Each year, National History Day (NHD) frames student projects and research within a historical theme. The theme is chosen for broad application to world, national, or state and local history, and because it covers subjects from ancient history to the more recent past. The 2024-2025 theme is Rights & Responsibilities in History.

The History Day Theme Book defines rights as “freedoms or privileges that individuals possess as human beings or as citizens of a society.” There are different types of rights, including:

The Theme Book also outlines four major areas of responsibility:

Students must select a topic for their History Day project that focuses on both rights and responsibilities within a historical context.

Watch this video from National History Day explaining this theme in greater detail, with several topic examples:

Read on to understand how to explore this year's theme using materials from the Minnesota Digital Library.

We encourage you to select a National History Day topic from Minnesota’s history. Local history topics can make your project stand out and uncover unknown stories. Think about it this way:

Use these lists as a starting point for your search in the Minnesota Digital Library. As you search, make sure to ask yourself questions about time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance. Remember to start with a broad subject area of interest and narrow it down to a more specific topic.

American citizens have both the right and responsibility to participate in the government process. This includes the right to vote in local, state, and federal elections as well as serving in all levels of government - from city councils to supreme courts. Minnesotans like to exercise their civic responsibilities, and have fought for the right to participate throughout the state's history. As you research, consider who has had the right to participate, as well as how that has changed over time. Here are some examples from MDL’s digital collections:

At times, it has been complicated to balance rights and responsibilities with larger social forces. Rights have been diminished by things like territorial expansion, economic exploitation, and power struggles. The idea of who has access to rights has also changed and expanded, thanks in part to groups and individuals who fought for it. Some general topics from Minnesota history related to this balance include:

Occasionally, rights are curtailed for reasons that seem valid at the time, including public health, wartime rationing, crime fighting, and national security. These reasons are often backed up by legal or political measures designed for the benefit of the majority, but at times they do more harm than good. These topics show how far some people are willing to go to enforce legal responsibilities at the expense of basic human rights, and (sometimes) how others resisted:

The story of Native Americans in Minnesota also illustrates the complicated history of Indigenous rights and responsibilities in this country. Many of these measures show a complete disregard of the rights of Native American people and nations. Indigenous people have resisted this infringement on their rights as well, particularly during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 and the American Indian Movement. Related topics include:

The Minnesota Digital Library includes several special collection areas related to rights and responsibilities in history. These include full runs of newsletters documenting some of the movements and issues listed above. Use these links to access these groups of materials:

Primary Source Sets bring together a group of resources on specific topics to help students understand events in their context. Each set includes a topic overview, about 20 primary sources from MDL collections, links to related resources, and discussion questions. Several Primary Source Sets deal with Rights & Responsibilities in Minnesota history, and you can use them as starting points for your research and topic selection. They include:

Explore more of this resource guide using the page links below.