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.
"The Birth of a Nation" Summarizes Reconstruction
Title cards, or intertitles, from The Birth of a Nation, a 1915 film portraying D.W. Griffith's racist vision of life in the South during the Civil war era.
![Title cards, or intertitles, from The Birth of a Nation, a 1915 film portraying D.W. Griffith's racist vision of life in the South during the Civil war era.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/1915_TheBirthofaNationtitlecardsdescribingReconstruction_FH2169421.png?h=ca3390b1&itok=EdxwGVd6)
"The Anti-Chinese Wall" Cartoon
This 1882 cartoon shows stereotypical imagery of laborers, among whom are Irishmen, an African American, a Civil War veteran, Italian, Frenchman, and a Jew, building a wall against the Chinese.
![This 1882 cartoon shows stereotypical imagery of laborers, among whom are Irishmen, an African American, a Civil War veteran, Italian, Frenchman, and a Jew, building a wall against the Chinese.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/1882_TheAntiChineseWall_FH2168777.png?h=49e1352e&itok=87tPdNc2)
Aftermath of the Ramaphosa Riots
A child pushes a trolley cart through burnt debris after violent xenophobic clashes at the Ramaphosa informal settlement on the outskirt of Johannesburg on May 21, 2008.
![A child pushes a trolley cart through burnt debris.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/2008_AftermathoftheRamaphosaRiots_FH281928.jpg?h=a5f2f23a&itok=L3gio3La)
Apartheid Era Sign
The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (passed in 1953) led to signs such as the one shown below.
![The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (passed in 1953) led to signs such as the one shown above. The Act prohibited people of different races from using the same public amenities.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Apartheid_Era_Sign.jpg?h=77e8015d&itok=b86oNSyE)
“Emancipation” (1865)
Thomas Nast's celebration of the emancipation of Southern slaves with the end of the Civil War. Nast envisions a somewhat optimistic picture of the future of free blacks in the United States.
![Thomas Nast's celebration of the emancipation of Southern slaves with the end of the Civil War.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/1865_Emancipation_FH2125837.jpg?h=6ed13ab3&itok=UPAlxuxC)
Nineteenth Century Evolution Chart
This late-nineteenth-century chart shows the supposed racial stages of evolution from ape to European that many scientists supported.
![Late nineteenth century chart showing six images displaying the supposed stages of racial evolution, beginning with an ape and ending with a white man.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Nineteenth_Century_Evolution_Chart_FH229388.jpg?h=bb8c9f74&itok=e0e8jHDz)
Glenn Ligon, Untitled - Four Etchings [D]
In this second black-on-black etching, Glenn Ligon also uses Ralph Ellison's quote from the prologue of his novel, Invisible Man (1952), though this one uses the complete quote, which ends "...figments of their imagination-indeed everything."
![Black on black etching that begins with "I am the Invisible Man…"](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/D11338_Medium_res_0.jpg?h=c978a40d&itok=EVvkRRuT)
"Colored Rule in a Reconstructed (?) State" (1874)
How do racial stereotypes in the media create and reinforce “in” groups and “out” groups in a society?
![Cartoon of members of the South Caroline Legislature in argument in the House, with Columbia rebuking them.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/1874_ColoredRuleinaReconstructed%28%3F%29State%281874%29_FH140919_0.jpg?itok=FEBN9jCc)
"He Wants a Change Too" (1876)
Propaganda about racial stereotypes used in the Reconstruction Era
How do racial stereotypes in the media create and reinforce “in” groups and “out” groups in a society?
![Print shows an African American man standing with a rifle, while in the background other African Americans lay dead and buildings burned. Quotes in the block on left call for meeting force with force.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/1876_HeWantsaChangeToo_FH2125840.jpg?h=ddcac193&itok=TG4pdX3A)
Pardon/Franchise Engravings by Thomas Nast
Wood engravings by Thomas Nast depict the tension between the demands of healing and justice during the Reconstruction era.
![Centerfold prints show Columbia considering why she should pardon Confederate troops who are begging for forgiveness when an African American Union soldier with an amputated leg does not have the right to vote.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/1865_PardonFranchiseColumbiaShallItrustthesemenandnotthisman_FH2125825.jpg?h=5d059bf2&itok=rLpFJ0P6)