Resource Library
Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students.
We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.
![A group of high school students sit at desks in conversation.](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_480/public/2023-10/AdobeStock_254378868.jpg?itok=f6YAphey)
Introducing Our US History Curriculum Collection
Draw from this flexible curriculum collection as you plan any middle or high school US history course. Featuring units, C3-style inquiries, and case studies, the collection will help you explore themes of democracy and freedom with your students throughout the year.
Before Apartheid
Understand the history of people living and settling in the South African region and explore how racial and ethnic identities created tension in the years leading to apartheid.
![Sol Plaatje was the co-founder of the African National Congress (ANC). As an activist and politician, he spent much of his life fighting for the enfranchisement and liberation of the South African people.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Sol_Plaatje.png?h=0bcf1b58&itok=yGWQuP50)
Early Apartheid: 1948-1970
Learn about the early development of apartheid as the white South African government formed a legal system of racial hierarchy and non-white South Africans resisted these laws.
![A group of women hold signs in demonstration against the pass laws in Cape Town on August 9, 1956, the same day as the massive women’s protest in Pretoria.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Democracy_1956_WomenResistPassLaws_FH281823.jpg?h=cb9047e7&itok=NA94IMQt)
Growing Resistance Meets Growing Repression
Investigate the resurgent wave of international and domestic anti-apartheid activism that led to increased violence before both sides compromised over a legal conclusion to apartheid.
![A group of mourners carry a United Democratic Front Banner during a mass funeral.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/1985_MournersCarryUDFBannerDuringMassFuneral_FH282024.jpg?h=30a9cc90&itok=53pmDBJm)
Transition to Democracy
Examine the continuing struggle for South Africa as it creates a representative democracy, attempts to heal from the legacy of apartheid, and searches for a new, inclusive identity.
![The signing of the Republic of South Africa's Constitution in May 1996.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/1996_SigningoftheSouthAfricanConstitution_FH281937.jpg?h=c4482f5d&itok=pkPRL5nQ)
Excerpts from the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment
This reading contains excerpts from the Emanicipation Proclimation and the Thirteenth Amendment.
![An image of the first page of the Emancipation Proclamation.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Civil_Rights_1863_Emancipation_Proclomation_FH21380.jpg?h=8d9d8244&itok=FWL8uma0)
Excerpts from the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment (en español)
In Spanish, this reading contains excerpts from the Emanicipation Proclimation and the Thirteenth Amendment.
![An image of the first page of the Emancipation Proclamation.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Civil_Rights_1863_Emancipation_Proclomation_FH21380.jpg?h=8d9d8244&itok=FWL8uma0)
Petition from the Colored Washerwomen
In 1866, Black women laundry workers in Jackson, Mississippi, joined together to protest low wages.
![Photo shows a log cabin with two African American men seated outside and an African American woman standing in the doorway of a slave or sharecropper dwelling.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Savannah_Georgia_Early_Negro_Life_1867_FH2178129.jpg?h=2b78d577&itok=h-7u5TrP)
Petition from the Colored Washerwomen (en español)
In Spanish, in 1866, Black women laundry workers in Jackson, Mississippi, joined together to protest low wages.
![Photo shows a log cabin with two African American men seated outside and an African American woman standing in the doorway of a slave or sharecropper dwelling.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Savannah_Georgia_Early_Negro_Life_1867_FH2178129.jpg?h=2b78d577&itok=h-7u5TrP)
African Identities
South African leader Nelson Mandela shares a transformative memory from his school years that affected his understanding of his identity as a Xhosa and an African.
!["A young Nelson Mandela poses for a photograph in Umtata shortly before moving to Fort Beaufort to attend Healdtown Comprehensive School. "](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Nelson_Mandela_Medium_res.jpg?h=623540e1&itok=0V950_BY)
Africans Resist White Control
Explore the responses by leaders of the African National Congress to the new Union of South Africa government’s racially motivated Native Lands Act of 1913.
![Sol Plaatje was the co-founder of the African National Congress (ANC). As an activist and politician, he spent much of his life fighting for the enfranchisement and liberation of the South African people.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Sol_Plaatje.png?h=0bcf1b58&itok=yGWQuP50)
Speech by Frances Watkins Harper: “We Are All Bound Up Together”
Read an excerpt from an 1866 speech by Black activist and suffragist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. This reading is available in Spanish.
![Three-quarter length portrait of Frances E.W. Harper](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/Civil_Rights_Frances_EW_Harper_Portrait_1898_FH2178132.jpg?h=785073cc&itok=pVSN1dAY)