“Is This America?” 50 Years Ago Sharecroppers Challenged Mississippi Apartheid, LBJ, and the Nation
Reading by Julian Hipkins III and Deborah Menkart
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party arrived at the 1965 Democratic Party Convention in Atlantic City on a bus with more than 60 sharecroppers, farmers, housewives, teachers, maids, deacons, ministers, factory workers, and small-business owners. Students can learn from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party about how to take on the Goliaths in politics.
What Would You Do? Students Grapple with Risks Faced by Voting Rights Activists
Lesson by Cristina Tosto
Students come to understand the level of bravery displayed by local activists and ordinary people in Mississippi when they simply completed a voter registration form by imagining themselves in the role of someone who lived during the modern Civil Rights Movement. The names of the activists are revealed after they’ve considered what they might do in the role they’ve been given.
Voting Rights Act: Beyond the Headlines
Reading by Emilye Crosby and Judy Richardson
Key points missing from most textbooks about the Voting Rights Act. Many textbooks approach the history of this important legislation through a top-down lens that gives most of the credit to President Lyndon Johnson, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but the VRA came into being through intensive organizing and activism spearheaded by the Black community.
Meet Medgar Evers: Introduction to the Southern Freedom Movement
Lesson by Deborah Menkart and Jenice L. View
Medgar Wiley Evers was one of Mississippi’s most impassioned activists, orators, and visionaries for equality and against brutality. This is an interactive lesson to introduce students to his work and inspire them to learn more.
Sharecroppers Challenge U.S. Apartheid
Lesson by Sara Evers, Julian Hipkins III, Deborah Menkart, and Jenice L. View
This lesson explores one of the most important events in the fight for true democracy in the U.S., when a coalition of grassroots activists challenged the Mississippi political system, the federal government, and the national Democratic Party to abide by the U.S. Constitution.
Children’s Book on Ella Baker: A SNCC Veteran’s Review
Reading by Judy Richardson
A critical review of the picture book, Lift as You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker.
Freedom Fighter: The Life and Legacy of Ms. Dorie Ladner
Interview by Maestra Productions
Dorie Ladner was a passionate civil rights activist and leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This interview about her life was conducted in 2017 by Maestra Productions in collaboration with Bowie State University Department of Fine and Performing Arts and Teaching for Change.