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.
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.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866
This is the full text of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which made freedpeople citizens.
Congress Debates the Fourteenth Amendment
Quotations from the 1866 congressional debate over the Fourteenth Amendment help students clarify what the amendment says and its significance.
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.
The First South Carolina Legislature
This image shows 63 members of South Carolina’s 1868 state legislature, the first state legislature with a Black majority.
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.
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.
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.
Improving Education in South Carolina
Samuel J. Lee, elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1868, describes improvements to the state education system made during Reconstruction.
Raphael Lemkin: Watcher of the Sky (Genocide Convention)
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This film, created in partnership between Propeller Films and Facing History & Ourselves from the feature length film Watchers of the Sky, focuses on lawyer Raphael Lemkin’s efforts to develop an international law.
Raphael Lemkin: Watcher of the Sky (Introduction)
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This film, from the feature length movie Watchers of the Sky, focuses on Raphael Lemkin and some of his personal story as well as what became the focus of his life’s work.
War and Peace (1942-1954)
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Part three of Latino Americans, this episode covers World War II and the following years, as Latino Americans serve their new country by the hundreds of thousands but still face discrimination and a fight for civil rights back in the United States.