The Debate over Reparations for Racial Injustice
This mini-lesson helps students define the term, learn what forms reparations can take, and consider what reparations should be offered for slavery and other racist policies.
The History of Slave Patrols, Black Codes, and Vagrancy Laws
This mini-lesson 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.
#IfTheyGunnedMeDown
Students explore the potential negative impact of images through the social media protest #IfTheyGunnedMeDown and develop a decision-making process for choosing imagery to represent controversial events.
The Impact of Identity
Students explore how identity impacts our responses to other people and events by examining a cartoon and analyzing an opinion poll from a week after Ferguson.
The Power of Images
Students examine how identity and biases can impact how individuals interpret images and experience the challenge of selecting images to represent news events, particularly connected to sensitive issues.
A Contested History
Students consider how US history books, films, and other works of popular culture have misrepresented the history of the Reconstruction era.
Defining Freedom
Students examine how freed people in the United States sought to define freedom after Emancipation.
The Political Struggle, 1865–1866
Students learn about President Andrew Johnson and the Congressional Republican's conflicting visions of how to rebuild the nation after the Civil War.
Interracial Democracy
Through a video-based activity, students explore how Radical Reconstruction changed the nature of voting rights and democracy in the South.
Violence and Backlash
By examining periods of violence during the Reconstruction era, students learn about the potential backlash to political and social change.
Legacies of Reconstruction
Through a video-based activity, students examine America’s struggle for a stronger democracy during Reconstruction and today.