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These websites can be used to create background lessons or just to get some more resources for lessons

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These websites can be used to create background lessons or just to get some more resources for lessons

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Bend I is an overview and students should be reading mixed bins on all civil rights books. In bend II, students focus on a subtopic. These are some suggested subtopics for bend II:

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Bend I is an overview and students should be reading mixed bins on all civil rights books. In bend II, students focus on a subtopic. These are some suggested subtopics for bend II:

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Videos for lessons, research, and small group work

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Videos for lessons, research, and small group work

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Articles for student work, read aloud's close reads, and research projects

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Articles for student work, read aloud's close reads, and research projects

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Images for Analysis and Research Projects

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Images for Analysis and Research Projects

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Grace will be using some of these in the lab site.

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Here are some sites and documents to help create a full understanding of the years from the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the 13th amendment in 1865 abolishing slavery, Jim Crow Laws and segregation to the Civil Rights Movement/Era in 1950-1969.

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Marches during the Civil Rights Movement

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Marches during the Civil Rights Movement

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Protests during the Civil Rights  Movement

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Protests during the Civil Rights  Movement

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Teenagers and College Students in the Civil Rights 

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Teenagers and College Students in the Civil Rights 

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Quick clips about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Montgomery Boycott, Integration of schools etc.

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Jim Crow Laws

During Reconstruction, Black people took on leadership roles like never before. They held public office and sought legislative changes for equality and the right to vote.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution gave Black people equal protection under the law. In 1870, the 15th Amendment granted Black American men the right to vote. Still, many white Americans, especially those in the South, were unhappy that people they'd once enslaved were now on a more-or-less equal playing field.

To marginalize Black people, keep them separate from white people and erase the progress they'd made during Reconstruction, " Jim Crow " laws were established in the South beginning in the late 19th century. Black people couldn't use the same public facilities as white people, live in many of the same towns or go to the same schools. Interracial marriage was illegal, and most Black people couldn't vote because they were unable to pass voter literacy tests.

Jim Crow laws weren't adopted in northern states; however, Black people still experienced discrimination at their jobs or when they tried to buy a house or get an education. To make matters worse, laws were passed in some states to limit voting rights for Black Americans.

Moreover, southern segregation gained ground in 1896 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Plessy v. Ferguson that facilities for Black and white people could be "separate but equal."

World War II and Civil Rights

Prior to World War II, most Black people worked as low-wage farmers, factory workers, domestics or servants. By the early 1940s, war-related work was booming, but most Black Americans weren't given better-paying jobs. They were also discouraged from joining the military.

After thousands of Black people threatened to march on Washington to demand equal employment rights, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25, 1941. It opened national defense jobs and other government jobs to all Americans regardless of race, creed, color or national origin.

Black men and women served heroically in World War II, despite suffering segregation and discrimination during their deployment. The Tuskegee Airmen broke the racial barrier to become the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps and earned more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses. Yet many Black veterans were met with prejudice and scorn upon returning home. This was a stark contrast to why America had entered the war to begin with-to defend freedom and democracy in the world.

As the Cold War began, President Harry Truman initiated a civil rights agenda, and in 1948 issued Executive Order 9981 to end discrimination in the military. These events helped set the stage for grass-roots initiatives to enact racial equality legislation and incite the civil rights movement.

Rosa Parks

On December 1, 1955, a 42-year-old woman named Rosa Parks found a seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus after work. Segregation laws at the time stated Black passengers must sit in designated seats at the back of the bus, and Parks complied.

When a white man got on the bus and couldn't find a seat in the white section at the front of the bus, the bus driver instructed Parks and three other Black passengers to give up their seats. Parks refused and was arrested.

As word of her arrest ignited outrage and support, Parks unwittingly became the "mother of the modern-day civil rights movement." Black community leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) led by Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr., a role which would place him front and center in the fight for civil rights.

Parks' courage incited the MIA to stage a boycott of the Montgomery bus system. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days. On November 14, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating was unconstitutional.

Little Rock Nine

In 1954, the civil rights movement gained momentum when the United States Supreme Court made segregation illegal in public schools in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. In 1957, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas asked for volunteers from all-Black high schools to attend the formerly segregated school.

On September 4, 1957, nine Black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, arrived at Central High School to begin classes but were instead met by the Arkansas National Guard (on order of Governor Orval Faubus) and a screaming, threatening mob. The Little Rock Nine tried again a couple of weeks later and made it inside, but had to be removed for their safety when violence ensued.

Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened and ordered federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine to and from classes at Central High. Still, the students faced continual harassment and prejudice.

Their efforts, however, brought much-needed attention to the issue of desegregation and fueled protests on both sides of the issue.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Even though all Americans had gained the right to vote, many southern states made it difficult for Black citizens. They often required prospective voters of color to take literacy tests that were confusing, misleading and nearly impossible to pass.

Wanting to show a commitment to the civil rights movement and minimize racial tensions in the South, the Eisenhower administration pressured Congress to consider new civil rights legislation.

On September 9, 1957, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law, the first major civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to prevent someone from voting. It also created a commission to investigate voter fraud.

Sit-In at Woolworth's Lunch Counter

Despite making some gains, Black Americans still experienced blatant prejudice in their daily lives. On February 1, 1960, four college students took a stand against segregation in Greensboro, North Carolina when they refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter without being served.

Over the next several days, hundreds of people joined their cause in what became known as the Greensboro sit-ins. After some were arrested and charged with trespassing, protesters launched a boycott of all segregated lunch counters until the owners caved and the original four students were finally served at the Woolworth's lunch counter where they'd first stood their ground.

Their efforts spearheaded peaceful sit-ins and demonstrations in dozens of cities and helped launch the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to encourage all students to get involved in the civil rights movement. It also caught the eye of young college graduate Stokely Carmichael, who joined the SNCC during the Freedom Summer of 1964 to register Black voters in Mississippi. In 1966, Carmichael became the chair of the SNCC, giving his famous speech in which he originated the phrase "Black power."

