Do Now: (8 minutes)

Review the video Untold Stories of Black Women in the Suffrage Movement (first 6:30 minutes). Have students write down 3-5 statements about what they found new and interesting in the film. Encourage students to share their findings with a partner. This should introduce them to some of the work of Ida B. Wells, specifically as a suffragist.  

Lesson: (15 minutes)

Before students begin, they will read the introduction and the title of “Lynching, our National Crime”. Based on what is presented in the introduction, they will fill out the first column of a KWL chart (Know, Wonder, Learned). They will then fill out the “wonder” column. What do they want to know?  Students will read the primary source “Lynching, our National Crime''. They will then write down their 3-5 statements in the “learned” column.

• Students should discuss some of the questions they have with their partner. The teacher can call on students to then discuss their findings with the class.
• To complete the lesson (final minutes of class), students will be able to visualize the map of American lynchings provided by the Equal Justice Institute. Encourage students to take several minutes to explore the map and generate statements and questions they have about the map. Encourage students to share their findings with the class. For example, students might be surprised that lynchings occurred outside of the Deep South. The might wonder what events happened that led to an upsurge in lynchings in certain locations. They might identify the challenges of making a resource like this (i.e. the lack of documentation of lynchings).