20th Century
Teaching Activity PDFs
The Coming of the Pink Cheeks
Teaching Activity PDF. By Chief Kabongo as told to Richard St. Barb e Baker. 7 pages.
Story of what happened to the Kikuyu people of Kenya when Europeans took control of their land.
Imperialism, Racism & Racial Identity, World History/Global Studies
The Most Dangerous Man in America Teaching Guide
Teaching Activities. Zinn Education Project. 2010. 100 pages.
Eight lessons for use with the documentary film about Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers, the Vietnam War, and whistleblowing.
Media, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, World History/Global Studies
Remembering Mahmoud Darwish
Teaching Activity PDF. By Naomi Shihab Nye and Linda Christensen. 4 pages.
A teaching idea utilizing famous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s work to inspire students.
Unleashing Sorrow and Joy: Writing Poetry from History and Literature
Teaching Activity PDF. By Linda Christensen. 10 pages.
Teacher reflection on different ways to effectively incorporate poetry into history or literature classes.
Teaching Guides
The Line Between Us: Teaching About the Border and Mexican Immigration
Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow. 2006. 160 pages.
Lessons for teaching about the history of US-Mexico relations and current border and immigration issues.
The Power In Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States
Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow and Norman Diamond. 1988. 184 pages.
Role plays and writing activities project high school students into real-life situations to explore the history and contemporary reality of employment (and unemployment) in the U.S.
The Promise: Brown v. Board of Education, The Civil Rights Movement, and Our Schools
Teaching Guide. Edited by Rethinking Schools. 2004.
Analysis and teaching ideas on school desegregation.
Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching
Teaching Guide. Edited by Deborah Menkart, Alana D. Murray, and Jenice L. View. 2004. 576 pages.
Provides lessons and articles for K-12 educators on how to go beyond a heroes approach to the Civil Rights Movement, with a focus on education, economics, labor, youth, women, and culture.
Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World
Teaching Guide. Edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson. 2002. 402 pages. Grades 4 – 12.
An extensive collection of readings and source material on critical global issues, plus teaching ideas, lesson plans, and rich collections of resources for classroom teachers.
Strangers In Their Own Country: A Curriculum Guide On South Africa
Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow. 1985. 116 pages.
Lessons on apartheid in South Africa and the global anti-apartheid movement.
Teaching About Asian Pacific Americans: Effective Activities, Strategies, and Assignments for Classrooms and Communities
Teaching Guide. Edited by Edith Wen-Chu Chen and Glenn Omatsu. 2006. 350 pages.
Comprehensive collection of articles and lessons on Asian Pacific American history.
Articles
Globalization: A View from Below
Reading – PDF. By Jean-Bertrand Aristide. 5 pages.
An essay on the impact of globalization, with the story of Haiti as an example.
The Truth About Helen Keller
Article for Teachers and High School Students – PDF. By Ruth Shagoury. 6 pages.
A review of children’s picture books about the life of Helen Keller reveals the omission of any description of her active role in key social movements of the 20th century.
Audio
A People’s History of the United States: Highlights from the Twentieth Century (Audio)
Audio. By Howard Zinn. Read by Matt Damon. 2003.
Books: Fiction
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller
Book – Fiction. By Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. Artwork by R. Gregory Christie. 2012. 188 pages. About the life of Lewis Micheaux, owner of the famous National Memorial African Bookstore.
Sylvia & Aki
Book – Historical fiction. By Winifred Conkling. 2011. 160 pages.
Based on the true story of two girls who meet in 1940s California and a landmark lawsuit on education.
Asian American, Civil Rights Movements, Education, Latino, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity
Books: Non-Fiction
News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media
Book – Non-fiction. By Juan González, and Joseph Torres. 256 pages. 2011.
The history of media in the United States, through the lens of race.
After Gandhi: One Hundred Years of Nonviolent Resistance
Book – Non-fiction. By Anne Sibley O’Brien and Perry Edmund O’Brien. 2009. 192 pages.
Stories about 15 activists who continue in the tradition of Gandhi, written and illustrated for upper elementary and middle school.
Individuals in US History, Organizing, World History/Global Studies
At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance — a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power
Book – Non-fiction. By Danielle L. McGuire. 2010. 352 pages.
History of the violence against African-American women during the 20th century and the role played by Rosa Parks in the organized legal response to that abuse.
Civil Rights Movements, Racism & Racial Identity, Women's History
Blackboard Unions: The AFT and the NEA, 1900-1980
Book – Non-fiction. By Marjorie Murphy. 1992. 304 pages.
The history of unionization of teachers.
Caribbean Connections: The Dominican Republic
Book – Non-fiction and Fiction. Edited by Gallin, Glasser, Santana. 2005. 250 pages.
Reader-friendly overview of the history, politics and culture of the fourth largest Latino community in the United States.
