The Florida Constitution of 1885 mandated separate and unequal educational systems for Black and white students, reinforcing racial segregation.
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Enacted in response to David Walker’s Appeal, this law criminalized the distribution of materials that could incite rebellion to slavery, reflecting fears of literacy empowering resistance.
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Following the publication of David Walker’s Appeal in 1829, this Virginia law prohibited the education of enslaved and free Black people, seeking to suppress potential uprisings. Several other states enacted similar bans at this time.
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One of many anti-literacy laws at the time, this law prohibited the establishment of schools for Black students who were not residents of Connecticut.
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Puerto Rican nationalists and their supporters occupied the Statue of Liberty, hanging the Puerto Rican flag from Lady Liberty’s crown and demanding the release of five U.S.-held Puerto Rican political prisoners.
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Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Arjun Singh Sethi. 2018. 192 pages.
Testimonials from people impacted by hate before and after the 2016 presidential election.
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The 14th Amendment to the constitution was passed, granting citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.”
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Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. Rethinking Schools.
The mixer role play is based on Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law, which shows in exacting detail how government policies segregated every major city in the United States with dire consequences for African Americans.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Victoria Law. 2021. 240 pages
An accessible guide for activists, educators, and all who are interested in understanding how the prison system oppresses communities and harms individuals.
Teaching Activity by Victoria Law
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On Flag Day 1943, the Supreme Court invalidated a compulsory flag salute law in public schools and established that students possess some level of First Amendment rights.
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In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the state did not have jurisdiction over crimes committed on Native reservations, affirming Indigenous treaty rights and sovereignty.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Joshua Clark Davis. 2025. 424 pages.
An examination of the civil rights struggle through its work against police violence — and a prehistory of both the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements that emerged half a century later.
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Thousands of people took to the streets outside of the Sheraton-Palace Hotel in San Francisco to protest the hotel’s unfair hiring practices, which permitted Black people and people of color only the most menial of jobs.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Ellen Miller-Mack, Craig Gilmore, Lois Ahrens, Susan Willmarth, and Kevin Pyle. 2008. 104 pages.
This comic book presents the human stories behind the statistics.
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Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Alfred F. Young, Gary Nash, and Ray Raphael. 2012. 464 pages.
In twenty-two original essays, leading historians reveal the radical impulses at the founding of the American Republic.
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Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Sarah Mirk. 2020. 208 pages.
A graphic novel anthology of illustrated narratives about the prison and the lives it changed forever.
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In early Colonial Virginia, Elizabeth Key became the first woman of African descent in the North American colonies to sue for her freedom and win.
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F. M. B. “Marsh” Cook, a white man, was killed for standing up against the white supremacist 1890 Mississippi Constitutional Convention.
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Sarah Keys refused to give up her seat on a state-to-state charter bus, prompting the landmark court case, Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company.
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Elizabeth Mumbet Freeman won her freedom after she got an attorney and filed a “freedom suit” under the 1780 State Constitution for Massachusetts.
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Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez and Nqobile Mthethwa. 25 pages.
A mixer role play explores the connections between different social movements during Reconstruction.
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The South Carolina constitutional convention met with a majority of Black delegates, adopting a constitution that provided for all people regardless of race, economic class, or gender.
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When WWII veteran Edna Griffin was denied service at a Des Moines drug store, she took the company to court and the lawsuit became a test case.
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Article. By Wesley Hogan. 2024.
A collection of primary sources to illustrate the history of abortion care in the United States.
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In the case of John T. Scopes v. the State of Tennessee, the defendant, Scopes, was found guilty and fined $100 for teaching about evolution — which was illegal in the state at the time.
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