Josh Davidson 6/27/23 Josh Davidson 6/27/23

A Study of Artist Aaron Douglas: Painting the Human Figure in the Tradition of Resistance

Lesson by Patty Bode and Stephanie Schmidt
The artwork and leadership of Aaron Douglas foreshadowed the Civil Rights era by setting the visual tone of the Harlem Renaissance movement of the 1920s and 1930s. In this lesson, students will learn about Aaron Douglas and draw silhouettes of marchers, cut out the figures, and paint in Aaron Douglas’s style.

Mykella Palmer 9/20/24 Mykella Palmer 9/20/24

McComb History

The McCombLegacies.org website (now archived) was designed to share the history of McComb, Miss., with an emphasis on the stories of working people of all races, women, and young people and how they have strived for equity in labor, civics, education, economics, and the arts.

Josh Davidson 6/27/23 Josh Davidson 6/27/23

The Role of Black Landowners in the Civil Rights Movement

Teaching Idea by Tiferet Ani
Black landowners provided an indispensable support base for the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, as documented in the 82-minute Emmy Award-winning documentary Dirt and Deeds in Mississippi. Find teaching ideas for use in conjunction with film: a Socratic Seminar, a textbook revision project, and ideas for further research.

Allison Acosta 8/9/24 Allison Acosta 8/9/24

Introduction: Transnational Solidarity

Introduction by Teaching for Change
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was connected to the international struggle against colonialism. Such well-known African American historians as W. E. B. Du Bois and Carter G. Woodson had long linked U.S. racism and segregation to the colonial system in Africa and other parts of the world.

Josh Davidson 6/27/23 Josh Davidson 6/27/23

Sit-Ins: A Desegregation Role Play

Lesson by Chris Hoeh
A role play lesson for second grade on sit-ins.

Allison Acosta 8/9/24 Allison Acosta 8/9/24

Introduction: Black Power

Introduction by Teaching for Change
If the nonviolence of the Southern Freedom/Civil Rights Movement frightened mainstream people in the United States, the Black Power movement confronted institutional racism with a youthful boldness and fearlessness unseen since enslaved Africans took up arms in the Civil War. In this section, important “founding documents” of the Black Power movement are examined. In addition, the section explores the impact of Black Power on other oppressed peoples in the United States.

Josh Davidson 6/27/23 Josh Davidson 6/27/23

Desegregation

Reading by Eloise Greenfield
Poem about desegregation.

Allison Acosta 8/8/24 Allison Acosta 8/8/24

Digital Collections

Resource by Teaching for Change
A list of digital collections with content about the Civil Rights Movement.

Josh Davidson 6/27/23 Josh Davidson 6/27/23

The Myth-Busting History of Edna Griffin

Lesson by Katy Swalwell and Jennifer Gallagher
Edna Griffin’s life work provides a powerful counter narrative to the traditional framing of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. She was a woman living in the North who used court cases, boycotts, sit-ins, and protests to improve her community starting well before 1954. Through her decades of activism, she strategically employed a range of tactics. She also made connections between racism and other social concerns like war, labor struggles, education, and criminal justice.

Allison Acosta 8/6/24 Allison Acosta 8/6/24

Books About the Civil Rights Movement

Resource by Teaching for Change
Booklists about the Civil Rights Movement by age range and topic.

Josh Davidson 6/27/23 Josh Davidson 6/27/23

At the River I Stand: The 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike and the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Reading by California Newsreel
The documentary film At the River I Stand skillfully reconstructs the two eventful months that transformed a strike by Memphis sanitation workers into a national conflagration, and disentangles the complex historical forces that came together with the inevitability of tragedy at the death of Martin Luther King Jr.

Allison Acosta 8/5/24 Allison Acosta 8/5/24

Films About the Civil Rights Movement

Resource by the Zinn Education Project
A selection of films about the Civil Rights Movement.

Josh Davidson 6/26/23 Josh Davidson 6/26/23

SOS — Calling All Black People: Introduction to the Black Arts Movement

Reading by John H. Bracey Jr., Sonia Sanchez, And James Smethurst
The writer and political activist Larry Neal is credited with coining the term "Black Arts Movement" (BAM) to describe the explosion of politically engaged African American art from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s.

Allison Acosta 8/5/24 Allison Acosta 8/5/24

School Colors

Podacast by Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman
Season one of the School Colors podcast covers the history of Ocean Hill-Brownsville in Brooklyn where Black and Puerto Rican parents tried to exercise power over their schools and they collided head first with the teachers’ union — leading to the longest teachers’ strike in U.S. history in 1968.

