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.

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 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.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Selma in Pictures: Socratic Seminar

Lesson by Lynda Tredway
In a media driven age, visual images often provide access to important events and political struggles that may be more immediately accessible to students than written texts. This lesson includes two sets of images from the Selma voting rights struggle that promote critical thinking by SNCC photographer Matt Herron. The steps include observation (reading the text), forming a hypothesis, and dialogue—much like an inquiry model of teaching.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Ten Things You Should Know About Selma Before You See the Film

Reading by Emilye Crosby
Key points in the history of the Selma voting rights struggle to keep in mind as you view the popular film about the Selma-to-Montgomery March.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

What We Want, What We Believe: Teaching with the Black Panthers’ Ten Point Program

Lesson by Wayne Au
Students read the Black Panther Party's 1972 Ten Point Program to understand the conditions the Panthers were attempting to identify and deal with, then analyze their world today and write their own Ten Point Program for social issues they would like to address.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Black Nationalism and Black Pride: The Ballot or the Bullet

Primary Document by Malcolm X
An excerpt from a speech given in Cleveland in April 1964. At this period of his life after Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) had broken with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, made a pilgrimmage to Mecca, and begun to develop his own movement, the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He was assassinated on February 21, 1965.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Big Shoes to Fill: A Teambuilding Lesson

Lesson by Deborah Menkart
A community-building activity for teachers or students to write about "in whose shoes I walk for justice" or some way they have walked for justice in their shoes.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Civil Rights or Human Rights?

Lesson by Andrea McEvoy Spero
Students learn that the goals of the African American Freedom Struggle extended beyond civil rights and were often inspired by the anticolonial struggles of the 20th century. To conceptualize the African American Freedom Struggle as part of a global movement for human rights invites a deeper understanding of the international events of the last century.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Key Narratives for Teaching About the Civil Rights Movement

Reading by Deborah Menkart and Judy Richardson
A list of key narratives central to an accurate study of the history of the Civil Rights Movement. The list can be used as a guide to critique textbooks, mainstream media, and curricula.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Comfort Food: A Lesson for Child of the Civil Rights Movement

Lesson by Paula Young Shelton
Food played an instrumental role during the Civil Rights Movement, bringing people together to plan, gain strength, and organize. Community members played an important role feeding volunteers. This lesson is a companion to the picture book, Child of the Civil Rights Movement.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Transportation Protests: 1841 to 1992

Reading by Julian Hipkins III and David Busch
The struggle for the desegregation of transportation has a long history in the United States. This timeline outlines some key individuals and organizations who took a stand against segregated transit.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

March for Jobs and Freedom: Calculating the Crowd

Lesson by Louise Bock, Susan Guengerich, and Hope Martin
In this lesson, students use representations and computations to estimate the crowd at the 1963 March on Washington. Students strengthen critical thinking and mathematical skills through investigation and problem solving, and gain a deeper understanding of the issues related to protest demonstrations and media representations of events.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Call to Negro America to March on Washington for Jobs and Equal Participation in National Defense, 1941

Primary Document by A. Philip Randolph
In 1941, A. Philip Randolph, the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, issued a call to African Americans to fight the unjust conditions in the workforce with a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The threatened mass protest forced President Franklin Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 8802 in June 1941, banning discrimination in the federal government and the defense industry. On June 28, A. Philip Randolph postponed the march.

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 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Nicolás Guillén: The Struggle against Two Racisms

Reading by Carmen Gómez García
In this essay, excerpted from a chapter on the history of Cuban social poetry, Gómez García introduces the reader to Guillén’s poetry about racism in the United States. This is an ideal text for classes on poetry, Spanish, 20th-century U.S. history, and Latin American history.

Josh Davidson 6/30/23 Josh Davidson 6/30/23

Hidden in Plain Sight: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Radical Vision

Lesson by Craig Gordon
This lesson helps students penetrate the curtain of clichés and lies the corporate media have erected around Martin Luther King Jr. in order to make him “safe” for public consumption.

Josh Davidson 6/29/23 Josh Davidson 6/29/23

Murder Mystery: Shining a Light on the Story That the Newspapers Left Out

Lesson by Allyson Criner Brown, Deborah Menkart, and Jenice L. View
The murder of Mississippi voting rights activist Herbert Lee, and subsequent murder of witness Louis Allen, were key events in the history of the modern Civil Rights Movement. However, they were barely mentioned in the local press at the time and the story is missing from textbooks and public memory today.

Allison Acosta 8/1/23 Allison Acosta 8/1/23

Introduction: Desegregation

Introduction
Throughout U.S. history, communities of color fought for their right to equal access and for human dignity and equity. Desegregation in public schools, transportation, and other accommodations was more than court cases and legal victories. Desegregation was a long struggle led by students, parents, and every day citizens. . . . They were not interested in integration, or the desire to mingle socially or otherwise with whites, but to break and reconstruct institutions that forced people of color into positions of poverty, illiteracy, and political powerlessness.