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Great audio recordings on the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 - they are somewhat hard to hear, but they provide a behind the scenes look on how they passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Students could listen to them and get a sense on how deals are presented, made and discussed behind closed doors.

I went searching for a useful article on the Shelby County v. Holder decision. I wanted to supplement the material provided in the Middle School Lesson for this week, which covered a history of voting rights in America. The materials did not go so far as to include this recent development, which arguable disenfranchised a large portion of Americans. I would read this article with the students and then add a character for "period 4" in the lesson who, students would realize, may be disenfranchised by this 2013 Supreme Court decision.

And make sure students realize the close proximity in date of this article and story. This is as current as it gets.

Another good resource site and interesting lesson plans that focus on the Chinese experience in America. This could provide more background information for you as you get into the Chinese Exclusion Act and how citizenship was denied to Asian Americans for many years.

This gives a sample of the most celebrated documents and milestones in history. I thought it was interesting to be able to click on a plethora of links not on just the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constittution, Bill of Rights but also links to the Emancipation Proclamation, Social Security Act, FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech and much more.

The National Archives is truly a remarkable site. Remember when we had to teach history without the richness of all the documents we can now get online?