The Heroes Club
If you are an elementary school teacher looking to liven up your lessons on American history, check out The Heroes Club, a set of 25 trading cards that depict American heroes and the virtues they represent, including:

• Harriet Tubman, a leader of the Underground Railroad who helped slaves escape to freedom. 
• Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey, who worked together to integrate Major League Baseball in the 1940s. 
• Mary McLeod Bethune, who fought for civil rights and was a close confidante of President Franklin Roosevelt and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. 
• Rosa Parks, who was arrested after she refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger, resulting in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. 

Worksheets and lesson plans that prompt students to think about the challenges a particular hero faced, and why our lives are better today because of that person, are also posted there. A list of all 25 heroes can be found at http://www.theheroesclub.org/heroes.php.

Political Pioneers

Susan B. Anthony was one of the most influential women in the fight for women's suffrage. She was arrested in 1872 for voting, which was against the law for women.

Clara Barton became one of the most well-known women of the Civil War era by providing aid to injured soldiers, lobbying to bring supplies onto the battlefield, and setting up the Bureau of Records to trace and locate missing soldiers. She founded the U.S. branch of the International Red Cross.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a distinguished suffragist who founded the National Woman Suffrage Association with Susan B. Anthony.

Cesar Chavez dedicated his life to achieving better working conditions for the poor and exploited migrant farmers of the western United States. He is regarded as one of the most important people in the U.S. labor movement. 

Martin Luther King Jr. came from a long line of Baptist pastors. He studied theology extensively, as well as nonviolent activism to promote social change as exemplified through the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King was president of the Montgomery (Ala.) Improvement Association, which coordinated the Montgomery Bus Boycott that helped end segregation on public buses.

Patsy Takemoto Mink
In 1964, Patsy Mink became first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress as a representative from Hawaii. During her time in Congress, Mink was a champion of both the rights of Asian Pacific-Americans and women's rights. She was instrumental in passing the Equal Opportunity in Education Act, or Title IX, which protected against gender discrimination in educational programs and activities, including athletics.

Sojourner Truth was one of the most well-known American abolitionists and an advocate for women's rights.