Freedom Riders

On May 4, 1961, 13 " Freedom Riders"-seven Black and six white activists-mounted a Greyhound bus in Washington, D.C., embarking on a bus tour of the American south to protest segregated bus terminals. They were testing the 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia that declared the segregation of interstate transportation facilities unconstitutional.

Facing violence from both police officers and white protesters, the Freedom Rides drew international attention. On Mother's Day 1961, the bus reached Anniston, Alabama, where a mob mounted the bus and threw a bomb into it. The Freedom Riders escaped the burning bus but were badly beaten. Photos of the bus engulfed in flames were widely circulated, and the group could not find a bus driver to take them further. U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (brother to President John F. Kennedy) negotiated with Alabama Governor John Patterson to find a suitable driver, and the Freedom Riders resumed their journey under police escort on May 20. But the officers left the group once they reached Montgomery, where a white mob brutally attacked the bus. Attorney General Kennedy responded to the riders-and a call from Martin Luther King Jr.-by sending federal marshals to Montgomery.

On May 24, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders reached Jackson, Mississippi. Though met with hundreds of supporters, the group was arrested for trespassing in a "whites-only" facility and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Attorneys for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) brought the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed the convictions. Hundreds of new Freedom Riders were drawn to the cause, and the rides continued.

In the fall of 1961, under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals

March on Washington

Arguably one of the most famous events of the civil rights movement took place on August 28, 1963: the March on Washington. It was organized and attended by civil rights leaders such as A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr.

More than 200,000 people of all races congregated in Washington, D. C. for the peaceful march with the main purpose of forcing civil rights legislation and establishing job equality for everyone. The highlight of the march was King's speech in which he continually stated, "I have a dream..."

King's " I Have a Dream" speech galvanized the national civil rights movement and became a slogan for equality and freedom.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964-legislation initiated by President John F. Kennedy before his assassination -into law on July 2 of that year.

King and other civil rights activists witnessed the signing. The law guaranteed equal employment for all, limited the use of voter literacy tests and allowed federal authorities to ensure public facilities were integrated.

Bloody Sunday

On March 7, 1965, the civil rights movement in Alabama took an especially violent turn as 600 peaceful demonstrators participated in the Selma to Montgomery march to protest the killing of Black civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson by a white police officer and to encourage legislation to enforce the 15th amendment.

As the protesters neared the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were blocked by Alabama state and local police sent by Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, a vocal opponent of desegregation. Refusing to stand down, protesters moved forward and were viciously beaten and teargassed by police and dozens of protesters were hospitalized.

The entire incident was televised and became known as " Bloody Sunday." Some activists wanted to retaliate with violence, but King pushed for nonviolent protests and eventually gained federal protection for another march.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

When President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, he took the Civil Rights Act of 1964 several steps further. The new law banned all voter literacy tests and provided federal examiners in certain voting jurisdictions.

It also allowed the attorney general to contest state and local poll taxes. As a result, poll taxes were later declared unconstitutional in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections in 1966.

Part of the Act was walked back decades later, in 2013, when a Supreme Court decision ruled that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional, holding that the constraints placed on certain states and federal review of states' voting procedures were outdated.

Civil Rights Leaders Assassinated

The civil rights movement had tragic consequences for two of its leaders in the late 1960s. On February 21, 1965, former Nation of Islam leader and Organization of Afro-American Unity founder Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally.

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on his hotel room's balcony. Emotionally-charged looting and riots followed, putting even more pressure on the Johnson administration to push through additional civil rights laws.

Fair Housing Act of 1968

The Fair Housing Act became law on April 11, 1968, just days after King's assassination. It prevented housing discrimination based on race, sex, national origin and religion. It was also the last legislation enacted during the civil rights era.

The civil rights movement was an empowering yet precarious time for Black Americans. The efforts of civil rights activists and countless protesters of all races brought about legislation to end segregation, Black voter suppression and discriminatory employment and housing practices.

Sources

A Brief History of Jim Crow. Constitutional Rights Foundation.
Civil Rights Act of 1957. Civil Rights Digital Library.
Document for June 25th: Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry. National Archives.
Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-In. African American Odyssey.
Little Rock School Desegregation (1957). The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford.
Rosa Marie Parks Biography. Rosa and Raymond Parks.
Selma, Alabama, (Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965). BlackPast.org.
The Civil Rights Movement (1919-1960s). National Humanities Center.
The Little Rock Nine. National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior: Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.
Turning Point: World War II. Virginia Historical Society.

Photo Galleries

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Civil Rights Movement: Timeline, Key Events & Leaders | HISTORY

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The civil rights movement was a struggle for justice and equality for African Americans that took place mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. Among its leaders were Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks and many others.

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Overview of the Integration of Little Rock Central High School

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Desegregation of Schools

In its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, issued May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of America's public schools was unconstitutional.

Until the court's decision, many states across the nation had mandatory segregation laws, or Jim Crow laws, requiring African American and white children to attend separate schools. Resistance to the ruling was so widespread that the court issued a second decision in 1955, known as Brown II, ordering school districts to integrate "with all deliberate speed."

Little Rock Central High School

In response to the Brown decisions and pressure from the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP), the Little Rock, Arkansas, school board adopted a plan for gradual integration of its schools.

The first institutions to integrate would be the high schools, beginning in September 1957. Among these was Little Rock Central High School, which opened in 1927 and was originally called Little Rock Senior High School.

Two pro-segregation groups formed to oppose the plan: The Capital Citizens Council and the Mother's League of Central High School.

Who Were the Little Rock Nine?

Despite the virulent opposition, nine students registered to be the first African Americans to attend Central High School. Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls had been recruited by Daisy Gaston Bates, president of the Arkansas NAACP and co-publisher of the Arkansas State Press, an influential African American newspaper.

Daisy Bates and others from the Arkansas NAACP carefully vetted the group of students and determined they all possessed the strength and determination to face the resistance they would encounter. In the weeks prior to the start of the new school year, the students participated in intensive counseling sessions guiding them on what to expect once classes began and how to respond to anticipated hostile situations.

The group soon became famous as the Little Rock Nine.

