With schools nationwide embroiled in conflict amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, we compiled our campus speech educational materials and coverage for students and educators.

Teacher Guides | Teacher Guides: History

Teacher Guide: The Civil Rights Movement and the First Amendment: How Free Expression Freedoms Developed During the Struggle for Equality

Published: April 20, 2021.

Civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr.

Civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. (3rd from R front row) and John Lewis (4th from L front row), talk with reporters after meeting with President John F. Kennedy after the March on Washington in Washington, U.S., August 28, 1963. Library of Congress/Warren K. Leffler/Handout via REUTERS

The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s not only led to significant legislative change and social progress, but it also served as a catalyst for the expansion of First Amendment freedoms. This teacher’s guide recounts many of the First Amendment developments ushered in during this new era of commitment to civil rights and equality. These include constitutionalizing libel law, protecting peaceful protesting, acknowledging new forms of symbolic speech, recognizing the freedom of association, and limiting the ways in which licensing laws can be used to censor speech.

To view this and other teacher guides, please fill out this form.

All resources on www.FirstAmendmentWatch.org are free and permitted to disseminate to your students with these conditions:

Be sure to include any pertinent credits to news organizations, book authors, etc. who are identified as the source of the specific content you select.
Include: Reprinted with permission from www.FirstAmendmentWatch.org

Resources available at www.FirstAmendmentWatch.org include:

News & Updates
History & Legal Cases
Analysis & Opinion

View Teacher Guides

Name*
Email*
School/Organization*
Course*
City*
State
Newsletter
Please sign me up for the First Amendment Watch newsletter.
CAPTCHA

Related Posts

Teacher Guide: Speech Not Protected by the First Amendment

This teacher guide discusses many of the important unprotected categories of speech that have led to contentious First Amendment litigation through the years.

Teacher and Citizen Guides: Recording Video and Audio of Police Officers

By 2019, more than 81% of Americans owned a smartphone, as compared to 35% in 2011. This has given rise to “citizen journalists” who record and disseminate videos of police officers performing their duties in public. Does the First Amendment protect them, or can the state prohibit the recording of police activity?

An explosion caused by police munition on Jan 6, 2021

Teacher Guide: Disinformation and the First Amendment

Disinformation is more pernicious and widespread today than at any other point in history, largely because of social media and the Internet. For instance, it is now widely known—and verified by the U.S. intelligence community—that Russians interfered with the 2016 presidential election.

Robot Love, Xtender, Art AI Gallery

Teacher Guide: Copyrights and Artificial Intelligence: Should Creative Works Authored by AI Be Eligible for Copyright Protection?

In 2018, Christie’s auction house in New York sold a painting, Portrait of Edmond Bellamy, for $432,500. This sales price was significant. Not because it was exceptionally high—Christie’s has had many sales that would dwarf this price—but because the painting was not made by a human being. It was created by a computer using artificial intelligence (AI).