South Carolina Educational Television
Know It All: History of Voting Rights in the u.s.
Learn more about the history of voting rights in the United States with this interactive timeline.
US National Archives
National Archives: Congress Protects the Right to Vote
Students will draw conclusions regarding actions taken by Congress when passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They will weigh the balance of power between the federal and state governments when protecting the right to vote. Materials...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Voting Then, Voting Now
This site explores the voting experiences for African Americans beginning in the Jim Crow era. It shares literacy tests African Americans had to take and other challenges they were given for the right to vote. This denial of the right to...
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Civil Rights Act of 1957
Informative article on the Civil Rights Act of 1957 that was intended to protect the right of African Americans to vote.
US House of Representatives
History, Art, and Archives: The Civil Rights Act of 1957
Read about the role of President Eisenhower in the impetus for the support of civil rights in 1957.
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...
National Geographic
National Geographic: The Impact of the Jfk Assassination on American Politics
Students investigate the impact John F. Kennedy's assassination has had on American politics since that event. After his death, Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act, both of which had...
OpenStax
Open Stax: Contesting Futures: America in 1960s: Lyndon Johnson and Great Society
Read about the reforms and legislation undertaken through Lyndon B. Johnson's concept of the Great Society. These included economic and educational reforms, consumer protection, changes to immigration laws, and the Voting Rights Act of...
US National Archives
National Archives: To What Extent Was Reconstruction a Revolution? (Part 2)
This is a continuation of part 1 of the lesson "To What Extent was Reconstruction a Revolution?". Students will study the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to see if their opinion changes from the previous lesson. Included are whole class...
Digital History
Digital History: Civil Rights Act of 1964
A brief description of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the opposition against it, and how the law prohibited discrimination in voting, housing, public facilities, and employment.
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...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Classroom: Women's Rights
Extensive information for high-school classes examining the history of women's suffrage and the struggle for equal rights as well as related issues that address such questions as: Are laws protecting women's rights still needed?...
Alabama Humanities Foundation
Encyclopedia of Alabama: Selma to Montgomery March
One of the most famous events in Civil Rights history, this report covers the Selma to Montgomery March for voting rights.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Memory: Reconstruction and Rights
Historical documents give evidence to the question of rights in the South following the Civil War. Historical narratives and government reports tell of giving the male slaves the right to vote and hold office while denying these rights...
Ducksters
Ducksters: Civil Rights for Kids: Civil Rights Act of 1964
Kids learn about the history of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 including the background and work by leaders such as President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson, and Martin Luther King, Jr on this site.
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Aftermath: African American Women and the Vote
Though the suffrage movement failed to exclude African-American women, and many obstacles came in the way of their voting (e.g., poll taxes, literacy tests, etc.), "African-American women were not strangers to community activism." Learn...
US National Archives
Docsteach: To What Extent Was Reconstruction a Revolution? (Part 2)
This activity is a continuation of the instructional activity for Part 1. In it, students will examine the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and determine whether their analysis of this document changes their responses to the guiding question in...
Digital History
Digital History: Affirmative Action and the Case of Allan Bakke [Pdf]
The history of affirmative action was interwoven with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Read about how the federal government under both President Kennedy and President Nixon attempted to open up jobs to...
NBC
Nbc Learn: Finishing the Dream: 1964: Spotlights
A collection of archival video clips highlighting the African American struggle for equal voting rights in 1964. Looks at the Mississippi Freedom Summer where college students helped to register black voters, the murder of three of those...
Other
Finding Dulcina: Strom Thurmond Ends Longest Filibuster in Senate History
Read about Senator Strom Thurmond's epic filibuster in an attempt to forestall the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. There is a brief biography of Thurmond and his political life, as well as information about the use of the...
Other
Center for Voting and Democracy Glossary
Brief and informative description of the Voting Act of 1965, as well as other definitions related to equal opportunity in voting.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Martin Luther King, Jr.
A brief biography of civil rights hero, Martin Luther King, Jr. This article touches on his early life, but focuses on his actions as a leader of nonviolent change to bring equality to African Americans. Find a speech given by Robert...
Curated OER
National Park Service: International Civil Rights Walk of Fame: Lyndon Johnson
Read about President Lyndon Johnson's on how to end poverty in the United States as well as how to protect civil rights.
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: The First March From Selma
This article details a key event in the civil rights struggle--the demonstration organized by the Rev. Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965, when 525 people met a police blockade on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.