Josh Davidson 6/26/23 Josh Davidson 6/26/23

Montgomery Bus Boycott: Organizing Strategies and Challenges

Teaching Activity by Alana D. Murray
In this activity for middle and high school, students act as organizers and learn about many of the challenges faced by the group who sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott for 381 days.

Allison Acosta 8/5/24 Allison Acosta 8/5/24

Teaching Hard History

Podcast by Hasan Jeffries
Season 3 of the Learning for Justice Hard History podcast focuses on the Civil Rights Movement.

Josh Davidson 6/26/23 Josh Davidson 6/26/23

Soul Power and the People

Reading by Jenice L. View
Essay recalling memories of school desegregation in 1968 Washington, D.C.

Allison Acosta 3/19/24 Allison Acosta 3/19/24

March on Washington Hidden History Quiz

Quiz by Teaching for Change
When most people think of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, what comes to mind is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic statement, “I Have a Dream.” In truth, there was much more to this historic event than these four words in King’s speech. Teaching for Change designed this quiz about the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to challenge assumptions, deepen understanding, and inspire further learning.

Josh Davidson 6/26/23 Josh Davidson 6/26/23

Our House Divided: What U.S. Schools Don’t Teach About U.S.-Style Apartheid

Reading by Richard Rothstein
The widespread belief that our continued residential racial segregation, North and South, is “de facto,” not the result of explicit government policy but instead the consequence of private prejudice, economic inequality, and personal choice to self-segregate is false. In truth, our major metropolitan areas were segregated by government action.

Allison Acosta 3/8/24 Allison Acosta 3/8/24

Murder of Reverend George W. Lee

Reading by Zinn Education Project
Rev. George Washington Lee, one of the first African Americans registered to vote in Humphreys County, Mississippi since Reconstruction, used his pulpit and his printing press to urge others to vote. He was murdered on May 7, 1955.

Josh Davidson 6/26/23 Josh Davidson 6/26/23

The Limits of Master Narratives in History Textbooks: An Analysis of Representations of Martin Luther King

Reading by Derrick Alridge
A study of how U.S. history textbooks present prescribed, oversimplified, and uncontroversial narratives of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that obscure important elements in King’s life and thought.

Mykella Palmer 2/9/24 Mykella Palmer 2/9/24

Introduction: Labor and Land

Labor and land have always been central to the struggle for civil and human rights in the United States. In this introduction, we share a few examples.

Josh Davidson 6/25/23 Josh Davidson 6/25/23

Why We Should Teach About the FBI’s War on the Civil Rights Movement

Reading by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca
Though COINTELPRO offers teachers a trove of opportunities to illustrate key concepts, including the rule of law, civil liberties, social protest, and due process, it is completely absent from most mainstream textbooks.

Allison Acosta 1/9/24 Allison Acosta 1/9/24

Introduction: Voting Rights

Learning the full history of the fight for voting rights is especially important today, in light of the 2013 Shelby v. Holder U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the 1965 Voting Rights Act provisions requiring certain states to obtain federal preclearance before changing voting laws.

Josh Davidson 6/25/23 Josh Davidson 6/25/23

A School Year Like No Other, Eyes on the Prize: Fighting Back: 1957–1962

Lesson by Bill Bigelow
Students write poetry or prose in reaction to viewing "Eyes on the Prize: Fighting Back 1957-62" and two readings.

Julia Salcedo 1/8/24 Julia Salcedo 1/8/24

Introduction: Student Engagement

Introduction
This section highlights ways that teachers and young people can work together to learn about and document Civil Rights Movement history — and apply it to their lives today.

Josh Davidson 6/25/23 Josh Davidson 6/25/23

SNCC: International Connections

Reading by SNCC Digital Gateway
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, SNCC members were also influenced by the rising tide of liberation movements that followed World War II. As their commitment to the movement increased, they linked their own struggle for civil and human rights at home with anti-colonial struggles in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Josh Davidson 10/31/23 Josh Davidson 10/31/23

Native American Land Loss Maps

Image by Sam B. Hilliard
Five maps in a chronological series showing post-colonial land cessions in the continental United States and two additional maps showing land claims by tribe and present-day Indian reservations.

Josh Davidson 6/25/23 Josh Davidson 6/25/23

The Case for Reparations

Interview of Ta-Nehisi Coates by Audi Cornish
Ta-Nehisi Coates describes how the legacy of slavery extends to geographical and governmental policies in the United States and calls for a "collective introspection" on reparations.

Josh Davidson 10/31/23 Josh Davidson 10/31/23

Invasion of America

Interactive Map by Claudio Saunt
This interactive offers a time-lapse vision of the transfer of Indian land between 1776 and 1887.