Art & Music, Immigration, Latino, Sports, US Foreign Policy, Women's History, World History/Global Studies
Chew on This
Book – Non-fiction. By Eric Schlosser. 2006. 318 pages.
Geared to the young consumer, takes a bite out of fast-food industry.
Civil Rights History from the Ground Up: Local Struggles, a National Movement
Book – Non-fiction. Edited by Emilye Crosby. 2011. 486 pages.
A grassroots history of the Civil Rights Movement.
Climbin’ Jacob’s Ladder
Book – Non-Fiction. By Jack O’Dell. Edited and introduction by Nikhil Pal Singh. 2010. 334 pages.
Essays and background on Jack O’Dell, one of the great intellectuals of the 20th century labor movement and Civil Rights Movement who continues to provide keen analysis in the 21st century.
Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968
Book – Non-fiction. By Stephen Lawson and Charles Payne. 2006. 227 pages.
Introduces and examines the complex story of the modern Civil Rights Movement as it should be taught, providing key background information and analysis for teachers.
African American, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity
The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle, 1954-1990
Book – Non-fiction. Edited by Clayborne Carson, David J. Garrow, Gerald Gill, Vincent Harding and Darlene Clark Hine. 1991.
Readings to accompany the Eyes on the Prize film.
Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement
Book – Non-fiction. By Vincent Harding. 2010 (2nd Edition). 240 pages.
A call to educators, clergy, and community activists to remember and keep alive the story of the black-led freedom movement.
Howard Zinn on War
Book – Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn. Introduction by Marilyn B. Young. 2011. 272 pages.
Essays spanning 1962 to 2006 that examine specific wars, wartime incidents, and the force of non-violence to move beyond war, if we are to survive.
Howard Zinn: A Radical American Vision
Book – Non-Fiction. By Davis D. Joyce. Foreword by Noam Chomsky. 2003. 268 pages.
Biography of Howard Zinn.
Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918
Book – Nonfiction. By Jeffrey B. Perry. 2009. 624 pages.
Biography of scholar and activist Hubert Harrison.
Kids on Strike!
Book – Non-fiction. By Susan Campbell Bartoletti. 2003.
Describes the conditions and treatment that drove working children to strike, from the mill workers’ strike in 1834 and the coal strikes at the turn of the century to the children who marched with Mother Jones in 1903.
Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi
Book – Non-fiction. By John Dittmer. 1995. 560 pages.
A detailed, grassroots description of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.
Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin
Book – Nonfiction. By John Hope Franklin. 2006. 416 pages.
Autobiography of one of the leading historians of the 20th century.
A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present
Book – Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn. 2005. 702 pages.
Howard Zinn’s groundbreaking work on U.S. history. This book details the lives and facts that are rarely included in textbooks — an indispensable teacher and student resource.
African American, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Economics, Education, Immigration, Imperialism, Labor, Laws & Citizen Rights, Native American, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery, Social Class, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, Women's History
Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland
Book – Non-Fiction. By Jeff Biggers. 300 pages. 2010.
The untold history of coal mining in the U.S. through the lens of race, labor, and the environment.
Refusing Racism: White Allies and the Struggle for Civil Rights
Book – Non-fiction. By Cynthia Stokes Brown. 2002. 192 pages.
Four short biographies of white people who’ve fought against racism in U.S. history.
Civil Rights Movements, Individuals in US History, Racism & Racial Identity
Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South
Book – Non-fiction (with CD). Edited by William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins and Robert Korstad. 2008. 346 pages.
African American, Individuals in US History, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Social Class
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Book – Non-fiction. By Naomi Klein. 2008. 720 pages.
Klein demonstrates how shock has been used by global elites to push through a radical agenda of privatization and “free trade.”
SNCC: The New Abolitionists
Book – Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn. 2002. 286 pages.
A detailed history of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War
Book – Nonfiction. By David Cortright. 2005. 355 pages.
Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism
Book – Non-fiction. By James Loewen. 2005. 562 pages.
Documents the history of towns across the United States that exclude African Americans (and other racial/ethnic groups) after sundown.
Undaunted By The Fight: Spelman College And The Civil Rights Movement, 1957-1967
Book – Non-fiction. By Harry G. Lefever. 2005. 304 pages.
The story of Spelman College students and faculty engagement in the Civil Rights Movement from 1957 to 1967.
African American, Civil Rights Movements, Education, Women's History
Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America
Book – Non-fiction. By Peniel E. Joseph. 2007. 432 pages.
A narrative history of the Black Power Movement.
Which Side Are You On? The Story of A Song
Book – Non-fiction. By George Ella Lyon. Artwork by Christopher Cardinale. 2011. 40 pages.
This children’s book tells the story of a classic union song written in 1931 and the harsh conditions under which it was written.
Why Unions Matter
Book – Non-fiction. By Michael D. Yates. 2009. 240 pages.
