Was nonviolent resistance the best means of securing civil rights for black Americans in the 1960s? In this highly engaging and informative lesson, your young historians will closely analyze several key documents from the civil rights...

Are marches and protests an effective form of resistance? That is the question high schoolers seek to answer in this inquiry lesson as they compare the 2020 protests to historical ones. Researchers use Venn Diagrams to compare images...

Here's a must-have resource for your Vietnam War curriculum file. Class members view a PowerPoint that details the background of the conflict and then examines the reasons for and the effects of protest songs on American attitudes toward...

Ezell Blair, Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil changed history. Their sit-in at the lunch counter of the Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960 became a model for the nonviolent protests that...

Long before the songs of the 1960's Peace Movement, long before the songs of the Civil Rights Movement, and even before the songs of the Abolition Movement, were the songs of the Suffrage Movement. To understand the power of protest...

After analyzing both examples and non-examples of a variety of protests conducted by ethnic groups in Seattle and the state of Washington during the twentieth century, your class members will work to identify the key ideas and...

To some people, protesting is as American as apple pie, but the factors that lead to protests can be as confusing to veteran activists as to today's youth. Revolution '67 explores the riots in Newark, New Jersey as a case study. ...

Using the Bristol Bus Boycott as a case study, class members examine the strategies and levels of power protesters used to effect change. The two-day lesson concludes with individuals reflecting on the actions they might take in face of...

Sit-ins and boycotts, marches and speeches, songs and demonstrations were hallmarks of nonviolent protest of the civil rights movement. Young scholars research primary and secondary source documents to determine what made nonviolent...

A class discussion opens a lesson on women suffragettes. Learners imagine they are preparing to protest for women's voting rights. Scholars create a colorful poster to hold up high when marching in front of the White House.

It's the American way to put one foot in front of the other and march. Using images of protests from the civil rights and women's suffrage movements, young historians analyze similarities between the two watershed moments of social...

How do writers use words to protest injustice, challenge the status quo, and shape their own identities? Individuals watch and discuss a video, read author biographies, write poetry and journals, develop a slideshow, and complete a...

An 11-page packet contains three activities designed for readers of Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience. In one exercise, groups debate whether Thoreau would today be considered liberal or conservative. For another,...

The 2016-2017 protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) motivated Camille Seaman to create "We Are Still Here," a photo essay featuring portraits of contemporary Native Americans who protested the pipeline. This eight-page...

Scholars watch a video featuring journalists who covered the civil rights movement, then respond to questions on a viewing guide. The video features interviews with participants and original news footage from the 1950s and 1960s. In...

Part of the protests of the Civil Rights Movement were small scale sit-ins at lunch counters. This form of on-the-ground activism is the focus of a C-SPAN resource that includes four video-clips about the sit-ins by pupils at a lunch...

The works of Juane Quick-to-see Smith are featured in a lesson that asks pupils to consider the role artists play in bringing about social and political change. Scholars examine protest art by Smith and several street artists and...

The food on young scholars' tables was likely harvested by hands that fought for fair wages and working conditions. By examining the life of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, learners connect their daily meals with the struggles of those...

The right to peacefully assembly to protest injustice is a key element of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Class members are asked to analyze two photographs of people confronting what they consider to be unjust...

Young political scientists investigate the Poor People's Campaign protest held in Washington, D.C., on June 18, 2022. They research how the event was reported in various news outlets and consider their stance on whether...

Revolution and counterrevolution. Protest and counter-protest. Collaborators and bystanders. The focus of the fifth resource in the Reconstruction Era and Fragility of Democracy series is on the political violence that followed Radical...

Most people know of the Boston Tea Party, but it was only one of similar protests throughout the colonies. Using a case study from Maryland, learners explore primary sources, including images and newspaper accounts of similar tea...

Not all Patriots were on the same page against the British before the Revolutionary War. While some wanted to use peaceful means, such as debate and petition, others used violence, such as burning ships carrying British tea. Using...

The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, and the protests that followed the 2014 shootings, are the focus of a current-events activity that asks class members to brainstorm and research possible strategies to address the...