Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: After Reconstruction: Problems of African Americans

For Teachers 9th - 10th
After reading a collection of primary texts, students will identify problems facing African Americans in the South following Reconstruction and propose solutions to those problems. In addition to providing guidelines for teachers leading...
Primary
Library of Congress

Loc: Experiencing War: African Americans: Fighting Two Battles

For Students 9th - 10th
Online personnel narratives by African American soldiers who participated in World War II.
Website
Other

Atlanta in the Civil Rights Movement

For Students 9th - 10th
An online look at the role Atlanta played in all parts of the Civil Rights Movement.
Handout
Civil War Home

Home of the American Civil War: Black Codes in the Former Confederate States

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the black codes in various states enacted as a result of Johnson's lenient Reconstruction plans. From "Trial by Fire, A People's History of the Civil War and Reconstruction" by Paige Smith.
Article
New York Public Library

African American Migration Experience: The Northern Migration

For Students 9th - 10th
This article explores the reasons African Americans left the South and migrated north both before and after the Civil War, and many aspects of what their lives were like.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Volume Iii, 1917 1968: Protest

For Students 9th - 10th
A collection of 13 primary resources with questions for discussion and links to supplemental material about the various forms of protest undertaken by African Americans in pursuit of civil rights and how it helped shape identity.
Unit Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: 19th Century: African American Christianity, Pt. I: To the Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
Essay tracks the various religions associated with the African-Americans since their introduction to the New World. Different interpretations from historians are offered for discussion of whether Christianity was helpful to the slaves.
Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: African American Christianity Pt Ii: From Civil War to the Great Migration

For Students 9th - 10th
Essay focussing on African American Christianity from emancipation to the great migration. Site offers photos, student discussion guidelines, historian debate and links to related material.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Making of African American Identity: Vol I: 1500 1865: Emancipation

For Students 9th - 10th
Primary source material on the how enslaved Africans envisioned and pursued freedom and how these ideas affected them after the Civil War.
Lesson Plan
Alabama Department of Archives and History

Al Dept of Archives & History: African Americans: Reconstruction Lesson [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
With this lesson plan, students learn about the lives of African Americans during Reconstruction. PDF (requires Adobe Reader).
Website
Hartford Web Publishing

Hartford Black History Project: Citizens of Color: Black Society After Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
Discusses the history of the African American community in Hartford, Connecticut, in terms of the migration of former slaves to the city right after the end of the Civil War. Also discusses a second wave of migration as African Americans...
Graphic
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Odyssey: The Civil Rights Era

For Students 9th - 10th
This two-part feature on African American history offers an in-depth look at the events of the 1960's civil rights movement. Discusses voting rights, laws, military segregation, freedom rides, sit-ins and the NAACP. Includes historic...
Lesson Plan
New York Public Library

Western Migration: The Land Promised Lesson Plan: African American Homesteaders

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Part of an online exhibit on the westward migration of African-Americans, this lesson plan looks at those with agricultural backgrounds who moved west following the Civil War and availed themselves of the opportunity to homestead. Middle...
Website
New York Public Library

In Motion: African American Migration Experience: Western Migration: To Kansas

For Students 9th - 10th
From the extensive site about African-American migrations, this part of the site focuses on Exodusters and African-Americans who moved to Kansas after the Civil War. Read first-person accounts and see photographs of these hardy...
Lesson Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: Democracy in America: Civil Rights: Demanding Equality

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This unit embraces those individuals who have brought change to the United States in both social and political equality through a Video on Demand, activities, and other enlightening resources.
Unit Plan
CPALMS

Florida State University Cpalms: Florida Students: The Civil War's Legacy

For Students 11th
In this tutorial, students look at how the Civil War ended and the impact on the North and the South and on the future of the United States. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution are also examined for how they came...
Website
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Civil Rights Activist, Fannie Lou Hamer

For Students 9th - 10th
A profile of the life and leadership of Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist best known for her stirring testimony at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
Unit Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Citizens: African American Identity: 1865 1917

For Students 9th - 10th
Discusses the efforts of African Americans to be recognized as equal citizens after the Civil War, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Includes links to supplemental information.
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Odyssey: Reconstruction and Its Aftermath

For Students 9th - 10th
Part of a virtual exhibit by the Library of Congress, this site details the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the newly freed slaves. It contains photographs of artwork and a map from the period.
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: American Memory: African American Odyssey

For Students 9th - 10th
This site explores Black America's quest for equality from the early national period through the twentieth century. Content includes the work of abolitionists in the first half of the nineteenth century, depictions of the long journey...
Primary
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Odyssey: Free Blacks in Antebellum Period

For Students 9th - 10th
A site that chronicles through documents the accomplishments of African-Americans, both slave and free, from colonial times through the Civil War.
Website
Texas State Library and Archives Commission

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Forever Free: The 1860s: 19th Century African American Legislators of Texas

For Students Pre-K - 1st
An exhibit from the Texas State Library exploring the political achievements of African-Americans in the Texas state legislature and Constitutional Convention from 1865 through the 1890s.
Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs: Cet: Africans in America: The Raid on Harper's Ferry

For Students 9th - 10th
PBS' four-part series, "Africans in America," highlights the antislavery movement, including a focus on John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry. Content includes a description of the event, as well as the after-effects including the news of...
Primary
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Sheet Music, 1850 1920

For Students 9th - 10th
View 1,300 pieces of sheet music composed by and about African Americans between 1850-1920.