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.
Letter From Birmingham Jail
Read Martin Luther King, Jr.'s response to suggestions that his nonviolent demonstrations were unwise and untimely in these excerpts from his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
![Dr. Martin Luther King leads thousands of civil rights demonstrators out on the last leg of their Selma to Montgomery 50-mile hike.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/1965_SelmaMontgomeryMarchLeadersandCrowd_FH227.jpg?h=b82ee7a4&itok=0U1Hgtmh)
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.
![Student writing](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-11/sedgehillY13-021115-nk-HR-12%20%281%29_0.jpg?h=4362216e&itok=MlJgwmZh)
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.
![Ida B. Wells Barnett, in a photograph by Mary Garrity from c. 1893. This version has been cropped from the original photographic card](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/Mary_Garrity_-_Ida_B_Wells-Barnett_-_Google_Art_Project_-_restoration_crop.jpg?h=e25beccd&itok=J3tHLAx4)
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.
![Student reading a handout.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/DSC08540.jpg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=GW1KcRde)
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.
![A replication of a pin made by the SNCC for the civil rights movement.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/SNCC_logo.jpg?h=76b48e6c&itok=gI9npaIM)
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.
![Picture of Anne Moody](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/Anne_Moody.jpg?h=f374bd3d&itok=RJQ7UXUo)
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)