Access to large data sets, including geographic information systems (GIS), provides teachers and students an opportunity to investigate policies of the past and their impact on people's lives. Students now have access to these digital resources through a variety of virtual, online collections, including the Library of Congress. Using a combination…

On a hot July day in 1854, 24-year-old schoolteacher Elizabeth Jennings, accompanied by a friend, attempted to board a horse-drawn trolley to attend Sunday church services in Lower Manhattan. The Irish conductor refused, telling Jennings, who was African American, to await a horsecar for "her people." When Jennings resisted, the…

Steve Sheinkin's "The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights" recounts the explosion at a U.S. Navy base in the summer of 1944 that claimed 320 lives. It is also a story of African American resistance against prejudice, segregation, and injustice in the armed forces during World War II. The book was a 2015…