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

Image of the painting, "A Tragic Prelude"

Seeking Historical Detectives to Discover Who Was John Brown

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

Political cartoon showing the inequalities in public transit under Jim Crow

Plessy v. Ferguson & the Roots of Segregation

Image of a Koran in a Mosque

Exploring Islam in North Carolina

Fanny Lou Hamer speaking at a protest

Unsung Women of the Civil Rights Movement

Prohibition, Bootlegging, & the Origins of NASCAR

Image of New York Herald Headline

1The 1898 Coup in Wilmington, NC

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

African American Troops in the Civil War

Image of 12 Reasons Women Should Vote Pamphlet

Women's Rights & the NC Constitution

Image of Freedom Hill historical marker

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

Pauli Murray: Civil & Women's Rights Trailblazer

A Home on the Field book cover

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

Photo of George Henry White

George Henry White: The American Phoenix

Sketch of a Bread Riot in Richmond

The Salisbury Bread Riot

Picture of Tuskegee Sysphilis Experiment Victims

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

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

Picture of Stokley Carmichael speaking at a HBCU

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

Photograph of Frederick Douglass as a young man

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

Image of NC Eugenics Board historical marker

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

Image of map of 1961 Freedom Rides

The Freedom Rides of 1961

Panel of SERVICE mural

Exploring African American Leadership & Service in North Carolina

Image of historical marker commemorating the Kirk-Holden War

Governor Holden & The Kirk-Holden War

Image of Anti-Slavery Mass Meeting notice

American Abolitionists

Photograph of Elizabeth Keckley

Elizabeth Keckly: From Slavery to Celebrity

Postcard of Durham's Black Wall St.

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

Image of Union encampment during the Civil War

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

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

Image from the People Who Could Fly Short Film

African Folk Tales: Resistance, Hope and Freedom

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

Map of the Trail of Tears

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

Image of Billy Graham revival

Religion in the American South

Photograph of Frederick Douglass

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

Image of Horace Carter

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

Image of sign

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

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

Photo of students attending the Carlisle Indian School

The Miseducation of Indigenous People

Political cartoon of female spies

Female Spies in the Civil War

Image of an sit-in songs album cover

Freedom Songs

Image of striking worker struggling with National Guardsman

The Loray Mill Strike & Ella Mae Wiggins

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

Ida B. Wells and Her Light of Truth

Cartoon of Henry Box Brown

Unboxing Henry “Box” Brown

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

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