Immigrant History Initiative is proud to partner with Antiracist APUSH to bring you lesson plans fully aligned with AP U.S. History Key Concepts & Skills that highlight the narratives of immigrant communities throughout U.S. history. With these lesson plans, there is no trade-off between test prep versus antiracist education. Each lesson hits at least one important AP U.S. History Key Concept while immersing students in antiracist pedagogy and celebrating immigrant history. These lesson plans are free for download below.

About Antiracist APUSH

Antiracist APUSH was started by Matt Vriesman, an APUSH teacher in Michigan. The purpose of Antiracist APUSH is to help students identify and expose the racist policies that have led to the deplorable racial disparities in American society. This is achieved by exposing students to the research of leading professional historians. If our society is to have a more equitable 21st century, all Americans must be able to contextualize black suffering and articulate the history of injustice. Much structural change and healing is needed. As history teachers, we have an immense responsibility to confront racism and call it what it is.  Find more lesson plans by Antiracist APUSH at antiracistapush.com

Download Lesson Units by Topic:

​THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD &
​THE CHINESE IMMIGRANTS THAT MADE AMERICA GREAT​

KC-6.2.II.A THE BUILDING OF TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROADS…PROMOTED ECONOMIC GROWTH AND CREATED NEW COMMUNITIES AND CENTERS OF COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY
KC-6.1.II.B.II THE INDUSTRIAL WORKFORCE EXPANDED AND BECAME MORE DIVERSE THROUGH INTERNAL AND INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION.
​Objective 1: Students will be able to explain the push-pull factors that brought Chinese immigrants to the United States
Objective 2: Students will be able to explain how 19th-century Chinese immigrants helped to make America great.
​
The American Pageant, the most widespread APUSH textbook, provides great detail about cultural and economic push-pull factors that led to European migration to the United States but is notably silent about these topics concerning Asian migration.  The heart of the lesson is a mini-DBQ that prompts students to evaluate visual and written sources to learn about unique push-factors involved in initial Chinese migration to the United States.  The lesson starts with a brief review of the significance of the completion of the railroad and various push-pull factors that bring immigrants to the United States.

​RACIST REACTIONS TO CHINESE IMMIGRATION
​& ANTIRACIST RESISTANCE

KC-6.2.I.C INCREASING PUBLIC DEBATES OVER ASSIMILATION AND AMERICANIZATION ACCOMPANIED THE GROWTH OF INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION. MANY IMMIGRANTS NEGOTIATED COMPROMISES BETWEEN THE CULTURES THEY BROUGHT AND THE CULTURE THEY FOUND IN THE UNITED STATES.
Objective 1: Students will evaluate primary sources in order to understand American reactions to Chinese Immigration
Objective 2: Students will be able to explain Chinese American resistance to discrimination

The story of discrimination faced by Chinese Americans is a tragic example of how racism can be so powerful that it causes Americans to vote against their own stated values and their own self economic interest.  The story of Chinese immigration is also a story of successful antiracist activism which eventually forced the courts to acknowledge the citizenship of all people born within the borders of the United States. This lesson starts with a review of the content from the 6.8 lesson, “The Chinese Immigrants that Made America Great” and continues with a mini DBQ about American reactions to Chinese Immigration. Students use the S.P.Y. method to further understand discrimination faced by Chinese American immigrants. 

1924 IMMIGRATION ACT:
​THE MOST RACIST IMMIGRATION LAW OF ALL TIME?

KC-6.2.I.A, KC-6.2.I.C, KC-7.2.II.A.II, KC-7.2.I.D
Objective 1: Students will evaluate changes and continuities in U.S. immigration law from 1790 to 1924.

Objective 2: Students will be able to explain the relationship between racism and U.S. immigration policy.

“[I]n the United States, [xenophobia] has been built into our laws, our politics, and even the very definition of who counts as an American...our immigration history reflects both America’s promise and also its failures.”
​- Historian, Dr. Erika Lee

This wide-ranging, 3-day unit takes students through a review of key turning points in the 19th century that shaped immigration policy, from nativism and Know Nothings to the Mexican American War, Chinese Exclusion, and the Red Scare. Students will investigate connections between racism and immigration law and stitch together many disparate moments in AP U.S. History curriculum to more fully understand the evolution of U.S. immigration policy.
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