Gabrielle Union discusses the role Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, plays in her life. She stresses the importance of readers being able to find reflections of themselves in literature.

The ideas of the leaders of the Black Arts Movement were in direct contrast to those of Ralph Ellison. A clip from the American Masters film Ralph Ellison: An American Journey clarifies these conflicts between Ellison and the younger...

Many critics believe that the character of Dr. Bledsoe in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man was modeled after Booker T. Washington. After watching a clip from the film Ralph Ellison: An American Journey about the Washington Bledsoe...

How is the reader of Ralph's Ellison's Invisible Man supposed to react to "The Trueblood Incident" of Chapter 2? A short clip from the American Master film Ralph Ellison: An American Journey offers differing critical analyses from two...

A film reenactment of the "Battle Royal" scene in Chapter 1 of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man offers readers a chance to compare the film version of the scene to the novel's depiction. The discussion questions ask readers to consider the...

The narrator of Invisible Man is on a quest, a quest to find out who he is and what his place is in a deeply divided American society. An episode from the American Masters series asks readers to consider Ralph Ellison's acclaimed novel...

Although labeled as a plot summary, this resource from the American Masters series is so much more. In addition to clips from the American Masters film, the packet contains teaching tips, discussion questions, a background reading, and...

Created for the Great American Read series, a short video encourages viewers to vote for Invisible Man. Musician Wynton Marsalis and Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, among others, share their rationale for why Ralph...

Powerful and painful, Ralph Ellison's acclaimed Invisible Man is a must-read. A short video from the PBS American Masters series introduces viewers to Ellison and the major themes of the novel.

Minority groups were treated differently during WWII. Images and newsreel footage show the experiences of African-Americans, Native Americans, Japanese-Americans, and other ethnic minority groups during the war.

The characters of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird are formed and informed, in part, by the distinctive historical backdrop of Alabama during the Great Depression. Watch a video that details Lee's experience growing up in...

What does it mean to be Latino? With an eye-opening lesson plan, pupils discover what it means to be Latino in the United States. They participate in classroom discussions, use graphic organizers, and watch a short video to help...

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...

March 3, 1913, thousands of women marched on Washington D.C. to demand the right to vote. Learn about the organizers and leaders of the protest with a short video that details how the protest reignited the fight for voting rights and...

What does equal protection under the law mean? This right is given to Americans thanks to the Fourteenth Amendment, although historical events and Supreme Court cases have led to its refinement over the years. A video resource traces the...

Does theater really influence society? In the nineteenth century, drama displays that depicted the treatment of different races actually contributed to the spread of racism. Scholars view images from such plays to gain a better...

A short video on Ida B. Wells introduces viewers to the work of this fearless investigative journalist whose articles about lynchings focused the country's attention on countless murders of African Americans.

How did radio and television impact media literacy? Explore the rise of protectionism using a video, part of a Crash Course media literacy series. Scholars discover the social, moral, and political sides of media analysis and criticism.

Did Mookie do the right thing? Spike Lee's film Do The Right Thing, which discusses race violence and community, leaves viewers to decide. The cogent analysis of a film criticism video examines not only Lee's filmmaking techniques...

What does parsley have to do with the 1937 Haitian Massacre? Introduce viewers to the tragic events surrounding Rafael Trujillo's ordered slaughter of Haitians living along the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The...

In An Image of Africa, Chinua Achebe calls out Joseph Conrad for his racist attitudes in Heart of Darkness. Achebe contents that despite the fact that Conrad's novel is a blistering attack on Colonialism in the Congo, his characters...

Is the War on Drugs responsible for the inordinate number of black Americans sent to prison for non-violent drug offensives? That's MIchelle Alexander's contention in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of...

A film history video examines how Thomas Edison, George Eastman, and the major film companies formed the Motion Picture Patents company (MPPC) and created a monopoly that controlled the production, distribution, exhibition of films. In...

It's hard to image that a mystery surrounds the second largest settlement ruins found in Africa. Who built this stone city? Why was it built? What happened to it? Why was it abandoned? A short video explores the controversies surrounding...