Home - The Just Deeds Project
Students should know how close they are to the history we teach. Throw this information into the back-end of that lesson on racial covenants and segregated real estate to show that the past isn't exactly over
Executive Order 11111—Providing Assistance for the Removal of Obstructions of Justice and Suppression of Unlawful Combinations Within the State of Alabama | The American Presidency Project
Brown v. Board - NY Times announces Supreme Court Decision
Research Guides: Emmett Till Archives: Media Coverage: Magazines
Links to newspaper and magazine articles describing and showing the results of the torture and murder of Emmett Till
Segregation Forever | Equal Justice Initiative
Unbelievable quotes can be found in this collection
Resistance to Racial Integration
Brown v Board is a staple of US History classes, but how often are students shown the resistance to desegregation?
“There is only one solution in the event segregation is banned by the Supreme Court,” Mr. Talmadge declared on December 18, 1952, anticipating how the justices would rule in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. “And that is abolition of the public school system.”
“The mixing of races in the schools will mark the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it,”
Even before Brown II was announced, voters in Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi had approved constitutional amendments authorizing their legislatures to abolish public education if they were ordered to integrate.
Brown v. Board of Education and the ... - Google Books
Brown v. Board of Education (I),1954
"The Only Good Pig Is a Dead Pig": A Black Panther Paper Editor Explains a Political Cartoon
The trumpet of Conscience : By Martin Luther King, jr : Internet Archive
The text of five lectures that Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered in November and December 1967 for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Flag Talk:
Do students in New Jersey know or care about high school's in Kentucky who have "rebels" as a mascot?
Rioting: An American Tradition : We're History
This article can be used several US History units. It would fit in the Revolution, Civil War, the Gilded Age, Progressive Era and the Civil Rights movement. It shows synthesis across time and links riots in American history to a common theme. This can be used solely for content, but more effectively in demonstrating how connections can be found and themes crafted.
Boston in 1773,
90,000 pounds of tea, worth about $1.7 million today.
May 1849
25 people were killed and more than 120 injured in a struggle over which Shakespearean actor was better:
The Astor Place Riot
At least 120 people died and another 2000 were injured. Rioters destroyed between 1 and 5 million dollars in property, about fifty buildings, including two churches and an orphan asylum for African American children. In today’s dollars, that would be between $20 million and about $96 million in damage.
Cincinnati
March 1884
50 people dead (but not the prisoner, who had temporarily escaped) and more than 300 wounded
Ludlow, Colorado, in 1914,
killing between 20 and 26
Three days of race riots in Detroit, in 1943,
three African Americans
The fighting left 34 dead.
September 29, 1962,
Oxford, Mississippi
Two civilians were killed and more than 300 wounded
Watts
week in August 1965
Thirty-four people died and more than $40 million worth of property was destroyed before 4,000 members of the California National Guard restored order
Rodney King riots of 1992
six days, 53 people were killed, more than 2,000 injured, and more than $1 billion in property was destroyed.
As long as America is a democracy, we will have riots.
Civil Rights Act (1964)
This act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. This document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.
Loving v. Virginia
Students may not believe that a man and wife went to jail for getting married in Virginia in 1958. This ordinarily would not be a crime, but Mildred was African-American and RIchard was not. This Supreme Court decision is used as the basis for attacks against laws forbidding same-sex marriages. Comprehensive collection of articles, artifacts and documents from the "Famous Trials" site at the University of Missouri - Kansas City
The Making of African American Identity: 1917-1968, National Humanities Center
A collection of primary resources-historical documents, literary texts,and works of art-thematically organized with notes and discussion questions from National Humanities Center from National Humanities Center
The Impossible Victory: Vietnam
from Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"
America in Ferment: The Tumultuous 1960s: Digital History
This chapter examines the Civil Rights struggle against segregation and racial equality; the feminist fight for equal educational and employment opportunity; the Mexican American battle against discrimination in voting, education, and employment; the Native American campaign for tribal sovereignty and land rights; the gay and lesbian drive to end discrimination based on sexual preference; and the environmentalist campaign to reduce pollution and promote conservation.
Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan: The two girls in the Little Rock Picture
This article traces the lives of two girls caught in history and preserved through one of the most iconic images of the Civil Right Movement. You'll recognize Hazel Bryan's face the second you see it, and you'll remember Elizabeth Blackwell as well - this excerpt from a book chronicling their lives shows what happened to them afterwards.
New Jersey's Apartheid and Intensely Segregated Urban Schools
How many New Jersey teachers realize that one out of 4 black students in New Jersey attend schools with a population that is less than 1% white? This Rutgers University report shows how New Jersey has the third highest fraction of its black students in apartheid schools, following only Illinois and Michigan. Prepared by UCLA's Civil Rights Project and the Rutgers University's Institute on Educational Law and Policy, this report concludes that although New Jersey is a rich, largely suburban state with an educated population, with growing diversity, and a tradition of strong public schools, its black students face far more extreme school segregation than black students in the South
Alex Haley interviews Malcolm X
There's a lot of good material here, certainly come of it can be mined for a good civil rights lesson. This is an interview with Playboy Magazine
Is Civil Disobedience Ever Justified as a Method of Political Change?
Great debate series. Two short readings with comprehension and critical thinking questions. Letter from Birmingham Clergy to King compared against King's letter from a Birmingham Jail
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Google Cultural Institute
Google's Cultural Institute's collection of images and primary documents documenting the history of the Civil Rights Act. Great for research Web Quests and teachers looking for images. Material is presented in a timeline.
Anti-busing Marchers in Pontiac - 9-6-71 - Critical Commons
In August 1971, ten school buses were dynamited by members of the Ku Klux Klan in Pontiac Michigan. As part of the northern white backlash against forced integration in the north, it is just the sort of event that is seldom acknowledged in US History classes. This site provides news coverage of the protest movement against busing in Michigan and commentary that describes the particular manner in which the news media communicate the story.
New Jersey Statutes - Title 18A Education - 18A:35-1 2-year course of study in history - New Jersey Attorney Resources - New Jersey Laws
This is the text of the New Jersey statute that requires students complete two years of US History for graduation. Note that it still includes the word "Negro"
Local Activists Call for a Bus Boycott in Montgomery
This leaflet, produced by Jo Ann Robinson and others in response to Rosa Parks' arrest on December 1, 1955, called for all African Americans to stay off city buses on Monday, December 5. Robinson was president of the Women's Political Council, an organization of African-American professional women who worked for greater political influence from the Black community. She was later arrested for her role in the boycott.
The Black Freedom Movement
The common approach to teaching the Civil Rights Movement glosses over competing views among activists, writing out of the history those who advocated self-defense and those who pushed for economic change. And it downplays the role of women in the struggle for social change. Examining the following primary sources documents will help you shed light on new interpretations of the black freedom movement.
Civil Rights | Classroom Resources | PBS Learning Media
Features an impressive array of audio, video, and text sources from Frontline and American Experience shows, Eyes on the Prize, and other sources. Also offers an interactive Civil Rights movement timeline and four lesson plans: Campaigns for Economic Freedom/Re-Examining Brown/Taking a Stand/Understanding White Supremacy. REquires registration but free
Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror
2015 Report from the Equal Justice Initiative that documents racial terror in the United States - the title itself should provoke student interest as well as teacher responsibility. Civil Rights lessons should go beyond Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.
What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals - NYTimes.com
Aside from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King is one of the most iconic figures in US History education curricula. The "I have a Dream" speech is perhaps the single most recalled factoid ever. But how many students know that the FBI wrote an anonymous letter to Martin Luther King telling him to kill himself? How many adults know that?
Math Patterns in Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech
In her analysis of Martin Luther King’s speech, Nancy Duarte brought attention to the patterns created through his figurative language: the call and response, allusions, metaphors, etc., and she lays them out in multi-colored vertical bars for audiences to see. There is a geometric shape, there are patterns, and so, there is math.
Helping students understand the structure of Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech can help them better appreciate the brilliance of his craft in both creating and then in delivering his unforgettable message, “I Have a Dream.”