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.
Letter From Birmingham Jail
Read Martin Luther King, Jr.'s response to suggestions that his nonviolent demonstrations were unwise and untimely in these excerpts from his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
Avoid Fueling Polarization When Taking Action
This reading contains excerpts from researcher Arthur Brooks about types of activism that move beyond “us” and “them” narratives.
Roosevelt Williams Recalls Moving for Work in Alabama and Mississippi
Roosevelt Williams describes different jobs he held and how he moved around the segregated South to find work in the 1930s and 1940s.
Roosevelt Williams Recalls Voting in Alabama
Roosevelt Williams describes voting in segregated Alabama in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Redneck Stereotype
Authors Joseph Flora and Lucinda MacKethan describe the characteristics of the “redneck,” a specific stereotype of a poor white Southerner.
Roosevelt Williams Recalls Farming During His Youth in Alabama
Roosevelt Williams shares his memories of farming cotton in segregated Alabama.
Roosevelt Williams Recalls Learning about the Rules of Jim Crow in Alabama
Roosevelt Williams describes his memories of interactions between races in the segregated South.
Immigrants: First Generation
Nigerian-born poet Ijeoma Umebinyuo pays tribute to the stories of immigrants and the lives they lead in the United States in this "prose poem."
Blackbelt
A high school student reflects on being raised by his older brother and the legacy of the karate blackbelt his brother gave to him.
“Chameleon” by David L.
A teenager recalls a time he bought shoes to fit in with his high school friends.
The Reconstruction Acts of 1867
This reading examines measures of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, which enacted the plan that became known as Radical Reconstruction.