Civil Rights Movements Archives

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.

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.

Moses, Robert “Bob” Parris

Profile. Robert "Parris" Moses (born Jan. 23, 1935) is a voting rights organizer, educator, and founder of the Algebra Project.

Victoria Gray and MFDP delegates demonstrating | Zinn Education Project

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+.

Teaching Activity by Deborah Menkart

Freedom Summer

Film. Written, produced, and directed by Stanley Nelson. 2014. 120 minutes.
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.

Teaching Activity by Charles Cobb

Hartman Turnbow

Profile. Hartman Turnbow (March 20, 1905–August 15, 1988), was Mileston, Miss., farmer and fiery orator known for inspiring people during the Civil Rights Movement.

Thunder of Freedom: Black Leadership and the Transformation of 1960s Mississippi

Book — Non-fiction. By Sue [Lorenzi] Sojourner, with Cheryl Reitan. Foreword by John Dittmer. 2013.
Documents the role of unsung heroes in the voting rights struggle in Holmes County, Mississippi.

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.

On the Road to Voting Rights: Freedom Day in Selma, 1963

Article. By Howard Zinn. Excerpt from Chapter 5 of You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.
Howard Zinn’s first-hand account of Selma’s Freedom Day in 1963.

Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s

Book — Non-fiction. Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer. 1991. 692 pages.
Oral histories of the Civil Rights Movement spanning three decades.

April 15, 1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Founding

Founding of the youth-led Civil Rights Movement organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Some Truths Are Not Self-Evident: Essays in The Nation on Civil Rights, Vietnam, and “The War on Terror”

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn, edited by Richard Kreitner. 2014. 215 pages.
A collection of articles spanning 50 years, by and about Howard Zinn, originally published in The Nation magazine.

Malcolm X: Make It Plain

Film. Written by Steve Fayer and Orlando Bagwell. 1994. 138 minutes.
Documentary film on the life and words of Malcolm X/ El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

Our Grandparents’ Civil Rights Era: Family Letters Bring History to Life

Teaching Activity. By Willow McCormick. Rethinking Schools. 7 pages.
An elementary school teacher connects the Civil Rights Movement to students’ family history by asking their grandparents to share their memories of the Movement.

To Write in the Light of Freedom: The Newspapers of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by William Sturkey and Jon N. Hale. 2015. 176 pages.
A collection and examination of the creative literary work of students published during 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi.

The FBI’s War on Black America

Film. By Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller. 1990. 47 minutes.
Documentary of people targeted by the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) in the 1960s and 70s.

Stepping into Selma: Voting Rights History and Legacy Today

Teaching Activity. Teaching for Change. 2015. 20 pages.
Introductory lesson on key people and events in the long history of the Selma freedom movement.

SNCC Digital Gateway

Digital collection. Historical materials, profiles, timeline, map, and stories on SNCC’s voting rights organizing.

Muhammad Ali June20 | Zinn Education Project

June 20, 1967: Muhammad Ali Convicted for Refusing the Vietnam Draft

Muhammad Ali was convicted for refusing induction in the U.S. armed forces.

June 12, 1963: Medgar Evers Murdered in Mississippi

Medgar Evers, WWII veteran and civil rights activist, was murdered by a white supremacist in Jackson, Mississippi.

The Voting Rights Act: Ten Things You Should Know

Article. By Emilye Crosby and Judy Richardson. 2015.
Key points in the history of the 1965 Voting Rights Act missing from most textbooks.

Teaching Activity by Emilye Crosby

African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement

Book — Non-fiction. By Vincent Intondi. 2015. 224 pages.
History of Black activists who fought for nuclear disarmament.

Teaching Activity by Vincent Intondi

Lowndes County and the Voting Rights Act

Article. By Hasan Kwame Jeffries.
History and significance of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization.

Counter Histories

Digital Collection. Produced by John T. Edge and the Southern Foodways Alliance; directed by Kate Medley.
Five short films that document the civil disobedience staged at segregated lunch counters in the 1950s and 60s.

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