civil War and Reconstruction" by Paige Smith.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Memory: African American Odyssey
The Library of Congress' Digital Library presents an outstanding lesson that links to collections about the quest for full citizenship, Frederick Douglass papers, slave narratives, and more.
University of Washington
Seattle Civil Rights Project: Ku Klux Klan in Washington State, 1920s
Find extensive essays, photographs, articles from newspapers, and documents that trace the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in Washington State in the 1920s. Be sure to look through this entile site to see the anti-African American,...
University of Michigan
Kellogg African American Health Care Project: William G. Anderson
Interview with Dr. William Anderson, first president of the Albany Movement. Picture, biographical information and links to 40 other interviews with black medical personnel about their experiences with discrimination.
Black Past
Black Past: White, Walter
A brief encyclopedia entry about the influential civil rights leader, Walter White.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: A National Struggle: Congress
This two-page segment of a larger PBS site about Jim Crow discusses the role of Congress over close to 100 years in first entrenching Jim Crow laws in the law of the land, and eventually, through the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and the...