The 2008 Wall Street Bailout

This video segment adapted from FRONTLINE: "Money, Power and Wall Street" traces the unprecedented decisions made by the U.S. government to intervene in the financial crisis of 2008.

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Abel Meeropol, Billie Holiday and A Song Born in Protest

Learn about teacher and author, Abel Meeropol who penned the haunting song of protest, Strange Fruit, in this segment from Independent Lens.

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Abraham Lincoln's Words

In this video excerpted from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. cites several examples of Lincoln’s use of “seemingly simple but profoundly eloquent language to express and ennoble his cause.”

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Abraham Lincoln, Attorney at Law

This video segment, excerpted from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, explores Lincoln’s years as a "prairie" lawyer.

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All in the Family

This video from the series Faces of America details the process of documenting family history and tracing lineage back through maternal and paternal lines.

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All Things Lincoln

This video segment, excerpted from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, explores the ongoing cultural fascination with physical artifacts of Abraham Lincoln’s life.

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American Muslim Women

Learn about the perceptions and challenges of being a Muslim woman in the U.S., in this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly.

The Atlanta Riot

Learn about the events leading up to the Atlanta Riot of 1906 in this segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.

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Ballot boxing: The problem with electronic voting machines

In this video adapted from Need to Know, correspondent Rick Carr investigates why new voting machines with the latest in technology may not be a panacea for what troubles the American voting system.

Barbara Johns of Farmville, Virginia

In this video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, learn about 16-year old Barbara Johns, a high school student who, in 1951, organized a student walk-out to protest inferior educational conditions at Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia.

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The Birth of a Nation

This video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow highlights the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, which presents a distorted image of African Americans in the South and created a heightened atmosphere of violence upon its release.

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Blacks and Whites in the New South

This segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow illustrates the precarious and ill-defined relationships existing between whites and blacks following the Civil War.

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Booker T. Washington: An Education

This video segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow chronicles Booker T. Washington’s invitation to head the Tuskegee Institute and explains his philosophy of education.

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Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois: The Conflict

This video segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow highlights W.E.B. Du Bois’ criticism of Booker T. Washington for focusing on the economic advancement of blacks and accepting the injustices of Jim Crow.

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Bush on Lincoln

In this video from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. interviews former president George W. Bush about Abraham Lincoln and the controversial choices they both faced as wartime leaders.

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The Causes of the 2008 Financial Crisis

This video segment adapted from FRONTLINE: "Money, Power and Wall Street" explores the changes in the U. S. financial market that ultimately led to the 2008 financial crisis.

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Charles Hamilton Houston: Laying the Groundwork for Integration

In this video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, observe how Charles Hamilton Houston laid the groundwork for the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education as he documented separate and unequal conditions for black and white students in the south.

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Charles Hamilton Houston and His Legal Challenge Against Jim Crow

This video fromThe Rise and Fall of Jim Crow profiles Charles Hamilton Houston, the chief council for the NAACP, and his legal challenge against Jim Crow.

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Charlotte Hawkins Brown

Learn about Charlotte Hawkins Brown, founder of an educational institution for young African Americans, in this video segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.

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Choosing words: The controversy over Texas textbooks

This video adapted from Need to Know examines controversial decisions made by the Texas State Board of Education regarding the social studies curriculum standards for Texas public schools.

The Civil Rights Cases

This video from the series The Supreme Court details both the Court’s contribution to the end of Reconstruction and its first major dissent.

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A Colony of Aliens

In this video segment from Faces of America, learn about Benjamin Franklin’s objection to German immigrants in colonial Pennsylvania.

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A Community of People Now

In this video segment from the documentary American Masters: Bill T. Jones: A Good Man, Bill T. Jones struggles to find meaning and relevancy for the life of Abraham Lincoln in today’s social and political landscape.

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The Crisis: A Weapon Against Jim Crow

Learn about W.E.B. Du Bois’ crusade against American segregation and discrimination in this segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.

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The Dickerson Case

Against expectation, Justice William Rehnquist upholds the Miranda warnings in the case of Dickerson v. The United States in this video from the PBS series The Supreme Court.

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The Double V

In this video segment from Soldiers Without Swords, learn about the "Double V" campaign launched by the black press during World War II to empower African-Americans at home and abroad on the war front.

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Drawing the lines: Parties fight for redistricting power

In this video adapted from Need to Know, students learn about redistricting and the impact it has on elections, and democracy, in America.

Edisto Island

In this video segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, freedmen on Edisto Island receive the news that their land will be taken away.

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Exploring Religious America

In this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, learn about Muslims in Lawrenceville, Georgia, their plans to build an Islamic cemetery and the stiff objections from their Christian neighbors.

FDR and the Court

In this video from The Supreme Court, the Court reverses its practice of protectionism for big business to protect the worker.

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Finding Their Voice

African Americans in the 1920's had a new attitude. In this video segment from A Walk Through Harlem, learn about the Harlem Renaissance.

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The Fourteenth Amendment - Part I

This video segment from The Supreme Court introduces viewers to the Fourteenth amendment.

