Given the changing nature of the Internet, you may wish to preview these sites. Always check for updated links to U.S. history sites.

Allow one week to teach this chapter.

Linking information from different periods is important in developing an understanding of the concepts. This ability to make connections is an important skill that students need to showcase in their essays on the AP* exam. Linkages demonstrate an advanced placement level of understanding of the content. To help students make connections among events, have them compare the first period of Reconstruction and the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson to the opinion in Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Students need to be aware that the civil rights movement is not a phenomenon of the 1960s but has its roots in the nineteenth century. Review also the Niagara Movement and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

As described in this chapter, the 1960s was a time of radical social upheaval. African Americans, women, Hispanics—and later on—Native Americans, and gays and lesbians sought to gain greater social, political, and economic rights. Their actions constituted the third reform cycle of the twentieth century. The reaction of the established order and the escalating war in Vietnam radicalized the members of some of these groups, but most continued to use political and economic means to gain the nation's attention and action on their agendas.

Divide students into ten groups, each representing one year of the 1960s. Have each group select a man or woman of the year and outline the information that would be contained in a magazine profile of that person. Before beginning, have the class together develop a set of criteria to use to choose the man or woman of the year. Give the students 15 minutes to complete the assignment. One member of each group must present the group's choice and explain how that person meets the criteria.

You might also find these additional readings useful in developing students' background knowledge or for DBQ activities: