The View from the Trenches
Reading by Charles Payne
A critique of the master narrative of the Civil Rights Movement.
What Julian Bond Taught Me
Reading by Jeanne Theoharis
Freedom movements don’t just happen, they are made—and not by charismatic leaders, but by everyday people possessing great courage. Reflections on what Julian Bond taught us about how social movements are built and sustained.
Guns and the Southern Freedom Struggle: What’s Missing When We Teach About Nonviolence
Reading by Charles E. Cobb Jr.
Asserting their right to defend themselves when attacked was a tradition that safeguarded and sustained generations of Black people in the United States. Yet this tradition is almost completely absent from the conventional narrative of the Southern civil rights struggle.
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.
Teaching About Nonviolence and Self-Defense
Teaching Idea by Julian Hipkins III
In the article and video clip used in this lesson, Charles E. Cobb Jr. talks about the role that self-defense and nonviolence played in the Civil Rights Movement. Cobb explains that for many, nonviolence was a tactic rather than a way of life. People in communities across the south were prepared to use lethal force when necessary to protect themselves.