Immigration

Forgotten Neighbors: Idaho's Chinese Immigrants | Idaho Experience

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Chinese immigrants came to Idaho in the tens of thousands. They helped build its infrastructure. Then almost all of them returned home, leaving little more than traces. Join Idaho Experience as we piece together those fragments to tell the story of these anonymous Chinese immigrant workers.

Please refer to the accompanying Facilitator Guide (found in the Support Materials section) for the Idaho Content Standards associated with this resource.

Grassroots Organizing: Creating and Sustaining a Vision for Great Public Schools | The Long View

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Grassroots organizing of parents and students in Oakland and around the country provides a vital counterbalance to the destabilizing influence of disinvestment and privatization on school systems and communities. Across the country, organizing is an essential tool for elevating the voices of low-income communities and communities of color in the conversation about public education. As Dr. Pedro Noguera, Distinguished Professor of Education, UCLA, says in The Long View, ‘The most important thing we have to learn is that the community can’t just leave decision-making up to the Board and the Superintendent. The public’s role is critical, and in order for the public to be heard, the public has to be organized.”

Old Ranches and New Development | America's Heartland

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Travel to Gardnerville, Nevada, and meet two ranchers who are deciding whether to maintain their rural lifestyles or sell out to encroaching housing developments.

Learners Facing Challenges

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This collection highlights videos produced by Producers Workshop filmmakers for CPB's American Graduate initiative. These close-up stories focus on the challenges facing high school students across America - Native American, Latino, Asian American, more. How can they and their communities break through the obstacles so the students can succeed and graduate?

The New England Historic Genealogical Society | Genealogy Roadshow

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The New England Historic Genealogical Society contains some of oldest documents in the United States, making it a distinctly important resource for genealogists. Learn more about genealogy research and working with primary resources with this clip from season 3 of Genealogy Roadshow.

Emma Goldman: A New Generation of Radicals

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American Anarchists in the 1880’s were a small but powerful movement who advocated radical ideals of universal human equality, education for all, and an end to state governmen. Video from American Experience: “Emma Goldman.”

Helvetia: A Swiss Community

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Trace the settlement, history, and current status of the Swiss community, Helvetia, WV.

The Boettchers | Colorado Experience

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With a pioneering spirit and an entrepreneurial drive, Charles Boettcher became a leading businessman in Colorado, establishing The Great Western Sugar Company, Ideal Cement, and The Denver Tramway Company, before passing the business on to his son, Claude. Discover the rags-to-riches tale of one of Colorado’s most pioneering families, both in business and philanthropy.

Ethics and Laws

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Learn how Louis Dershowitz, grandfather of attorney Alan Dershowitz, helped relatives escape from Nazi persecution in this video from Finding Your Roots. As the Nazis spread their anti-Semitic policies in Europe, many Jews wanted to escape to safety. Immigration quotas enacted in the 1920s made it difficult for immigrants to enter the United States, so Louis Dershowitz submitted false documents to help his relatives enter the country. Use the “Teaching about Ethics and Laws” guide in the Support Materials section to help students understand ethical choices and how they relate to laws.

Regional Realism | American Passages: Unit 8

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Delve into the writings of Mark Twain, Charles W. Chesnutt, and Kate Chopin in this half-hour video from the American Passages series. American culture was changing rapidly in the post-Civil War era: new technologies such as the telegraph and the railroad bound the continent together, postwar racial tensions brought the issue of the "color line" to the forefront of American consciousness, and a new commitment to realistic representation transformed literary style. Writers responded to these cultural developments by producing texts that paid close attention to the specifics of people and place in particular regions of the country, evoking the distinctive culture of areas of America that had not been previously represented.

Immigration

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