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.
Joyce Ladner and Cleveland Sellers on Emmett Till
Joyce Ladner and Cleveland Sellers, civil rights activists and members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), reflect on the impact of Emmett Till's murder.
![Portrait of SNCC members](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/32914383738_ace40e2a04_o.jpg?h=61da8ea6&itok=yJFr5Mlx)
"I Knew I Had to Give Him the Talk"
Mamie Till-Mobley shares an account of "the talk" she had with her son Emmett Till shortly before he journeyed from Chicago to Mississippi in 1955.
![Father holding child hand](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/iStock-1369187524.jpg?h=6b9347cd&itok=lAQ1JEMa)
Segregation and Precipitating Events
This excerpt from an FBI investigation of the murder of Emmett Till describes some of the Southern norms that were created to enforce white supremacy.
![Black man waiting at bus station in the colored section during segregation](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/12_Jim_Crow_Durham_NC.jpg?h=2a400454&itok=S2DapbD9)
Mississippi Miscegenation Laws
This document lists in chronological order the evolution of Mississippi miscegenation laws between 1865 and 1942.
![Black man waiting at bus station in the colored section during segregation](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/12_Jim_Crow_Durham_NC.jpg?h=2a400454&itok=S2DapbD9)
The Brown Decision
This document gives students the immediate historical context of the Till murder by summarizing the segregationist reaction to the Brown decision and the emergence of White Citizens’ Councils in Mississippi.
![ca. May 1954, Washington, DC, USA --- Nettie Hunt and her daughter Nickie sit on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. Nettie explains to her daughter the meaning of the high court's ruling in the Brown Vs. Board of Education case that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/brown__v_board_BE048007.jpg?h=a2c2cdfd&itok=NfTipnEa)
Quotes from the Mississippi Constitutional Convention 1890
This source includes quotes from delegates at the 1890 Mississippi Constitutional Convention asserting the desire to create a government to uphold white supremacy.
![Session of Mississippi Legislature, Constitutional Convention](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/Legislature_of_the_State_of_Mississippi_%281890%29.png?h=80e0f324&itok=x3HyWSeM)
Mamie Till-Mobley Chooses to Hold an Open-Casket Funeral
Mamie Till-Mobley describes why she insisted on an open-casket funeral. She told the funeral director, “Let the world see what I’ve seen”.
![A large crowd gathers outside the Roberts Temple Church of God In Christ in Chicago, Ill., Sept. 6, 1955 as pallbearers carry the casket of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy who was slain while on a visit to Mississippi. Police estimate a crowd of about 2,000.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/AP_Domestic_News_Illinois_United_St_550906054.jpg?h=3a1350eb&itok=RygsP8FD)
A Latina Mother Responds to Conditions at School
Historian Tatiana Cruz describes what a Latina mother saw when she visited her daughter’s school in Boston in the 1970s.
![Motorcycle police escort school buses as they leave South Boston High School](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-02/AP578859834926.jpg?h=81d02d30&itok=pvLW0Jse)
African American Parents Decry School Conditions
Ruth Batson describes the complaints about Boston’s public schools that African American parents voiced in the early 1960s.
![Students are attentive in a seventh grade classroom on the first day of the school year at the Mary E. Curley School in Boston, Mass.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-02/GettyImages-630302546.jpg?h=16013371&itok=BOqVeA-V)
Report on the Exclusion of Latinx Children from Schools
This excerpt from a report published in 1970 examines the exclusion of children in the Boston Public School system.
![School buses parked next to one another inside of a fenced in parking lot.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-02/22_09_000067_image_access_full.jpg?h=fa7efe91&itok=hBGHujrh)
Forgetting Isn't Healing
Jouranlist Sonari Glinton connects Elie Wiesel’s teachings on bearing witness to his own experiences as a Black man in the United States.
![Photograph shows some participants in the civil rights march sitting on a wall resting, one holds a placard which reads, "We march together, Catholics, Jews, Protestant, for dignity and brotherhood of all men under God, Now!" Image used in Reconstruction video series.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/1965_CivilRightsMarchFromSelmatoMontgomeryAlabama1965_FH21395.jpg?h=eab7a300&itok=NIPoOKn0)