Orval Faubus

On September 2, 1957, Governor Orval Faubus announced that he would call in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the African American students' entry to Central High, claiming this action was for the students' own protection. In a televised address, Faubus insisted that violence and bloodshed might break out if Black students were allowed to enter the school.

The Mother's League held a sunrise service at the school on September 3 as a protest against integration. But that afternoon, federal judge Ronald Davies issued a ruling that desegregation would continue as planned the next day.

Elizabeth Eckford

The Little Rock Nine arrived for the first day of school at Central High on September 4, 1957. Eight arrived together, driven by Bates.

Elizabeth Eckford's family, however, did not have a telephone, and Bates could not reach her to let her know of the carpool plans. Therefore, Eckford arrived alone.

The Arkansas National Guard, under orders of Governor Faubus, prevented any of the Little Rock Nine from entering the doors of Central High. One of the most enduring images from this day is a photograph of Eckford, alone with a notebook in her hand, stoically approaching the school as a crowd of hostile and screaming white students and adults surround her.

Eckford later recalled that one of the women spat on her. The image was printed and broadcast widely in the United States and abroad, bringing the Little Rock controversy to national and international attention.

Ronald Davies

In the following weeks, federal judge Ronald Davies began legal proceedings against Governor Faubus, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower attempted to persuade Faubus to remove the National Guard and let the Little Rock Nine enter the school.

Judge Davies ordered the Guard removed on September 20, and the Little Rock Police Department took over to maintain order. The police escorted the nine African American students into the school on September 23, through an angry mob of some 1,000 white protesters gathered outside. Amidst ensuing rioting, the police removed the nine students.

The following day, President Eisenhower sent in 1,200 members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and placed them in charge of the 10,000 National Guardsmen on duty. Escorted by the troops, the Little Rock Nine attended their first full day of classes on September 25.

Numerous legal challenges to integration continued throughout the year, and Faubus repeatedly expressed his wish that the Little Rock Nine be removed from Central High.

Although several of the Black students had positive experiences on their first day of school, according to a September 25, 1957, report in The New York Times, they experienced routine harassment and even violence throughout the rest of the year.

Melba Patillo, for instance, was kicked, beaten and had acid thrown in her face. At one point, white students burned an African American effigy in a vacant lot across from the school. Gloria Ray was pushed down a flight of stairs, and the Little Rock Nine were barred from participating in extracurricular activities.

Minnijean Brown was expelled from Central High School in February 1958 for retaliating against the attacks. Harassment went beyond the students: Gloria Ray's mother was fired from her job with the State of Arkansas when she refused to remove her daughter from the school. The 101st Airborne and the National Guard remained at Central High School for the duration of the year.

Ernest Green

On May 25, 1958, Ernest Green, the only senior among the Little Rock Nine, became the first African American graduate of Central High.

In September 1958, one year after Central High was integrated, Governor Faubus closed all of Little Rock's high schools for the entire year, pending a public vote, to prevent African American attendance. Little Rock citizens voted 19,470 to 7,561 against integration and the schools remained closed.

Other than Green, the rest of the Little Rock Nine completed their high school careers via correspondence or at other high schools across the country. Eckford joined the Army and later earned her General Education Equivalency diploma. Little Rock's high schools reopened in August 1959.

Did you know? Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. attended graduation ceremonies at Central High School in May 1958 to see Ernest Green, the only senior among the Little Rock Nine, receive his diploma.

Little Rock Nine Aftermath

Several of the Little Rock Nine went on to distinguished careers.

Green served as assistant secretary of the federal Department of Labor under President Jimmy Carter. Brown worked as deputy assistant secretary for workforce diversity in the Department of the Interior under President Bill Clinton. Patillo worked as a reporter for NBC.

The group has been widely recognized for their significant role in the civil rights movement. In 1999, President Clinton awarded each member of the group the Congressional Gold Medal. The nine also all received personal invitations to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009.

Jefferson Thomas became the first of the Little Rock Nine to die when he succumbed to pancreatic cancer at the age of 67 on September 5, 2010. After graduating from Central High, Thomas served in the Army in Vietnam, earned a business degree and worked as an accountant for private companies and the Pentagon.

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Little Rock Nine - Definition, Names & Facts | HISTORY

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The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine Black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Their attendance at the school was a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

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The Story Behind the Famous Little Rock Nine "Scream Image"

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The Story Behind the Famous Little Rock Nine ‘Scream Image’ | HISTORY

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It didn’t end when Central High School was integrated.

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Landmark case ending school segregation

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Dolls are for kids. So why were they in front of the most esteemed judges in the United States?

As they deliberated on Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 case that eventually overturned "separate-but-equal" segregation in the United States, the Supreme Court Justices contemplated oral arguments and pored over case transcripts. But they also considered baby dolls-unexpected weapons in the plaintiffs' fight against racial discrimination.

The dolls were part of a group of groundbreaking psychological experiments performed by Mamie and Kenneth Clark, a husband-and-wife team of African American psychologists who devoted their life's work to understanding and helping heal children's racial biases. During the "doll tests," as they're now known, a majority of African American children showed a preference for dolls with white skin instead of Black ones-a consequence, the Clarks argued, of the pernicious effects of segregation.

The Clarks' work, and their testimony in the underlying cases that became Brown v. Board of Education, helped the Supreme Court justices and the nation understand some of the lingering effects of segregation on the very children it affected most.

For the Clarks, the results showed the devastating effects of life in a society that was intolerant of African-Americans. Their experiment, which involved white- and brown-skinned dolls, was deceptively simple. (In a reflection of the racial biases of the time, the Clarks had to paint a white baby doll brown for the tests, since African American dolls were not yet manufactured.) The children were asked to identify the diapered dolls in a number of ways: the one they wanted to play with, the one that looked "white," "colored," or "Negro," the one that was "good" or "bad." Finally, they were asked to identify the doll that looked most like them.

All of the children tested were Black, and all but one group attended segregated schools. Most of the children preferred the white doll to the African American one. Some of the children would cry and run out of the room when asked to identify which doll looked like them. These results upset the Clarks so much that they delayed publishing their conclusions.

