African American Archives

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.

Breaking the Chains: African American Slave Resistance

Book — Non-fiction. By . 2024. 256 pages.
This young adult history offers a researched account with first-hand testimonies of how people in bondage were themselves a driving force behind their own emancipation.

Jan. 13, 2014: CeCe McDonald Released from Prison

CeCe McDonald, a Black trans woman, was imprisoned following an act of white supremacist and transphobic violence in which McDonald defended herself and, in the process, her assailant was killed.

Jan. 20, 1919: Bragg Williams Killed by White Mob

A white mob dragged Black prisoner Bragg Williams from his jail cell and burned him at the stake in one of many acts of white supremacist violence in 1919 and beyond.

Will’s Race for Home

Book — Historical fiction. By Jewell Parker Rhodes. 2025. 208 pages.
A chapter book on the experience of a late 19th century era Black family participating in the Oklahoma Land Rush.

The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots

Book — Non-fiction. By John Swanson Jacobs. 2024. 288 pages.
A first-person narrative of the enslaved, lost for 169 years, now reproduced in full.

Jan. 1, 1862: Parkersburg Colored School Founded

The first free school south of the Mason-Dixon Line was established in Parkersburg, West Virginia, during the Civil War.

Feb. 15, 1851: Shadrach Minkins Arrested by U.S. Marshals Under Fugitive Slave Act

U.S. Marshals arrested Shadrach Minkins, who had escaped from slavery in Norfolk, Virginia.

"Freedom might be too great a temptation" Marker Text | Zinn Education Project

Feb. 18, 1797: Hercules Escapes from Enslavement by George Washington

Hercules, the head cook at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate and slave labor camp, escaped to freedom in Pennsylvania.

Chains

Book — Historical fiction. By Laurie Halse Anderson. 2010. 336 pages.
Historical fiction based on the life of an enslaved teenager during the Revolutionary War.

Teaching Activity by Laurie Halse Anderson

CORE Members Woolowrth's Sit-in (photo) | Zinn Education Project

Feb. 20, 1960: Patricia Stephens Due Called for “Jail, No Bail”

Patricia Stephens Due refused to pay bail after being arrested for a sit-in in Florida.

book cover of ghosts in the schoolyard by Eve Ewing

Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side

Book — Non-fiction. By Eve L. Ewing. 2018. 240 pages.
This book flips the script about how we talk about "failing schools," using historical research and current data to show that Chicago's public schools are storehouses of memory, an integral part of their neighborhoods, and at the heart of their communities.

Reconsidering Reparations

Book — Non-fiction. By Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò. 2025. 286 pages.
Táíwò’s take on reparations and distributive justice has wide implications for views of justice, racism, the legacy of colonialism, and climate change policy.

Unforgettable Sacrifice: How Black Communities Remembered the Civil War

Book — Non-fiction. By Hilary N. Green. 2025. 400 pages.
The untold stories of ordinary African Americans who took extraordinary steps in remembrance and resistance during and after the Civil War.

Feb. 26, 1946: Columbia Uprising

The Columbia Uprising took place in Columbia Tennessee on February 26, 1946, when Black residents collectively defended themselves against rioting police officers and local white supremacist militants.

Claudette Colvin (photo) | Zinn Education Project

March 2, 1955: Claudette Colvin Refuses to Give Up Her Bus Seat

At age 15, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Montgomery, Alabama.

Ten Things You Should Know About Selma Before You See the Film

By Emilye Crosby

On each anniversary year of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the Voting Rights Act it helped inspire, national media focus on the iconic images of “Bloody Sunday,” the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the interracial marchers, and President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act. This version of history, emphasizing a top-down narrative and isolated events, reinforces the master narrative that civil rights activists describe as “Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, and the white folks came south to save the day.”

Here are 10 points to keep in mind about Selma’s civil rights history.

Guns and the Southern Freedom Struggle: What’s Missing When We Teach About Nonviolence

By Charles E. Cobb Jr.

The best way to understand this Mississippi movement episode is...as a story of organizers and the communities they were embedding themselves in during the Freedom Movement of the 1960s. Within this organizing experience, guns in the hands of supporters sometimes existed in tension with the nonviolence usually used to define movement philosophy and practice, but that more often existed in tandem with nonviolence. In other words, something more complex was at play.

Dec. 25, 1951: Murder of Harriette and Harry Moore in Florida

The Ku Klux Klan bombed the home of labor and voting rights activists Harry T. Moore and Harriette Moore — killing them both. Harriette Moore taught elementary school, secretly teaching her students Black history in the face of bans by the state superintendent.

Nov. 10, 1898: Wilmington Massacre

The elected and interracial Reconstruction era local government was deposed in a coup d’etat in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Feb. 25, 1870: Hiram Revels Sworn into Office

Hiram Revels was sworn into office as senator from Mississippi, becoming the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Feb. 23, 1868: W. E. B. Du Bois Born

W. E. B. Du Bois, sociologist, historian, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor, was one of the most important scholars of the 20th century.

March 19, 1968: Howard University Protest

Howard University students seized the Administration Building, demanding changes in the discipline policy, the addition of courses in African American history, and more.

Poetry of Defiance: How the Enslaved Resisted

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez.
Through a mixer activity, students encounter how enslaved people resisted the brutal exploitation of slavery. The lesson culminates in a collective class poem highlighting the defiance of the enslaved.

Two Thumbs Up: Movies and Documentaries to Use (and Avoid) When Teaching Civil Rights

Article from "Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement" edited by Hasan Kwame Jeffries.
A critical review of films on the Civil Rights Movement and institutionalized racism, with dozens of recommendations of films to watch and those to avoid.

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