Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands Book — Non-fiction. By Kelly Lytle Hernández. 2022. 384 pages. Taking readers to the frontlines of the magonista uprising and the counterinsurgency campaign that failed to stop them, Kelly Lytle Hernández puts the magonista revolt at the heart of U.S. history. Continue reading
Teaching With Seizing Freedom To facilitate bringing the Seizing Freedom podcast to the classroom, we are sharing teaching ideas for selected episodes, beginning with "A Powerful Black Hand." Continue reading
La Operación (documentary) Film. Directed by Ana María García. 1982. 40 minutes. La Operación is a 1982 documentary that shows the widespread sterilization operation led by the U.S. during the 1950s and 60s in Puerto Rico. Continue reading
Takeover: How We Occupied a Hospital and Changed Public Health Care Film. By Emma Francis-Snyder. 2021. 38 minutes. Takeover tells the story of the Young Lords’ 12-hour occupation of Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx in 1970. Continue reading
Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn, Dana Frank, and Robin D. G. Kelley. 2002. 184 pages. Three renowned historians present stirring tales of labor and the effectiveness of strikes and organized labor. Continue reading
Colin in Black and White: The Kaepernick Curriculum Teaching Guide. Presented by Ra Vision Media & Know Your Rights Camp. 2022. 85 pages. In conjunction with the Netflix series of the same name, this teaching guide provides students with resources and activities to understand and address systemic and institutional racism. Continue reading
The Young Lords: A Radical History Book — Non-fiction. By Johanna Fernández. 2020. 480 pages. Fernandez demonstrates how the Young Lords redefined the character of protest, the color of politics, and the cadence of popular urban culture in the age of great dreams. Continue reading
Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance Book — Non-fiction. By Nick Estes. 2019. 320 pages. In Our History Is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance that led to the #NoDAPL movement. Continue reading
Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Nick Estes and Jaskiran Dhillon. 2019. 448 pages. Through poetry and prose, essays, photography, interviews, and polemical interventions, the contributors, including leaders of the Standing Rock movement, reflect on Indigenous history and politics and on the movement's significance. Continue reading
The Young Crusaders: The Untold Story of the Children and Teenagers Who Galvanized the Civil Rights Movement Book — Non-fiction. By V. P. Franklin. 2021. 328 pages. This books tells the story of the hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers who engaged in sit-ins, school strikes, boycotts, marches, and demonstrations in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other national civil rights leaders played little or no part. Continue reading
No Kids in Prison Website. NoKidsinPrison uses art to model, imagine and advocate for alternatives to youth incarceration by lifting up the voices of youth most impacted by the criminal justice system through art and culture. Continue reading
We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration Book — Non-fiction. By Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura; illustrated by Ross Ishikawa. 2021. 160 pages. This graphic novel tells the story of Japanese American imprisonment during World War II, and the resistance and defiance that existed in these internment camps. Continue reading
More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Jesse Hagopian. 2014. 336 pages. A collection of essays, poems, speeches, and interviews from frontline fighters who are defying the corporate education reformers and fueling a national movement to reclaim and transform public education. Continue reading
“Prisons Make Us Safer”: And 20 Other Myths about Mass Incarceration Book — Non-fiction. By Victoria Law. 2021. 240 pages An accessible guide for activists, educators, and all who are interested in understanding how the prison system oppresses communities and harms individuals. Continue reading
Who Killed Reconstruction? A Trial Role Play Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. 2022. Rethinking Schools A role play about the demise of Reconstruction that helps students get beyond the question “Was Reconstruction a success or failure?” Continue reading
Seizing Freedom: The Role of the Black Press Podcast episode. Seizing Freedom. 2022. Kidada E. Williams speaks with Adam Serwer about the role of the Black press in the United States. Continue reading
Organizing Against Racial and Sexual Violence: Rosa Parks’ Life-Long Pursuit of Justice Teaching Activity. By Say Burgin, Jeanne Theoharis, and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. 7 pages. In this activity, students investigate Rosa Parks’ activism — and the gender and racial injustice to which it was a response — before and after her famous bus refusal. Continue reading
