Curated OER
History Matters: Separate but Equal: The Plessy v. Ferguson Case
Read the judgment of Supreme Court justice, Henry Billings Brown, who wrote for the majority in the Plessy v Ferguson decision that codified the idea of "separate but equal" in the American justice system until it was overturned by Brown...
Read Works
Read Works: Civil Rights on a City Bus
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read about Rosa Parks and her non-violent protest of segregation laws in the South. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Plessy vs. Ferguson Case
Article provides an overview and detailed facts about the impact of the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson case on racial segregation.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Civil Rights for Kids: Glossary and Terms
Kids learn about Civil Rights glossary and terms including segregation, Jim Crow laws, disabilities, apartheid, suffrage, poll tax, and more. Definitions and words you need to know.
Digital History
Digital History: Plessy v. Ferguson
A very thorough explanation of the famous Supreme Court decision about Plessy v. Ferguson. It upheld the idea of "separate but equal," which was in effect until Brown v Board of Education in 1954. See who opposed the decision, and read...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: The Civil Rights Movement: 1919 1960s
Article provides an overview of the Civil Rights Movement in America between 1919 and the 1960s with detailed discussion on racial equality, nonviolence and passive resistance, and segregation.
Library of Congress
Loc: Photographs of Signs Enforcing Racial Discrimination
Photographs taken in the 1940s of various public places that had posted signs for "White" and "Colored."
Scholastic
Scholastic: The Progresssive Era
This Grolier On-line Encyclopedia article hits the main points of the Progressive Era stretching from the 1890s until just after the end of World War I.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1844 1877: Reconstruction: Black Codes
Discusses the Black Codes that white Southerners imposed on African Americans after the Civil War and the efforts by Republican politicians to protect their rights.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement:african Americans and the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps
One of the New Deal programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps, provided over a quarter of a million young black men with jobs and was thus another arena of the struggle for greater equality. This lesson explores that struggle and its...
OpenStax
Open Stax: Contesting Futures: America in 1960s: Civil Rights Movement Marches On
An examination of the civil rights movement of African Americans in the 1960s. Discusses the different forms of protest, the influence of Martin Luther King, Jr., the rise of Black Power, the Black Panthers, and Malcolm X. This is...
![Digital History: Equality Postponed [Pdf] Website](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Digital History: Equality Postponed [Pdf] Website")
Digital History
Digital History: Equality Postponed [Pdf]
Read the background of the controversial Supreme Court decision in the Plessy v Ferguson case. Follow the arguments for and against "separate but equal." [pdf]
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Plessy vs. Ferguson" by Jessica Mc Birney
A learning module that begins with "Plessy vs. Ferguson" by Jessica McBirney accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online through free...