In this video segment, poet Sonia Sanchez recites her poem Malcolm, as a eulogy to the slain civil rights leader, Malcolm X. Recorded for Eyes on the Prize.

This lesson tells how Herbert Hoover, head of the new U.S. Food Administration, convinced Americans to conserve food during the Great War. Homeowners were urged to sign pledge cards to conserve food. Many observed wheat less Mondays, meatless Tuesdays, and pork less Saturdays. This website presents posters that helped carry one of the messages of Hoover and the Wilson administration: that Food will win the war.

The organizers of the first English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 had visions of easy wealth and abundant plunder. The colonists, a group with little agricultural experience and weighted with gentry, instead found a swampy and disease-ridden site. The local Indians were unwilling to labor for them. Few survived the first difficult winters. Captain John Smith had been a soldier, explorer, and adventurer. With the colony in near chaos, he took over the government of the colony in 1608 and instituted a policy of rigid discipline and agricultural cultivation. When a gunpowder accident forced his return to England in 1608, the colonists faced a disastrous winter known as "starving time."

In 1909, the predominantly immigrant and female workers in New York City's garment industry staged a series of job walkouts that led to a massive general strike involving more than 20,000 workers. Fifteen-year-old shirtwaist worker Clara Lemlich, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, emerged as a key organizer and speaker. An unprovoked attack on Lemlich and her fellow female strikers by anti-union thugs was recorded by New York Sun correspondent McAlister Coleman. He retold the story years later in his article, "All of Which I Saw," published in the Progressive in 1950.

This video segment from A Walk Through Harlem features the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes.

This site focuses on the complex system of election rules by examining the vote tally of the 1824 Presidential election, in which the winning candidate, John Quincy Adams, received fewer popular votes than the runner-up, Andrew Jackson.

This section contains reproducible copies of primary documents from the holdings of the National Archives of the United States, teaching activities correlated to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government and cross-curricular connections.

This lesson presents documents pertaining to the treaty that brought an official end to the Mexican-American War. Materials for teachers and links to other resources accompany the documents.

The National Humanities center presents reading guides with primary source materials for the study of America in 1815-1850: The Triumph of Nationalism/The House Dividing. Primary source materials include letters, diaries, journals, poems, paintings, maps, essays, stories, treatises, sermons, addresses, and more. Resources are divided into the topics: Culture of the Common Man, Cult of Domesticity, Religion, Expansion, and America in 1850.

This is a self-service online workshop for teachers who use primary documents to help students see the impact and ongoing relevance of the Constitution. It requires little advance preparation and provides everything needed, including a vocabulary list, document analysis worksheets, and historical documents -- John Marshall's Supreme Court nomination (1801), proclamation to New Orleans (1803), Lincoln's telegram to Grant (1864), Johnson oath photo (1963), and more.

This lesson features President Truman's statement, on June 27, 1950, announcing his order to send U.S. air and naval forces to help defend South Korea. Also included are teaching suggestions and links to hundreds of related documents from the Truman Presidential Library.

This lesson presents facsimiles of 8 printed and hand-written documents surrounding the case of Thomas Cooper, a lawyer and newspaper editor in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, who was indicted, prosecuted, and convicted of violating the Sedition Act after he published a broadside in 1799 that sharply criticized President John Adams. The case is famous in the annals of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment. This lesson correlates to the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Social Sciences.

In this transcript of an interview for Eyes on the Prize, Vanessa Venable describes the impact of school closings in Prince Edward County, Virginia from 1959-1964.

Students will examine an image of civilians affected by the Vietnam War. They will research and discuss the reasons the Vietnam War began, why America became involved, and what some of the long-term effects of this war have been

This site looks at the history and variety of voting methods in the U.S. -- the voice vote, party ticket (paper ballots listing candidates from just one party), Australian ballot, gear and lever machine, and others. Voting reforms of the early 1900s, when the U.S. electorate doubled, are described. Kinds of voting equipment used in counties across the U.S. are shown on a map. Innovative design improvements are discussed.

These activities will have student look at the history of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, its contributions to American history, and accomplishments of selected West Point graduates. Proposed by George Washington in 1783 and created 20 years later, West Point became an important American institution before the Civil War.

Benjamin Franklin is often described as a “self-made” man. It is one of the main reasons he is considered quintessentially American, along with his sense of humor and affinity towards innovation. The ability to acquire new knowledge, transform as an individual, and create opportunities for oneself are all deeply rooted elements of American culture and folklore. Though no doubt an extraordinary person, was Franklin truly self-made? This lesson asks students to question the concept of a self-made person in the form of a Structured Academic Controversy (SAC). Students will explore Franklin’s life story alongside the story of his contemporary Benjamin Banneker, a Black inventor, mathematician, and astronomer from Baltimore, Maryland. Both Benjamins are often described as self-made and both were highly accomplished scientists, writers, and inventors.

Professor Kate Rushin describes the Harlem Renaissance as a large social and cultural movement fueled by many factors in this video from A Walk Through Harlem.

Match a variety of vehicles with their destinations and time periods to learn how much transportation in America has changed over time. See how much you know about the history of transportation with the interactive games in this online collection. You can find information, artifacts and photographs in the collection as well.

Within These Walls...tells the stories of five families who lived in this house over 200 years and made history in their kitchens and parlors, through everyday choices and personal acts of courage and sacrifice. In this online exhibition from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, students will learn how the Smithsonian acquired the house at 16 Elm Street Ipswich, Massachusetts and saved more than a dozen family stories and 200 years of American social history. They will also learn some of the methods historians and curators used to learn about this house's past, the ways that it changed over time, and the people who lived in it.