After the Civil War and end of slavery, Americans had to decide how to integrate freed African Americans. Learn about the lives of African Americans from Reconstruction to the end of the prejudiced Jim Crow era. This collection includes...

Find Jim Crow laws, see signs, and read restrictive covenants that restricted freedom of movement, housing, and use of public facilities by African Americans in the late 19th and 20 centuries.

Read "Jim Crow Laws" to establish your understanding of the text, and to see how they impacted African Americans.

[Free Registration/Login Required] This ReadWorks passage provides a brief biography of the baseball player Satchel Paige and his significant accomplishments. A paired passage, a vocabulary support sheet, a questions sheet, and an...

Read about the background of the passage of the 14th Amendment which resulted in the famous case before the Supreme Court, Plessy v Ferguson, almost thirty years later. Suggested student exercises ask students to assess the issue of...

Maya Angelou recounts her coming of age story as a mature but apprehensive girl in the American South and California during the Jim Crow era. Selected (8) reading passages (grades 7-10) to pair with "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by...

Read about how "the Populists challenged white supremacy by forming coalitions between black and white farmers who shared a common cause." Part of a larger website called "Jim Crow Stories", this brief article paints the Populist Party...

[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.

Selected (8) reading passages (grades 6-10) to pair with "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred D. Taylor. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry tells the story of the Logan family combating racial tension and segregation in Mississippi during...

Read about the contested election of 1876. Was it decided behind close doors and with an understanding that Reconstruction would be ended in the South? Were votes fraudulently thrown out?

The summer of 1919 saw race riots in many cities, for the most part started by whites. Read about the causes and results of these riots.

Ninth graders will be introduced to Maslow's hierarchy of needs and will explore how this hierarchy relates to the needs that humans have. Students will also be introduced to background information about the South during Jim Crow through...

Segregation and Jim Crow laws codified a color line in the United States. African-Americans began pushing back against segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. Read about the non-violent actions taken and how these actions resulted in the...

Richard Wright, a black boy living in the Jim Crow South, travels north in hopes of escaping the violence and prejudice that rules his childhood. Selected (8) reading passages (grades7-12) to pair with "Black Boy" by Richard Wright....

In this video segment from The Supreme Court, learn about the 1883 Supreme Court decision that marked the end of federal protections for individuals in states and the beginning of Jim Crow segregation.

This is an extensive review of the Civil Rights movement from the 1940s to the 1960s. Read about the ways African Americans protested discrimination in employment and education over several years. Be sure to click on the images to find...

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 the Supreme Court opinion that solidified the concept of separate, but equal in American law. The dissenting opinion written by Justice John Harlan is also included.

"Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry", by Mildred D. Taylor is a riveting, Newbery Award winning novel, about a family living in the 1930s Jim Crow South. Make a smart choice by reading your favorite novel with a BookFiles reading guide. The...

See photos that are representative of the lives of African-American women at the turn of the century and read about the discrimination black women and men faced: Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, and the "white primary" rule. A brief...

Read about the racism in unions throughout the United States after World War I, culminating in race riots in 1919, especially in Chicago.

Read about the reasons for the Great Migration of African Americans from the Deep Sourth to northern cities in the first few decades of the 20th century. After the Great Depression, the migration numbers increased again. Find out what...

Read about the tragic case of Emmett Till, an African American teenager who was viciously murdered in 1955. The case forced the public to see the brutality of the racism that was rampant in the South and it fueled the civil rights movement.

A learning module that begins with "The Supreme Court's Ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education" by U. S. Supreme Court, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a...