This NBC Nightly News Report describes how, in 2003, the number of abortions in the United States was at its lowest level since 1974, but the emotion and division surrounding the issue may have been at a peak since Roe v. Wade 30 years earlier.
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This NBC Nightly News Report comments on the first time in the 34 years since Roe v. Wade in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ban of a specific abortion procedure. Activists on both sides called the decision monumental.
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On the eve of the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin describes the intense deliberations that went into two historic Court decisions: Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and the Dred Scot decision of 1857.
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Visitors to the Museum can share in the journey of the Great Lakes Indian tribes who were forced to emigrate to Kansas in the 1800s, adapting their traditional Woodlands cultures to the rolling prairie landscape. At the Museum, once a Presbyterian mission built in 1845 to educate Iowa and Sac and Fox children, you will find quillwork, baskets, and other artwork of present-day descendants of emigrant tribes. Through the interactive exhibits, Native Americans tell stories in their own words.
The site offers exhibits, tours, and educational and recreational programs.
Match each of the selections below with the president (in the pull-down menu) who received or sent it.
1. 
John Adams, from Abigail Adams (pictured). Abigail Adams wrote this to her husband in a December 23, 1782 letter. The original letter can be read here, at the website of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
2. 
Woodrow Wilson, to Edith Bolling Galt (pictured). This is from a letter that widower President Wilson wrote from the White House on September 19, 1915, to Edith Bolling Galt, whom he would marry. The full text of the letter is in volume 34 of The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, ed. Arthur Stanley Link (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), page 491.
3. 
Ronald Reagan, to Nancy Reagan (pictured). This is from a letter written on White House stationery by Ronald Reagan, to his wife Nancy on March 4, 1981. From Nancy Reagan, I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan (New York: Random House, 2002).
4. 
Theodore Roosevelt, about Alice Lee (pictured). This is from Roosevelt's diary entry of February 13, 1880. On that evening, he became engaged to Alice Lee, whom he married. On Valentine's Day, 1884, she died while giving birth to their daughter Alice. Roosevelt's mother died the same day. His diary entry for that day is simply a large black X with the words, "The light has gone out of my life." The Library of Congress has made scans of the original diary pages, available online here.
The relationship between John and Abigail Adams remains famous in U.S. history, largely due to the many letters they exchanged on issues both personal and political. In this Massachusetts Historical Society presentation, you can listen to politicians read aloud some of this correspondence; the full text of much of 1,198 of their letters can be read at the Adams Family Papers website.
For more on the First Ladies and their relationships to their husbands (and their accomplishments on their own), try a search in the upper right-hand corner of the website using the keywords "First Ladies." You'll find resources including a quiz on First Ladies' firsts while in office, Hillary Clinton's thoughts on the role of First Lady, a Library of Congress website featuring portraits of presidents and their wives, Ohio's National First Ladies' Library website, a Colonial Williamsburg re-enactor presenting Martha Washington's memories of the American Revolution, a National Portrait Gallery talk on the relationship between Mary and Abraham Lincoln, and more.
Every four years, television programs break for ads for those most American of products—the U.S. president and the ideals of democracy. For more than half a century, presidential candidates have used television ads to communicate their platforms and criticize their opponents. Decide whether the following statements are true or false.
1. The advertising executive who planned the first candidate television ad campaign had previously created the Coca-Cola "Passport to refreshment" campaign.
False. Advertising executive Rosser Reeves had previously created the "melts in your mouth, not in your hands" campaign for M&Ms. The campaign he planned for Eisenhower—20-second spots designed to run before or after popular television shows like I Love Lucy—featured "normal Joe" citizens asking Eisenhower questions about taxes, foreign policy, and other issues. Eisenhower answered in a brief, blunt, homey fashion, with the format giving the campaign its name: "Eisenhower Answers America." Prior to this campaign, presidential candidates had brushed off the potential of television advertising; following it, ads became an accepted and increasingly central aspect of campaigning.
2. In 1960, John F. Kennedy's television ad campaign included non-English-language advertisements.
True. JFK's 1960 campaign for the presidency, run by two different advertising agencies, included a multitude of television advertisements and a dizzying array of techniques and appeals. Several of the ads spoke out to specific demographics—including a spot in which Jackie Kennedy, speaking in uneven Spanish, assured voters that, in the face of the danger of communism, "Mi esposo siempre vigilará los intereses de todos los sectores de nuestra sociedad que necesitan la protección de un gobierno humanitario" (or, "My husband will always watch over the interests of all sectors of our society who are in need of the protection of a humanitarian government"). Other ads spoke to the African American community, assuring the public that Kennedy's Catholicism would not compromise his presidential duties.
