Setting the Stage for Civil Rights

Use primary sources in your classroom to analyze how African Americans fought for civil rights in the early 20th century.

The Setting the Stage for Civil Rights Primary Source Packet provides resources that help expand the narrative of African Americans' struggle for civil rights. The sources and corresponding guiding questions share stories about how the foundation for the larger movement was laid decades earlier.

Kit Contents

Reproductions of 17 Primary Sources including: photographs, documents, census records, objects, oral histories
Teacher's Guide with discussion questions and activity suggestions

Sources included:

"The Birth of a Nation." Newspaper article.
St. Paul Red Cross Canteen. Photograph.
Three men lynched in Duluth. Photograph.
"The Duluth Disgrace." Newspaper article.
"The Duluth Tragedy." Newspaper article.
Baseball at Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House. Photograph.
Girl Scout Troop. Photograph.
Jack Oliver and dining car crew. Photograph.
Porter serving lunch. Photograph.
African American porter's lunchbox. Object.
Ice Palace, St. Paul. Postcard.
First Mantoux test in Negro Health Week. Photograph.
United States Census, Minneapolis (two pages).
Restrictive housing convenant.
Oral history, Ethel Ray Nance.
Oral history, Nellie Stone Johnson.

Academic Standards Alignment

The Setting the Stage for Civil Rights Primary Source Packet is designed to engage your students and enrich their ability to read and analyze primary sources. Incorporating these sources, or adapting the questions and activities for other sources, into your teaching will help meet your curricular objectives and academic standards, whether they are content or skills related. We have aligned this packet with the following state and national standards and benchmarks for grades 6–12.