20th Century Archives

What Happened to the Civil Rights Movement After 1965? Don’t Ask Your Textbook

By Adam Sanchez

Fifty years ago this week, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee chairperson Stokely Carmichael made the famous call for “Black Power.” Carmichael’s speech came in the midst of the “March Against Fear,” a walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to encourage African Americans to use their newly won right to vote. But while almost every middle and high school student learns about the Civil Rights Movement, they rarely learn about this march — or the related struggles that continued long after the Voting Rights Act.

Ten Things You Should Know About Selma Before You See the Film

By Emilye Crosby

On each anniversary year of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the Voting Rights Act it helped inspire, national media focus on the iconic images of “Bloody Sunday,” the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the interracial marchers, and President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act. This version of history, emphasizing a top-down narrative and isolated events, reinforces the master narrative that civil rights activists describe as “Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, and the white folks came south to save the day.”

Here are 10 points to keep in mind about Selma’s civil rights history.

Bombed out cars by Jo Freeman | Zinn Education Project

‘Is This America?’: Sharecroppers Challenged Mississippi Apartheid, LBJ, and the Nation

By Julian Hipkins III and Deborah Menkart

Fannie Lou Hamer gripped the nation with her televised testimony of being forced from her home and brutally beaten (suffering permanent kidney damage) for attempting to exercise her constitutional right to vote.

“Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings?” she asked the credentials committee at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The Thingamabob Game: A Simulation on Capitalism vs. the Climate

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools.
The Thingamabob Game helps students grasp the essential relationship between climate and capitalism.

Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train

Film. By Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller. 2010. 78 minutes.
Documentary on life and work of Howard Zinn.

The Politics of Children’s Literature: What’s Wrong with the Rosa Parks Myth

Article. By Herbert Kohl. Rethinking Schools.
A critical analysis that challenges the myths in children's books about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Walkout

Film. Produced by Moctesuma Esparza. 2006. 111 minutes.
Walkout tells the true story of the Chicano students of East L.A., who in 1968 staged several dramatic walkouts in their high schools to protest academic prejudice and dire school conditions.

Sir! No Sir!

Film. By David Zeiger. 2005. 84 minutes.
This award-winning film demonstrates the role soldiers and veterans played in the anti-Vietnam War movement.

Women, Gays, and Other Voices of Resistance

Teaching Activity. By Jack Bareilles.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 19 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the emergence and legacy of the 1960s counterculture, as well as the movements it helped create.

Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War

Book — Non-fiction. By David Cortright. Introduction by Howard Zinn. 2005. 355 pages.
Documents the rebellion among U.S. soldiers opposed to the Vietnam War.

Undaunted By the Fight: Spelman College and the Civil Rights Movement, 1957-1967

Book — Non-fiction. By Harry G. Lefever. 2005. 304 pages.
The story of Spelman College students and faculty engagement in the Civil Rights Movement from 1957 to 1967.

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1985

Film. Produced by Henry Hampton. Blackside. 1987. 360 minutes.
Comprehensive documentary history of the Civil Rights Movement.

Elegy for Peter Norman

Poem. By Josh Healey.
Poem about Peter Norman, the white Australian athlete in the historic protest and iconic photo at the 1968 Olympics.

Minneapolis Truckers Make History

Digital collection. Information and resources on the 1934 truckers strikes in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Fred Ross

Profile. By Gabriel Thompson. 2013.
Introduction to little-known but influential labor organizer Fred Ross (1910-1992), who trained many activists of note including Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez.

Dec. 25, 1951: Murder of Harriette and Harry Moore in Florida

The Ku Klux Klan bombed the home of labor and voting rights activists Harry T. Moore and Harriette Moore — killing them both. Harriette Moore taught elementary school, secretly teaching her students Black history in the face of bans by the state superintendent.

March 21, 1937: Ponce Massacre

Police shot peaceful protesters, killing 19 and wounding over 200 others in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

What We Don’t Learn About the Black Panther Party — but Should

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez and Jesse Hagopian. Rethinking Schools. 33 pages.
A mixer lesson introduces students to the pivotal history of the Black Panthers.

A Queer History of the United States for Young People

Book — Non-fiction. By Michael Bronski, adapted for by Richie Chevat. 2019. 336 pages.
A young adult readers edition of the original text explores the history of LGBTQ+ experiences in the U.S. since 1500.

March 24, 1982: The Sanctuary Movement Starts in Arizona

A network of religious congregations that became known as the Sanctuary Movement started with a Presbyterian church and a Quaker meeting in Tucson, Arizona.

“Riots,” Racism, and the Police: Students Explore a Century of Police Conduct and Racial Violence

Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
Students explore three documents produced in the wake of three major episodes of racial violence (1919, 1967, 2014) to understand the long trajectory of police violence in Black communities.

Portrait of Palestinian family of Ramallah, circa 1900-1910.

Teaching the Seeds of Violence in Palestine-Israel

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 2024. 33 pages.
A mixer/mystery activity on Zionism, anti-Zionism, peasant resistance, the Great War, the British Mandate, and more.

Teaching the Fight for Queer Liberation

Teaching Activity. By Nick Palazzolo. Rethinking Schools. 2025. 74 pages.
A dilemma-based, problem-solving lesson on the history of the fight for queer liberation in the United States.

A Century of Struggle Poster and Guide

Poster. By Ricardo Levins Morales and Janna Schneider, with a Companion Guide by Jennings Mergenthal and Jaime Hokanson. 2025. 50 pages.
Chronicles U.S. social justice struggles, groups, activists, campaigns, slogans, publications, and events from 1900–2000.

March 30, 1964: Mary Hamilton Wins Honorifics in Court

Mary Hamilton's insistence on being addressed by Miss led to a Supreme Court ruling requiring honorifics for everyone in court, regardless of race or gender.

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