1945 Archives

April 19, 1960: Attempted Assassination of Nashville NAACP Attorney

Famed civil rights lawyer and politician Z. Alexander Looby’s North Nashville home was dynamited in an assassination attempt.

During the 1953 bus boycott in Baton Rouge, the African American community organized free carpools, enabling protestors to go about their daily business while simultaneously showing they would no longer accept second-class citizenship.

June 18, 1953: Baton Rouge Bus Boycott Begins

Black leaders in Baton Rouge, Louisiana formed the United Defense League (UDL) to protest bus segregation and persuaded thousands of Black residents to boycott buses until an agreed upon compromise was met.

Feb. 12, 1958: Popular TV Program Warns of Global Warming

The popular, educational Bell Laboratories Science series aired a new chapter in the series on prime-time television which warned that CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel use could warm the earth to a degree that melts the polar ice caps and creates a catastrophic rise in sea levels.

Sept. 1, 1946: Hawaiian Sugar Plantation Workers Stage Mass Strike

Led by the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU), sugar workers on 33 of Hawai’i’s 34 plantations went on strike, which lasted almost three months and led to substantial improvements in pay, housing, and working conditions.

On July 16, 1960, seven students from Sterling High along with college freshman, Jesse Jackson, entered the library and were arrested. This group became known as the Greenville Eight.

July 16, 1960: Greenville Eight Stage Read-In at Local Library

In an act of civil disobedience against the whites-only Greenville County Public Library, eight young Black people entered the library, began reading, and were subsequently arrested. They became known as the Greenville Eight, and the library finally desegregated months later after many legal battles.

Pauli Murray: The Life of a Pioneering Feminist and Civil Rights Activist

Book — Non-fiction. By Terry Catasús Jennings and Rosita Stevens-Holsey, illustrated by Ashanti Fortson. 2022. 288 pages.
A biography of Pauli Murray, a queer civil rights and women’s rights activist who fought in the trenches for many of the rights we now take for granted.

Aug. 24, 1955: Old Fort School Desegregation Struggle

The destruction of a local Black elementary school and the refusal to allow Black children to attend the all-white school led to a years-long battle for desegregation in Old Fort, North Carolina.

Feb. 27, 1960: McKenney Library Sit-in

In attempt to end segregation at the William R. McKenney Central Library in Petersburg, Virginia, a group of African American students held a sit-in.

Sept. 22, 1954: Hillsboro’s “Marching Mothers” Sue to Desegregate Schools

The “Marching Mothers” of Hillsboro sued the school district and began daily marches to desegregate elementary schools in this town in Ohio.

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.”

On the Freedom Side: How Five Decades of Youth Activists Have Remixed American History

Book — Non-fiction. By Wesley C. Hogan. 2019. 368 pages.
This comprehensive collection documents and assesses young people’s interventions in the fight for democracy in the United States.

May 16, 1950: Briggs v. Elliott Challenges School Segregation

With the help of the NAACP, local African American parents in South Carolina fought back against school segregation in a case that eventually helped to end segregation of public facilities across the nation.

Dec. 26, 1956: Fred Shuttlesworth Leads Protest to Desegregate Birmingham Buses

The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and others were met with coordinated white supremacist violence when attempting to desegregate Birmingham city buses.

March 16, 1958: White Supremacists Bomb Jewish Community Center

In one of many white supremacists attacks during the early years of the Civil Rights Movement, a Jewish Community Center was bombed in Nashville, Tennessee.

Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins

Book — Non-fiction. By Mary Frances Phillips. 2025. 320 pages.
The first biography of Ericka Huggins, a queer Black woman who brought spiritual self-care practices to the Black Panther Party.

Feb. 2, 1959: The Norfolk 17 Defy the Stanley Plan

In spite of a repressive series of laws that maintained racial segregation in Virginia schools, the Norfolk 17 stood strong and helped to desegregate their local schools.

May 15, 1956: Elloree 21 Refuse to Sign Anti-NAACP Teacher Oath

Twenty-one teachers at the Elloree Training School were fired when they refused to sign an oath denying membership in the NAACP.

A New Kind of Youth: Historically Black High Schools and Southern Student Activism, 1920-1975

Book — Non-fiction. 2022. By Jon N. Hale. 348 pages.
An examination of Black high school student activism in the civil rights era, illustrating how Black youth supported liberatory movements and inspired their elders across the South.

Oct. 28, 1958: Two Children Arrested in N. Carolina

Following a kiss by a 7-year-old white girl, two young Black boys ages 8 and 9 were unlawfully arrested and brutally treated in Monroe, North Carolina.

July 11, 1954: First White Citizens’ Council Formed

White residents of Indianola, Mississippi, formed the first White Citizens’ Council to organize and carry out massive resistance to racial integration of public schools.

Teaching Palestine-Israel from the Perspective of Civil Rights and Black Power Activists

Teaching Activity. By Hannah Gann, Nick Palazzolo, Keziah Ridgeway, and Adam Sanchez. Rethinking Schools. 2024. 23 pages.
This lesson highlights the complexity and diversity of thought as Civil Rights and Black Power leaders and organizations developed their views on Palestine-Israel.

Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color

Book — Non-fiction. By Michael R. Fischbach. 2018. 296 pages.
Explores the connections between organizers of the Black Freedom Struggle and those struggling for Palestinian autonomy.

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