The Montgomery Bus Boycott: Understanding the Organizing Tradition Teaching Activity. By Say Burgin and Jeanne Theoharis. 6 pages. This lesson expands students’ knowledge of how Black Montgomery secured a victory in the 1955–56 bus boycott by asking them to pay close attention to activists’ tactics — and what they did as white resistance mounted. Continue reading
Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America (YA Edition) Book — Non-fiction. By Candacy Taylor. 2022. 272 pages. This book chronicles the history of the Green Book, which was published from 1936 to 1966 and was the “Black travel guide to America.” Continue reading
Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire Book — Non-fiction. By Jonathan M. Katz. 2022. 432 pages. This book traces a path from the first wave of U.S. overseas expansionism to the rise of fascism in the 1930s to the crises of democracy in our own time. Continue reading
The Way to Freedom: Selma and the Making of a Movement Film. National Park Service. 2020. 23 minutes. Documentary about the role of young people in the voting rights movement in Alabama in the 1960s. Continue reading
Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865-1890 Book — Non-fiction. By Hilary Green. 2016. 272 pages. An in-depth look at postwar African American education and the gains of Reconstruction. Continue reading
The Neutral Ground Film. Directed by CJ Hunt. 2021. 82 minutes. A co-production of POV and ITVS, in association with the Center for Asian American Media. A student-friendly documentary on the fight over Confederate monuments and the Lost Cause narrative. Continue reading
Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction Article. By Ana Rosado, Gideon Cohn-Postar, and Mimi Eisen. 2022. 44 pages. The report includes assessments of education standards in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, along with findings and recommendations for how to improve instruction on Reconstruction. Continue reading
Seeking Freedom: The Untold Story of Fortress Monroe and the Ending of Slavery in America Book — Non-fiction. By Selene Castrovilla. Illustrated by E. B. Lewis. 2022. 40 pages. A Civil War story about a man who seizes his freedom from slavery and teams up with a Union general to save a Union fort from the Confederates. Continue reading
Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands Book — Non-fiction. By Kelly Lytle Hernández. 2022. 384 pages. Taking readers to the frontlines of the magonista uprising and the counterinsurgency campaign that failed to stop them, Kelly Lytle Hernández puts the magonista revolt at the heart of U.S. history. Continue reading
Teaching With Seizing Freedom To facilitate bringing the Seizing Freedom podcast to the classroom, we are sharing teaching ideas for selected episodes, beginning with "A Powerful Black Hand." Continue reading
La Operación (documentary) Film. Directed by Ana María García. 1982. 40 minutes. La Operación is a 1982 documentary that shows the widespread sterilization operation led by the U.S. during the 1950s and 60s in Puerto Rico. Continue reading
Takeover: How We Occupied a Hospital and Changed Public Health Care Film. By Emma Francis-Snyder. 2021. 38 minutes. Takeover tells the story of the Young Lords’ 12-hour occupation of Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx in 1970. Continue reading
Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn, Dana Frank, and Robin D. G. Kelley. 2002. 184 pages. Three renowned historians present stirring tales of labor and the effectiveness of strikes and organized labor. Continue reading
Colin in Black and White: The Kaepernick Curriculum Teaching Guide. Presented by Ra Vision Media & Know Your Rights Camp. 2022. 85 pages. In conjunction with the Netflix series of the same name, this teaching guide provides students with resources and activities to understand and address systemic and institutional racism. Continue reading
The Young Lords: A Radical History Book — Non-fiction. By Johanna Fernández. 2020. 480 pages. Fernandez demonstrates how the Young Lords redefined the character of protest, the color of politics, and the cadence of popular urban culture in the age of great dreams. Continue reading
Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance Book — Non-fiction. By Nick Estes. 2019. 320 pages. In Our History Is the Future, Nick Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance that led to the #NoDAPL movement. Continue reading
Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Nick Estes and Jaskiran Dhillon. 2019. 448 pages. Through poetry and prose, essays, photography, interviews, and polemical interventions, the contributors, including leaders of the Standing Rock movement, reflect on Indigenous history and politics and on the movement's significance. Continue reading
