June 12, 1937: Oliver Law Became Brigade Commander
Oliver Law became first Black commander of a U.S. army, the integrated Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
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Theme: African American
African American
Mama’s Window
Book — Historical fiction. By Lynn Rubright. 2008. 89 pages.
Historical fiction inspired by incidents in the early life of sharecropper Owen Whitfield, the organizer of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.
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Historical fiction inspired by incidents in the early life of sharecropper Owen Whitfield, the organizer of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.
James Baldwin
Profile.
A brief biography of James Baldwin, writer and social critic.
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Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter’s Account of the Civil Rights Movement
Book — Non-fiction. By Simeon Booker with Carol McCabe Booker. 2013. 334 pages.
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.
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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.
Letter to the Editor by Clyde Kennard, The American, 1958
Article. By Clyde Kennard. 1958.
Letter to the editor of the Hattiesburg American on integration.
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Letter to the editor of the Hattiesburg American on integration.
Clyde Kennard Letter to the Editor, The American, 1960
Article. By Clyde Kennard. 1960.
Letter to the editor of Hattiesburg American on school integration.
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Letter to the editor of Hattiesburg American on school integration.
It’s a Mystery — White Workers Against Black Workers
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 8 pages.
In this “mystery” activity, students receive clues and discuss some of the factors that contributed to the intensification of racism in the 1920s in the United States.
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In this “mystery” activity, students receive clues and discuss some of the factors that contributed to the intensification of racism in the 1920s in the United States.
Oh Freedom After While: The Missouri Sharecropper Protest of 1939
Film. Directed Steven John Ross and written by Candace O'Connor. 1999. 56 minutes.
Archival footage, photographs, and first-hand accounts of sharecroppers — Black and white — organizing in Missouri.
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Archival footage, photographs, and first-hand accounts of sharecroppers — Black and white — organizing in Missouri.
Chains
Book — Historical fiction. By Laurie Halse Anderson. 2010. 336 pages.
Historical fiction based on the life of an enslaved teenager during the Revolutionary War.
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Historical fiction based on the life of an enslaved teenager during the Revolutionary War.
Freedom Day in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Article. By Howard Zinn. From Chapter 6 of You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.
Zinn describes the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) voting rights campaign called Freedom Day in Hattiesburg, Miss.
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Zinn describes the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) voting rights campaign called Freedom Day in Hattiesburg, Miss.
Whitewashing Our First President
Article. By Clarence Lusane. 2014.
Critical review of an upper elementary non-fiction book about George Washington and the people he kept in bondage.
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Critical review of an upper elementary non-fiction book about George Washington and the people he kept in bondage.
Black Abolitionists
Profiles. Zinn Education Project. 2014.
Brief biographies of 25 Black abolitionists.
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Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence
Picture book. By Gretchen Woelfle. Illustrated by Alix Delinois. 2014. 32 pages.
Picture book about true story of Elizabeth Freeman, a woman who challenged the legality of her enslavement.
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Picture book about true story of Elizabeth Freeman, a woman who challenged the legality of her enslavement.
Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek
Film. By Leah Mahan. 2013. 60 minutes.
Documentary about the impact of “development” on a historically African American community in Gulfport, Mississippi.
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Documentary about the impact of “development” on a historically African American community in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Memories of Huey P. Newton and the Black Panthers
"Thank you for posting the picture of Huey Newton and the children. I am the girl in the picture. I was 11-years-old and volunteering as a typist for the Black Panther Party . . . Today I work on computers, so I am still typing!" -- Annissa Nadirah Karim
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This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
Book — Non-fiction. By Kay Mills. 2007. 390 pages.
First-hand accounts of Fannie Lou Hamer's emergence as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
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First-hand accounts of Fannie Lou Hamer's emergence as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Missing from Presidents’ Day: The People They Enslaved
Article. By Clarence Lusane. 2014. If We Knew Our History Series.
Textbooks erase enslaved African Americans from the White House and the presidency and present a false portrait of our country’s history.
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Risking Everything: A Freedom Summer Reader
Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Michael Edmonds. 2014. 250 pages.
Anthology of first hand accounts and primary documents from the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project.
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Anthology of first hand accounts and primary documents from the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project.
The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement
Book — Non-fiction. By Teri Kanefield. 2014. 56 pages.
Illustrated book of a teenager who led a student walk out to protest substandard conditions at a Virginia high school in 1951.
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Illustrated book of a teenager who led a student walk out to protest substandard conditions at a Virginia high school in 1951.
March 2, 1955: Claudette Colvin Refuses to Give Up Her Bus Seat
At age 15, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Montgomery, Alabama.
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July 28, 1917: Silent March Down Fifth Avenue
W. E. B. Du Bois and the NAACP organized a silent march in New York City to protest the massacres and lynchings of African Americans.
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Sharecroppers Challenge U.S. Apartheid: The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Teaching Activity. By Julian Hipkins III, Deborah Menkart, Sara Evers, and Jenice View.
Role play on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) that introduces students to a vital example of small “d” democracy in action. For grades 7+.
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Role play on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) that introduces students to a vital example of small “d” democracy in action. For grades 7+.
Freedom Summer
Film. Written, produced, and directed by Stanley Nelson. 2014. 120 minutes.
Documentary about 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi.
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Documentary about 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi.
This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible
Book — Non-fiction. By Charles E. Cobb Jr. 2015. 328 pages.
Cobb Jr. describes the vital role that armed self-defense played in the survival and liberation of black communities in America during the Southern Freedom Movement of the 1960s.
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Cobb Jr. describes the vital role that armed self-defense played in the survival and liberation of black communities in America during the Southern Freedom Movement of the 1960s.
Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt
Book — Non-fiction. By Hasan Kwame Jeffries. 2010. 372 pages.
History of the role that activists in Lowndes County played in spurring Black activists nationwide to fight for civil and human rights in new and more radical ways.
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History of the role that activists in Lowndes County played in spurring Black activists nationwide to fight for civil and human rights in new and more radical ways.