Handout
Other

The Vel Phillips Foundation: Vel Phillips' March

For Students 9th - 10th
The Vel Phillips Foundation is dedicated to the example of Vel Phillips, an African-American civil rights leader in Milwaukee. She championed the rights of women and minorities in her roles as a judge, a city councillor and later a...
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: America's Story: Althea Gibson Won Again!

For Students 3rd - 8th
Althea Gibson made it possible for the Williams sisters to play at Wimbledon. As the first African-American to win that title, she was a pioneer. See photos and read more about her on this Library of Congress site.
Handout
Library of Congress

Loc: America's Story:jackie Robinson Throws Opening Pitch

For Students 3rd - 8th
Jackie Robinson was not only one of the all-time great baseball players, he was the first African American to play in the Major Leagues. The Library of Congress presents a site with information and photographs of this amazing man.
Article
National Women’s History Museum

National Women's History Museum: Freedom Summer

For Students 9th - 10th
During the summer of 1964, hundreds of college students flooded Mississippi to register African Americans to vote.
Website
Other

Historical Boys' Clothing: The American Civil War: Reconstruction

For Students 9th - 10th
Outlines the major programs of the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, and the discrimination that African Americans faced, such as from the Black Codes and the Ku Klux Klan. Also discusses the amendments made to the Constitution...
Primary
Thurgood Marshall Website

Thurgood Marshall: The Bicentennial Speech: Remarks of Thurgood Marshall

For Students 9th - 10th
Text of Thurgood Marshall's Bicentennial Speech given in 1987, in which Marshall pointed out the inadequacies of the U.S. Constitution in addressing civil rights and liberties.
Activity
Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Aftermath: African American Women and the Vote

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
PPT
Other

Black Panther Party Photo Tour

For Students 9th - 10th
This site contains a photo tour of the Black Panther Party and is part of a Bobby Seale web site devoted to the 60s protest movement and current African American struggles. A variety of audio and video clips are available.
Activity
Scholastic

Scholastic: Culture & Change, Evolution of Black History

For Students 3rd - 8th
Explore the Black History in America in the lives of famous African Americans. Features include a clickable interactive timeline that highlights important events, accomplishments, and personalities from 1492 to 2001.
Website
PBS

Pbs: American Masters: Paul Robeson

For Students 9th - 10th
PBS profiles the life of African American actor, athlete, singer, author, and political activist, Paul Robeson. Click on the timeline to see highlights of his often turbulent career.
Activity
Read Works

Read Works: The Struggle for Equality

For Teachers 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about heroic African Americans including Rosa Parks, Langston Hughes, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, and Barbara Jordan. A question sheet is available to help students build...
Primary
University of Virginia

Explorations in Black Leadership: Amiri Baraka

For Students 9th - 10th
A short biography of African American writer Amiri Baraka and an interview with him conducted by Julian Bond available in video download or script format. With insight into influential people in his life, career development, influence of...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Booker T. Washington: Orator, Teacher, and Advisor

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Through two primary source activities and watching a short video, students will learn about Booker T. Washington's commitment to African American education, and assess his ideas about how to achieve equality for African Americans in the...
Website
Other

San Francisco Unified School District: Teaching #Blacklivesmatter

For Students Pre-K - 1st
A library research guide with a huge collection of links to articles, lesson plans, readings, poetry, and official documents. They explore the experiences of African Americans and the evolution and purpose of the Black Lives Matter...
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal 1932 1941: The Second New Deal

For Students 11th - 12th
Examines the legislation enacted under Roosevelt's Second New Deal, and how the New Deal as a whole affected women, African Americans, and Native Americans.
Primary
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Voter Registration Training Tool

For Students 9th - 10th
Students at Miles College in Birmingham developed this "crib sheet" and questionnaire to help black citizens become registered voters and to document racial discrimination in the voting process in the 1950s.
Article
CommonLit

Common Lit: Excerpt Southern Horrors: Lynch Laws in All Its Phases by Ida b.wells

For Students 10th - 12th
This is an excerpt comes from "Southern Horrors: Lynch Laws in All Its Phases" by Ida B.Wells. In it she talks about lynching, or the murder by mob for an alleged crime without a legal trial. The targets of such violence and hatred were...
Unit Plan
New York Times

New York Times: Martin Luther King, Jr.

For Students 9th - 10th
An outstanding collection of materials for learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement. Students can engage in a text-to-text analysis of 'I Have a Dream' and 'The Lasting Power of Dr. King's Dream Speech'
Handout
Other

University of Arkansas Libraries: Land of (Un)equal Opportunity

For Students 9th - 10th
A vast collection of records and photographs that documents the struggle for equality in Arkansas by African Americans, women, and Japanese Americans. Timeline, lesson plans, and similar resources available for added depth.
Lesson Plan
Other

Book Club Lesson Plan: The Watsons Go to Birmingham

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Explore this comprehensive book club lesson plan for "The Watsons Go to Brimingham-- 1963," by Christopher Paul Curtis.
Graphic
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Face to Face: Rosa Parks

For Students 9th - 10th
This site shares an sculpture of Rosa Parks in her famous stand in Montgomery in a work by Marshall Lumbaugh.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Separating: Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
Article summarizes and provides links to audio and text versions of a speech made by Malcolm X one month after he left the Nation of Islam over a disagreement with its leader Elijah Muhammad. Includes questions for discussion.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Forward: Protest

For Students 9th - 10th
An article that describes an NAACP meeting with Woodrow Wilson and excerpts from the film "Birth of a Nation." The text examines the gains and setbacks that mark the period of 1907 to 1917 for black Americans.
Handout
Black Past

Black Past: Cooke, Sam (1931 1964)

For Students 9th - 10th
Sam Cooke's influence on music, as the pioneer in cross-over from gospel to rhythm and blues, is described in this encyclopedia entry. His music was important to the African-American identity in the Civil Rights movement.