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.
Louisiana White League Platform (1874)
The White League was a paramilitary group responsible for widespread violence against black and white Republicans in Louisiana and Mississippi. The group’s platform from 1874 is articulated here.
Names and Freedom
Historians Douglas Egerton and Leon Litwack explain the process of freedpeople adopting new surnames.
Isolating Homosexuals
Find out how Hitler strengthened enforcement of Paragraph 175, a law that made homosexuality a crime in Germany.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A Right to the Land
Freedman Bayley Wyatt advocates for freedpeople's rights to their land at a public meeting.
"Restoring" Germany's Civil Service
Read a letter exchange between Adolf Hitler and President Paul von Hindenburg regarding a law that suspended Jews from positions of civil service in Nazi Germany.
Kimchee on the Seder Plate
Read this reflection on Jewish identity by the daughter of an Ashkenazi, Reform Jewish father and a Korean Buddhist mother.
Excerpt from Mississippi Black Codes (1865)
The Mississippi Black Codes attempt to codify expectations of freedpeople around topics such as intermarriage and labor laws.