3. As the Vietnam War continued despite his promises to end it, Richard Nixon's 1972 presidential ad campaign depicted him as stern and focused entirely on withdrawing troops from Vietnam.
False. Nixon's 1972 campaign for reelection cast him as a man of "compassion, courage, and conscience," concerned about many issues, including environmentalism and international diplomacy, as well as withdrawing from Vietnam. President Nixon, one ad declared, was willing to press for change, because "without change there can be no progress." The ads crafted the argument that Nixon, far from being cold and unapproachable, was personable and personally interested in a global push for peace and wellbeing nationally and internationally. Nixon won the campaign against South Dakota Senator George McGovern by a landslide.
4. A 1984 ad for Ronald Reagan's reelection used the threat of a bear in the woods to suggest the need for better gun control laws.
False. Though most of Ronald Reagan's ads stressed the economic wellbeing of the U.S., using montages of small-town Americans engaged in rituals such as weddings and buying new homes, one stuck out. The unusual ad showed a bear lurking in the woods; the accompanying narration suggested that the bear might or might not exist and might or might not be dangerous, but "since no one can really be sure who's right, isn't it smart to be as strong as the bear? If there is a bear?" Though the ad never explicitly states what the bear stands for, the advertisement's creators intended it to symbolize the Soviet Union. The ad's watchers, however, took it as commenting on any number of issues, including gun control and the need for change in environmental laws. Despite its ambiguity, the ad gained attention and later served as inspiration for an ad in George W. Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.
To watch all of the ads mentioned in this quiz, check out the Museum of the Moving Image's website The Living Room Candidate. Featuring more than 250 ads from all presidential campaigns since 1952, the site also presents commentary on each ad campaign, as well as detailed critical commentary on 15 ads selected as exemplary by the collection's curators and eight lesson plans for high school teachers.
For suggestions on using advertisements in the classroom, refer to Making Sense of Advertisements, a guide to primary source analysis by historian, professor, and author Daniel Pope.
While women may often have been left out of historical accounts, they were never left out of history—and some women got themselves into the books in remarkable (and unusual) ways. Match the pictures of each of the following women with the descriptions of their accomplishments in the drop-down menu:
1. Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Jane Cochran). Investigative undercover reporter for the New York World and globe traveler. Lived 1864-1922.
2. Annie Smith Peck. Amateur American archeologist of Greek antiquities, and world's most famous mountaineer. Scaled Mt. Shasta, the Matterhorn, Popocatépetl, Orizaba, and Huascarán, among others. Lived 1850-1935.
3. Marguerite Harrison. Reporter for the Baltimore Sun and spy in revolutionary Russia. First foreign woman to be held by Bolshevists in the Lubyanka prison. Explorer and cinematographer in China and among the Bakhtiari in Central Asia. Lived 1879-1957.
4. Annie Edson Taylor. Unemployed schoolteacher who, at age 63, was the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, on October 24, 1901. Lived 1838-1931.
5. Mabel Stark (Mary Haynie). Daughter of Kentucky farmers. Joined the circus and, during the 1920s, became the world's most famous and skilled tiger and lion trainer, working with up to 18 cats at once. Lived 1889-1968.
6. Sonora Webster Carver. As a teenager in 1923, the first woman performer to dive on horseback 40 feet down into a deep pool of water at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City. Regularly performed the stunt for two decades, even after being blinded in 1931 during a dive. Lived 1904-2003.
7. Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick. In 1908, at age 15, became the first woman to use a parachute (from a hot air balloon), then in 1913, the first woman to make a jump from an aircraft. Trial tested parachute designs for the U.S. Army, and in 1914 made the first free fall parachute jump. Made over 1,100 jumps. Lived 1893-1978.
PBS' American Experience series of documentaries includes Around the World in 72 Days, on Nellie Bly and her 1889-1890 journey around the world. The full text of Bly's account of her experiences, Nellie Bly's Book: Around the World in 72 Days, can be found free to download or read online at Project Gutenberg. Her report on time spent undercover in an insane asylum, Ten Days in a Mad-house, can also be found at this site.
In 1902, Annie Edson Taylor published a 17-page booklet recording her experiences: The Internet Archive presents the full text of Over the Falls: Annie Edson Taylor's Story of Her Trip: How the Horseshoe Fall Was Conquered.
Sonora Webster Carver also wrote about her life, in her autobiography A Girl and Five Brave Horses. In 1992, Disney released a film, Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, based on Carver's life—though, as with most films, it presents a highly fictionalized version of a true story.
