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.
Experiencing Apartheid
Writer Mtutuzeli Matshoba provides a vivid account of life under apartheid through the story of his friend who was forcibly ejected from his home.
![A child walks to school through the barren village of Qunu, South Africa, located just outside of the town of Mthatha.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Democracy_2013_GirlWalkingtoSchoolMthatha_FH281816.jpg?h=a5f2f23a&itok=lR43Ngto)
The Freedom Charter
Examine the 1955 Freedom Charter, established by the ANC and supporting groups, which calls for all races to enjoy equal rights, protections, and benefits under the law.
![A group of resisters proudly pose after their release from prison in Durban during the Defiance Campaign Against Unjust Laws, 1952.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Democracy_1952_TheDefianceCampaign_FH281822.jpg?h=56feb499&itok=2LnEBZM4)
Mandela on Trial
Nelson Mandela describes the ANC and PAC’s shift from non-violent resistance of apartheid to violent sabotage under the militant faction MK in his testimony during the Rivonia Trial.
!["A young Nelson Mandela poses for a photograph in Umtata shortly before moving to Fort Beaufort to attend Healdtown Comprehensive School. "](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Nelson_Mandela_Medium_res.jpg?h=623540e1&itok=0V950_BY)
A Wife's Lament
Consider the unique experiences of black South African women during apartheid, many of whom were forced to live far away from their husbands on bantustans.
![A group of women hold signs in demonstration against the pass laws in Cape Town on August 9, 1956, the same day as the massive women’s protest in Pretoria.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Democracy_1956_WomenResistPassLaws_FH281823.jpg?h=cb9047e7&itok=NA94IMQt)
Excerpts from the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment
This reading contains excerpts from the Emanicipation Proclimation and the Thirteenth Amendment.
![An image of the first page of the Emancipation Proclamation.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Civil_Rights_1863_Emancipation_Proclomation_FH21380.jpg?h=8d9d8244&itok=FWL8uma0)
Petition from the Colored Washerwomen
In 1866, Black women laundry workers in Jackson, Mississippi, joined together to protest low wages.
![Photo shows a log cabin with two African American men seated outside and an African American woman standing in the doorway of a slave or sharecropper dwelling.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Savannah_Georgia_Early_Negro_Life_1867_FH2178129.jpg?h=2b78d577&itok=h-7u5TrP)
José's Story
In this personal narrative, a young person shares their experience coming out to family as a gay, Latino, Catholic man and their social justice work at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center.
![Two male students write at their desks.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Cleveland_Classroom_2019_FH2100139.jpg?h=78aab1d8&itok=eGCF5ua2)
Speech by Frances Watkins Harper: “We Are All Bound Up Together”
Read an excerpt from an 1866 speech by Black activist and suffragist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. This reading is available in Spanish.
![Three-quarter length portrait of Frances E.W. Harper](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Civil_Rights_Frances_EW_Harper_Portrait_1898_FH2178132.jpg?h=785073cc&itok=pVSN1dAY)
They Fence Their Neighbors Away
Sioux chief Sitting Bull responds to different visions of land ownership in this speech excerpt.
![Portrait of Sitting Bull in black and white](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Sitting_Bull_by_D_F_Barry_ca_1883_Dakota_Territory_FH2178138e.jpg?h=582136a4&itok=0WFowJv9)
Platform of the Workingmen’s Party of California
The political platform of the Workingmen's Party of California, a third party organized around eliminating competition for white laborers in the West and advocating for a ban on Chinese immigration.
![Chinese workers building the Loma Prieta Lumber Company's railroad in California.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Chinese_railroad_Workers_1880_FH2110498.jpg?h=7feeb858&itok=sJSfVjZM)
Chinese Immigrants Write to President Grant
Chinese leaders in California write to President Ulysses S. Grant in 1876 about the discrimination their communities face from a rising anti-Chinese movement.
![President Ulysses S. Grant, half-length portrait, seated, facing right](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Ulysses_Grant_1869_FH21412.jpg?h=4b9455f5&itok=BuGykV5F)