Uncle Tom's Cabin was written to expose the evils of slavery. Published in 1852 by abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe to demonstrate the terrors and reality of slavery African Americans were experiencing. The interesting resource...

March 7, 1965 forever changed the lives of African American activists in Selma, Alabama, when a peaceful protest turned deadly. Young academics learn about the 1965 non-violent march of African American activists that ended in the...

During the era of Reconstruction, the planter class of the South tried to replicate the time before the Civil War by squashing rights given in the Thirteenth, Fourteenths and Fifteenth amendments. Using a video clip featuring renowned...

The bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four little girls galvanized a civil rights movement. Clips include interviews with the church's pastor and a survivor of the bombings, as well as a...

The murder of Emmett Till, a boy accused of whistling at a white woman in the deep South in the 1950s, galvanized the civil rights movement. His open casket—revealing the ugly horror of racism—reignited a movement. Clips include an...

How historically accurate was the film The Birth of a Nation? Using a video that features clips from the film and analysis from historians, young scholars explore the connection between art and history. Additional activities...

When Ida B. Wells was kicked off the whites-only ladies railway car, it ignited a ferocious warrior for civil rights. Wells and others worked to preserve the hard-won freedoms of Reconstruction, which were tenuous at best during...

To escape to freedom, Robert Smalls had to steal a Confederate ship and sail to Union lines. He continued that fight for freedom as one of the first African American representatives in Congress during the Reconstruction era. Learners...

An engaging resource provides viewers with information about the founding of the Black Panther Party and social programs like its food bank that the party created. The video clips also describe the political views of the party and their...

While Abraham Lincoln is remembered for the Emancipation Proclamation, the document didn't actually free any peoples. Listening to scholars, learners explore its military purpose and how it helped turn the tide of the Civil War. They...

Why would the FBI have perceived James Baldwin as a threat to national security? Why did they consider this preacher, writer, thinker, expat, activist so dangerous while Robert Kennedy and other government officials considered him an...

A short video spotlights Major League Baseball's first African American player, Jackie Robinson. Engaging photographs, fun graphics, and a clear narrator detail Robinson's life starting with his military background to his induction...

Kick off a celebration of Black History Month with a quick video. The narrator shares the history of the holiday and sheds light on famous African Americans such as Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, and...

An informative video shares a quick history of Martin Luther King, Jr. The engaging narrator covers topics such as where and when MLK Jr. was born, what charged his passion, and good deeds he performed. 

Martin Luther King Day, a national holiday celebrated on the third Monday in January, is the focus of a short video that introduces young learners to the civil rights leader. The video provides a brief review of King's work and...

When delving into such writings as "I Too Sing America" or "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by poet, novelist, and playwright Langston Hughes, don't forget to provide this important historical background information on the Harlem...

The History Channel offers a comprehensive look at the struggle for Civil Rights beginning with the earliest black immigrants in the 1400s to African American gains in the late 20th century. Links to related video clips are included. [2:33]

In this video [1:55] segment from "Take this Hammer," a 1963 film from THIRTEEN's archive, activist and author James Baldwin seeks to raise morale among a group of African American adolescents in San Francisco in the early 1960s. Baldwin...

World War II film covering the education and training of African Americans in agriculture, design & manufacturing, and more at Howard, Tuskegee, Hampton Roads, and more. [8:00]

Even free African Americans living in the North in the nineteenth century were not treated as full citizens.

Talks about the beginnings of the civil rights movement after the government did not provide the protection that was promised to African Americans in the Fourteenth Amendment.

NPR answers a question concerning the number of African American women that have served in Congress.

This intriguing interview with Dr. Dorothy Height discusses her experiences as a leader in the African American community. Dr. Height talks about her experiences in the civil rights movements and about the strides made for African...

Podcasts of interviews with many artisans, historians, and tour guides at Colonial Williamsburg.