From the 1880s to the mid 1960s, many states passed laws requiring the segregation [separation] of white and "colored" [African American] people. (African Americans were also referred to as Negroes at that time.) These laws ruled nearly all aspects…

This worksheet helps students analyze three primary sources as part of the activity "African American Workers: Conflict on the Homefront."

This activity introduces students to the term Jim Crow and the concept of legally mandated racial segregation.

Although over a million African-American men and women served during World War II, they continued to experience discrimination in the armed forces. In addition to being relegated to segregated combat units, often in service-and-supply capacities,…

Seattle's black population was segregated into the area known as the Central District through both de jure and de facto methods. Restrictive racial covenants written into housing deeds prevented blacks, Asians, Jews, and Native Americans from being…

This selection of city ordinances from Birmingham, Alabama, highlights the often absurd lengths to which local leaders in the Deep South were willing to go in order to maintain the strict separation of races. These "Jim Crow" laws, passed by…

Photographers working for the Farm Security Administration Historical Section (later transferred to the Office of War Information) were encouraged to document continuity and change in many aspects of life in America during the years the unit was in…

Two photographs from 1941 show the glaring contrast between so-called "separate but equal" schools in Greene County, Georgia. In this first photograph, white children examine glass-encased butterflies in a well-lit, modern classroom. (See related…

Two photographs from 1941 show the glaring contrast between so-called "separate but equal" schools in Greene County, Georgia. In this photograph, black students must make do with antiquated, ramshackle facilities and, according to the original…

Chicago's School Board insisted that its overcrowded schools were not segregated and that there was no pattern of discrimination against black students. Activists in the 1950s and 1960s produced numerous reports that proved otherwise, documenting…