Aug. 13, 1955: Lamar Smith Murdered
Lamar Smith, 63-year-old farmer and WWI veteran, was shot dead in Brookhaven, Mississippi, for urging African Americans to vote.
Continue reading
Period: 1945
Cold War: 1945 – 1960
Aug. 16, 1955: Paul Robeson Lost Court Appeal
Paul Robeson lost his court appeal to have the U.S. State Department grant him a passport.
Continue reading
Aug. 19, 1958: Katz Drugstore Sit-Ins
Clara Luper and the NAACP Youth Council began sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters.
Continue reading
Aug. 27, 1960: Ax Handle Saturday
White supremacists violently attacked a Jacksonville youth-led lunch counter sit-in.
Continue reading
Mighty Justice (Young Readers’ Edition): The Untold Story of Civil Rights Trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree
Book — Non-fiction. By Katie McCabe and Jabari Asim. 2020. 208 pages.
A young readers' adaptation of Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights, the memoir of activist lawyer Dovey Johnson Roundtree.
Continue reading
A young readers' adaptation of Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights, the memoir of activist lawyer Dovey Johnson Roundtree.
Oct. 17, 1950: Empire Zinc Strike
The local chapter of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers went on strike to protest their segregated housing and unfair wages and living conditions.
Continue reading
Sept. 1, 1956: Clinton Desegregation Crisis
The White Citizens Council and Ku Klux Klan launched full-scale rioting in Clinton, Tennessee in response to school desegregation.
Continue reading
Sept. 12, 1958: Little Rock Public Schools Closed
Governor Orval Faubus closed all Little Rock, Arkansas public schools for one year rather than allow integration.
Continue reading
Sept. 4, 1949: Concert in Peekskill Attacked
Benefit concert for the Civil Rights Congress with Paul Robeson was held in Peekskill, New York.
Continue reading
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks: Young Readers Edition
Book — Non-fiction. By Jeanne Theoharis and Brandy Colbert. 2021.
This biography of Rosa Parks accessibly examines her six decades of activism, challenging young readers’ perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the Civil Rights Movement.
Continue reading
This biography of Rosa Parks accessibly examines her six decades of activism, challenging young readers’ perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the Civil Rights Movement.
This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality
Book — Non-fiction. By Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy. 2019. 320 pages.
Told from the perspective of Jo Ann Allen, this book tells the story of twelve Black students who integrated Clinton High School in Tennessee in 1956.
Continue reading
Told from the perspective of Jo Ann Allen, this book tells the story of twelve Black students who integrated Clinton High School in Tennessee in 1956.
‘We Had Set Ourselves Free’: Lessons on the Civil Rights Movement
Teaching Activity. By Doug Sherman. Rethinking Schools. 4 pages.
The author describes how he uses biographies and film to introduce students to the role of people involved in the Civil Rights Movement beyond the familiar heroes. He emphasizes the role and experiences of young people in the Movement.
Continue reading
The author describes how he uses biographies and film to introduce students to the role of people involved in the Civil Rights Movement beyond the familiar heroes. He emphasizes the role and experiences of young people in the Movement.
March 1, 1954: The Green Feather Movement Launched
Five students from Indiana University at Bloomington (IU) started the Green Feather Movement to protest censorship.
Continue reading
Nov. 13, 1953: Call to Ban Robin Hood in Indiana Schools
Mrs. White of the Indiana Textbook Commission called for a ban of Robin Hood in all school books for promoting communism.
Continue reading
Nov. 14, 1960: Gomillion v. Lightfoot
SCOTUS ruled 9-0 that redrawing city boundaries in Tuskegee, Alabama to exclude African-American voters violates the 15th Amendment.
Continue reading
Nov. 24, 1947: Hollywood 10 Held in Contempt of Congress
The “Hollywood 10” directors, producers, and writers who refused to testify at HUAC were held in contempt of Congress.
Continue reading
Nov. 27, 1955: Rosa Parks Attends Meeting About Emmett Till
Rosa Parks attended a mass meeting about Emmett Till days before her refusal to give up her seat on the bus.
Continue reading
Oct. 23, 1947: An Appeal to the World
The NAACP sent to the U.N. a document titled “An Appeal to the World,” to redress human rights violations the United States committed against its African-American citizens.
Continue reading
Scandalize My Name: Stories From the Blacklist
Film. Directed by Alexandra Isles. 2000. 60 minutes.
Documentary about the impact of the McCarthy era on African Americans in the film industry.
Continue reading
Documentary about the impact of the McCarthy era on African Americans in the film industry.
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
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.
The Green Feather Movement
Article. By Alison Kysia. 2013.
History of a little-known student resistance movement against McCarthyism and censorship.
Continue reading
History of a little-known student resistance movement against McCarthyism and censorship.
The Rebellious Lives of Mrs. Rosa Parks
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow.
In this mixer lesson, students learn about Rosa Parks' many decades of activism by taking on roles from various times in her life. In this way, students learn about her radicalism before, during, and long after the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Continue reading
In this mixer lesson, students learn about Rosa Parks' many decades of activism by taking on roles from various times in her life. In this way, students learn about her radicalism before, during, and long after the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The Struggle Against the Prison Industrial Complex
Jesse Hagopian led a conversation with Garrett Felber, Safear Ness, and Stevie Wilson about the prison industrial complex, incarceration, and the history of resistance against that system.
Continue reading
Dec. 1, 1955: Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
Continue reading
Dec. 28, 1960: Black Farmers in Tennessee Evicted for Registering to Vote
Black sharecroppers were evicted by white landowners simply for exercising their right to register to vote.
Continue reading