Lesson Plan Environmentalism, Love Canal, and Lois Gibbs, 1953-1997 Economics, Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math 9, 10, 11, 12 Click here to download this four-lesson unit
Lesson Plan Black Women and the American Revolution 9, 10, 11, 12 Click to download this lesson plan.
Lesson Plan Theodore Roosevelt and the Trusts Economics, Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12 Background Thick dark smoke billowing out of smokestacks several stories high proliferated across city skylines, heralding America's rise to world prominence and industrial supremacy. After the Civil War, Americans embraced the smog...
Lesson Plan Evaluating Lyndon B. Johnson’s Character and Efforts during the Civil Rights Era Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Background Information In 1969 Thomas Baker conducted an interview with Roy Wilkins, executive directory of the NAACP, based on Wilkins’s experiences with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. This abridged version of the...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Barack Obama’s First Inaugural Address, 2009 The inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States in 2009 was a historic moment not only because Obama was the first African American ever sworn into executive office but also because he entered the presidency at a...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The struggle for married women’s rights, circa 1880s Government and Civics In the early nineteenth century, married women in the US were legally subordinate to their husbands. Wives could not own their own property, keep their own wages, or enter into contracts. Beginning in 1839, states slowly began to...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The "House Divided" Speech, ca. 1857–1858 Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ By 1850, the extension of slavery into the new territories won through the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848 provided a testing ground for competing visions of America. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 and the Kansas...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Buying Frederick Douglass’s freedom, 1846 Economics After he had escaped from slavery in 1838, Frederick Douglass became a well-known orator and abolitionist. He wrote an autobiography in 1845, but because he was a runaway slave, its publication increased the chances that he would be...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Phillis Wheatley’s poem on tyranny and slavery, 1772 Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy Born in Africa, Phillis Wheatley was captured and sold into slavery as a child. She was purchased by John Wheatley of Boston in 1761. The Wheatleys soon recognized Phillis’s intelligence and taught her to read and write. She became...
Spotlight on: Primary Source President Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, 1861 Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ On March 4, 1861, the day Abraham Lincoln was first sworn into office as President of the United States, the Chicago Tribune printed this special pamphlet of his First Inaugural Address. In the address, the new president appealed to...