article
A Message From Our Director
Teaching Tolerance director Maureen Costello encourages educators to confront the difficult truths of American history.
2,413 Results
the moment
Our Votes Matter in All Elections
We should never take for granted our rights and our responsibilities to engage in civic action and vote in every election — local and national.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) is a landmark federal law and a significant victory of the Civil Rights Movement. Enacted to remove the barriers of racist Jim Crow era policies, the VRA affirmed the right to vote for millions of African Americans. Enforcement of this law has expanded political opportunities for Black Americans and other people of color.
- Our Votes Matter: Action Steps in Planning to Vote
- Media Literacy Is Vital for Informed Decision-Making
- Understanding Voter Suppression in Today’s Election Process
lesson
Latinos and the Fourteenth Amendment: A Primary Document Activity
In this lesson, students will work in pairs and use expert reading strategies to analyze the Court’s ruling in Hernandez v. Texas. After participating in a carousel discussion, students will write a three-minute paper describing how the United States would be different if the Court had reached an alternate conclusion.
September 14, 2009
article
Seeing ALL Identities of LGBTQ Youth of Color
Giovanni Blair McKenzie gave this speech about supporting LGBTQ youth of color and “interlocking forms of discrimination” at the 2015 Human Rights Campaign’s Time to THRIVE conference.
article
"I've never experienced white guilt."
A black teacher reflects on helping her white students explore their racial identities.
article
Support LGBTQ Students and Educators as Our Rights Are Decided
As the Supreme Court hears cases to decide whether federal law protects LGBTQ people from employment discrimination, one queer educator explains how his colleagues can be accomplices in the fight for LGBTQ civil rights.
text
Informational
One America for today, tomorrow and forever, Clinton says
President Clinton delivered this speech at Little Rock's Central High School during a 40th-anniversary ceremony, in which he recognized the strength, conviction,and sacrifice shown by the Little Rock Nine and their parents.
July 7, 2014
text
Informational
The Day I Swam Into a New World
Frances dreams of swimming with her classmates, but will everyone be welcome at her new community pool?
August 6, 2015
lesson
The Early Republic
In this lesson, students examine voting rights in the early years of the United States and the causes and effects of the first major expansion of voting rights, which took place in the late 1700s and first half of the 1800s. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to explain where various groups of Americans stood regarding the right to vote before the Civil War, and will hypothesize about what they expect happened next.
October 21, 2011
article
Listening for the Civil War’s True Legacy
I walked down the newly plowed row with my grandpa, feeling the warm, red clay on the soles of my bare feet and listened to his stories and words of advice. I held a tomato plant in my hands, the rich, black potting soil falling off of the small, vulnerable roots, as he knelt and dug a place for it in the garden. “Hey,” he’d often start, “here's something my daddy told me when I was little. ‘God gave you two ears and one mouth because He wants you to listen twice as much as you speak. If you do that, you'll learn something. If you don't, you won't.’”