2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. To commemorate King’s work, we are sharing Gilder Lehrman lesson plans, primary sources, videos, and essays on Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement: Lesson Plans

The Gilder Lehrman Institute presents an annual essay contest for Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School students in grades 5–12 

As part of the Era of Theodore Roosevelt, a Gilder Lehrman online course, Professor Bruce Schulman of Boston University visited the Gilder Lehrman Collection to view stereo-cards of Theodore Roosevelt. In the video below, Professor Schulman explains the origins of Roosevelt’s famous appreciation for and desire to conserve America’s natural resources and the ways in which he helped redefine the role of the president as a “steward of citizens’ general welfare” by establishing the first national park system.

On October 4, 1857, Frederick Douglass penned a letter to Hugh Auld, his former owner, hoping to begin a correspondence. “My heart tells me that you are too noble to treat with indifference the request I am about to make,” he begins.

On June 30, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act, marking an achievement in federal regulation of the food industry.

The Gilder Lehrman Collection has a multitude of personal letters and writings by prominent politicians, which often reveal a lighter side to their austere public personas.