Civil Rights

Lesson Plan

Analyzing the Meaning of Freedom

Students analyze the poetry of both Audre Lorde and Maya Angelou, using selected examples of their work, and determine the meaning of “freedom” as written by both women.
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Biography

Alicia Garza

Alicia Garza is a lifelong activist, community organizer, and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Biography

Ayo Tometi

Previously known as Opal Tometi, Ayo Tometi is a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. She has helped reshape conversations on social justice and equality worldwide, making significant strides toward gender and racial parity.
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Biography

Patrisse Cullors

Patrisse Cullors is an artist, activist, and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, which she helped launch in 2013 to combat systemic racism and state violence against Black communities.
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Biography

Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson was a star tennis player and the first Black woman to win the U.S. Nationals, French Championship, and Wimbledon.
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Biography

Anna Julia Cooper

Anna Julia Cooper was a groundbreaking educator, activist, and author who changed the trajectories of many young Black women .
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Lesson Plan

Mary Church Terrell 

This 3-part lesson will give the students a basic understanding of Mary Church Terrell and prepare them for future studies on the early 20th century Women’s Suffrage Movement in the United States.
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Biography

Etta Horn

Etta Horn was a prominent welfare rights advocate. As an activist, she worked alongside other anti-poverty organizers to improve the living conditions of low-income DC residents.
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Biography

Eleanor Holmes Norton

Eleanor Holmes Norton was the first woman appointed to chair the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and continues to fight for DC statehood in her third decade as a congresswoman.
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Biography

Sister Margaret Traxler

Sister Margaret Traxler was a Catholic feminist nun and a civil rights activist who marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the famous march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
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Biography

Loretta Ross

Loretta Ross is an academic and activist who has dedicated many years to advocating for women’s rights and reproductive justice.
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Biography

Mary Treadwell

Mary Treadwell was a notable DC-based activist and community organizer, best known for co-creating Youth Pride, Inc., a job-training program helping inner-city youth, and her abortion decriminalization advocacy.
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Biography

Barbara R. Johns

As a teenager, Barbara Johns helped organize a strike that eventually led to the desegregation of schools in the United States.
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