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.

Julia Salcedo 6/30/23 Julia Salcedo 6/30/23

Radical Equations: The Algebra Project Drawing on the Past: The Roots of Our Movement

Reading by Charles E. Cobb and Bob Moses
The Algebra Project draws on the organizing tradition of the Civil Rights Movement to help young people find their voice and achieve math literacy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mykella Palmer 6/30/23 Mykella Palmer 6/30/23

The View from the Trenches

Reading by Charles Payne
A critique of the master narrative of the Civil Rights Movement.

Julia Salcedo 6/29/23 Julia Salcedo 6/29/23

Seven Things We Learned from the D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action

Reading by Allison Fletcher Acosta, Faye Colon, and Deborah Menkart
Over the last several years, we have seen the power of the Black Lives Matter Movement to raise awareness and discourse nationally about race and racism in the United States. Now we’ve seen the power these conversations can have in the classroom.

Julia Salcedo 6/29/23 Julia Salcedo 6/29/23

A Lasting Impression: Student Travel Study

Teaching Reflection by Colleen Bell and Susan Oppenheim
In 1963, 33 young African American girls were arrested during a civil rights protest in Americus, Georgia. The “Stolen Girls” were transported to and held in an abandoned Civil War-era prison for almost two months. This teaching reflection dramatizes what a group of middle schoolers and their teachers experienced when they traveled South to meet Carol Barner Seay and Sandra Mansfield, two of the Stolen Girls.