Mamie Clark had connections to the growing legal struggle to overturn segregation-she had worked in the office of one of the lawyers who helped lay the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education. When the NAACP learned of the Clarks' work, they asked them to participate in a case that would later be rolled into the class-action case that went to the Supreme Court. So Kenneth Clark headed to Clarendon County, South Carolina, to replicate his test with Black children there. It was a terrifying experience, he recalled later, especially when his NAACP host was threatened in his presence.

"But we had to test those children," he recalled. "These children saw themselves as inferior and they accepted the inferiority as part of reality."

Thurgood Marshall was eager to use the Clarks' work in the bigger class-action case that would become Brown v. Board of Education, but not everyone was convinced. Attorney Spotswood Robinson told an observer that it was "crazy and insulting to persuade a court of law with examples of crying children and dolls," writes historian Martha Minow.

But the court didn't think so. Kenneth Clark testified at three of the trials and helped write a summary of all five trials' social science testimony that was used in the Supreme Court case. He told judges and juries that African American children's preference for white dolls represented psychological damage that was reinforced by segregation.

"My opinion is that a fundamental effect of segregation is basic confusion in the individuals and their concepts about themselves conflicting in their self images," he told the jury in the Briggs case. The sense of inferiority caused by segregation had real, lifelong consequences, he argued-consequences that started before children could even articulate any information about race.

The Clarks' work and testimony were part of a much broader case that combined five cases and covered nearly every aspect of school segregation-and some historians argue that the doll tests played a relatively insignificant part in the court's decision. But echoes of the Clarks' results ring through the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court justices.

"To separate [Black children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone," wrote Chief Justice Earl Warren in the opinion. The Clarks' work had helped strike down segregation in the United States.

Today, one of the Black dolls is on display at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Kansas, and integration is the law of the land. But the racial biases the couple documented in the 1930s and 1940s still exist. In 2010, CNN commissioned an updated version of the study using cartoon depictions of children and a color bar that showed a range of skin tones-and found results that were strikingly similar to those shown by the Clarks.

In the new test, child development researcher Margaret Beale Spencer tested 133 kids from schools with different racial and income mixes. This time, the studies looked at white children, too. And though Black children seemed to hold more positive views toward Black dolls, white children maintained an intense bias toward whiteness.

"We are still living in a society where dark things are devalued and white things are valued," Spencer told CNN. Jim Crow segregation may no longer exist in the United States, but racial bias is alive and well.

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How Dolls Helped Win Brown v. Board of Education

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Dolls are for kids. So why were they in front of the most esteemed judges in the United States? As they deliberated on Brown v. Board of Education , the landmark 1954 case that eventually overturned "separate-but-equal" segregation in the United States, the Supreme Court Justices contemplated oral arguments and pored over case transcripts.

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How dolls helped win Brown vs the Board of Education

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Dolls are for kids. So why were they in front of the most esteemed judges in the United States?

As they deliberated on Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 case that eventually overturned "separate-but-equal" segregation in the United States, the Supreme Court Justices contemplated oral arguments and pored over case transcripts. But they also considered baby dolls-unexpected weapons in the plaintiffs' fight against racial discrimination.

The dolls were part of a group of groundbreaking psychological experiments performed by Mamie and Kenneth Clark, a husband-and-wife team of African American psychologists who devoted their life's work to understanding and helping heal children's racial biases. During the "doll tests," as they're now known, a majority of African American children showed a preference for dolls with white skin instead of Black ones-a consequence, the Clarks argued, of the pernicious effects of segregation.

The Clarks' work, and their testimony in the underlying cases that became Brown v. Board of Education, helped the Supreme Court justices and the nation understand some of the lingering effects of segregation on the very children it affected most.

For the Clarks, the results showed the devastating effects of life in a society that was intolerant of African-Americans. Their experiment, which involved white- and brown-skinned dolls, was deceptively simple. (In a reflection of the racial biases of the time, the Clarks had to paint a white baby doll brown for the tests, since African American dolls were not yet manufactured.) The children were asked to identify the diapered dolls in a number of ways: the one they wanted to play with, the one that looked "white," "colored," or "Negro," the one that was "good" or "bad." Finally, they were asked to identify the doll that looked most like them.

All of the children tested were Black, and all but one group attended segregated schools. Most of the children preferred the white doll to the African American one. Some of the children would cry and run out of the room when asked to identify which doll looked like them. These results upset the Clarks so much that they delayed publishing their conclusions.

Mamie Clark had connections to the growing legal struggle to overturn segregation-she had worked in the office of one of the lawyers who helped lay the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education. When the NAACP learned of the Clarks' work, they asked them to participate in a case that would later be rolled into the class-action case that went to the Supreme Court. So Kenneth Clark headed to Clarendon County, South Carolina, to replicate his test with Black children there. It was a terrifying experience, he recalled later, especially when his NAACP host was threatened in his presence.

"But we had to test those children," he recalled. "These children saw themselves as inferior and they accepted the inferiority as part of reality."

Thurgood Marshall was eager to use the Clarks' work in the bigger class-action case that would become Brown v. Board of Education, but not everyone was convinced. Attorney Spotswood Robinson told an observer that it was "crazy and insulting to persuade a court of law with examples of crying children and dolls," writes historian Martha Minow.

But the court didn't think so. Kenneth Clark testified at three of the trials and helped write a summary of all five trials' social science testimony that was used in the Supreme Court case. He told judges and juries that African American children's preference for white dolls represented psychological damage that was reinforced by segregation.

"My opinion is that a fundamental effect of segregation is basic confusion in the individuals and their concepts about themselves conflicting in their self images," he told the jury in the Briggs case. The sense of inferiority caused by segregation had real, lifelong consequences, he argued-consequences that started before children could even articulate any information about race.

The Clarks' work and testimony were part of a much broader case that combined five cases and covered nearly every aspect of school segregation-and some historians argue that the doll tests played a relatively insignificant part in the court's decision. But echoes of the Clarks' results ring through the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court justices.

"To separate [Black children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone," wrote Chief Justice Earl Warren in the opinion. The Clarks' work had helped strike down segregation in the United States.

