Resource Library
Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students.
We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.
![A group of high school students sit at desks in conversation.](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_480/public/2023-10/AdobeStock_254378868.jpg?itok=f6YAphey)
Introducing Our US History Curriculum Collection
Draw from this flexible curriculum collection as you plan any middle or high school US history course. Featuring units, C3-style inquiries, and case studies, the collection will help you explore themes of democracy and freedom with your students throughout the year.
Collaborators and Bystanders
Historian Eric Foner explains the various ways white Southerners showed support for the Ku Klux Klan during the Reconstruction era.
![Member of Ku Klux Klan holding a torch on a horse.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/REC_12_The_Birth.jpg?h=da7ce804&itok=o8NJxzoX)
Election Violence in Mississippi (1875)
Robert Gleeds, an African American candidate for sheriff in Lowndes County, Mississippi, describes the violence that occurred on the eve of the 1875 election.
![Cartoon showing violence and dead bodies at polling place with two men shaking hands.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/figure_178_Nast_vs_Greeley.png?h=a44ae31d&itok=5rVecj0T)
The Fourteenth Amendment
This is the full text of the fourteenth amendment to the US Constitution, which granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” including former slaves recently freed.
![Photo of page 1 of the 14th amendment of the US Constitution](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Civil_Rights_1868_14th_Amendment_of_the_United_States_Constitution_%20FH21203.jpg?h=4359e9ca&itok=4j99BHvV)
Freedmen's Bureau Agent Reports on Progress in Education
This is an excerpt from a January 1866 Freedmen’s Bureau report on the state of education for freedpeople in the South, written by Freedmen’s Bureau inspector John W. Alvord.
![A black and white image of African American schoolchildren in Liberty County, circa 1890.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Copy_of_m-11013.png?h=d1cb525d&itok=BZqbljCV)
Freedpeople Protest the Loss of Their Land
The Committee of Freedmen on Edisto Island, South Carolina wrote a letter to Freedmen’s Bureau Commissioner O.O. Howard responding to President Johnson’s land policy.
![A painting depicting a meeting at First African Baptist Church, Savannah.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/790449565.jpg?h=43a5b1b4&itok=0_tB65OG)
He Was Always Right and You Were Always Wrong
Henry Blake, a freedman from Arkansas, describes how sharecropping limited his freedom, noting that sharecroppers were always kept in debt.
![A black and white image of two cotton sharecroppers in a field.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/8b32081v.jpg?h=40282f03&itok=vNvAN43D)
"The Honoured Representative of Four Millions of Colored People"
Historian Douglas R. Egerton describes the life and political career of Mississippi politician Blanche K. Bruce, the first African American to serve a full six-year term in the United States Senate.
![Portrait of man seated in suit.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/REC_04a_Blanche_Bruce.jpg?h=b75a1373&itok=WIl27GuK)
The Importance of Getting History Right
Historian James Grossman describes the importance of establishing an accurate history of Reconstruction.
![A drawing of the first Black 7 senators and representatives in the 41st and 42nd Congress of the United States.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/First_colored_senator_and_reps.jpg?h=a7421b6e&itok=EPFRKxDN)
A Nucleus of Ordinary Men
Consider the role that secrecy and fear play in mob violence with W. E. B. Du Bois’ analysis of the Ku Klux Klan’s power.
![A portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois, head-and-shoulders, facing slightly right.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/3a53178u.jpg?h=87584735&itok=bgkKYE0Q)
Presidential Reconstruction
Investigate aspects of President Andrew Johnson’s plans for Reconstruction that outlined how to bring former Confederate citizens and states back into the Union.
![A photograph of Andrew Johnson.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/03751u.jpg?h=8c44f663&itok=SOBBoTvF)
Reconstructing Mississippi
Learn about the accomplishments of the first interracial legislature in Mississippi from the account of John Roy Lynch, a freedman who served in the state’s House of Representatives.
![Photograph shows a montage of seventy-five portraits of members of the Mississippi State Legislature (1874-1875)](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/mississippi-legislature-1874-75.jpg?h=6c376ef6&itok=NdPaXqS1)