Video: Read Along "Harlem's Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills" Born to parents who were both former slaves, Florence Mills knew at an early age that she loved to sing and that her sweet, bird-like voice, resonated with those who heard her. Performing catapulted her all the way to the stages of...
Video: Read Along "The Bell Rang" A young enslaved girl witnesses the heartbreak and hopefulness of her family and their plantation community when her brother escapes for freedom in this brilliantly conceived picture book by Coretta Scott King Award–winner James E....
Video: Read Along "Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons" Soon after American colonists had won independence from Great Britain, Ona Judge was fighting for her own freedom from one of America’s most famous founding fathers, George Washington. George and Martha Washington valued Ona as one...
Video: Read Along "Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreno Played the Piano for President Lincoln" Government and Civics As a little girl, Teresa Carreño loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her up, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own...
Video: Read Along "Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story" World History Gittel and her mother were supposed to immigrate to America together, but when her mother is stopped by the health inspector, Gittel must make the journey alone. Her mother writes her cousin’s address in New York on a piece of paper....
Video: Inside The Vault Inside the Vault: Lucy Knox 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ During the siege of Boston in 1775, 19-year-old Lucy Knox gave up everything she knew and left Boston with her husband’s sword hidden in her clothes. She would never see her parents or siblings again. Lucy’s letters to her husband,...
Lesson Plan The US Government and Indigenous Peoples before the Trail of Tears, 1770-1839 Government and Civics 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Click to download this five-lesson unit.
Video: Read Along "The Wall" World History A young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Read by Rory O'Maley , who is King George in the North American Tour of Hamilton. Published in 1990 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Order The Wall at the Gilder Lehrman...
Video: Read Along "Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation" Almost ten years before Brown v. Board of Education , Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Mendez was...