Primary Source Packet: 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.
Expand the narrative and analyze how African Americans fought for civil rights in the early twentieth century. The sources provided share stories about how the foundation for the larger movement was laid decades earlier.
Cost: $20
OrderContents
- 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.
Jack Oliver and dining car crew. Photograph.
United States Census, Minneapolis.
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 state and national standards and benchmarks for grades 6–12. The link below outlines the standards alignment for this packet.
Academic Standards Connections
Related resources
- Library of Congress Using Primary Sources Guide
- National Archives and Records Administration,1940 census
- Oral histories, Minnesota Historical Society
- Chronicling America, Library of Congress. Digitized newspapers, 1836-1922
- Newspapers: Western Appeal, Appeal. Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub
- Duluth Lynchings Online Resource, Minnesota Historical Society
- North Star: Minnesota's Black Pioneers
- Juergens, Ann. “Lena Olive Smith: A Minnesota Civil Rights Pioneer.” William Mitchell Law Review 397, 2001
- Lena Olive Smith on MNopedia