Unit Plan
TED Talks

Ted: Ted Ed: Stories: Legacies of Who We Are

For Students 9th - 10th
Storyteller and educator Awele Makeba combines performing arts and history to tell a powerful story from the American Civil Rights Movement. Free registration is required for full access to the lesson.
Lesson Plan
HotChalk

Hot Chalk: Lesson Plans Page: The Civil Rights Movement (A Web Project)

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This comprehensive lesson plan has students thoroughly researching and creating a Civil Rights Movement project.
Website
Ducksters

Ducksters: Civil Rights for Kids: Timeline of African American Civil Rights

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the timeline of the history African-American Civil Rights in the United States from the Emancipation Proclamation to the March on Washington to Barack Obama becoming president on this website.
Primary
National Humanities Center

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

For Students 9th - 10th
Excerpts from a novel and an interview that illustrate where the success of the civil rights movement left some middle class African Americans. They explore the obstacles the civil rights movement had to overcome and the movement's...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Volume Iii: Community

For Students 9th - 10th
Series of 10 primary resources explores African American identity from 1917 to 1968, examining the changing notions of identity and affects on the definition of African American community.
Website
Virginia Historical Society

Virginia Historical Society: Conclusion: Did the Civil War End at Appomattox?

For Students 9th - 10th
While the American Civil War officially ended at the Battle of Appomattox, Confederate sensibilities ran deep and it was not until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s that blacks were able to fully assert their equality....
Article
Other

People's World: The Chicago Freedom Movement: Summer of 1966

For Students 9th - 10th
An informative and inspiring article about the African American struggle for civil rights in Chicago, 1966. The authors offer a first-hand account of protests against unfair housing and discrimination and the subsequent changes made.
Primary
National Humanities Center

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

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource offers a memoir that examines the role of armed self-defense in the civil rights movement. An excerpt from the text "Negroes with Guns", by Robert Williams is made available here, describing his approach towards civil...
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Becoming Visible: James Baldwin

For Students 9th - 10th
James Baldwin is presented in this biography as a great African American contributor to the literary world during the civil rights movement. See "James Baldwin Activities" for more information.
Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Us History: 1945 1980:civil Rights Act 1964/voting Rights Act 1965

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the civil rights legislation that outlawed discrimination in jobs, education, housing, public accommodations, and voting.
Handout
PBS

Pbs: American g.i. Forum: Hector P. Garcia

For Students 9th - 10th
Part of the website associated with the PBS series called "The Border." This article discusses the role of Hector Garcia in the Hispanic civil rights movement after World War II.
Unit Plan
Scholastic

Scholastic: Teachers: Rosa Parks: How I Fought for Civil Rights

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learn about African American Rosa Parks and her non-violent protest against racial discrimination. This resource addresses Parks' actions in the context of American race relations at the time. Read an interview with Parks about how she...
Activity
National Geographic

National Geographic: The Impact of the Jfk Assassination on American Politics

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students investigate the impact John F. Kennedy's assassination has had on American politics since that event. After his death, Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act, both of which had...
Website
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Egalitarian America

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Comprehensive teaching unit on egalitarian America: Americans that demanded political, social, and economic equality in all walks of life. Learn how the civil rights movement and an expanding mass media helped to reshape a changing...
Lesson Plan
Center For Civic Education

Center for Civic Education: Black History Month

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A collection of six lessons for Grades 5 and up for Black History Month. The lesson plans explore the use of nonviolence in history, particularly with respect to the civil rights movement and African American history.
Primary
American Rhetoric

American Rhetoric: John F. Kennedy: Civil Rights Address

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This is the text and audio of President Kennedy's address to the nation concerning Civil Rights delivered on June 11, 1963.
Article
Other

Ar Net: Hispanic Americans, an Under Represented Group

For Students 9th - 10th
An excellent description of the problems facing the involvement of Hispanic-Americans in American politics. The essay covers 1948 to 1996, with a good discussion of the civil rights era.
Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which sought to make discrimination illegal, and the resistance they faced from the public and government officials. As time passed, African Americans began to...
Article
A&E Television

History.com: Martin Luther King, Jr.

For Students 9th - 10th
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a social activist and Baptist minister who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. King sought equality and human rights for African...
Website
Ducksters

Ducksters: Civil Rights for Kids: Birmingham Campaign

For Students 9th - 10th
Kids learn about the history of the Birmingham Campaign that was part of the Civil Rights movement for African Americans against segregation and southern Jim Crow laws on this light.
Handout
Black Past

Black Past: Freedom Rides (1961)

For Students 9th - 10th
This encyclopedia article gives an interesting account of the Freedom Rides of 1961, which sparked later civil rights movements.
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.
Website
NBC

Nbc Learn: Finishing the Dream

For Students 9th - 10th
A collection of archival video clips along with town hall discussions on racial equality and the civil rights struggle by African Americans. The discussion participants include civil rights leaders, activists, religious leaders,...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: Black List Project: Barbara Harris

For Students 9th - 10th
Civil rights activist Reverend Barbara Harris is featured for her involvement in freedom rides and marches in the 1960's.