Today, one of the Black dolls is on display at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Kansas, and integration is the law of the land. But the racial biases the couple documented in the 1930s and 1940s still exist. In 2010, CNN commissioned an updated version of the study using cartoon depictions of children and a color bar that showed a range of skin tones-and found results that were strikingly similar to those shown by the Clarks.

In the new test, child development researcher Margaret Beale Spencer tested 133 kids from schools with different racial and income mixes. This time, the studies looked at white children, too. And though Black children seemed to hold more positive views toward Black dolls, white children maintained an intense bias toward whiteness.

"We are still living in a society where dark things are devalued and white things are valued," Spencer told CNN. Jim Crow segregation may no longer exist in the United States, but racial bias is alive and well.

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How Dolls Helped Win Brown v. Board of Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dolls are for kids. So why were they in front of the most esteemed judges in the United States? As they deliberated on Brown v. Board of Education , the landmark 1954 case that eventually overturned "separate-but-equal" segregation in the United States, the Supreme Court Justices contemplated oral arguments and pored over case transcripts.

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Martin Luther King's I have a Dream Speech

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Martin Luther King's I have a Dream Speech

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On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr., delivered a speech to a massive group of civil rights marchers gathered around the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom brought together the nations most prominent civil rights leaders, along with tens of thousands of marchers, to press the United States government for equality.

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President John F. Kennedy's Civil Rights Address

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Full Speech

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Martin Luther King - I Have A Dream Speech - August 28, 1963

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Edited version

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Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.'s Famed 'I Have a Dream' Speech

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Library of Congress website for kids

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Explore U.S. history using primary sources from the Library of Congress. Kids can discover America�s Story, meet amazing Americans, explore the states. Includes songs, movies, quizzes and short stories about American history.

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Teachers guide to understanding the timeline from Emancipation Proclamation, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement.

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Library of Congress "rosa parks" papers

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Great Pictorial Site depicting the history of Desegregation

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African American Odyssey: The Civil Rights Era (Part 1)

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Success crowned these efforts: the Brown decision in 1954, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act in 1965 helped bring about the demise of the entangling web of legislation that bound blacks to second class citizenship.

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Linda brown was the center of the Brown vs Board of Education case eventually leading to the integration of schools

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Newsela | Linda Brown, central figure in school segregation case, dies

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Linda Brown, the center of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down racial segregation in schools, died on March 25 at age 75.

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Search "Civil rights movement" in the kids, student, and timeline section

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the world book web site offers an encyclopedia

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and curriculum guides. world book is publisher of the world book encyclopedia.

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The World Book web site offers an encyclopedia, dictionary, atlas, homework help, study aids, and curriculum guides. World Book is publisher of the World Book Encyclopedia.

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Search "civil rights"

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Learn more and understand better with BrainPOP's animated movies, games, playful assessments, and activities covering Science, Math, History, English, and more!

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Learn more and understand better with BrainPOP's animated movies, games, playful assessments, and activities covering Science, Math, History, English, and more!

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Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks Biographies

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Great site for information, read aloud, video aloud on Brown bv Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement

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Biography and African American Sections have Read alouds

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Keep up-to-date with the latest dinosaur science with articles that explore dinosaur habitats, behaviors and body types. Includes range maps and comparisons to present-day animals.

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Look at the Biography and African American Section

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Keep up-to-date with the latest dinosaur science with articles that explore dinosaur habitats, behaviors and body types. Includes range maps and comparisons to present-day animals.

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Search under "20th century"

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Google search engine for kids

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Tons of collections Civil Rights leaders, the movement, and events.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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Tons of books and collections for your to use as a read alouds or for the students to read.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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safe search engine for kids

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Kiddle is a safe search engine, offering a safe web, image, and video search. Results are vetted by editors.

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Article from World Book Kids

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Article from World Book Kids

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Article from World Book Kids

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Grade 3 level

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Grade 5 level

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Grade 3 level

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Grade 6 level

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Grade 3 level

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Grade 5 level

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10 things you didn't know about Brown vs Board of Education

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10 things you didn't know about Brown vs Board of Education

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(FYI you can adjust the reading level)

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Grade 4 level

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Grade 6 level

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grade 4 level

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Grade 5 level

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Grade 3 level

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Grade 5 level

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Grade 3 level

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Grade 5 level

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A sit in that inspired a movement

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On Feb. 1, 1960, four students from all-black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College walked into a Woolworth five-and-dime with the intention of ordering lunch.

But the manager of the Greensboro Woolworth had intentions of his own - to maintain the lunch counter's strict whites-only policy.

Franklin McCain was one of the four young men who shoved history forward by refusing to budge.

McCain remembers the anxiety he felt when he went to the store that Monday afternoon, the plan he and his friends had devised to launch their protest and how he felt when he sat down on that stool.

"Fifteen seconds after ... I had the most wonderful feeling. I had a feeling of liberation, restored manhood. I had a natural high. And I truly felt almost invincible. Mind you, [I was] just sitting on a dumb stool and not having asked for service yet," McCain says.

"It's a feeling that I don't think that I'll ever be able to have again. It's the kind of thing that people pray for ... and wish for all their lives and never experience it. And I felt as though I wouldn't have been cheated out of life had that been the end of my life at that second or that moment."

McCain shares his recollection of the exchanges the four African-American men had with the lunch-counter staff, the store manager and a policeman who arrived on the scene - and also a lesson he learned that day.

An older white woman sat at the lunch counter a few stools down from McCain and his friends.

"And if you think Greensboro, N.C., 1960, a little old white lady who eyes you with that suspicious look ... she's not having very good thoughts about you nor what you're doing," McCain says.

Eventually, she finished her doughnut and coffee. And she walked behind McNeil and McCain - and put her hands on their shoulders.

"She said in a very calm voice, 'Boys, I am so proud of you. I only regret that you didn't do this 10 years ago.'" McCain recalls.

"What I learned from that little incident was ... don't you ever, ever stereotype anybody in this life until you at least experience them and have the opportunity to talk to them. I'm even more cognizant of that today - situations like that - and I'm always open to people who speak differently, who look differently, and who come from different places," he says.

