Understanding the American South

K-12 Resources for Teaching About the American South

Use the drop down to select a lesson topic below.

Image of Lumbee Men Fighting KKK

Lumbee Fight for Justice: the Battle of Hayes Pond in Maxton, NC

Image of the Appalachian Mountains

Affrilachia

Image of Fayetteville St. in Durham, 1940

Durham’s Hayti Community: Urban Renewal or Urban Removal?

Photograph of Ida B. Wells

A Red Record

Drawing of people escaping enslavement

“Stealing a Little Freedom”: Enslaved Runaways in North Carolina

Front Cover of the Book Crow by Barbara Wright

Exploring Life in 1898 Wilmington & the Wilmington Coup with CROW, a novel for young adults

Talkin' Tar Heel: How Our Voices Tell the Story of North Carolina

Image of activists participating in the Journey of Reconciliation

Journey of Reconciliation, 1947

Martin Luther King, Jr., half-length portrait, facing left, speaking at microphones, during anti-war demonstration, New York City

African Americans and the Vietnam War

Image of map of 1961 Freedom Rides

The Freedom Rides of 1961

Image of Union encampment during the Civil War

As the War Turns: Exploring the Drama of the Civil War

Five Pillars of Islam: Practice, Survival, Resistance and Adaption from Africa to the Americas

Image of Freedom Hill historical marker

Against All Odds:The African American Founding of Princeville, North Carolina

Sketch of a Bread Riot in Richmond

The Salisbury Bread Riot

Image of Anti-Slavery Mass Meeting notice

American Abolitionists

Image of 12 Reasons Women Should Vote Pamphlet

Women's Rights & the NC Constitution

Cartoon of Henry Box Brown

Unboxing Henry “Box” Brown

Photo of students attending the Carlisle Indian School

The Miseducation of Indigenous People

Image of the painting, "A Tragic Prelude"

Seeking Historical Detectives to Discover Who Was John Brown

Image from the People Who Could Fly Short Film

African Folk Tales: Resistance, Hope and Freedom

An African American farmer plowing a field with a mule.

Talking About Reparations: A Civll Conversation

NO FEAR: The Extraordinary Artistry of Nina Simone

Image of sign

Five Pillars of Islam: Practice, Survival, Resistance and Adaption from Africa to the Americas

Photo of George Henry White

George Henry White: The American Phoenix

Map of the Trail of Tears

Tales and Trails of Betrayal: America’s Indian Removal Policies

Image of Ida B. Wells with text Ida B. Wells as Journalist, Advocate & Educator

Ida B. Wells and Her Light of Truth

A notice inviting citizens of Ashboro to attend a meeting opposing "ku klux democracy"

From Wyatt Outlaw to the “Kirk Holden War"

Image of New York Herald Headline

The 1898 Coup in Wilmington, NC

The History of Black Education in North Carolina: A Teaching Guide for Educators

Image of Freedmen School

North Carolina’s Settlements of Freedmen During the Civil War: The Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony and the Trent River Settlement

Photograph of Elizabeth Keckley

Elizabeth Keckly: From Slavery to Celebrity

Picture of Stokley Carmichael speaking at a HBCU

The Influence & Impactof Historically Black Colleges and Universities on the Civil Rights Movement

Sket of Hotel De'Afrique

Coastal Freedom Seeks, Hotel D'Afrique, Roanoke Island Freedman's Colony & James City

Refugee slaves in the Great Dismal Swamp before the Civil War, painted 1888

Freedom Seeking Across North Carolina

Photograph of George Moses Horton

The Poetry of Resistance: George Moses Horton

Image of Governor Terry Sanford talking to African American school children

Poor Power: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty & Inequality in 1960s America

Photograph of Frederick Douglass as a young man

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Image of African American man standing outside at a "Colored Waiting Room" at a bus stop in Durham, NC.

Jim Crow in North Carolina

Image of a Koran in a Mosque

Exploring Islam in North Carolina

Version of image: kneeling slave in chains. Text on back: 'Negro Woman, who sittest pining in captivity and weepest over thy sick child: though no one seeth thee, God seeth thee: though no one pitieth thee, God pitieth thee; raise thy voice forlorn and abandoned one: call upon him from amidst thy bonds for assuredly He will hear thee.'

Abolitionism, Quakers, & the Underground Railroad in North Carolina

Image of an sit-in songs album cover

Freedom Songs

Image of fried chicken, macaroni & cheese, fried okra, and collard greens

"Our Story is Told Through Our Plates": Southern Foodways

Freedom Music: From Spirituals to Protest Songs

Image of statue honoring African American troops who fought in the Civil War

African American Troops in the Civil War

Political cartoon showing the inequalities in public transit under Jim Crow

Plessy v. Ferguson & the Roots of Segregation

Image of Harriet Jacobs in a chair

Resistance, Resilience, & Strength: The Life of Harriet Ann Jacobs

North Carolina's 35 USCT

Fighting for Freedom: Black Contributions to the Civil War

Image of Billy Graham revival

Religion in the American South

Political cartoon of female spies

Female Spies in the Civil War

Panel of SERVICE mural

Exploring African American Leadership & Service in North Carolina

Wilmington 10 at a press conference.

The Wilmington 10: Criminal Justice & Exonheration

Resistance, Resilience, & Strength: The Life of Harriet Ann Jacobs

Postcard of Durham's Black Wall St.

Surviving and Thriving Despite Jim Crow: Durham’s “Black Wall Street”

Ad for enslaved person that ran away

Halifax County, the Roanoke River and Freedom Seeking

Robert F. Williams looking at his FBI Wanted poster

How Should Robert F. Williams Be Remembered?

A Home on the Field book cover

Learning About Latinx Immigration in North Carolina with“A Home on the Field”

Nat Turner Urging the Slaves to Rebellion

Slave Resistance

Picture of Tuskegee Sysphilis Experiment Victims

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

Image of NC Eugenics Board historical marker

Against Their Will: North Carolina’s Eugenics Program & In re Moore

Fighting for Freedom: Black Contributions to the Civil War

The Hamlet Fire: Public Policy & Workplace Safety

Image of Horace Carter

The Editor and the Dragon: How Horace Carter Fought the KKK in North Carolina

Photograph of Frederick Douglass

Exploring the Hypocrisy of American Slavery with Frederick Douglass "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

Fanny Lou Hamer speaking at a protest

Unsung Women of the Civil Rights Movement

Teaching Guide forRemarkable Journey: Founding the Asian Indian Community in North Carolina

Image of striking worker struggling with National Guardsman

The Loray Mill Strike & Ella May Wiggins

Prohibition, Bootlegging, & the Origins of NASCAR

Pauli Murray: Civil & Women's Rights Trailblazer

Photo of Greensboro Massacre historical marker

The 1979 Greensboro Massacre: A Lesson in Truth & Reconciliation in the United States?

Cover of program for the National American Women's Suffrage Association procession, showing woman, in elaborate attire, with cape, blowing long horn, from which is draped a "votes for women" banner, on decorated horse, with U.S. Capitol in background.

Women's Suffrage