You can read, watch, and listen to materials on the seven debates that took place between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois state election campaign. The prize was a seat in the Senate, but the debates mainly focused on the important and contentious issue of slavery.
In 2012, a group of people retraced the route of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales pilgrims in a four-day trek. Listen to the audio and watch the videos embedded throughout the article to hear the participants recite pieces from the work.
Hiram R. Revels was the first African American to serve in the United States Senate. An academic and a minister, he supported integrated schools and equal opportunities for black workers.
Learn about the deadly response to a college protest against the Vietnam War.
In 1957, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, was a flash point in the struggle for civil rights for all Americans. There, nine African American students attempted to attend classes in the face of angry protests and the opposition of the state’s governor. This HISTORY feature shows how ugly fear of “the Other” can be.
Although Anne Frank lived in hiding during World War II, many people hid their identities but lived in the open. Discover how one family struggled to live in occupied France.
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, causing widespread flooding in New Orleans and killing many people. Revisit the experience of the storm and learn about how people responded in the aftermath.
Before the Civil War broke out, Maryland approved a so-called “shadow” 13th Amendment that made it impossible for the federal government to abolish slavery. Now, Maryland lawmakers want to re-vote on the amendment to clean up the historical record.
We tend to talk about the American Revolution in terms of two sides: the colonists and the British. But for enslaved people living in the colonies, the issue was far more complicated, especially after the Dunmore Proclamation was issued in 1775. Read this summary of the proclamation, the issues it raised, and its consequences.
The arrival of the horse in North America changed life for many American Indian groups. Learn about the amazing relationship between Native peoples and horses, and examine artifacts from throughout their history.
An earthquake and tsunami in 2011 caused heavy damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Three reactors melted down, and radiation escaped into the air and water. Watch a report about how workers are still trying to contain the damage.
Georgia Douglas Johnson wrote a poem about taking a risk and soaring into the sky. Learn about the life of this important writer of poems, plays, and stories.
Though the contributions of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were invaluable in the fight for women’s rights, letters between the two reveal that each was aware of the long road toward equality that would have to be traveled by future generations.
This year, Anne Frank would have been 85 years old. Though her short life still reverberates through the world, it’s hard not to wonder what it would have been like if she had lived longer. This article looks at some of the ways Anne Frank affected the world around her, and offers some ideas about the woman she may have become.
Nina Simone was a popular pianist and jazz singer with an unmistakable voice. Some of her later songs are considered by many to be anthems of the civil rights movement. Read this brief introduction to Simone and listen to the two clips of her work.
Learn about the life of author Henry David Thoreau, the author who lived at Walden Pond, and whose writings on civil disobedience have inspired protesters for more than 100 years.
What determines a person’s cultural identity? For many people, it’s made up of a combination of factors such as language, loyalty, and heritage. For those from the former Soviet Union, the question is even more complicated. Read and listen to Ukrainian-born Alina Simone discuss her path to defining her cultural identity.
You may be familiar with each of the 10 historic tragedies in this list, but chances are you don’t know that for each one, there’s a celebrity or public figure who narrowly avoided being part of it.
This page offers a brief history of Dred Scott’s fight for his family’s freedom. Read the overview of Scott’s case and then explore the rest of the collection to learn more about how and why the Dred Scott decision came to be such a landmark case in American judicial history.
Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist who fought racial discrimination in many forms. His murder in 1963 sparked national outrage that helped increase support for legislation that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Listen to this short piece about the lasting impact Evers’ life and work has had on his home state of Mississippi.