On that first day, Feb. 1, the four men stayed at the lunch counter until closing. The next day, they came back with 15 other students. By the third day, 300 joined in; later, 1,000.

The sit-ins spread to lunch counters across the country - and changed history.

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The Woolworth Sit-In That Launched a Movement

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On Feb. 1, 1960, four students from all-black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College walked into a Woolworth five-and-dime with the intention of ordering lunch. But the manager of the Greensboro Woolworth had intentions of his own - to maintain the lunch counter's strict whites-only policy.

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Freedom Summer, or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a 1964 voter registration drive aimed at increasing the number of registered Black voters in Mississippi. Over 700 mostly white volunteers joined African Americans in Mississippi to fight against voter intimidation and discrimination at the polls.

The movement was organized by civil rights organizations like the Congress on Racial Equality ( CORE) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC) and run by the local Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). Freedom Summer volunteers were met with violent resistance from the Ku Klux Klan and members of state and local law enforcement. News coverage of beatings, false arrests and even murder drew international attention to the civil rights movement. The increased awareness it brought to voter discrimination helped lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

What Was The Cause of the Freedom Summer?

By 1964, the civil rights movement was in full swing. The Freedom Riders had spent 1961 riding buses throughout the segregated South, fighting Jim Crow laws that dictated where Black riders could sit, eat, and drink. Martin Luther King, Jr. had given his famous " I Have a Dream" speech at the August 1963 March on Washington as 250,000 people gathered before him at the Lincoln Memorial.

Despite all of this progress, the South remained segregated, especially when it came to the polls, where African Americans faced violence and intimidation when they attempted to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Poll taxes and literacy tests designed to silence Black voters were common. Without access to the polls, political change in favor of civil rights was slow-to-non-existent. Mississippi was chosen as the site of the Freedom Summer project due to its historically low levels of African American voter registration; in 1962 less than 7 percent of the state's eligible Black voters were registered to vote.

Freedom Summer Begins

On June 15, 1964, the first three hundred volunteers arrived in Mississippi. Mississippi Project Director Robert "Bob" Moses had pledged his staff and volunteers to "nonviolence in all situations." Few could have foreseen how dire the situation would become.

Volunteers and staff had been warned about the high probability of being arrested and the need to have enough money for bail. They had also been encouraged to mentally prepare themselves for the experience by reading books like Dr. King's memoir, Stride Toward Freedom, and Lillian Smith's novel Killers of the Dream. No books could have prepared them for what happened next.

Among the first wave of volunteers to arrive on June 15 were two white students from New York, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, a local Black man. The three disappeared after visiting Philadelphia, Mississippi, where they were investigating the burning of a church. Their names became nationally-known as the hunt for their killers began. Spooked but still determined, the staff and volunteers of the Mississippi Project continued on with their mission to register voters and foster a grassroots freedom movement that would continue after their departure.

Six weeks later, the beaten bodies of the missing volunteers were recovered, killed by a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob that had the protection and help of a local policeman. Public outcry over the killings mounted: Where was Federal protection? Why had the investigations been so slow? Distrust grew between white and Black volunteers and staff.

Was The Freedom Summer A Success?

Voter registration in Mississippi was not greatly impacted by the Freedom Summer. While 17,000 Black Mississippians attempted to register to vote that summer, only 1,200 were successful.

The Mississippi Project did establish more than 40 Freedom Schools serving a combined 3,000 students. The Freedom Summer also raised awareness for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, about which Dr. King said: "If you value your party, if you value your nation, if you value democratic government you have no alternative but to recognize, with full voice and vote, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party."

But at the August 1964 Democratic National Convention held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, MFDP delegates were refused seats, dealing another blow to organizers who had risked their lives to make a change.

Impact of The Freedom Summer

Some believe the national attention the Freedom Summer garnered for the civil rights movement helped convince President Lyndon B. Johnson and Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

After the violence of the Freedom Summer, divisions within the civil rights movement grew between those who continued to believe in non-violence and those who had begun to doubt whether equality could be reached through peaceful means. After 1964, more militant factions would rise as the struggle for equality continued.

Sources

Freedom Summer. King Institute of Stanford.
The 1964 Miss. Freedom Summer Protests Won Progress At a Bloody Price. The Daily Beast.
The Tragic Success of Freedom Summer. Politico.
Freedom Summer of 1964 was a mission in hostile territory. USA Today.

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Freedom Summer - Definition, Murders & Results

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Freedom Summer, also known as the the Mississippi Summer Project, was a 1964 voter registration drive sponsored by civil rights organizations. The Ku Klux Klan, police and state and local authorities carried out a series of violent attacks against the activists, including arson, beatings, false arrest and the murders of at least three people.

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Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Definition, Summary & Significance | HISTORY

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The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement.

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13th amendment - abolished slavery
14th amendment - granted citizenship
15th amendment - granted the right to vote

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Plessy v. Ferguson: Background and Context

After the Compromise of 1877 led to the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, Democrats consolidated control of state legislatures throughout the region, effectively marking the end of Reconstruction.

Southern Black people saw the promise of equality under the law embodied by the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment and 15th Amendment to the Constitution receding quickly, and a return to disenfranchisement and other disadvantages as white supremacy reasserted itself across the South.

As historian C. Vann Woodward pointed out in a 1964 article about Plessy v. Ferguson, white and Black Southerners mixed relatively freely until the 1880s, when state legislatures passed the first laws requiring railroads to provide separate cars for "Negro" or "colored" passengers.

Florida became the first state to mandate segregated railroad cars in 1887, followed in quick succession by Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana and other states by the end of the century.

Black Resistance to Segregation

As Southern Black people witnessed with horror the dawn of the Jim Crow era, members of the Black community in New Orleans decided to mount a resistance.

At the heart of the case that became Plessy v. Ferguson was a law passed in Louisiana in 1890 "providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races." It stipulated that all passenger railways had to provide these separate cars, which should be equal in facilities.

Homer Adolph Plessy, who agreed to be the plaintiff in the case aimed at testing the law's constitutionality, was of mixed race; he described himself as "seven-eighths Caucasian and one-eighth African blood."

