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This teaching idea provides an overview of the ERA and a look at the history behind the struggle to ratify the amendment that would formally guarantee women equal rights to men under the US Constitution.

This Teaching Idea provides a brief overview of the history of policing in the early United States and then examines how laws, and biased enforcement of those laws, were used to control the lives of Black Americans in the South following the Civil War.

Provide students with a chance to process, reflect, and deliberate with others about the US Senate hearings in the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court.

In 1790, before the adoption of the First Amendment to the Constitution, President George Washington visited Newport, Rhode Island. Moses Seixas, an official of the Hebrew congregation of Newport, was among the representatives of the Newport community invited to welcome the President by reading a letter. This letter expressed hope that the newly formed government would accord respect and tolerance to all of its citizens, regardless of background and religious beliefs. Moved by Seixas’ letter, Washington penned a declarative and assertive reply in which he promised the new government would ensure not just tolerance, but full liberty of conscience to all.

The teaching strategies on this page are referenced within The Reconstruction Era and the Fragility of Democracy unit.