Theme: Civil Rights Movements

Civil Rights Movements

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.
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Dorie Ladner

Profile. Dorie Ladner (June 28, 1942-March 11, 2024) was a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) veteran, social worker, and lifelong activist.
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Evicted!: The Struggle for the Right to Vote

Picture book. 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.
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Rethinking America’s Past

Book — Non-fiction. By Robert Cohen and Sonia E. Murrow. 2021. 344 pages.
The first work to use archival and classroom evidence to assess the impact that Zinn's classic work has had on historical teaching and learning and on U.S. culture.
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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.
Teaching Activity by Johanna Fernández
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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.
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Standing Up

Book — Fiction. By Ellen Bravo and Larry Miller. 2021. 284 pages.
This collection of stories highlights the importance of collective struggle, both in the workplace and in the community.
Teaching Activity by Ellen Bravo and Larry Miller
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The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

Film. Directed by Johanna Hamilton and Yoruba Richen. Produced by Soledad O’Brien. 2022. 101 minutes.
This documentary sheds light on Rosa Parks' extensive organizing, radical politics, and lifelong dedication to justice.
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Rosa Parks: Countering the Master Narrative

Teaching Activity. By Jesse Hagopian. 4 pages.
With a short video and readings with competing viewpoints, students will learn about master narratives and counter-narratives and how they apply to Rosa Parks’ life. This activity can be introduced before watching the film or reading the book, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.
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Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power

Film. Directed by Sam Pollard and Geeta Gandbhir. 2022. 90 minutes.
The story of young SNCC organizers who fought for voting rights and Black power in Lowndes County, Alabama.
Teaching Activity by Directed by Sam Pollard & Geeta Gandbhir
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Rosa Parks and Ericka Huggins at a Black Panther Party free breakfast program.

Framing Black Power Through the Life of Rosa Parks

Teaching Activity. By Tiffany Mitchell Patterson and Jessica Rucker.
In this lesson, students explore the core ideas of Black Power through a gallery walk with images and quotes connected to the life of Rosa Parks, and then consider how to define Rosa Parks’s activism.
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