This resource provides basic information to help students evaluate the quality of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

This lesson from the Smithsonian has students taking the roles of Japanese Americans who faced internment during WWII. Students will read, sythesize and respond to first-hand accounts of internment and publish their responses on a Smithsonian blog page.

Little known about our state’s history is the brave confrontation North Carolina’s Lumbee staged to protest a KKK rally near Maxton, NC on the night of January 18, 1958. In this lesson, students learn about North Carolina’s Lumbee and their heroic resistance to hatred and bigotry on this night, known as “The Battle of Hayes Pond.” Students will explore the night’s events as well as design an active citizenship award to honor the Lumbee for their vigilance in fighting for their rights.

In Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison wrote about the experience of being ignored, bringing to light a powerful meditation on race and social structure. Ellison related this personal experience to a greater societal structure, using characters and imagery to do so. In this lesson plan, students will use similar tools to explore the theme of invisibility in the book, in their own lives, and in their communities. Note that the novel contains some challenging subject matter, as well as scenes that some may find offensive. Review the book yourself before embarking on the lesson plan so you can prepare appropriately.

Explore 14,000 years of history from the NC Museum of History' exhibit, The Story of North Carolina in 360°—one gallery at a time. Designed with the student experience in mind, each tour features artifacts, photos, & videos.

Students will explore how various black entrepreneurs thrived in Durham's downtown, so much so that Durham's Parrish Street was soon known as Black Wall Street. Students will gain a sense of the challenges overcome and successes experienced by the various black entrepreneurs and businesses on Black Wall Street.

In this lesson, students will learn about the case of Dorothy E. Davis, et al. vs. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia using primary source materials. This case predated the Brown vs Board of Education case and was brought about by a 16 year old student who complied the data about the differences between her all black school and the all white school.

This resource provides a lesson and activity wherein students will spend time examining the civil movements instigated by Thoreau, Gandhi and King; moreover, students will examine the influence of these men on one another. Students will complete research on all three men, analyze and draw a political cartoon, and respond and reflect through writing and discussion.

This toolkit accompanies the article “Set in Stone,” and provides classroom activity ideas to bring monuments to life and engage students in learning the full story behind a given monument. This toolkit is meant to help you bring local monuments to life by engaging your students in learning and teaching about the full story behind a given monument. This activity can be an in-class exercise or a field trip to a local monument, depending on time and resources available.

This is the article which goes with the lesson plan by the same name. It discusses the importance of historical monuments and the controversy which can surround them.

Students will examine several documents related to the life of Solomon Northup, whose life story is told in his autobiography Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841 and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River in Louisiana.

This lesson about the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission addresses the following essential questions: Can different perspectives of the same event be true simultaneously? Is the truth defined by facts alone? Does perception shape the truth? Can the truth ever be fully known?

The Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the first half of the 20th Century is one of the pivotal social events in U.S. history, and helped to set the stage for the modern Civil Rights movement. By examining historical letters, pictures and editorial cartoons, students will come to understand the motivations behind the migration, and its lasting impact on small communities and cities.

Help students discover the Civil Rights Movement with We Who Believe in Freedom: The Life and Times of Ella Baker by Dr. Lea E. Williams. This complementary teacher's guide to the book delves into the transformative era through the lens of Ella Baker's remarkable journey, igniting discussions on activism, equality, and justice. Designed to engage Middle & High School students, the plan incorporates dynamic standards-aligned activities fostering critical thinking and historical understanding.

In this video investigative journalist Will Potter explains his journey into a world in which peaceful protest is branded as terrorim. He discusses how he went to help a local group campaigning against animal testing and was arrested for nonviolent protesting.