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.
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Teaching Activity. By Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools. 7 pages.
How a 5th grade teacher and his students conducted research to answer the question: “Which presidents owned people?” Available in Spanish.
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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 10 pages.
What led up to the Trail of Tears? In this lesson, students learn about the decision to remove the Cherokee and Seminole people from their lands.
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Film. Directed by Alexandra Isles. 2000. 60 minutes.
Documentary about the impact of the McCarthy era on African Americans in the film industry.
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Book — Fiction. By Jewell Parker Rhodes. 2013. 288 pages.
Historical fiction about Reconstruction-era Louisiana through the eyes of a young girl who bridges the divide between the long-time plantation workers and the Chinese indentured servants.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Hodding Carter II. Reprinted 2016. 176 pages.
Profile of a white family persecuted for being hospitable to civil rights workers.
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Minister, journalist, newspaper editor, and abolitionist Elijah Parish Lovejoy was murdered by a pro-slavery mob.
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More than fifty African Americans killed in the Ocoee Massacre after going to vote in Florida.
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Mississippi adopted a state constitution with poll tax and literacy tests to roll back the gains of the Reconstruction era.
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Teaching Guide. Edited by Adam Sanchez. 2019. Rethinking Schools. 181 pages.
Students will discover the real abolition story, one about some of the most significant grassroots social movements in U.S. history.
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Reconstruction era protest of racist discrimination on streetcars in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Rev. James Reeb died as a result of being severely beaten by a group of white men during Bloody Sunday in Selma two days earlier.
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Between 30-60 striking Black Louisiana sugarcane workers were massacred.
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James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were tortured and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Neshoba County, Mississippi.
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A white family (the Heffners) in McComb, Mississippi, left after a campaign of harassment, ostracism, and economic retaliation for having spoken to civil rights workers.
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Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were assassinated by police and FBI agents in Chicago, Illinois.
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The Montgomery Bus Boycott is one of the most powerful examples of organizing and social change in U.S. history.
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The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially ended the institution of slavery.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Mia Bay. 2021. 400 pages.
From stagecoaches and trains to buses, cars, and planes, this book explores racial restrictions on transportation and resistance to the injustice.
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Book — Fiction. By Michelle Coles. Illustrations by Justin Johnson. 2021. 368 pages.
A powerful coming-of-age story and an eye-opening exploration of the Reconstruction era.
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Sgt. Walker was convicted of mutiny and killed, one of nineteen Union soldiers executed by the Union army for mutiny during the Civil War, fourteen of whom were Black.
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The 24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified.
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Film. Directed by C. J. Hunt. 2021. 82 minutes.
A co-production of POV and ITVS, in association with the Center for Asian American Media.
A student-friendly documentary on the fight over Confederate monuments and the Lost Cause narrative.
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Frances Ellen Watkins Harper spoke in Philadelphia at the Centennial Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, urging African Americans to continue organizing for justice.
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