This website is a collection of various primary sources that have been digitized. This specific module looks at photographs, videos, posters, documents, etc related to activism in the United States. This includes the Civil Rights Movements, Civil Rights Demonstrations, Civil Rights Actions, Martin Luther King, Jr., Education Activism, Anti-War Activism, Women’s Activism, LGBT Activism. There are several other primary source sets as well.

When our Constitution was written, it was silent on women. Excluded from most of the rights and privileges of citizenship, women operated in limited and rigid roles while enslaved women were excluded from all. Yet women have actively participated as citizens—organizing, marching, petitioning—since the founding of our country. Sometimes quietly, and sometimes with a roar, women’s roles have been redefined.

Use this page to find primary sources and document-based teaching activities related to women's rights and changing roles in American history. Many of the documents, photographs, and other sources are also featured in the exhibits Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote, at the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, and One-Half of the People: Advancing Equality for Women, traveling the Country.

Support your students to embrace the larger questions featured in American Creed that ask:

What ideals unite us as a nation?
Where does a nation’s identity come from?
These lesson plans bring together teaching strategies, videos, and activities that will help you explore themes such as common ideals and national identity.

In its first constitutional challenge to the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear a case brought by a Chinese immigrant, not an American citizen.

Yick Wo believed city ordinances had been unfairly applied to him, so he challenged their constitutionality under the equal protection clause, and took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. Initiated by the Chinese in San Francisco, the precedent-setting case expanded the interpretation of the equal protection clause to include both citizens and noncitizens alike. It also established foundational principles of law.

In Yick Wo v. Hopkins, the Court ruled that “an administration of a municipal ordinance . . . violates the Constitution . . . if it makes arbitrary and unjust discriminations founded on differences of race . . . ” “The guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment extend to “all persons within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, without regard to differences of race, or color, or of nationality.” ” . . . the equal protection of the laws is a pledge of the protection of equal laws.”

In this lesson, based on the Annenberg Classroom video “Yick Wo and the Equal Protection Clause,” students explore the cause-and-effect relationships between historical events and the development of constitutional principles that protect the rights of all people in America today. The words inscribed on the U.S. Supreme Court building are a reminder of that protection: “Equal Justice Under Law.”

The First Amendment has two clauses related to religion, specifically preventing the establishment of religion and the
ability to freely exercise religious beliefs. The goal of this lesson is for students to gain a deeper understanding of the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. They will do this by understanding the history of the clause, as well as
the relevant Supreme Court cases that will help students interpret how this clause has been applied. Students will also
use scholarly essays and the text of the U.S. Constitution to evaluate current issues and cases that involve the Establishment Clause

This lesson is designed to introduce students to the Constitution. It can be used as a one-day lesson to fulfill the Constitution Day requirement or as a means to begin a conversation about the framers of the Constitution. It has been carefully designed to highlight the three spheres of civic education as detailed by the National Constitution Center; that is, the lesson includes civic knowledge, active citizenship, and democratic deliberation.

The Founders’ Library refers to the prior knowledge the Founding Fathers brought to the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Students will examine these ideas and use them to analyze the Constitution and Bill of Rights. At the same time, students will be considering ideas and information that relate to their own lives.

Students will finish the lesson by considering the idea of prior knowledge. Each student will be asked to think of books, music, movies, or television shows that impact ideas about the United States. The combination of personal experience and the critical examination of the Constitution will allow the students to have a deeper understanding of the creative imagination that was necessary to write and debate the Constitution of the United States

This lesson is designed for one forty-five minute high school class period. It does not have to be limited to the social studies classroom, but can be completed in a variety of settings from a small seminar to a traditional humanities classroom.

Guidelines for Choosing Culturally Appropriate Literature About Native American People Mike Mestelle from Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, WI and Carol Amour from Lac du Flambeau, WI discuss guidelines to help classroom teachers choose literature written by Native American authors or about Native American people that would be appropriate for use in school classrooms. Carol Amour represents the First Nations Traveling Resource Center, she works with the Indian Community School of Milwaukee in Franklin, WI, and has worked with the George W. Brown Museum in Lac du Flambeau, WI.

This comprehensive teacher’s manual focuses on the Armenian Genocide of 1915 during which 1.5 million Armenians, half of the Armenian population, were systematically annihilated. It includes a 1-day, 2-day, and 10-day unit with all the materials teachers will need, including more than two dozen overheads, interactive classroom exercises and more.
Discussions include a wide range of topics related to the Armenian Genocide: the history of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, primary source documents, witness and survivor memoirs, maps and political-economic timelines, and the problem of denial.

The lessons also consider the links between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, and capture other major human rights violations such as the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the Rape of Nanking, and the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides.

Comprehensive 1-Day, 2-Day, and 10-Day Lesson Plans for 10th Grade Public School Teachers.
Includes all supporting material – 209 pages
Fulfills mandated requirements in the History-Social Science Framework for California Public Schools.
Sponsored by the San Francisco Unified School District Office of Curriculum Improvement and Professional Development.

This packet provides an explanation of Ireland’s Great Hunger and provides ideas for primary source materials to use to describe the event A variety of discussion questions, writing activities, and other activities are provided that allow students to explore the facts and how different Irish artists used art and other media forms to depict the effects of the famine.

