This page provide links to various resources for teachers who wish to incorporate lessons about the Great Uprising, in general, and/or specific revolts into their classes. It also contains lesson plans for some of the urban uprisings of other eras of the twentieth century. I hope that teachers find this page helpful. I also encourage teachers to send along their own lesson plans so that I can continually update and improve this page. (For material on the most recent uprisings/#BLM protests, see bottom of page.)
Includes essays on race riots organized by whites to show dominance over African Americans, on the “Zoot-Suit Riots” in Los Angeles that targeted Mexican-Americans during World War II, the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village in 1969 when gay men and women rebelled against mistreatment, and more recent reactions to protesters associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.
In this article, Rethinking Schools editor and language arts teacher Linda Christensen describes a section of “Stealing Home,” a unit she created about ways the homes of people of color have been stolen through massacres and “urban renewal” in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Los Angeles’ Chávez Ravine; and Portland, Oregon’s Albina neighborhood.
3. Stanford History Education Group: Chicago Race Riots of 1919
The summer of 1919 saw over 20 race riots break out across the United States. Chicago was the site of particularly high violence. In this lesson, students deliberate the origins of the Chicago race riots by exploring five documents that reflect different social, cultural, and economic causes.
4. Education World: Lesson Plan Booster: The L.A. Race Riots (1965 and 1992)
As we remember the 1992 Los Angeles race riots, incidents such as the 2012 Trayvon Martin tragedy, widely believed to be a case of racial profiling, continue to highlight the challenges of American race relations. Help young people understand the significance of rioting behavior and place it in historical context, as you explore race riots that occurred in L.A. at two different points in history.
5. Detroit Historical Society: Detroit 1967: Learning from Photographs
In this lesson, high school students will gain a basic understanding of the causes, events, and impacts of the 1967 unrest. However, instead of simply reading a text for comprehension, they will approach the material through the process of historical inquiry.
6. EDSITEment! “Revolution ’67, Lesson 2: What Happened in July 1967? How Do We Know?”
Newark, New Jersey, is one of thousands of American cities to experience civil unrest during the 1960s. Often forgotten by textbooks and in American memory generally, the “riots” of the 1960s provide teachers with an excellent opportunity to highlight a wide variety of important themes in U.S. history.
7. POV by PBS: Revolution ’67: Lesson Plan: Root Causes of Urban Rebellion
This lesson plan is designed to be used in conjunction with the film Revolution ’67, which focuses on the six-day urban rebellion in Newark, New Jersey, in the summer of 1967.
8. Archives of Maryland: Documents for the Classroom: “Is Baltimore Burning?”
Purpose: To examine the rhetoric and the reality behind the social tensions of 1960-1968 as they relate to free speech and peaceable assembly in the First amendment to the United States Constitution, and to civil disobedience.
In this lesson students will identify, explore and evaluate what happened during the 2015 Baltimore Uprising.
10. https://www.creosotemaps.com/blm2020/ (Link to a map of the recent Black Lives Matter Protests following the murder of George Floyd.)
