Evicted!: The Struggle for the Right to Vote Picture Books. By Alice Faye Duncan and illustrated by Charly Palmer. 2022. 64 pages. This critical civil rights book for middle-graders examines the little-known Tennessee's Fayette County Tent City Movement in the late 1950s and reveals what is possible when people unite and fight for the right to vote. Continue reading
Race Against Time: The Untold Story of Scipio Jones and the Battle to Save Twelve Innocent Men Book - Non-fiction. By Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace. 2021. 144 pages. Scipio Africanus Jones — a self-taught attorney who was born enslaved — leads a momentous series of court cases to save twelve Black men who'd been unjustly sentenced to death. Continue reading
Running Book - Fiction. By Natalia Sylvester. 2020. 328 pages. A story that celebrates young people who find themselves as they come to political consciousness and commitment. Continue reading
Black Was the Ink Book - Fiction. By Michelle Coles. 2021. 368 pages. A powerful coming-of-age story and an eye-opening exploration of the Reconstruction era. Continue reading
Paradise on Fire Books - Fiction. By Jewell Parker Rhodes. 2021. 256 pages. A powerful coming-of-age survival tale exploring issues of race, class, and climate change. Continue reading
No Planet B: A Teen Vogue Guide to the Climate Crisis Books - Non-fiction. Edited by Lucy Diavolo. 2021. 224 pages. A small volume made up of short student-friendly readings that offer lots of teaching possibilities. Continue reading
The Mystery Woman in Room Three Book - Fiction. By Aya de León. Serialized in six parts at Orion Magazine. 2021. A young adult novel that deals with immigration rights, climate justice, the Green New Deal, and youth activism. Available for free download at Orion Magazine. Continue reading
Make Good the Promises: Reclaiming Reconstruction and Its Legacies Book - Non-fiction. Edited by Kinshasha Holman Conwill and Paul Gardullo. 224 pp. 2021. Essays on the history and legacy of Reconstruction, a companion to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture exhibit. Continue reading
Mighty Justice (Young Readers’ Edition): The Untold Story of Civil Rights Trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree Books - Non-fiction. By Katie McCabe and Jabari Asim. 2020. 208 pages. A young reader's adaptation of Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights, the memoir of activist and trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree. Continue reading
Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Book - Non-fiction. By Brandy Colbert. 216 pp. 2021. History of Oklahoma including Trail of Tears, Reconstruction, Black towns, Red Summer, Jim Crow, Black and white newspapers, lynchings, Tulsa Race Massacre, and the ongoing fight for reparations and historical memory. Continue reading
Challenge Islamophobia Lessons and resources to place Islamophobia firmly within a U.S. context and shared cultural history. Continue reading
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A Hip-Hop History Books - Non-fiction. By Jeff Chang and Davey D Cook. 2021. 352 pages. An essential guide for understanding hip-hop music and culture. Continue reading
Lives in Our Lineage: A Lesson on Oral Histories Teaching Activity. By Cierra Kaler-Jones. In this lesson, students use key excerpts from How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith as inspiration for a project where they tell their and their loved ones’ stories. Continue reading
How We Remember: The Struggle Over Slavery in Public Spaces Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow, Jesse Hagopian, Cierra Kaler-Jones, Ana Rosado, and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. In the lesson, students receive facts about each of the sites of memory in How the Word Is Passed and imagine how they might choose commemorate what occurred there. They then compare that to how the respective site is commemorated and described by docents. Continue reading
Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching Book - Non-fiction. By Jarvis R. Givens. 2021. 320 pages. Details the long assault on Black education that occurred from the period of enslavement through the life of one of the founders of the Black studies tradition, Carter G. Woodson. Continue reading
The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World Book - Non-fiction. By Dave Zirin. 2021. A book about the politics of sport, and the impact of sports on politics, reveals that essential dimension of the new movement for racial justice in the United States. Continue reading
Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People Book - Non-Fiction. By Kekla Magoon. 2021. An account of militant revolutionaries and human rights advocates working to defend and protect their community. Continue reading