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The Fourteenth Amendment - Part II

In this video segment from The Supreme Court, learn about the 1883 Supreme Court decision that marked the end of federal protections for individuals in states and the beginning of Jim Crow segregation.

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Getting an Education

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, chronicles the education of leading chemist Percy Julian. Although Julian began his elementary school years in the Deep South under Jim Crow laws, he became one of the few African Americans of his time to earn a Ph.D.

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Gideon v. Wainwright

Learn how the case of Gideon v. Wainwright brought about sweeping change in the American justice system in this video segment from The Supreme Court.

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Griswold v. Connecticut

The “right to privacy” as a legal issue is the topic of this video segment from The Supreme Court.

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Having a Strong National Government

In this video from The Supreme Court, partisan politics influences the development of the United States as a young republic.

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Ida B. Wells: A Lifetime of Activism

Learn about Ida B. Wells’ life-long fight for African-American civil rights in this segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.

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The Impact of Deportation

In this video excerpt from FRONTLINE: "Lost in Detention," an immigrant family with American-born children copes with the aftermath of the mother's deportation to Mexico because she lacked legal status.

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Isaiah Montgomery Founds Mound Bayou

This video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow profiles Isaiah Montgomery who, in 1887, established the all-black town of Mound Bayou in the Mississippi Delta.

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Is This a Map of the Underground Railroad?

In this segment from History Detectives, Anne Zorela, a map collector, believes she's found a map that outlines the routes of the Underground Railroad.

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Jane Jacobs

Learn about Jane Jacobs, an activist who worked to save the neighborhoods of New York City in this video segment from New York Voices.

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Journey from Jamaica

Poet Elizabeth Alexander learns how her grandfather came to the US from Jamaica in this video from Faces of America.

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The Journey of the Jewish Americans

This segment from The Jewish Americans shows how in the 19th century Jews and other groups were sometimes not welcomed when they immigrated to the United States.

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Lincoln's Early Views

In this video segment from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, historians Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and David Blight shed light on the more complicated historical reality behind the romanticized myth of Abraham Lincoln as the morally unassailable “Great Emancipator” of the slaves.

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Lincoln's Growth and Change

In this video from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. speculates on how different American history might have been had Lincoln lived, and tributes to Lincoln’s enduring legacy culminate in the hope and spectacle of Barack Obama’s 2008 inauguration.

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Lucy Laney

Lucy Craft Laney, a former slave who established the first school for black children in Augusta, Georgia, is profiled in this video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.

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Ma Family History

This video from Faces of America explores Yo-Yo Ma's family history and how it was preserved.

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Mannahatta 1609

Learn about the rich and diverse ecosystem of early Manhattan in this video from Dutch New York.

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Marshall's View of Federalism

This video from The Supreme Court shows the evolution of John Marshall’s ideas on federalism.

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Maya Lin

This video segment from New York Voices features Chinese American architect Maya Lin.

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McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

In this video, Supreme Court Justice John Marshal, in the case of McCulloch V. Maryland, ruled in favor of national sovereignty over states’ rights.

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Minersville School District v. Gobitis

This segment from The Supreme Court presents the flag saluting case of Minersville v. Gobitis.

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Miranda v. Arizona

In this video from The Supreme Court, learn about the Court's sweeping decision in response to police brutality and terror tactics.

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Miss Navajo

To win the competition, Miss Navajo Nation must know and speak the Navajo language in this segment from Independent Lens.

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Mixed signals: Why is the USDA Promoting Nutrition and Pushing Cheese?

In this video adapted from Need to Know, learn about the mixed messages the U.S. Department of Agriculture sends to the American public around food.

Moving to Oak Park

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, shows the racial violence sparked when the African American chemist Percy Julian and his family moved into an exclusive Chicago suburb in 1950.

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The Murder of Emmett Till

This video segment adapted from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE tells the story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy whose brutal murder helped spark the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s.

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Muslim Diversity

Roughly half the Muslims in the United States are African American and the other half are immigrants and their American–born children. This video from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly explores the relationship between these two communities.

Muslims in America

In this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, learn about how the events of 9/11 have posed continuing challenges for American Muslims as they work to build their community in the U.S.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

This video segment from A Walk Through Harlem features the poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes.

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A New Kind of Justice

Explore the creation, intention and language of the Fourteenth Amendment in this video from The Supreme Court.

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The New Negro

Learn about some of the people who contributed to the Harlem Renaissance in this video from A Walk Through Harlem.

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New Orleans Jazz

In this video segment from Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis and his band play “St. Louis Blues.”

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Nixon and the Court

In this video from the series The Supreme Court, President Nixon promises a return to conservatism, in part through Supreme Court appointments.

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The Oil Crisis, 1979

Drivers wait in long lines at gas stations because of shortages resulting from the oil crisis in this 1979 television news footage from the Northeast Historic Film.

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Opportunity Beckoned in the New World

This video from the series Faces of America details the immigration of Stephen Colbert’s German ancestors to Pennsylvania in the early 1700s.

