Educator Portal
The Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California (CRIISC) strives to connect educators with resources to bring local history into the classroom and further engage students in their learning. We believe that stories about civil rights, historic and current, will inspire our youth to be the champions of tomorrow.
Ethnic Studies Lesson Plans
I.E. Stories is a collaboration between organizations and teachers to create authentic, rigorous, place-based Ethnic Studies lessons which will serve as models for other Ethnic Studies educators in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Use these lessons to bring local history into your classroom.
More lessons will be released September 2025
I.E. Stories is a collaboration between scholars in the Inland Empire, community groups, educators, A People’s History of the I.E., the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California, UCR’s Relevancy & History Project, and the UCLA History-Geography Project.
Lesson Plans
- How do community support groups honor our intersectional identity?
55 minutes - How did Baseball help forge community ties and a strong sense of ethnic identity, pride, and power that was necessary for the fight for civil rights?
55 minutes - How do community food spaces reflect cultural wealth and resilience?
55 minutes - How can communities repair past injustices?
55 minutes - Which sites are remembered, how are they remembered, and who has the power to decide?
2 -3 day lesson 55 minute periods - How did communities in Riverside and San Bernardino challenge educational segregation, and what do their efforts reveal about the ongoing struggle for educational justice?
2 day lesson, 55 minute periods - In what ways does having access to public pools impact a community?
55 minutes - How have Inland Empire communities built and sustained spaces of belonging, resistance, and care across generations?
4-day lesson, 55-minute class periods - How have shifts in land use in and around Mira Loma, CA contributed to evolving social justice movements?
3 day lesson, 55 minute periods - How do we remember our community’s history?
55 minutes - Freedom Mapping
Year-long course or individual units of instruction
Local History Lesson Plans
Explore lesson plans that bring local history primary sources into the classroom.
Lesson Plan
- How can we continue to help preserve our communities’ stories? Grade 3, 55 minutes
- Portraits in the Groves Grades 4-6, 55 minutes
- The First Koreatown and the Legacy of Dosan Ahn Chang Ho Grades 6-12, 55 minutes
- How did Latinx Riversiders Create a Thriving Community at the Beginning of the 20th Century? Grade 11, 3 day lesson, 55 minute periods
- What did housing segregation look like in the Inland Empire in the 1920s-1970’s? Grade 12, 55 minutes
Online Local Primary Sources
Digital Archive of the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California
Additional Online Resources
- Korean American Studies Program Videos
- Calisphere
- A People’s History of the I.E. Digital Archive
- Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies
- Clabe Hangan Collection: Inland Empire Folk Music in the 1960s and 1970s
- Latino Baseball History Project: Southern California
- Wilmer Amina Carter Papers
- Graciano Gomez Papers and Inland Empire Hispanic News
- Loma Linda Area Parks and Historical Society Digital Archive
- South Colton Oral History Project
- Bridges that Carried Us Over Project: Documenting Black History in the Inland Empire
- Palm Springs Historical Society
Research Centers and Other Resources
- A.K. Smiley Public Library Heritage Room
- Arda Haenzel Callifornia Room
- Young Oak Kim Center for Korean American Studies
- UCR Special Collections and University Archives
- Riverside African American Historical Society
- California Citrus State Historic Park
- Museum of Riverside
- Center for Social Justice and Civil Liberties
- San Bernardino County Museum
- SBCSS Local History Studies
