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Unit Plans

To help teachers imagine and create ways to use primary sources from the NYC Civil Rights History Project in their classrooms, we have created sample lesson plans. These are not for prescription, but for inspiration. We hope that teachers will draw on their own knowledge to remix and recreate what is here in ways that work for their students, their community, and their subject area.

The cover of the handbook features an illustration of a man sitting in a wheelchair facing forward with arms outstretched to the side. His hands push apart the words, “handi” and “capped.”

Disrupting “Normal”
Mrs. Elizabeth Cisco is a Black woman seated in an ornate chair and wearing a formal full-length dress

Faces and Forms of Educational Activism
College students, most appearing to be white, hold signs at a rally outdoors with trees behind them. One student has a loudspeaker. The largest banner reads, "Support the Five Demands - Viva Harlem U."

Fighting for Educational Justice
A young black woman with a somber expression wearing a beret with political buttons and a leather jacket. She's holding a disposable coffee cup and smoking a cigarette.

The Young Lords