Echoes of Enslavement Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. Students discover “echoes of enslavement” in their own state — discrete sites of remembering, forgetting, honoring, lying, or distorting — in this lesson based on the book How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith. Continue reading
Subversives: Stories from the Red Scare Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. In this mixer lesson, students meet 27 different targets of government harassment and repression to analyze why disparate individuals might have become targets of the same campaign, determining what kind of threat they posed in the view of the U.S. government. Continue reading
America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s Book - Non-Fiction. By Elizabeth Hinton. 2021. The rebellion and movement for Black lives of 2020 had clear precursors, this book explains, and any attempt to understand that crisis requires a reckoning with the recent past. Continue reading
Seizing Freedom Podcast Podcast. Written and hosted by Kidada E. Williams. 2021. A Black history podcast tells stories "drawn from archives of voices from American history that have been muted time and time again." Continue reading
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts Book - Non-fiction. By Rebecca Hall. Illustrated by Hugo Martinez. 2021 Rebecca Hall documents the process of her own research -- and what she learned -- about women who organized to challenge slavery. In graphic novel format. Continue reading
How the Word Is Passed: Discussion Questions, Writing Prompts, and Teaching Ideas Teaching ideas and discussion questions for How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith. Continue reading
Teacher Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities Our Students Deserve Book - Non-fiction. Edited by Michael Charney, Jesse Hagopian, and Bob Peterson. 2021. Teacher Unions and Social Justice is an anthology of more than 60 articles documenting the history and the how-tos of social justice unionism. Continue reading
How to Change Everything: The Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each Other Book — Non-fiction. By Naomi Klein and Rebecca Stefoff. 2021. Young leaders are showing the world that this moment of increasingly dangerous climate change is also a moment of great opportunity — an opportunity to change everything for the better. Continue reading
Evicted!: The Struggle for the Right to Vote Picture Books. By Alice Faye Duncan and illustrated by Charly Palmer. 2022. 64 pages. This critical civil rights book for middle-graders examines the little-known Tennessee's Fayette County Tent City Movement in the late 1950s and reveals what is possible when people unite and fight for the right to vote. Continue reading
Race Against Time: The Untold Story of Scipio Jones and the Battle to Save Twelve Innocent Men Book - Non-fiction. By Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace. 2021. 144 pages. Scipio Africanus Jones — a self-taught attorney who was born enslaved — leads a momentous series of court cases to save twelve Black men who'd been unjustly sentenced to death. Continue reading
Running Book - Fiction. By Natalia Sylvester. 2020. 328 pages. A story that celebrates young people who find themselves as they come to political consciousness and commitment. Continue reading
Black Was the Ink Book - Fiction. By Michelle Coles. 2021. 368 pages. A powerful coming-of-age story and an eye-opening exploration of the Reconstruction era. Continue reading
Paradise on Fire Books - Fiction. By Jewell Parker Rhodes. 2021. 256 pages. A powerful coming-of-age survival tale exploring issues of race, class, and climate change. Continue reading
No Planet B: A Teen Vogue Guide to the Climate Crisis Books - Non-fiction. Edited by Lucy Diavolo. 2021. 224 pages. A small volume made up of short student-friendly readings that offer lots of teaching possibilities. Continue reading
The Mystery Woman in Room Three Book - Fiction. By Aya de León. Serialized in six parts at Orion Magazine. 2021. A young adult novel that deals with immigration rights, climate justice, the Green New Deal, and youth activism. Available for free download at Orion Magazine. Continue reading
Make Good the Promises: Reclaiming Reconstruction and Its Legacies Book - Non-fiction. Edited by Kinshasha Holman Conwill and Paul Gardullo. 224 pp. 2021. Essays on the history and legacy of Reconstruction, a companion to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture exhibit. Continue reading
Mighty Justice (Young Readers’ Edition): The Untold Story of Civil Rights Trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree Books - Non-fiction. By Katie McCabe and Jabari Asim. 2020. 208 pages. A young reader's adaptation of Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights, the memoir of activist and trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree. Continue reading
Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Book - Non-fiction. By Brandy Colbert. 216 pp. 2021. History of Oklahoma including Trail of Tears, Reconstruction, Black towns, Red Summer, Jim Crow, Black and white newspapers, lynchings, Tulsa Race Massacre, and the ongoing fight for reparations and historical memory. Continue reading
Challenge Islamophobia Lessons and resources to place Islamophobia firmly within a U.S. context and shared cultural history. Continue reading
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A Hip-Hop History Books - Non-fiction. By Jeff Chang and Davey D Cook. 2021. 352 pages. An essential guide for understanding hip-hop music and culture. Continue reading
Lives in Our Lineage: A Lesson on Oral Histories Teaching Activity. By Cierra Kaler-Jones. In this lesson, students use key excerpts from How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith as inspiration for a project where they tell their and their loved ones’ stories. Continue reading
How We Remember: The Struggle Over Slavery in Public Spaces Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow, Jesse Hagopian, Cierra Kaler-Jones, Ana Rosado, and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. In the lesson, students receive facts about each of the sites of memory in How the Word Is Passed and imagine how they might choose commemorate what occurred there. They then compare that to how the respective site is commemorated and described by docents. Continue reading
Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching Book - Non-fiction. By Jarvis R. Givens. 2021. 320 pages. Details the long assault on Black education that occurred from the period of enslavement through the life of one of the founders of the Black studies tradition, Carter G. Woodson. Continue reading
The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World Book - Non-fiction. By Dave Zirin. 2021. A book about the politics of sport, and the impact of sports on politics, reveals that essential dimension of the new movement for racial justice in the United States. Continue reading
Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People Book - Non-Fiction. By Kekla Magoon. 2021. An account of militant revolutionaries and human rights advocates working to defend and protect their community. Continue reading
Echoes of Enslavement Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. Students discover “echoes of enslavement” in their own state — discrete sites of remembering, forgetting, honoring, lying, or distorting — in this lesson based on the book How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith. Continue reading
Subversives: Stories from the Red Scare Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. In this mixer lesson, students meet 27 different targets of government harassment and repression to analyze why disparate individuals might have become targets of the same campaign, determining what kind of threat they posed in the view of the U.S. government. Continue reading
America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s Book - Non-Fiction. By Elizabeth Hinton. 2021. The rebellion and movement for Black lives of 2020 had clear precursors, this book explains, and any attempt to understand that crisis requires a reckoning with the recent past. Continue reading
Seizing Freedom Podcast Podcast. Written and hosted by Kidada E. Williams. 2021. A Black history podcast tells stories "drawn from archives of voices from American history that have been muted time and time again." Continue reading
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts Book - Non-fiction. By Rebecca Hall. Illustrated by Hugo Martinez. 2021 Rebecca Hall documents the process of her own research -- and what she learned -- about women who organized to challenge slavery. In graphic novel format. Continue reading
How the Word Is Passed: Discussion Questions, Writing Prompts, and Teaching Ideas Teaching ideas and discussion questions for How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith. Continue reading
Teacher Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities Our Students Deserve Book - Non-fiction. Edited by Michael Charney, Jesse Hagopian, and Bob Peterson. 2021. Teacher Unions and Social Justice is an anthology of more than 60 articles documenting the history and the how-tos of social justice unionism. Continue reading
How to Change Everything: The Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each Other Book — Non-fiction. By Naomi Klein and Rebecca Stefoff. 2021. Young leaders are showing the world that this moment of increasingly dangerous climate change is also a moment of great opportunity — an opportunity to change everything for the better. Continue reading