The Young Crusaders: The Untold Story of the Children and Teenagers Who Galvanized the Civil Rights Movement Book — Non-fiction. By V. P. Franklin. 2021. 328 pages. This books tells the story of the hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers who engaged in sit-ins, school strikes, boycotts, marches, and demonstrations in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other national civil rights leaders played little or no part. Continue reading
No Kids in Prison Website. NoKidsinPrison uses art to model, imagine and advocate for alternatives to youth incarceration by lifting up the voices of youth most impacted by the criminal justice system through art and culture. Continue reading
We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration Book — Non-fiction. By Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura; illustrated by Ross Ishikawa. 2021. 160 pages. This graphic novel tells the story of Japanese American imprisonment during World War II, and the resistance and defiance that existed in these internment camps. Continue reading
More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Jesse Hagopian. 2014. 336 pages. A collection of essays, poems, speeches, and interviews from frontline fighters who are defying the corporate education reformers and fueling a national movement to reclaim and transform public education. Continue reading
“Prisons Make Us Safer”: And 20 Other Myths about Mass Incarceration Book — Non-fiction. By Victoria Law. 2021. 240 pages An accessible guide for activists, educators, and all who are interested in understanding how the prison system oppresses communities and harms individuals. Continue reading
Who Killed Reconstruction? A Trial Role Play Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. 2022. Rethinking Schools A role play about the demise of Reconstruction that helps students get beyond the question “Was Reconstruction a success or failure?” Continue reading
Seizing Freedom: The Role of the Black Press Podcast episode. Seizing Freedom. 2022. Kidada E. Williams speaks with Adam Serwer about the role of the Black press in the United States. Continue reading
Organizing Against Racial and Sexual Violence: Rosa Parks’ Life-Long Pursuit of Justice Teaching Activity. By Say Burgin, Jeanne Theoharis, and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. 7 pages. In this activity, students investigate Rosa Parks’ activism — and the gender and racial injustice to which it was a response — before and after her famous bus refusal. Continue reading
The Montgomery Bus Boycott: Understanding the Organizing Tradition Teaching Activity. By Say Burgin and Jeanne Theoharis. 6 pages. This lesson expands students’ knowledge of how Black Montgomery secured a victory in the 1955–56 bus boycott by asking them to pay close attention to activists’ tactics — and what they did as white resistance mounted. Continue reading
Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America (YA Edition) Book — Non-fiction. By Candacy Taylor. 2022. 272 pages. This book chronicles the history of the Green Book, which was published from 1936 to 1966 and was the “Black travel guide to America.” Continue reading
Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire Book — Non-fiction. By Jonathan M. Katz. 2022. 432 pages. This book traces a path from the first wave of U.S. overseas expansionism to the rise of fascism in the 1930s to the crises of democracy in our own time. Continue reading
The Way to Freedom: Selma and the Making of a Movement Film. National Park Service. 2020. 23 minutes. Documentary about the role of young people in the voting rights movement in Alabama in the 1960s. Continue reading
Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865-1890 Book — Non-fiction. By Hilary Green. 2016. 272 pages. An in-depth look at postwar African American education and the gains of Reconstruction. Continue reading
The Neutral Ground Film. Directed by CJ Hunt. 2021. 82 minutes. A co-production of POV and ITVS, in association with the Center for Asian American Media. A student-friendly documentary on the fight over Confederate monuments and the Lost Cause narrative. Continue reading
Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction Article. By Ana Rosado, Gideon Cohn-Postar, and Mimi Eisen. 2022. 44 pages. The report includes assessments of education standards in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, along with findings and recommendations for how to improve instruction on Reconstruction. Continue reading
Seeking Freedom: The Untold Story of Fortress Monroe and the Ending of Slavery in America Book — Non-fiction. By Selene Castrovilla. Illustrated by E. B. Lewis. 2022. 40 pages. A Civil War story about a man who seizes his freedom from slavery and teams up with a Union general to save a Union fort from the Confederates. Continue reading
