Teaching Materials Archive - Zinn Education Project

The Overthrow of Democracy in Chile — A Timeline

Article. Timeline by Bill Bigelow. 2023.
A timeline of the overthrow of democracy in Chile — the fall of Salvador Allende and the rise of Augusto Pinochet.

Reconsidering Reparations

Book — Non-fiction. By Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò. 2022. 280 pages.
Táíwò’s take on reparations and distributive justice has wide implications for views of justice, racism, the legacy of colonialism, and climate change policy.

colorful but haunting painting of a small reform school surrounded by trees and shadows

The Reformatory: A Novel

Book — Historical Fiction. By Tananarive Due. 2023. 576 pages.
Follow twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., who, after a small indiscretion, journeys into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Expanding Intersectional Queer History in the Elementary Grades

Article. By Laura Shelton. Rethinking Schools. 2022.
A 5th- and 6th-grade teacher asks her students to wrestle with what “identity” and “intersectionality” mean.

The Day of Silence: Queer Kids, Conservative Kids, and the Silences Within and Between Them

Article. By Anna McMaken-Marsh. Rethinking Schools. 2022.
A high school teacher navigates the tensions that arise in conversations with students about the Day of Silence, and how to bridge divides.

The Climate Crisis Has a History. Teach It.

Article. By Mimi Eisen and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. 2023.
A rationale for a new timeline of the climate crisis.

book cover showing women protesting during the March on Washington.

More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Book — Non-fiction. By Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long. 2023. 272 pages.
A look at the March on Washington through a wider lens, using Black newspaper reports as a primary resource, recognizing the overlooked work of socialist organizers and Black women protesters, and repositioning this momentous day as radical in its roots, methods, demands, and results.

Four young boys standing on the sidewalk of an empty street.

Barry Farm: Community, Land and Justice in Washington D.C.

Film. By Sabiyha Prince and Samuel George. 2023. 50 minutes.
This documentary examines the history and impact of redevelopment on African American communities, looking at Barry Farms in Washington D.C. in particular.

Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Colin Kaepernick, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. 2023. 220 pages.
A collection of critical voices from the Black radical tradition that provides access to a history that is still being suppressed today.

Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay

Book — Fiction. By Kelly McWilliams. 2023. 320 pages.
This young adult novel introduces readers to the history of slavery and its legacy today, challenging the Lost Cause narrative offered to visitors at most plantations (prison labor camps).

book cover showing young Black man holding a protest sign.

The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America

Book — Non-fiction. By Khalil Gibran Muhammad. 2019. 416 pages.
A biography of the idea of Black criminality in the making of modern urban America, The Condemnation of Blackness reveals the influence this pernicious myth, rooted in crime statistics, has had on our society and our sense of self.

Detail of book cover showing Black laborers and families walking down a dirt road.

Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class

Book — Non-fiction. By Blair L. M. Kelley. 2023. 352 pages.
This book uses personal narratives to highlight the community and networks of resistance that Black laborers built in the face of racism and segregation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

illustration showing Africans of all ages, genders, and nationalities holding a sign reading "Africa is Not a Country."

Africa is Not a Country, Second Edition (Revised)

Picture book. By Mark Melnicove and Margy Burns Knight, and illustrated by Anne Sibley O'Brien. 2022. 48 pages.
Updated to include new information and illustrations, this book counters stereotypes and celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the African continent.

I’ll Take You There: Exploring Nashville’s Social Justice Sites

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Amie Thurber and Learotha Williams. 2021. 300 pages.
An exploration of Nashville's social justice sites and people's history, celebrating the power of counternarratives as a tool to resist injustice.

Water and Environmental Racism

Teaching Activity. By Matt Reed and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. Rethinking Schools.
A mixer activity, inspired by the 2016 Democracy Now! documentary Thirsty for Democracy, introduces students to the struggle of residents to access safe water for drinking, cooking, and bathing in the majority-Black cities of Flint, Michigan; Jackson, Mississippi; and Newark, New Jersey.

Above Ground

Poetry. Clint Smith. 2023. 128 pages.
A collection of poetry that explores parenthood, personal lineages, and a world full of constant social and political tumult.

drawing of a protester being erased from a chalkboard.

The Attack on Anti-Racist Teaching Attacks Environmental Justice Teaching

The right-wing legislation restricting lessons on history and systemic racism also denies students climate literacy.

That Flag

Picture Book. By Tameka Fryer Brown. Illustrated by Nikkolas Smith. 2023. 40 pages.
Learn about the history of the Confederate flag, the myths and the reality, through the story of two young girls.

book cover showing African American school child on stage holding a microphone.

How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee

Picture Book. By Carole Boston Weatherford. Illustrated by Frank Morrison. 2023. 40 pages.
The story of eighth grader MacNolia Cox, the first African American to win the Akron, Ohio, spelling bee, and the racism she faced during her journey to compete at the prestigious National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

book cover showing photo of protesting Black Panthers, along with graphic imagery by BPP artist Emory Douglas.

Look for Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st-Century Revolutions

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by déqui kioni-sadiki and Matt Meyer. 2017. 648 pages.
The collective autobiography of the New York Panther 21, an infamous conspiracy case that highlighted government repression of Black liberation activists during the 1960s and 1970s.

book cover showing a Black man in the back of an ambulance.

American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics

Book — Non-fiction. By Kevin Hazzard. 2022. 336 pages.
The story of the Freedom House EMS in Pittsburgh, a group of Black men who became America's first paramedics and set the gold standard for emergency medicine around the world.

The Radical King

Book — Non-fiction. By Dr. Martin Luther King. 320 pages.
Arranged thematically in four parts, The Radical King includes twenty-three selections, curated and introduced by Dr. Cornel West, that illustrate King’s revolutionary vision, underscoring his identification with the poor, his unapologetic opposition to the Vietnam War, and his crusade against global imperialism.