Literature Circles Resources

General Resources
Encyclopedia Britannica Guide to Black History - Includes a timeline of events, biographies, and audio resources.
African American World - A timeline of African American people in America. The timeline is divided between 1400-1865, 1866-1953, 1954-1971 and 1971-present.
Timeline of African American History - List of significant events and years with brief descriptions.

Words by Heart
Reconstruction - article about this time period from Encyclopedia Britannica (years leading up to time period of novel)
African Americans in the 20th Century - Timeline of events from 1900's
What A Colored Man Should do to Vote - Pamphlet from the early 1900's explaining how to vote. Click "Next" in upper right corner to navigate to the next page. 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
African Americans in the 20th Century - Timeline of events from the 1930's; click also on 1940's at the bottom
Racism in US - Talks about Jim Crow Laws
What the World Was Like in 1933 - Activity for use with the book; just use links on the page for more information

The Cay
African Americans in the 20th Century - Timeline of events from the 1940's; click also on the 1950's at the bottom
U Boats in the Caribbean - Map of boats and description of why they were stationed there
African Americans in World War II - important people and events
African American Oddesy - Information from the Depression, New Deal and WWII

The Watsons Go to Birmingham
Try a "Civil Rights" search in any of the online encyclopedias
African Americans in the 20th Century - Timeline of events from the 1960's
Birmingham - Information about Birmingham in the civil rights era