The Role and Challenges of a Free Press
Reporters and media professionals discuss the functions and importance of a free press in a democracy.
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This is a Siren: Student and Poet Jonathan Lykes
Jonathan Lykes gives a poetic account on Facing History & Ourselves’ meaning for him.
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Verifying the Story
Journalists discuss the difficulties they faced in verifying the facts after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1866
This is the full text of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which made freedpeople citizens.
![Historical newspaper with headline reading “civil rights bill.”](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/image063.jpg?h=e111bd9d&itok=Y2bjiHOh)
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.
![Photo of page 1 of the 14th amendment of the US Constitution](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Civil_Rights_1868_14th_Amendment_of_the_United_States_Constitution_%20FH21203.jpg?h=4359e9ca&itok=4j99BHvV)
Conquered (en español)
In Spanish, in an 1865 journal entry, Southerner Kate Stone mourns the Confederacy’s defeat.
![Ruins of a building and carriages.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Charleston_sc_1865.jpg?h=02857a37&itok=Qup7m3tC)
A Day of Triumph
In an 1865 diary entry, Northerner Caroline Barrett White celebrates the Union’s victory and the end of the Civil War.
![People kiss and greet each other.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/master-pnp-ppmsca-21000-21005u.jpg?h=09123122&itok=vt-DNgbW)
A Day of Triumph (en español)
In an 1865 diary entry, Northerner Caroline Barrett White celebrates the Union’s victory and the end of the Civil War. This reading is in Spanish.
![People kiss and greet each other.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/master-pnp-ppmsca-21000-21005u.jpg?h=09123122&itok=vt-DNgbW)
Election Day in Clinton, Mississippi (1875)
Eugene Welborne describes the attacks and intimidations on Black voters on Election Day in 1875.
![People voting.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/FreedmenVotingInNewOrleans1867.jpeg?h=4bc92e92&itok=w2ULaH3x)