Classroom Texts

Documents in the Classroom are online packets of topically arranged materials designed specifically for use by teachers and students. The references contained in the packets provide a basis of study on a particular aspect of African American life such as the Civil War, In the Aftermath of Glory, and the post civil war struggle to fully realize equal citizenship From Segregation to Integration.

Celebrating Rights and Responsibilities, Baltimore and the Fifteenth Amendment, May 19, 1870

Purpose: To examine the meaning of the symbolism and rhetoric of the nations largest celebration of the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

From Segregation to Integration: The Donald Murray Case, 1935-1937

Purpose: To examine the process by which African-Americans gained admittance to the University of Maryland Law School.

In the Aftermath of Glory: African American Soldiers & Sailors from Annapolis Maryland, 1863-1918

Purpose: To examine what happens to African American soldiers & sailors who survive the Civil War by tracing their careers through public and private records. The packet includes maps, contemporary accounts, census records, court records, and Federal Pension files.

Is Baltimore Burning?

Purpose: To examine the rhetoric and the reality behind the social tensions of 1960-1968 as they relate to free speech and peaceable assembly in the First amendment to the United States Constitution, and to civil disobedience.

The Perils of Reading: Samuel Green and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin

Purpose: Samuel Green, a Dorchester County Maryland free man of color, was arrested and jailed for possession of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe. These documents explore freedom of speech and of the press in a slave state during the 1850s.