Laws & Citizen Rights

The Color Line

Teaching Activity PDF. By Bill Bigelow. 6 pages.
A lesson on the countless colonial laws enacted to create division and inequality based on race. This helps students understand the origins of racism in the United States and who benefits.

African American, Laws & Citizen Rights, Native American, Racism & Racial Identity

Re-examining the Revolution

Background Reading PDF. By Ray Raphael. 7 pages.
Based on his book Founding Myths, Raphael critiques the textbook portrayal of the American Revolution. The textbooks say that “a few special people forged American freedom” which “misrepresents, and even contradicts, the spirit of the American Revolution.”

Democracy & Citizenship, Education, Individuals in US History, Laws & Citizen Rights

Constitution Role Play: Whose “More Perfect Union”? and The Constitutional Convention: Who Really Won?

Teaching Activity PDF. By Bill Bigelow. 23 pages.
A role play on the issues involved with the framing of the Constitution.

Democracy & Citizenship, Individuals in US History, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery, Social Class

Rethinking the U.S. Constitutional Convention: A Role Play

Teaching Activity PDF. By Bob Peterson. 14 pages.
A role play on the Constitutional Convention which brings to life the social forces active during and immediately following the American Revolution with focus on two key topics: suffrage and slavery. An elementary school adapation of the Constitution Role Play by Bill Bigelow.

Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Native American, Slavery, Women's History

Seneca Falls, 1848: Women Organize for Equality

Teaching Activity PDF. By Bill Bigelow. 17 pages.
A role play allows students to examine issues of race and class when exploring both the accomplishments and limitations of the Seneca Falls Convention.

Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Women's History

Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution: Teaching a People’s History of Reconstruction

Background Reading for Teachers PDF. By Bill Bigelow. 4 pages.

African American, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery

A Lesson on the Japanese American Internment

Teaching Activity PDF. By Mark Sweeting. 4 pages.

Asian American, Democracy & Citizenship, Education, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

“A School Year Like No Other”: Eyes on the Prize: “Fighting Back: 1957-1962″

Teaching Activity PDF. By Bill Bigelow. 7 pages.
A companion lesson to the Eyes on the Prize segment on school integration.

African American, Civil Rights Movements, Education, Individuals in US History, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity

Women, Gays, and Other Voices of Resistance

Teaching Activity PDF. By Jack Bareilles. 17 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 19 of Voices of a People’s History of the United States on the emergence and legacy of the 1960s counterculture, as well as the movements it helped create.

Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, LGBT, Laws & Citizen Rights, Women's History

The Black Upsurge Against Racial Segregation

Teaching Activity PDF. By Tasha Boettcher. 17 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 17 of Voices of a People’s History of the United States on the long civil rights movement in America.

African American, Civil Rights Movements, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Social Class