On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a ticket on a train from New Orleans bound for Covington, Louisiana, and took a vacant seat in a whites-only car. After refusing to leave the car at the conductor's insistence, he was arrested and jailed.

Convicted by a New Orleans court of violating the 1890 law, Plessy filed a petition against the presiding judge, Hon. John H. Ferguson, claiming that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Supreme Court Ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson

Over the next few years, segregation and Black disenfranchisement picked up pace in the South, and was more than tolerated by the North. Congress defeated a bill that would have given federal protection to elections in 1892, and nullified a number of Reconstruction laws on the books.

Then, on May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in Plessy v. Ferguson. In declaring separate-but-equal facilities constitutional on intrastate railroads, the Court ruled that the protections of 14th Amendment applied only to political and civil rights (like voting and jury service), not "social rights" (sitting in the railroad car of your choice).

In its ruling, the Court denied that segregated railroad cars for Black people were necessarily inferior. "We consider the underlying fallacy of [Plessy's] argument," Justice Henry Brown wrote, "to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it."

John Marshall Harlan's Dissent

Alone in the minority was Justice John Marshall Harlan, a former slaveholder from Kentucky. Harlan had opposed emancipation and civil rights for freed slaves during the Reconstruction era-but changed his position due to his outrage over the actions of white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Harlan argued in his dissent that segregation ran counter to the constitutional principle of equality under the law: "The arbitrary separation of citizens on the basis of race while they are on a public highway is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the Constitution," he wrote. "It cannot be justified upon any legal grounds."

Plessy v. Ferguson Significance

The Plessy v. Ferguson verdict enshrined the doctrine of "separate but equal" as a constitutional justification for segregation, ensuring the survival of the Jim Crow South for the next half-century.

Intrastate railroads were among many segregated public facilities the verdict sanctioned; others included buses, hotels, theaters, swimming pools and schools. By the time of the 1899 case Cummings v. Board of Education, even Harlan appeared to agree that segregated public schools did not violate the Constitution.

It would not be until the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, at the dawn of the civil rights movement, that the majority of the Supreme Court would essentially concur with Harlan's opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson..

Writing the majority opinion in that 1954 case, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that "the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place" in public education, calling segregated schools "inherently unequal," and declaring that the plaintiffs in the Brown case were being "deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment."

Sources

C. Vann Woodward, " Plessy v. Ferguson: The Birth of Jim Crow," American Heritage (Volume 15, Issue 3: April 1964).
Landmark Cases: Plessy v. Ferguson, PBS: The Supreme Court - The First Hundred Years.
Louis Menand, "Brown v. Board of Education and the Limits of Law," The New Yorker (February 12, 2001).
Today in History - May 18: Plessy v. Ferguson, Library of Congress.

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Plessy v. Ferguson: Separate But Equal Doctrine | HISTORY

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Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.

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Emancipation Proclamation - Definition, Dates & Summary

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Issued after the Union victory at Antietam on September 22, 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation carried moral and strategic implications for the ongoing Civil War. While it did not free a single enslaved person, it was an important turning point in the war, transforming the fight to preserve the nat…

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16 inspiring quotes of the civil rights movement

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16 inspiring quotes of the civil rights movement

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16 inspiring quotes from the civil rights movement

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16 inspiring quotes from the civil rights movement

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Bend III is a compare and contrast bend where students compare two civil rights struggles. Here are some links for Woman's Suffrage, Japanese Internment, and Native Americans

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Bend III is a compare and contrast bend where students compare two civil rights struggles. Here are some links for Woman's Suffrage, Japanese Internment, and Native Americans

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Great site for created activities, primary sources, or you can create your own interactive primary source activities. This is the "civil rights" link". It has great activities (some too high) and great primary resources for lessons from all civil rights struggles in America. Scroll down ore for ones I selected below this link.

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DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives. The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper.

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Compare and Contrast Women's Suffrage and the Civil Rights Movement

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Compare and Contrast Women's Suffrage and the Civil Rights Movement

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This is a DocTeach lesson from the National archives site another great resource!

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Start Activity

Suggested Teaching Instructions
Learning Objectives
Students will compare and contrast photographs of a Bastille Day march by suffragists in 1917 and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. For grades 6-12. Approximate time needed is 15-20 minutes.
Instructions
This activity is intended as a warm-up or introduction to reform movements as part of a discussion of the National History Day theme: Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History. The two photographs depict historical events in the history of the woman suffrage and Civil Rights movements.

Present the activity to the entire class. Model careful analysis with students. Ask one half of the students to focus on each photograph. Tell students to use the arrow and magnifying glass icons in the blue menu bar at the bottom to see details in their photograph. Instruct students to create lists of people, objects, and activities in their photograph.
Note: For the list of people, ask students to look at the types of people, specific famous people, and any other details about the people in the photographs (e.g. size of group, clothing, ethnicities, etc).
Bring the class back together and have students discuss each individual photograph as you list the people, objects, and activities on the board.

After this discussion, have students pair off and discuss similarities and differences between the photographs in a small group. Next, discuss the similarities and differences between these photographs together as a class.

Some of the similarities they may notice include:

* Both groups are protesting in the nation's capital.
* Both groups are using banners and slogans to spread their message.
* Both groups appear peaceful and well mannered.

Some of the differences they may notice include:

* In the suffragist photo, men do not seem to be a part of the marchers (instead, merely spectators). Civil Rights marchers includes both men and women, as well as African Americans and Whites.
* Suffragist marchers seem to be a smaller group.
* The caption of the suffragist photograph explains a negative reaction to their march (i.e. prison).
* The slogans of the Civil Rights group seem more focused on particular goals (segregation, voting rights, jobs), while the suffragist banner uses a slogan of the French Revolution (Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity).
* There are more recognizable faces and names in the Civil Rights photograph (Martin Luther King, Jr., for example)

Finally, ask students to respond to the conclusion questions they see after clicking "When You're Done" Based on these photographs:

* What can one infer about the differences between the suffrage and civil rights movements?
* What was the biggest and most important difference?
* Cite specific evidence from the primary sources.
Extension Activity
Direct students to explore additional photographs of suffrage movement and photographs of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

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The Suffrage and the Civil Rights Reform Movements

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Start Activity Learning Objectives Students will compare and contrast photographs of a Bastille Day march by suffragists in 1917 and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. For grades 6-12. Approximate time needed is 15-20 minutes.

