Teaching Materials Archive

The Friendship

Book — Fiction. By Mildred Taylor. 1998. 56 pages.
Cassie witnesses a Black man address a white storekeeper by his first name.

Haymarket: A Novel

Book — Fiction. By Martin Duberman. 2005. 330 pages.
Historical novel for high school and adults on the Haymarket struggle.

Little Brother

Book — Fiction. By Cory Doctorow. 2008. 384 pages.
A contemporary novel for teenagers that explores Homeland Security and freedom of speech in the post-9/11 United States.

Lyddie

Book — Fiction. By Katherine Paterson. 1995. 192 pages.
A young girl works in the mills and gets involved in labor activism.

Missing from Haymarket Square

Book — Fiction. By Harriette Gillem Robinet. 2003. 142 pages.
Historical fiction chapter book on the Haymarket labor struggles and massacre.

Mississippi Trial, 1955

Book — Fiction. By Chris Crowe. 2003. 240 pages.
Historical fiction about the murder of Emmett Till for high school students.

Book — Fiction. By Robert Sharenow. 2009. 320 pages.
Louise's mother spends her mornings at the local elementary school with a group of women known as the Cheerleaders, who harass the school's first Black student, six-year-old Ruby Bridges.

Nettie’s Trip South

Book — Fiction. By Ann Turner and Ronald Himler. 1995. 32 pages.
Based on the diary of the author's great-grandmother, this is a poignant and compelling look at slavery through the eyes of a young girl.

Remember: The Journey to School Integration

Book — Fiction. By Toni Morrison. 2004. 80 pages.
Fictional story and real photographs tell the story of desegregation, for upper elementary and above.

Riot

Book — Fiction. By Walter Dean Myers. 2011. 176 pages,
Historical novel about the 1863 draft riots in New York for young adults.

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow

Book — Fiction. By James Sturm and Rich Tommaso with an introduction by Gerald Early. 2007. 96 pages.
Told from the point of view of a sharecropper, this narrative in graphic novel format follows baseball champion Satchel Paige as he travels throughout the segregated South.

Scraps of Time: Abby Takes a Stand, 1960

Book — Fiction. By Patricia McKissack. 2006. 112 pages.
Historical fiction about the lunch counter sit-ins for ages 9+.

Scraps of Time 1928: A Song for Harlem

Book — Fiction. By Patricia C. McKissack. 2007. 108 pages.
Story for young readers about a 12-year-old girl's education during the Harlem Renaissance with Zora Neale Hurston as her teacher.

Sunrise Over Fallujah

Book — Fiction. By Walter Dean Myers. 2009. 320 pages.
Young adult novel about a U.S. soldier in Iraq.

A Thousand Never Evers

Book — Fiction. By Shana Burg. 2008. 320 pages.
Set in 1963 Mississippi, this historical fiction introduces middle/high school readers to the life at that time through the experiences of a 12-year-old.

Underground Man

Book — Fiction. By Milton Meltzer. 2006. 288 pages.
An historically accurate novel on abolitionists and the Underground Railroad for middle school readers.

Unreformed: The Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children

Podcast. iHeart Media. 2023. In eight gripping episodes, journalist Josie Duffy Rice tells the story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, the “reform” school now called Mt. Meigs.

They Call Me Teach: Lessons in Freedom

Picture book. By Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James E. Ransome. 2024. 40 pages.
Shows how one enslaved man, secretly named Teach, helps others learn to read and write wherever he can.

Barrio Rising: The Protest That Built Chicano Park

Picture book. By María Dolores Águila and illustrated by Magdalena Mora. 2024. 40 pages.
The true story of how community members organized a massive protest in 1970, forcing the city council to change its plans.

Do You Know Them?: Families Lost and Found After the Civil War

Picture book. By Shana Keller and illustrated by Laura Freeman. 2024. 40 pages.
Helps introduce young readers to the history of African American family members desperately trying to find their children, spouses, siblings, parents, and other loved ones during Reconstruction.

Transgender Justice in Schools

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Linda Christensen and Ty Marshall. 2024. Rethinking Schools.
Inspirational stories from trans students and educators and resources for teachers, students, and parents seeking to build communities where everyone flourishes.

People’s History of Fourth of July

A collection of more than a dozen people's history stories from July 4th beyond 1776. The stories include July 4th anniversaries such as when slavery was abolished in New York (1827), Frederick Douglass's speech "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" (1852), the Reconstruction era attack on a Black militia that led to the Hamburg Massacre (1876), protest of segregation at an amusement park in Baltimore (1963), and more.

Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer

Excerpt from Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer by Phyllis Bennis.

Israelism

Film. Directed by Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen. Tikkun Olam Productions. 2023. 84 minutes.
Examines young Jews who are fundamentally changing not just their attitudes about Israel, Palestine, and Palestinians, but about their own role in the world, and coming to see themselves as solidarity activists.

The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States

Film. Directed by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp. Media Education Foundation. 2016. Three versions: 21 min./45 min./84 min.
This film helps students recognize how the media and politicians consistently frame “Palestinian resistance as terrorism and Israeli aggression as self-defense.”