Teaching Current Events: Educator Guide
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This guide includes tools and strategies for organizing discussions about current events in your classroom.
![Photo of students seated in a classroom.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/140_Bully_Summit%2C_2012%2C_LA%2C_142_for_Web_or_Office_Use.jpg?h=7fb2964e&itok=TfALDZt7)
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)
The Road to Brown
This film shows the legal case against segregation that launched the civil rights movement.
![](/sites/default/files/brightcove/videos/images/posters/image_276.jpg)
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)
Excerpts from the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment (en español)
In Spanish, 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)
Petition from the Colored Washerwomen (en español)
In Spanish, 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)
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Cold War Dilemma
Carol Anderson discusses Eleanor Roosevelt’s struggle to balance her support of civil and human rights with domestic and international politics and policy during the Cold War.
![](/sites/default/files/brightcove/videos/images/posters/image_1700.jpg)