Students will learn how the U.S. government imprisoned 120,000 people of Japanese descent, most American citizens, during World War II and the lasting impact of a related Supreme Court ruling.
Race and Racism
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: Extremism in America
Students will explore the seeds of the extremist ideologies that continue to be influential today and the government’s failed attempts to stop the broader white supremacist movement.
Posted inU.S. History
Lesson Plan: Jim Crow America – Racial Discrimination Beyond the South
Students will learn how race-based federal lending rules from New Deal programs in the 1930s kept Black families locked out of suburban neighborhoods, a policy that continues to slow their economic mobility.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: Developing Empathy Through Persuasive Writing
Students will identify key concepts and definitions related to hate crimes.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: Vincent Chin and Asian American Civil Rights
Students will learn about the case that set the precedent for racially motivated attacks against Asian Americans being prosecuted as hate crimes.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: The Legacy of Government-Run Boarding Schools
Students will use primary sources, including interviews, images, newspaper articles and speeches, to evaluate the short term and long term effects of government-run boarding schools.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: Understanding Boarding Schools for Native Americans
Students will learn about federally run boarding schools created to force the assimilation of Native American children into white society.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: Affirmative Action in College Admissions
Students will examine contemporary and historical Supreme Court cases dealing with affirmative action.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: School Integration – Political Cartoon Analysis
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case that declared that school segregation was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court announced its unanimous decision on May 17, 1954. It held that school segregation violated the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The following year the Court ordered desegregation “with all deliberate speed.” This lesson, or set of two possible lessons, uses the Library of Congress protocol for analyzing political cartoons as a means for examining integration efforts after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Case. The activities are designed for students to complete on their own or in small groups.
Posted inCivics and Government
Lesson Plan: The Legacy of Brown v. Board – Primary Source Analysis
Students will learn why much of the school integration achieved through cross-town busing has unraveled over the last few decades.
