informational Archives | Southern Poverty Law Center

Civil Rights Movement
Race and Ethnicity

Classroom Resource

Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation

Congressman and civil rights movement hero John Lewis wrote this final article to be published on the day of his funeral.

July 18, 2022

John Lewis

Class
Race and Ethnicity

Classroom Resource

Bill Clinton apologizes for Tuskegee Experiment

President Bill Clinton delivered this speech at the White House on May 16, 1997.

June 18, 2019

Bill Clinton

Slavery

Classroom Resource

Sen. James Henry Hammond On the Admission of Kansas, Under the Lecompton Constitution Speech Before the United States Senate / Cotton is King

The “Cotton is King” speech given by Senator James Henry Hammond before the U. S. Senate on March 4th, 1858.

February 20, 2018

James Henry Hammond

Slavery

Classroom Resource

Slavery a Positive Good

A speech given by Senator John C. Calhoun in the United States Senate on February 6, 1837.

February 20, 2018

John C. Calhoun

Slavery

Classroom Resource

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Harriet A. Jacobs escaped from enslavement in North Carolina in 1835, making her way to Philadelphia and then to New York. She wrote this memoir of her experience in enslavement and escape from it in the 1850s while she was in New York. A company in Boston published the narrative in 1860.

January 6, 2018

Harriet A. Jacobs

Slavery

Classroom Resource

Frederick Douglass Describes Enslavers

Frederick Douglass escaped slavery and became one of America’s most famous abolitionist speakers. This passage comes from his autobiography, published in 1846. This book, in which Douglass described his experience in and escape from enslavement, reached a mass audience in the United States and abroad.

January 6, 2018

Frederick Douglass

Slavery

Classroom Resource

“Cornerstone” Speech

Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America, describes improvements of governance under the Confederate States of America (CSA) constitution and provides reasons for the Southern states’ secession.

January 6, 2018

Alexander H. Stephens

Slavery

Classroom Resource

Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union in December 1860. States that left the Union created documents explaining why they did so. South Carolina’s Declaration influenced subsequent state secession documents.

January 6, 2018

Slavery

Classroom Resource

First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

In his first inaugural address, President Lincoln reaffirms his desire to preserve the union and not interfere with slavery.

January 5, 2018

Abraham Lincoln

Slavery

Classroom Resource

Letter to Reverend Samson Occum (1774)

Enslaved African-American poet Phillis Wheatley’s letter to Reverend Samson Occum, an ordained Presbyterian minister who was a member of the Mohegan Tribe. This letter appeared in the March 11, 1774 edition of The Connecticut Gazette.

January 5, 2018

Phillis Wheatley

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Sen. James Henry Hammond On the Admission of Kansas, Under the Lecompton Constitution Speech Before the United States Senate / Cotton is King

Slavery a Positive Good

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Frederick Douglass Describes Enslavers

“Cornerstone” Speech

Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union

First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

Letter to Reverend Samson Occum (1774)