A classroom examination of the featured historical article announcing North Carolina's ratification of the Constitution can springboard into a lesson on federalism, the Bill of Rights, and the ratification process.

When the South Carolina legislature created the anti-NAACP oath in 1956, teachers across the state lost their positions. But it was the dismissal of twenty-one teachers at the Elloree Training School that captured the attention of the NAACP and Black media outlets. In the years following Brown v. Board of Education, South Carolina's Black and…

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which provided for government of the largely unsettled frontier area north of the Ohio River and for an orderly, three-stage transition of the territories from control by national government to full and equal statehood, joins the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution to form a trinity of…

This booklet was designed to be used as a supplemental social studies unit and is divided into four sections. Section 1 profiles famous women of West Virginia including Aracoma, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Mary Harris Jones, Susan Matilda Dew Hoff, Frances Benjamin Johnston, and Nancy Hart Douglas. Section 2, profiles contemporary women in West Virginia…

These resources, designed for recognizing Women's History Week in Vermont elementary and secondary classrooms, are suitable for use nationwide. Oral history materials include recommended strategies for conducting oral history projects, a list of general interview questions, sample questionnaires for interviews concerning women's work and immigrant…

Reviews a fascinating lesson plan designed to acquaint students with the methods and devices used to deny blacks the right to vote in the pre-Civil Rights era south. Students take the same test that Alabama required of resident blacks to vote. Includes a copy of the exceptionally difficult test. (MJP)

On March 13, 1879, the "Salisbury Carolina Watchman" noted that the longest and most difficult tunnel in the struggle to lay a railroad line across the Blue Ridge Mountains has been opened. Convicts from North Carolina's new penitentiary built this transportation system and solved the state's need for a cheap labor force as well as the…

On October 15, 1959, union delegates from across West Virginia converged upon the Daniel Boone Hotel in the capital city of Charleston to participate in the West Virginia Labor Federation, AFL-CIO's second statewide constitutional convention. Charleston, at this time, remained a segregated city. So when G. William Dunn, an African-American…

Provides a brief history of the desegregation of two elementary schools in New Orleans (Louisiana) in 1960. Presents the recollections and observations of the mother of two of the White students who continued to attend school despite a boycott. (FMW)

Most communication courses and research involving freedom of speech examine issues by reviewing the decisions of the United States Supreme Court and the federal appelate courts. However, the high visibility of the federal courts can lead to a misguided emphasis by students of the history of free speech. Research into the development of present…

This teaching unit, "Civil Rights Movement," is the tenth in a series of 10 units about Alabama state history, part of a project designed to help teachers integrate the use of primary source materials into their classrooms. Although the units are designed to augment the study of Alabama, they are useful in the study of U.S. history,…

In this article, the author details how she and another teacher developed a multicultural Wisconsin history curriculum for a fourth-grade classroom. Their focus in this article is a description of the main ideas students learned and the instructional strategies that supported their learning from the three-week unit on Wisconsin government. They…

Unit 6, the final unit in a series on Indiana state history designed to be taught in Indiana secondary schools, examines the position of Indiana in the nation and the world. Chapter 1 focuses on Indiana during the 1960s and 1970s. Indiana state government tackled the jobs of reapportionment, taxes, and the passage of stronger civil rights…

Presents a secondary level teaching unit on the role of rogues and entrepreneurs in Indiana and Florida from World War I through the 1920s. The unit helps students recognize the continuing struggle to maintain basic constitutional freedoms, particularly freedom of speech and religion. Discusses ways to develop the unit and includes a list of…

This issue of the children's quarterly magazine, "The Goldfinch," focuses on newspapers in Iowa's history. Articles address Iowa's pioneer press, a tiny newspaper published by a pair of Iowa brothers, and handwritten newspapers. Activities, fictional accounts, and nonfictional articles address the importance of newspapers in Iowa's past…