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Five Years After the Levees Broke: Bearing Witness Through Poetry

Teaching Activity. By Renée Watson. 7 pages. Rethinking Schools. A teacher's reflection on the power of poetry to spark critical discussion and reflection on current issues of inequality surrounding disaster response in the United States.

Time Periods: 21st Century, 2001 - Present

Themes: African American, Climate Justice, Environment, Art & Music, Language Arts, Laws & Citizen Rights, Media, Racism & Racial Identity

Lewis Hine’s Photographs

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson. 4 pages. Rethinking Schools. Using photographs to spark creative writing and critical thinking about child labor issues and social justice.

Time Periods: 19th Century, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899, 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909

Themes: Art & Music, Immigration, Labor, Media, Social Class

Teaching the Vietnam War: Beyond the Headlines

Teaching Activity. By the Zinn Education Project. 100 pages. Eight lessons about the Vietnam War, Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers, and whistleblowing.

Time Periods: 20th Century, Cold War: 1945 - 1960, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974

Themes: Media, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, World History/Global Studies

History in the Present Tense: Engaging Students Through Inquiry and Action

Teaching Guide. By Douglas Selwyn and Jan Maher. 2003. A guide to a different way of teaching history—start from today and keep asking questions.

Time Periods: All US History

Themes: Media

Rethinking Popular Culture and Media

Teaching Guide. Edited by Elizabeth Marshall and Özlem Sensoy. 330 pages. 2011. Rethinking Schools. Collection of essays that offer strong critiques and practical teaching strategies about what is "popular" and the messages being communicated by mass media.

Themes: Media

Bob Herbert on Nelson Mandela: 1918–2013

Article. Bob Herbert. Jacobin Magazine. 2013. A critique of the "feel good" and "sentimental stick figure" mis-representations of Nelson Mandela and Dr. King in mass media.

Time Periods: 21st Century, 2001 - Present

Themes: Media, Racism & Racial Identity

101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History

Book – Non-fiction. By Michele Bollinger and Dao Tran. 2012. A collection of 101 brief and accessible profiles of rebels, radicals, and fighters for social justice.

Time Periods: All US History

Themes: African American, Asian American, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Disability, Immigration, Labor, Language Arts, Latinx, LGBTQ, Media, Native American, Organizing, Pacific Islander, Racism & Racial Identity, Social Class, Women's History

Censored 2018: Press Truths in a “Post Truth” World

Book - Non-fiction. Edited by Andy Lee Roth and Mickey Huff with Project Censored. 2017. 272 pages. Annual collection of news stories that were underreported in the mainstream media.

Time Periods: 21st Century, 2001 - Present

Themes: Media

News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media

Book - Non-fiction. By Juan González and Joseph Torres. 2011. The history of media in the United States, through the lens of race.

Time Periods: 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Post-Civil Rights Era: 1975 - 2000, 21st Century, 2001 - Present

Themes: Latinx, Media

Project Censored 2021: State of the Free Press

Book - Non-fiction. Edited by Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth. Forward by Matt Taibbl. 2020. The news-monitoring group Project Censored offers a succinct and comprehensive survey of the most important but underreported news stories of 2020.

Time Periods: 21st Century, 2001 - Present

Themes: Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Media

Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter’s Account of the Civil Rights Movement

Book - Non-fiction. By Simeon Booker with Carol McCabe Booker. 2013. Chronicle by Simeon Booker, the first full-time African American reporter for the Washington Post and Jet magazine's White House correspondent, covering half a century of major events that transformed the United States.

Time Periods: 20th Century

Themes: African American, Civil Rights Movements, Media

To Write in the Light of Freedom: The Newspapers of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools

Book - Non-fiction. Edited by William Sturkey and Jon N. Hale. 2015. A collection and examination of the creative literary work of students published during 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi.

Time Periods: 20th Century, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974

Themes: African American, Civil Rights Movements, Education, Language Arts, Media, Racism & Racial Identity, Social Class

Catch a Tiger by the Toe

Book - Fiction. By Ellen Levine. 2005. 176 pages. A historical novel for middle school on McCarthyism.

Time Periods: 20th Century, Cold War: 1945 - 1960

Themes: Democracy & Citizenship, Labor, Laws & Citizen Rights, Media

Milo’s Museum

Picture Book. By Zetta Elliott. Illustrated by Purple Wong. 2016. 36 pages. A story that introduces young readers to the historic mis-representation (and absence) of people of color in museums and how to take action.

Time Periods: 21st Century, 2001 - Present

Themes: Media

Making a Killing: Philip Morris, Kraft and Global Tobacco Addiction

Film. By Kelly Anderson and Tami Gold. 2001. 30 min. How Philip Morris has conspired to hook children on tobacco and keep governments from protecting public health.

Time Periods: 20th Century, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974

Themes: Environment, Media

Most Dangerous Man in American (Film) | Zinn Education Project

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

Film. By Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith. 2009. 94 minutes. The riveting story of how a Pentagon official risks life in prison by leaking 7,000 pages of a top secret report to the New York Times to help stop the Vietnam War.

Time Periods: 20th Century, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974

Themes: Media, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

Not Just a Game: Power, Politics & American Sports

Film. By Dave Zirin and Jeremy Earp. 2010. 62 minutes. A documentary based on the bestselling book A People's History of Sports in the United States, Zirin demonstrates that American sports have long been at the center of some of the major political debates and struggles of our time. For 6th grade to adult.

Time Periods: 20th Century

Themes: African American, Media, Racism & Racial Identity, Sports, Women's History

The War You Don’t See

Film. By John Pilger. 2010. 97 min. Documentary on how the media has reported war, from the WWI to the present day.

Themes: Media, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

Roudanez: History and Legacy

Digital Collection. The work of Dr. Louis Charles Roudanez, founder of the first Black daily newspaper in the U.S., the New Orleans Tribune, with articles, excerpts, videos, and a timeline.

Time Periods: 19th Century, Early 19th Century: 1800 - 1849, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899

Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Media, Slavery and Resistance

The Voice of Industry (1845-1848)

Digital Collection. Records of the Voice of Industry newspaper, published by young women in Lowell, Mass. from 1845-1848.

Time Periods: 19th Century, Early 19th Century: 1800 - 1849

Themes: Labor, Media, Women's History