Lesson Plan The History of Federal, State, and Tribal Powers, 1788–2020 Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12 Click here to download this five-lesson unit.
Lesson Plan Securing the Right to Vote: The Selma-to-Montgomery Story Government and Civics 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Essential Question What conditions created the need for a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, and what did that march achieve? Background Throughout American history, African Americans have struggled to gain...
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...
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...
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 Henry Knox’s Order of March to Trenton, 1776 Geography, Government and Civics, World History 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ On Christmas Day in 1776 the American Revolution was on the verge of collapsing. Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American forces had been driven from New York City to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and reduced...
Spotlight on: Primary Source George Washington on the abolition of slavery, 1786 Economics, Government and Civics 9 Of the nine presidents who were slaveholders, only George Washington freed all his own slaves upon his death. Before the Revolution, Washington, like most White Americans, took slavery for granted. At the time of the Revolution, one...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Two versions of the Preamble to the Constitution, 1787 Government and Civics 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ On May 25, 1787, the fifty-five delegates to the Constitutional Convention began meeting in a room, no bigger than a large schoolroom, in Philadelphia’s State House. They posted sentries at the doors and windows to keep their "secrets...
Spotlight on: Primary Source George Washington’s reluctance to become president, 1789 Government and Civics 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ From 1787 to 1789, as the Constitution was submitted for ratification by the states, most Americans assumed that George Washington would be the first president. In this April 1789 letter to General Henry Knox, his friend from the...
Spotlight on: Primary Source The duel: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, 1804 Government and Civics 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Alexander Hamilton, former secretary of the treasury, and Aaron Burr, sitting vice president of the United States, had feuded publicly for years. Their long-standing enmity came to a head in the spring of 1804. After an exchange of...