Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Charles W. Chesnutt, Making of African American Identity: V. 2

For Students 9th - 10th
A short story that explores the influence of the Southern plantation past on African American efforts to create new urban identities and the predicaments of post-emancipation life.
Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Chicago's First Leader [Pdf]

For Teachers 2nd - 4th Standards
"Chicago's First Leader" is a one page, biographical passage about Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the first non-native American to settle in Chicago. He started a trading post around which the city grew. It is followed by an open-ended...
Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Chicago Legacy: Du Sable [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
"Chicago Legacy: DuSable" is a one page, biographical passage about Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the first non-native American to settle in Chicago. He started a trading post around which the city grew. It is followed by questions which...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Chicago Riots

For Students 9th - 10th
An analysis of the 1919 Chicago race riot and a description of African American life in Chicago. One analysis is provided by Charles Johnson, editor of the Urban League's magazine Opportunity, describing the problems that beset black...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: New Consciousness

For Students 9th - 10th
Alain Locke's essay, "Enter the New Negro," is provided within this site and describes a new African American sense of self, inspired by migration to the urban North.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian American Art Museum: Eyeing America: The Prints of Robert Cottingham

For Students 9th - 10th
At this site from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, artist Robert Cottingham takes you on a visual tour across America with his works of art. View his complete collection that showcases commercial signs.
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Becoming Visible: Grace Paley

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Grace Paley is presented in this brief biography highlighting her contributions to literature for her vivid expressions of American local-color through her writings. See "Grace Paley Activities" for related materials.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: The Blues

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Examples of the blues inspired by the African American migration to Northern cities. These lyrics and audio clips explores the reasons for, and effects of, these migrations.
Handout
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: Hamilton vs. Jefferson

For Students 9th - 10th
The conflict that took shape in the 1790s between the Federalists and the Antifederalists exercised a profound impact on American history. The Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, who had married into the wealthy Schuyler family,...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Portrait Gallery: American Women: Jane Addams

For Students 9th - 10th
See a portrait of activist Jane Addams painted by American painter, George deForest Brush, and read a brief discussion of Addams' important role as a reformer.
Handout
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: Movement South and Westward

For Students 9th - 10th
Following Eli Whitney's invention in 1793 of the cotton gin -- a machine that separated raw cotton from seeds and other waste -- the cotton market boomed. Planters in the South bought land from small farmers who frequently moved farther...
Primary
National Humanities Center

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

For Students 9th - 10th
Artistic expressions of the new black self image inspired by migration to the urban North. This focus of this site is "Song of the Towers", a series of four murals sponsored by the federal Works Projects Administration, outlining black...
Website
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The Era of Expansion and Reform

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Information about the period in United States history between the Civil War and World War I. The United States was transformed from a rural republic to an urban state.
Activity
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Colonial Williamsburg: Colonial African American Life

For Students 9th - 10th
Provides a few statistics on slaves in Maryland and Virginia and then contrasts the lives of field hand vs household or urban slaves.
Website
Milwaukee College Prep

African American History: North and South, Slave and Free

For Students 7th - 9th
An overview of the status and experiences of African Americans in the mid-1800s, both free and enslaved. Includes references to Frederick Douglass and his efforts to enlighten people about the discrimination and prejudice faced by...
Website
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: Corporations and Cities

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Overview of the American industrial age growth of corporations and urbanization.
Primary
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The Era of Expansion and Reform

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource, a speech by Woodrow Wilson to Congress on April 8, 1913, gives a great review of how the United States transformed from from a rural country to an urban one. It includes a review of industrialization, new inventions,...
Article
Other

Urban Inst: The Health of Children in Immigrant Families

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
This is a report of the analysis of national survey data to gauge the well-being of immigrant children compared with children in native-born families. The authors examine different areas, including family income and environment, child...
Website
The Newberry Library

Newberry Library: Chicago and the Great Migration, 1915 to 1950

For Students 9th - 10th
Primary source material with lesson and classroom activities in which students analyze the causes and effects of the African American Great Migration to Chicago between 1915 and 1950.
Unit Plan
Department of Defense

Do Dea: Ap Us History: Unit 6: Becoming a Modern Nation

For Students 9th - 10th
This extensive learning module examines the role of large-scale industrialization, urbanization, and mass migrations in creating new demands on government and social organizations to design reforms, and looks at the global and domestic...
Website
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Maya Lin

For Students 9th - 10th
This video segment from New York Voices features Chinese American architect Maya Lin.
Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th - 6th
"Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." is a one page, biographical passage about Martin Luther King, Jr. It is followed by an open-ended question which requires students to provide evidence from the story; it includes determining the author's...
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Mosaic: Migrations

For Students 9th - 10th
The Library of Congress surveys the migration of African Americans to out of the South after the Civil War. Features include statistics, maps, and reasons for the migration.
Whiteboard
ClassFlow

Class Flow: Urban Growth and Westward Expansion

For Teachers 6th - 8th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart covers the rise in population in American cities in the late 1800's and westward expansion.

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