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.
Breeding Society’s "Fittest"
Learn how people in the late nineteenth-century used race science, social Darwinism, and eugenics to justify their ideas about membership.
Creating the German Nation
Read about the confluence of nationalism, race science, and German-unification efforts in mid-eighteenth-century German society.
"Expansion Was Everything"
Read about nineteenth-century Imperialism, the Congress of Berlin, and W. E. B. Du Bois’ analysis of the profound consequences of Europe's colonization of Africa.
The Science of Race
Read about the seventeenth- and eighteenth- century scientists who tried to prove that humankind is divided into separate and unequal races.
Understanding Strangers
Journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski traces back to the earliest family-tribes and discusses how human beings either cooperate or divide with “the other."
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”.
Myrlie Evers-Williams Reflects on the Impact of Emmett Till’s Murder
Civil rights activist and leader in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) reflects on the impact of Emmett Till’s murder.
Excerpt from "Crusade for Justice"
This excerpt from Ida B. Wells’s autobiography gives us insight into Wells’s decision to take a stand and speak out against racial lynchings.
Excerpt from "Lynching and the Excuse for It"
In this editorial, Ida B. Wells responds to Jane Addams, a progressive who was known for her work serving immigrant communities in Chicago. Wells corrects Addams’s claims using lynching data she documented from 1882 to 1891.
John Lewis, “I Couldn’t Accept The Way Things Were”
In this excerpt from his memoir Walking with the Wind, Congressman John Lewis describes the impact of Emmett Till's murder.
Anne Moody, “Coming of Age in Mississippi”
Anne Moody, who was involved in the Civil Rights Movement through the NAACP, CORE, and SNCC, recalls her attempts to make sense of Emmett Till’s murder as a 14-year-old.