Try a search in NHEC's Website Reviews—Topic: Women—for websites featuring other remarkable women in American history. From Women in Journalism, archiving interviews with reporters who followed in the footsteps of women like Marguerite Harrison, to the Library of Congress's Votes for Women, preserving material from the fight for women's suffrage, NHEC highlights websites with primary sources suitable for use in the classroom.
The U.S. Supreme Court both looks to and sets precedents in handing down decisions that affect the fabric of American life and ideals—including the workings of U.S. schools. Match these descriptions of U.S. Supreme Court rulings on schools with the names of the cases.
1. Runyon v. McCrary, 1976: Private schools may not discriminate on the basis of race.
The Court decided that the 1871 Civil Rights Act gave the federal government power to override private as well as state-supported racial discrimination.
2. Epperson v. Arkansas, 1968: Prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools is unconstitutional.
The Court took on the case despite the fact that the state of Arkansas had never attempted to enforce its statute against teaching evolution.
3. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954: Racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.
State laws that had set up "separate but equal" schools for black students and white students were overturned, because such schools were "inherently unequal," and so violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
4. Meyer v. Nebraska, 1923: Prohibiting the teaching of foreign languages in grade schools is unconstitutional.
A Nebraska law had prohibited the teaching (before high school) of any subject to any child in any language other than English. The plaintiff was a parochial school teacher who had taught German to one of his students.
5. Abington School District v. Schempp, 1963: Requiring the reading of Bible verses in public school classrooms is unconstitutional.
A Pennsylvania State law had required public schools to open each day with a reading, without comment, of 10 Bible verses.
6. Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, 1925: Parents may send their children to private schools rather than public schools.
The State of Oregon had been on the verge of forcing all children to attend public schools in order to encourage immigrants' assimilation.
7. Engel v. Vitale, 1962: Requiring the recitation in public schools of an official school prayer is unconstitutional.
A Hyde Park, New York, school had opened each school day with a prayer addressed "Almighty God," which the Court held violated the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment (extended to the individual states by the 14th Amendment).
8. United States v. Virginia, 1996: Excluding either gender from any public school is unconstitutional.
The Court ruled that the Virginia Military Institute had not demonstrated a persuasive reason for excluding women, and so violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
9. Wisconsin v. Yoder, 1972: Parents may refuse to send their children to school after 8th grade if it violates their religious beliefs.
Amish parents had taken their children out of school after 8th grade, for religious reasons, and state authorities had attempted to force them to attend high school.
10. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 1969: Student protest is protected by 1st Amendment freedom of speech.
The protest in question was students' wearing of black armbands with peace symbols during the Vietnam War.
For more on major U.S. Supreme Court cases, try a search in our Website Reviews, using the topic "Legal History" or the keywords "Supreme Court." Search results will include websites like Oyez: U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia, which features audio files, abstracts, transcriptions of oral arguments, and written opinions covering more than 3,300 Supreme Court cases, and Landmark Supreme Court Cases, which looks at 17 major court cases from a teaching perspective.
Or search by individual court case. A search for keywords "Brown Board of Education" using our general search (see the top righthand corner of the screen) produces websites (such as the University of Michigan's Digital Archive: Brown v. Board of Education), online history lectures, museums and historic sites, and other related resources.
Also check out our blog's roundups of resources on the Supreme Court: Our Courts Especially for Middle School Students and The Supreme Court: Connections Between Past and Present.
Federal Census figures demonstrate the migration of people from state to state and from region to region over the years. Below are three maps depicting the migration rate (the rate of net domestic migration per 1,000 people), each covering a five-year period. Match each map to the period it represents.
1.
b. 1965-1970
2.
a. 1935-1940
3.
c. 1995-2000
Overall, the census data describes the following pattern of migration flow between California and the other states, showing the periods 1955 to 1960 in red and 1995 to 2000 in blue:
All of these maps are from Trudy A. Suchan et al's Census Atlas of the United States (Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007), available online, as well as in print. Check out Chapter 7, "Migration," for further data and visualizations on migration trends.
Interested in exploring the census further in the classroom? Teachinghistory.org's Lesson Plan Review The First Census: America in 1790 leads students to examine census data for insights into the politics behind the Great Compromise and the Three Fifths Compromise at the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Don't be turned away by its long name—the Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts website houses more than 21 historical census reports and the history of each U.S. census taken. The United States Census Bureau, of course, also provides a wealth of census data and tools for accessing and assessing the data. And for census data stretching from 1790 to 1960, try the University of Virginia's United States Historical Census Data Browser.