An introduction to the history and role of unions in the United States.
The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement
Book – Non-fiction. By Bob Zellner with Constance Curry. Foreword by Julian Bond. 2008. 351 pages.
Zellner tells how one white Alabamian joined ranks with the black students who were sitting-in, marching, fighting, and sometimes dying to challenge the southern “way of life.”
You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
Book – Non-Fiction. By Howard Zinn. 224 pages. 2002.
An engaging memoir by Howard Zinn which offers his life history in the context of the politics and events of his lifetime.
Films
Anne Braden: Southern Patriot (1924-2006)
Film. Produced by Anne Lewis. 2012.
Documentary about activist Anne Braden.
The Corporation
Film. By Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott and Joel Bakan. 2004. 145 minutes.
This 26 award-winning documentary examines the nature, evolution, impacts and future of the modern business corporation and the increasing role it plays in society and our everyday lives.
Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock
Film. Directed by Sharon LaCruise. 2011.
Documentary on the life of Daisy Bates, best know for her role with the Little Rock Nine.
African American, Civil Rights Movements, Education, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity, Women's History
The Fight in the Fields: César Chávez and the Farmworker Struggle
Film. Ray Telles and Rick Tejada-Flores. 1997. 116 min.
A documentary on the farmworker movement told by the organizers and farmworkers themselves.
Incident at Oglala
Film. 1992. 90 minutes. By Michael Apted. Produced by Arthur Chobanian. Narrated by Robert Redford.
Documentary about the conviction of Native American activist Leonard Peltier.
Not Just a Game: Power, Politics & American Sports
Film. By Dave Zirin and Jeremy Earp. 2010. 62 minutes.
Film documentary for 6th grade to adult based on the bestselling book “A People’s History of Sports in the United States.”
African American, Media, Racism & Racial Identity, Sports, Women's History
Parent Power
Film. Produced by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown Univ. 2011. 35 minutes.
A documentary about parents in the Bronx who organized to bring high-quality education to their neighborhood.
African American, Education, Latino, Organizing, Social Class
The Power of 504
Film. (Youtube video.) 18 minutes.
Documentary on the historic civil rights demonstration of people with disabilities in 1977.
The Road to Brown
Film. Producer/Director/Writer: William Elwood. 56 min. 1990.
The little known story of Charles Hamilton Houston who paved the road to Brown v. Board.
African American, Education, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity
Scandalize My Name
Film. 2000. 60 minutes.
Documentary about the impact of the McCarthy era on African Americans in the film industry.
African American, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity
Sing Your Song: What good is a conscience if it is not awakened
Film. Directed by Susanne Rostock. 2011.104 minutes.
A biographical documentary that surveys the life and times of performer/activist Harry Belafonte.
African American, Art & Music, Civil Rights Movements, Racism & Racial Identity
Thunderheart
Film. 1992. 118 minutes. By Michael Apted.
Captures some of the conflicts on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1970s relating to corporate/government collusion to exploit Native lands for profit.
The Times of Harvey Milk
Film. Directed by Rob Epstein. 1984. 90 minutes.
Documentary on the political career and assassination of Harvey Milk, San Francisco’s first openly gay supervisor.
Picture Books
Which Side Are You On? The Story of A Song
Book – Non-fiction. By George Ella Lyon. Artwork by Christopher Cardinale. 2011. 40 pages.
This children’s book tells the story of a classic union song written in 1931 and the harsh conditions under which it was written.
Profiles
Murray, Pauli: Fighting Jane Crow
Article. By Paula Giddings, The Nation, May 23, 1987.
Review of Pauli Murray’s autobiography, Song in a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage (Harper & Row).
Parsons, Lucy Gonzales
Profile. Lucy Gonzales Parsons, Labor organizer, Orator, 1853–1942. By William Loren Katz.
Songs and Poems
Which Side Are You On? The Story of A Song
Book – Non-fiction. By George Ella Lyon. Artwork by Christopher Cardinale. 2011. 40 pages.
This children’s book tells the story of a classic union song written in 1931 and the harsh conditions under which it was written.
Websites
The Collection: Oral Histories/Archives from The Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement
Website.
More than 100 oral histories with leaders and shapers of the disability rights and independent living movement.
Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement 1954-1985
Website.
Comprehensive companion website to PBS documentary series.
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
Website. A companion to the PBS films series of the same title.
African American, Civil Rights Movements, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity
Studs Terkel: Conversations with America
Website.
Life and work of Studs Terkel, prize-winning author, radio broadcast personality, and people’s oral historian.
Tracked in America
Website.
Explores the historical context and stories of individuals who have been targets of U.S. government surveillance during the 20th century.
Voices of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Website.
Video interviews & articles telling the first hand stories of 27 individuals who participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement.
African American, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights
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