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Pap Singleton: To Kansas!

In this video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, former slave Benjamin “Pap” Singleton leads African Americans out of the South to Kansas.

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Pioneers of the American West

Chef Mario Batali learns about his ancestors who left Italy for the American West in this video from Faces of America.

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Plessy v. Ferguson

In this segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, discover how in 1896 the Supreme Court, in a landmark case known as Plessy v. Ferguson, sanctioned segregation as long as the separate facilities were equal.

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Proving Ground

In this video from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. interviews historian Allan Guelzo about the unprecedented scale of the Civil War and President Lincoln’s own personal attitude toward the Confederacy.

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Quoting Abraham Lincoln

In this video excerpted from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. samples instances of today’s politicians quoting Lincoln in their speeches.

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Reaction to the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968

In this April 1968 archival news footage from the Boston Public Library, citizens at a public rally in Boston, Massachusetts, respond to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Reconstruction Brings White Resistance

In this segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, white Southerners, resentful of Reconstruction, found many ways to obstruct and deny the new freedoms held by former slaves.

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Rehnquist’s Views on the Miranda Decision

This video from the series The Supreme Court presents Justice Rehnquist’s views on the landmark case Miranda v. Arizona.

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Rising Negrophobia and Challenging the Lie

This video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow exposes the media’s use of racist imagery during the Jim Crow era and the ways African Americans challenged the lies the images portrayed.

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Robert Smalls: From Slavery to Politics

In this video from Slavery and the Making of America, explore the political life of Robert Smalls, the legendary U.S. Congressman from South Carolina.

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Roe v. Wade

In this video from The Supreme Court, learn about the Court's sweeping decision in response to police brutality and terror tactics.

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Sapelo Island Culture

In this video segment from EGG: the arts show, learn about the Gullah/Geechee culture of Sapelo Island.

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The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis

Through flashback, L.D.Cox tells how he survived the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis during World War II in this segment from History Detectives.

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Somali Muslims in Maine

In this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, view the reactions of citizens from Lewiston, Maine as Somali immigrants settle in their community.

Strange Fruit: A Song Born of Protest

The historical and cultural significance of the legendary anti-lynching song, Strange Fruit, is examined in this video segment from Independent Lens.

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The Student Leader

This video segment from American Experience: "Freedom Riders" profiles one of the African American student leaders who employed nonviolent direct action in the early 1960s to challenge illegal racial segregation both on her own college campus and nationally.

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Students Strike at Fisk University

This video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow features African American students who organized the 1924 strike at Fisk University to protest attempts to make Fisk a vocational school.

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Symbolism in "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

This video segment from A Walk Through Harlem features the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes.

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Tenant Farmers

Learn about the difficult living conditions faced by Stephen Colbert’s Irish ancestors in this video from Faces of America.

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The Civil War and Abolition

This video from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln examines how the unprecedented slaughter of the Civil War compelled President Abraham Lincoln to expand and elevate the justification of the war from the political ideal of union to the moral imperative of abolition.

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The Gettysburg Address

In this video segment excerpted from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and President Bill Clinton examine the context and content of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

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The Road to Emancipation

In this video from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and historian David Blight examine how strategic calculations informed President Abraham Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation at least as much as any higher sense of moral imperative.

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To Hawaii from Japan

This video from Faces of America reveals the circumstances that led Kristi Yamaguchi’s grandfather to move from Japan to Hawaii.

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Trade and Commerce

In this segment from Dutch New York, learn about the fur trade in New Netherland as well as the purchase of Manhattan Island.

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Disaster

In this segment from The Jewish Americans learn how the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire led to labor reform and workers' rights.

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The Truman Administration and The Seeds of Change

This video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow highlights President Truman’s outrage at the treatment of Black service men following World War II and his pledge of federal support for civil rights.

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A Very Sad Period in Irish History

Students learn about the effects of the Irish Potato Famine in this video segment from Faces of America.

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Walter White: Reporting the Crime

In this segment from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, White Walter put his life on the line passing for white to investigate the crime of lynching.

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Walter White v W.E.B. Du Bois

The philosophical differences between Walter White, General Secretary of the NAACP, and W.E.B. Du Bois, the editor of The Crisis, are highlighted in this video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.

Was Lincoln a White Supremacist?

In this video from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. investigates Abraham Lincoln’s mixed legacy among African Americans, many of whom have grown disillusioned with the myth of a “Great Emancipator” who in fact spoke often and openly about his own inability to accept that blacks were equal to whites.

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What Does He Have to Say to Us Today?

This video segment from the documentary American Masters: Bill T. Jones: Good Man explores the creative process by examining the relationships between the artist and the work and between the artist and the audience.

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What was the Harlem Renaissance?

Professor Kate Rushin describes the Harlem Renaissance as a large social and cultural movement fueled by many factors in this video from A Walk Through Harlem.

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Who Was Jim Crow?

This video from The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow depicts the popular 19th-century minstrel song that stereotyped African Americans and later came to personify the system of government-sanctioned racial oppression and segregation in the United States.

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