Anthony’s speech helps students understand the Constitution as a living document. She uses a variety of techniques of legal reasoning and interpretation to challenge other, exclusionary uses of the document. She bases an argument for change on an interpretation of a founding document.
Reconstruction is a challenging era for students to understand. Anthony’s speech captures the complexities of the Reconstruction Amendments and how they opened new avenues for disenfranchised groups to assert their rights. It also explores the interrelationship of the women’s suffragists with other movements. Anthony highlights the cultural, social, and political aspects of women’s struggle for equal rights. The speech does not simply assert women’s right to vote, but also more broadly addresses the subordinate position of women within the home and in other areas of public policy.

This is an anti-racism institution that uses objects to inform, to teach, and to create dialogues about race relations. They use primary sources to document and learn from the past. The mission of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Imagery is to teach tolerance using objects of deeply rooted intolerance.

Resources promote personal and community awareness, social justice, and racial healing. The museum understands that all individuals have varying comfort levels when speaking about race and confronting racism. The Educational Resources include a virtual tour of the museum, curriculum guide, resource guide, media literacy unit and a unit that addresses racial disparity in Covid-19.

The goal of the jury selection process in both civil and criminal proceedings is to seat an impartial jury. Longstanding processes and procedures are followed to ensure that a trial is fair for the two opposing parties. The Supreme Court decision in Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co. (1991), however, wasn’t about a violation related to either party’s constitutional rights; it was about the rights of prospective jurors. Constitutional protections apply to the rights of all private individuals in a courtroom, including prospective jurors.

Before Edmonson, the law only prevented race-based peremptory challenges in criminal trials. With Edmonson, the Court extended the prohibition to civil trials. “Racial discrimination,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in the opinion of the Court, “has no place in the courtroom, whether the proceeding is civil or criminal.” It threatens the fairness and impartiality of the proceedings and violates equal protection principles.

In this lesson, students analyze the interplay of processes and procedures that courts use to seat an impartial jury and gain appreciation for the essential role of juries in the justice system. They also explore the responsibilities and limits placed on government by the Constitution in the context of civil and criminal trials.

This lesson from Facing History and Ourselves asks students to analyze and storyboard Dr. King's "Mountaintop Speech" and discuss how humans can respond to injustice. It also challenges students to reflect on the world in which they would like to live.

Collection of Lesson plans related to George Washington’s life, his service to his country, and his legacy. Lesson plans can be searched by grade level and topic.

Enhance your classroom experience on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day with these teacher-tested lessons from the nationally recognized We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution curriculum. These materials will help inform your students about the national struggle for civil rights and equal protection under the law.

From 1910 to 1929, one-tenth of Mexico’s population (about one million people) moved to the United States. This historic wave of migration came to a halt in the 1930s, and in the new decade, more Mexicans left the U.S. than entered. In this lesson, students examine congressional testimony, photographs, industry correspondence, and state legislation to answer the question: Why did Mexican migration to the U.S. drastically change in the 1930s?

In 1924, Congress and President Calvin Coolidge drastically restricted immigration to the U.S. by placing most countries on a strict quota system. Mexico was excluded from these restrictions. In this same period, however, Mexicans in the U.S. commonly faced discrimination and even racial violence. In this lesson, students read six historical documents to answer the central historical question: Were Mexicans welcome in the United States in the 1920s?

This lesson traces the long history of how African Americans have used music as a vehicle for communicating beliefs, aspirations, observations, joys, despair, resistance, and more across U.S. history. Lesson includes objectives and standards, sample lyrics, lesson plan, assessment and extension activities.

The North Star has been an important symbol in the African American community. A beacon of hope and freedom for some, a symbol of knowledge and information for others and a celestial representation of purpose and reason. On this website, students will explore African American history through digital activities on the Smithsonian Learning Lab platform. The activities, or collections, have gathered objects, stories, videos and thinking questions all in one place. It allows students to work through a "Learning Lab" and analyze primary objects in the museum to learn how to practice Historical Thinking, Reading Silences, Change & Continuity & Historical Context.

This teaching guide from the OER Project outlines their courses, PD, and other resources.

The OER Project is a coalition of educators and historians committed to boosting student engagement and achievement through transformational social studies programs. By empowering classroom teachers with better curricula, content, and a vibrant community, we deliver more compelling, impactful, and usable histories. “OER” stands for open educational resources. When you grab a free worksheet off Pinterest for your tenth graders, that’s an OER resource. We recognize the value of OER resources, but want to go beyond the typical content repository approach—we aim to improve OER by providing coherency, support, and community.

Currently, the OER Project offers two courses—Big History Project (BHP) and World History Project (WHP)—both of which are completely free, online, and adaptable to different standards and classroom needs. Unlike textbooks, lesson websites, and other commercial products, everything has been purposely built to truly empower teachers and leave traditional history courses in—sorry for the pun—the past. We also offer short, standalone courses for those who want to try the OER Project approach, but aren’t yet ready to take on a full history course. Our current standalone options include Project X, a course that uses data to explore historical trends to help make predictions about the future; Project Score, a course that uses writing tools and the use of Score, a free, online essay-scoring service to help support student writing; and Climate Project, an evidence-based overview of the global carbon problem that culminates in students developing a plan of action they can implement locally