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Great site for created activities, primary sources, or you can create your own interactive primary source activities. This is the "civil rights" link". It has great activities (some too high) and great primary resources for lessons from all civil rights struggles in America. Scroll down ore for ones I selected below this link.

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DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives. The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper.

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Students analyze Ms. Parks' arrest record with information blacked out and they have to figure out the historical figure/story behind it and its significance,

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A Famous Person and Event are Revealed | DocsTeach

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DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives. The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper.

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Students analyze the seat Ms. Parks sat in with information blacked out. So that they have to figure out the story and its significance

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Start Activity

In this activity, students will examine a diagram of the bus in which Rosa Parks took a seat. Ms. Parks's name has been blacked out. Students will analyze and evaluate the document, then apply prior knowledge to discern what this document is and why it is important.

Suggested Teaching Instructions

This activity can be used during a unit on the Civil Rights movement, in teaching about protests and civil disobedience, or when focusing on Rosa Parks individually. For grades grades 4-8. Approximate time needed is 15 minutes.

Most students have learned about Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement: On December 1, 1955, Ms. Parks took part in a deliberate planned act of civil disobedience by refusing to relinquish her seat on a public bus for a white person.

Ask students to begin the activity, working in pairs to engage in conversation and share their thought processes. The activity asks students to: "Look carefully at this document. It's part of a famous story, but an important clue has been blacked out. Use every bit of information contained here to describe what you see. Then, apply your knowledge of history to figure out what this document is and whom the story is about."

Depending on students' abilities and prior knowledge, assign 3-10 minutes to analyze the document and to try to determine what has been blacked out. Then, ask students to report both their thinking and their answers to the class. Follow up with a review of the events related to Rosa Parks. Find more information about her arrest on the Teaching With Documents section of the National Archives website.

To conclude the activity, lead a discussion based on the follow-up questions in the "When You're Done" section:

This document tells part of a famous story of a person, of a group of people, and of our country. It's a big story of courage and audacity, and this document provides the evidence of what really happened.

What evidence was most helpful? What was confusing or surprising? What helped you discover whom this story is about?

Look at other documents related to Rosa Parks and to the Civil Rights Movement. Tell the story of Ms. Rosa Parks using this document and others as the factual basis of your narrative.

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Start Activity In this activity, students will examine a diagram of the bus in which Rosa Parks took a seat. Ms. Parks's name has been blacked out. Students will analyze and evaluate the document, then apply prior knowledge to discern what this document is and why it is important.

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Great introductory activity to the March on Washington. Leads to the discussion of why the marchers chose to stop at the Lincoln Memorial. Good way to make connections to their fourth grade social studies curriculum,

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DocsTeach is a product of the National Archives education division. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire all learners to discover and explore the records of the American people preserved by the National Archives. The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper.

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Great "virtual field trip" to a museum

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Explore records of the National Archives documenting the ongoing struggle of Americans to define, attain, and protect their rights.

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Primary Sources, lessons, guides on Women's Suffrage

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Primary Sources

Click the thumbnail for the original item, the caption for information on the item, or download a PDF or MP3.

The resources in this primary source set are intended for classroom use. If your use will be beyond a single classroom, please review the copyright and fair use guidelines.

To download audio and video players go to American Memory: How to View

To view PDFs

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Click the thumbnail for the original item, the caption for information on the item, or download a PDF or MP3. The resources in this primary source set are intended for classroom use. If your use will be beyond a single classroom, please review the copyright and fair use guidelines.

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A timeline for historical context from the Library of Congress

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Abolishing slavery

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Voting rights 1869

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Citizenship - equal protection under the laws - 1866

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1964

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Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II

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This website is based on an exhibition that was on view at the National Museum of American History from February 2017 to July 2019.

After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the United States entered a war in Europe and the Pacific, the nation was overcome by shock, anger, and fear-a fear exaggerated by long-standing anti-Asian prejudice. Ten weeks later President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, under which nearly 75,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry were taken into custody. Another 45,000 Japanese nationals living in the United States (but long denied citizenship because of their race) were also incarcerated. Some forty years later, members of the Japanese American community led the nation to confront the wrong it had done-and to make it right.

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Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II

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This website is based on an exhibition that was on view at the National Museum of American History from February 2017 to July 2019. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the United States entered a war in Europe and the Pacific, the nation was overcome by shock, anger, and fear-a fear exaggerated by long-standing anti-Asian prejudice.

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Densho’s mission is to preserve the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished.

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Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment

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These primary sources document the Japanese American experience from immigration in the early 1900s through redress in the 1980s with a strong focus on the World War II mass incarceration. The archives are growing as Densho continues to record life histories and collect images and records. We provide these resources to students, teachers, researchers, and the general public for educational purposes.

Explore the rich resources available in the Densho Digital Repository (DDR). Our digital archive includes thousands of historic photographs, documents, newspapers, letters, and more. It is also home to more than 900 visual histories, comprised of over 1,700 hours of recorded, fully transcribed video interviews. For ease of navigation, interviews and images are indexed by topic, location and chronology, and can be searched using keywords.

The Repository's primary source offerings also include a Names Registry, which provides access to a searchable version of the WRA Form 26 register and Final Accountability Rosters (FAR). Search for family members and research subjects by name and discover where they were incarcerated in during WWII, where they lived before and after the war, and other important contextual details.

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Digital Archives - Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment

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These primary sources document the Japanese American experience from immigration in the early 1900s through redress in the 1980s with a strong focus on the World War II mass incarceration. The archives are growing as Densho continues to record life histories and collect images and records.

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Scholastic teaching guide

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Asian American History Teaching Guide | Scholastic

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Students learn that Asian immigrants were not quickly or easily accepted into the American way of life. This lesson teaches how Asian Americans overcame obstacles and con