Adult Archives

We the Resistance (Book cover) published by City Lights 2019

We the Resistance: Documenting a History of Nonviolent Protest in the United States

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Michael G. Long, foreword by Chris Hedges, afterword by Dolores Huerta. 2019. 610 pages.
Encounter the voices of activists sharing instructive stories through narrative and primary documents.

The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement

Book — Non-fiction. By Bob Zellner with Constance Curry. Foreword by Julian Bond. 2008. 351 pages.
Zellner tells how one white Alabamian joined ranks with the Black students who were sitting-in, marching, fighting, and sometimes dying to challenge the Southern "way of life."

Hartman Turnbow

Profile. Hartman Turnbow (March 20, 1905–August 15, 1988), was Mileston, Miss., farmer and fiery orator known for inspiring people during the Civil Rights Movement.

Now Can We Talk? 40 Years Later

Film. By Lee Anne Bell and Markie Hancock. 2013. 45 minutes.
This DVD and discussion guide offer a powerful way to engage students, teachers, and community groups in honest dialogue about the ongoing problems of racism and what we can do to address them.

Challenging Ourselves: Martin Luther King, the Movement, and Its Lessons for Today

Article. By Charles E. Cobb. 2017.
Charles E. Cobb Jr. discusses the Civil Rights Movement and its lessons, and how they apply to current movements.

Teaching Activity by Charles Cobb

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

Article. By Derrick Alridge. 2006. 25 pages.
Critique of textbook representation of Martin Luther King Jr. as messiah, embodiment of the Civil Rights Movement, and a moderate.

In Their Own Voice: Activists Tell the History of the Civil Rights Movement

Digital collection. The Library of Congress has launched an online collection of oral history interviews with Civil Rights Movement veterans.

New York and Slavery: Time to Teach the Truth

Teaching Guide. By Alan J. Singer. 2008. 178 pages.
Narrative description of slavery in the north and strategies for engaging young people as historians on the topic.

An African American and Latinx History of the United States

Book — Non-fiction. By Paul Ortiz. 2018. 296 pages.
This narrative, intersectional history describes the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights, and argues that the “Global South” was crucial to the development of the United States.

African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon. 2009. 259 pages.
This anthology connects the experience of African Americans and the Haitian revolution.

The Black History of the White House

Book — Non-fiction. By Clarence Lusane. 2010. 544 pages.
The untold story of African Americans in the White House from the 18th century to the present, including the presidents who held people in bondage.

Teaching Activity by Clarence Lusane

A Black Women’s History of the United States

Book — Non-fiction. By Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross. 2020. 288 pages.
A history that emphasizes the perspectives and stories of African American women to show how they are — and have always been — instrumental in shaping our country.

The Lost Education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the Hidden Heroes Who Fought for Justice in Schools

Book — Non-fiction. By Vanessa Siddle Walker. 2018.
This history tells the little-known story of how Black educators in the South laid the groundwork for 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education and weathered its aftermath.

The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the Education of African-American Children

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Theresa Perry and Lisa Delpit. 1998. Rethinking Schools in collaboration with Beacon Press. 227 pages.
A special edition of Rethinking Schools, educators, linguists, writers, and students examine the lessons of the 1996 Oakland Ebonics controversy.

Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South

Book — Non-fiction (with CD). Edited by William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins and Robert Korstad. 2008. 346 pages.
Extensive oral history of African American life under segregation.

Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America

Book — Non-fiction. By Cameron McWhirter. 2012. 368 pages.
A chronicle of white supremacist violence in major U.S. cities across the nation after World War I.

Teach Freedom: Education for Liberation in the African-American Tradition

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Charles M. Payne and Carol Sills Strickland. Foreword by Charles E. Cobb Jr. 2008. 304 pages.
Documents the history of the use of education as a tool of collective liberation by African Americans.

To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Robin D. G. Kelley and Earl Lewis. 2005. 320 pages.
Comprehensive history of African Americans.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration

Book — Non-fiction. By Isabel Wilkerson. 2010. 640 pages.
The story of the great migration told through in-depth descriptions of three families.

We as Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson

Book — Non-fiction. By Keith Medley. 2012. 256 pages.
This book documents the untold history of the organizing leading up the Plessy v. Ferguson case.

Colored Conventions Project

Digital collection. A repository for primary sources and collection of essays about the origins, activities, and influence of the 19th-century Colored Conventions Movement that advocated for Black civil and human rights.

Behind the Veil Oral History Project

Digital collection. Oral history interviews chronicling African-American life during the age of legal segregation in the American South, from the 1890s to the 1950s.

Plessy v. Ferguson: The Organizing History of the Case

Article. By Keith W. Medley.
The role of the Comité des Citoyens and The Crusader newspaper in the Plessy v. Ferguson case.

Tarantino Bloodies the Truth: A History Teacher’s Lament

Article. By Larry Miller. January 2013.
A review of the film Django Unchained.

Whitewashing Our First President

Article. By Clarence Lusane. 2014.
Critical review of an upper elementary non-fiction book about George Washington and the people he kept in bondage.

Teaching Activity by Clarence Lusane