Curated OER
Civil Rights Leaders
Tenth graders investigate three American leaders from the Civil Rights Movement while they examine the early 1960's and the topic of racial equality. They listen to music from the era, read speeches, and look at images of Martin Luther...
Curated OER
Fight For Your Right - Leading A Revolution of Change
Students examine civil rights. In this civil rights lesson, students research human rights issues of United States history. Students then discuss their research findings and write Bill of Rights statements for the topics they researched.
Curated OER
Migration and Political Power Lesson Plan: A Mapping and Graphing Activity
Middle schoolers examine how the end of slavery and the diffusion of African Americans across the United States contributed to its political successes following the civil rights era. In groups, they use information from a narrative to...
Curated OER
Social and Cultural Issues in the Civil Rights Movement
Students examine the society and culture during the times of the Civil Rights movement. They view video clips and answer comprehension questions. They work together to research different authors and musicians sharing their information...
Center for History and New Media
The Impact of the Jim Crow Era on Education, 1877–1930s
Even though American slaves were officially emancipated in 1865, the effects of slavery perpetuated throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Middle and high schoolers learn about the ways that discrimination and the Jim Crow laws...
Curated OER
Taking a Stand - 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March
Young scholars examine the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. They view pictures reflecting their perceptions of their most important rights as citizens, write journal responses, create collages illustrating courage, and read...
Curated OER
African-American Soldiers After World War I: Had Race Relations Changed?
Students utilize an online database to conduct research and analyze the conditions for African-Americans before and after World War I. They consider the role of the 92nd and 93rd divisions in affecting social change.
Curated OER
Separate Is Not Equal
Based on discussion, analysis of primary source documents, and with the help of a graphic organizer, young historians discover the steps that were taken to eliminate segregation in public schools in the United States. This lesson from...
Curated OER
African Americans after the Civil War
Students explore the events of Reconstruction after the Civil War. In this US History instructional activity, students complete several activities and worksheets that reinforce challenges and social upheaval experienced in the South...
Curated OER
Racism in Jazz
Students listen to the Louis Armstrong song, "What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue?" and consider it as a protest song. They write in their journals about Armstrong, his music, and civil rights.
Curated OER
Reconstruction
Students explain how the Civil War and Reconstruction both solved and created problems for our nation. They study how Reconstruction caused a further decline in relations between the North & South and how racism has been and is...
Curated OER
Jim Crow Laws and The American South
Learners explore how Jim Crow laws affected the lives of people living in the south during pre and post-Civil Rights. Using a various research methods, students research various aspects of the Jim Crow south and complete a graphic...
Curated OER
Integration of Education
High schoolers explore the history of Civil Rights and how the struggle for Civil Rights and the Second Reconstruction, transformed society and politics in the United States in the 1950s. Then they identify why American Schools are...
Curated OER
Supreme Court Decisions and the CRM
Eleventh graders investigate different Supreme Court decisions. For this Civil Rights lesson, 11th graders research and read the decisions of specific court cases. students write a short essay describing the effects of these cases.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Slavery and the American Founding: The "Inconsistency Not to Be Excused"
High schoolers examine slavery in the revolutionary and colonial eras of the United States. In this slavery lesson, students investigate the presence of slavery in early America, the language of the Constitution, and the intent of the...
Curated OER
Comparing/Contrasting Northern Life to Southern Life
Students compare and contrast the lives of African Americans who moved North vs. those who stayed in the South during the era of Jim Crow Laws.
Curated OER
Post Civil War Reconstruction
Students analyze the process of Reconstruction after the Civil War. In this U.S. History lesson, students discuss specific details about Reconstruction with the class, then complete a worksheet with multiple activities reinforcing the...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois
Where to begin? With the vocational education that provides the skills necessary to gain economic security or with a Liberal Arts education? As part of a study of leaders of the civil rights movement, class members compare and contrast...
Curated OER
20th Century Civil Disobedience
Students write from varying perspectives in the American South about the civil rights movements in the 1950s. In this civics lesson, students view video clips and take notes. Students discuss the film and listen to a lecture on...
Curated OER
The Underground Railroad and The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
Students discover racism and slavery by completing a role playing activity. In this U.S. history instructional activity, students analyze documents from the Civil War era and describe the Fugitive Slave Law. Students view a video on...
Facing History and Ourselves
The Legacies of Reconstruction
The final instructional activity in the seven-resource Reconstruction Era collection examines the legacies of Reconstruction. Class members investigate why the period has been called an "unfinished revolution," "a splendid failure," and...
US House of Representatives
“‘The Negroes’ Temporary Farewell,” Jim Crow and the Exclusion of African Americans from Congress, 1887–1929
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...
Curated OER
Sam Cooke - Lesson 1
Students identify the impact of the social injustices and Civil Rights movement on Cooke's life and career. They create lyrics to a familiar song that express a personal struggle or concern.
Curated OER
Women in the Civil War
Students study the Civil War era in the US with a concentration on women during this time through literature and biographies. They create a timeline or multimedia presentation as one product of this series of lessons.