Readings for Students
History.com Article on the Civil Rights Movement
An overview of the history of the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle for social justice.
Library of Congress Collection on Women of The Civil Rights Movement
A list of important women who played a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement, as well as their experience with gender discrimination.
Facing History Article on Race and The Civil Rights Movement
An article about a teacher's experience in Birmingham, Alabama during 1965 and the Civil Rights Movement.
Book Table List of Black Lives Matter Books
A comprehensive list of books that can be used to teach about African American history, Black Lives Matter, and anti-racist teaching.
Common Lit Webpage of Texts about The Civil Rights Movement
A webpage of various texts, questions, and assignments that range in topics from controversy to champions during the Civil Rights Movement.
Nova Southeastern Library Database of Civil Rights Movement Books
A comprehensive list of books for teens on the Civil Rights Movement that range in type from nonfiction, fiction, memoirs, etc.
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
A memoir written in 1968 by Anne Moody about growing up in rural Mississippi as an African American woman.
Bayard Rustin Behind Scenes of Civil Rights Movement by James Haskins
A biography of Bayard Rustin who was a skillful organizer behind the scenes of the Civil Rights Movement whose ideas strongly influenced Martin Luther King Jr.
No Crystal Stair by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
A story of a pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement by the name of Lewis Michaux.
Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children and Don’t You Weary by Elizabeth Patridge
A look at the fight for the right to vote for African Americans.
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
A book by James Baldwin that contains two essays written in the 1960s during a time of segregation between white and black Americans.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The story of Malcolm X that was published in 1965 and contains interviews between 1963 and his assassination in 1965.
The story of Black Panther Assata Shakur and her journey through prison, her conviction, and now asylum in Cuba.
Because They Marched: The People’s Campaign for Voting Rights That Changed America by Russell Freedman
An account of the pivotal event in the history of civil rights, the 1965 march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution by Bryan Shih
A reappraisal of the history and legacy of the Black Panther party.
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby
The story of Ella Baker, her rich political career as an organizer, an intellect, and a teacher during the depression-era Harlem to the civil rights movement of the 1950s to the 1960s.
Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC by Faith S. Holsaert
The story of fifty-two women--northern and southern, young and old, urban and rural, black, white, and Latina--who worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
March, Book One by John Lewis
An autobiographical black and white graphic novel about the Civil Rights Movement told through the lens of civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis.
A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis
The story of the Civil Rights Movement in a different light in which Theoharis teases out the accepted stories of the well-known movement.
Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters by Michael G. Long
The story of Rustin, the master strategist and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, in which he describes in his own words the story of his experience through 150 impassioned letters.
A People's History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play by David Zirin
A book in which Zirin shows how sports can express the worst and sometimes most political features of society.
SNCC: The New Abolitionists by Howard Zinn
A book by Zinn that describes the early years of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's early years registering voters in the rural south.
A Time to Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King Jr., for Students by MLK Jr.
The first collection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s writings for high school students and young people.
To Write in the Light of Freedom: The Newspapers of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools by William Sturkey
A book that offers a glimpse into the hearts and minds of the African American youths who attended the Mississippi Freedom School in 1964.
Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s by Henry Hampton
A book that brings to life the country's great struggle for civil rights as it highlights the voices of multiple perspectives of the movement.
Readings for Teachers
Civil Rights Teaching Article on Teaching about Race and the Media
An article and lesson plan that describes and analyzed the role of media during the Civil Rights Movement.
Southern Spaces Article on Television News and the Civil Rights Struggle
An essay about the role of television news during the Civil Rights Movement specifically local news sources in Virginia and Mississippi.
Social Justice Books List of Civil Rights Teaching Books
A comprehensive list of books on the background of the Civil Rights Movement.
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
A book that discusses the concepts of racism and Kendi's proposal for anti-racist individual actions and systematic changes.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Race by Robin DeAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson
In this in-depth exploration, white fragility is examined how it is developed, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
Caste: The Origins of Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson
An eye-opening story of people and history and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
An outline of opinions on the topics of race as well as advice about how to talk about these pressing issues.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This book is written as a letter to the author's teenage son about the feelings and realities of being Black in the United States.
Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene Carruthers
A manifesto that disrupts political, economic, and social norms by reimagining the Black Radical Tradition.
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
Following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, three women came together to form an active response to the systemic racism causing the deaths of so many African-Americans.
Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
A book that chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
A book that discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States.
They Can’t Kill Us All: The Story of the Struggle for Black Lives by Wesley Lowery
A book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray which offers both unparalleled insights into the reality of police violence in American.
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
A book by James Baldwin that contains two essays written in the 1960s during a time of segregation between white and black Americans.
Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude
A book about the life of James Baldwin and a powerful reckoning with America's ongoing failure to confront the lies it tells itself about race.
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis, Frank Barat
A collection of essays, interviews, and speeches in which the renowned activist examines today's issues from Black Lives Matter to prison abolition and more.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The story of Malcolm X that was published in 1965 and contains interviews between 1963 and his assassination in 1965.
The story of Black Panther Assata Shakur and her journey through prison, her conviction, and now asylum in Cuba.
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
An account of growing up Black, Christian, and a female that exposes how white America's fascination with diversity falls short of its ideals.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
A history that exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide.
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
A reframing of our continued conversation about race that chronicles the powerful forces opposed to black progress in America.
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversation About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum
A book that discusses the psychology of racism that argues the straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides.
Stay Woke: A People’s Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter by Tehama Lopez Bunyasi
A guide to understanding how racism works and how racial inequality shapes black lives.
Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W. Caleb McDaniel
A story of one enslaved woman's fight for justice and reparations.
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
An examination of the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave-owning women in which there is a focus on how we can rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America.
Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving
Irving tells her story in which she sensed inexplicable racial tensions in her personal and professional relationships for 25 years and then describes her adventure and discovery that drastically shifted her worldview.
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Education Freedom by Bettina Love
A book that provides an alternative to traditional modes of educational reform and expands our ideas of civic engagement and intersectional justice.
Freedom's Teachers: The Life of Septima Clark by Katherine Mellen Charron
The story of Septima Clark, a former public school teacher that developed a citizenship training program that enabled thousands of African Americans to register to vote.
I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle by Charles M. Payne
A book that offers the history of the early Civil Rights Movement in the south.
Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching: A Resource Guide for Classrooms and Communities by Deborah Menkart
A teacher resource book that emphasizes the power of people through a diversity of stories, perspectives, essays, photographs, graphics, interviews, and interactive and interdisciplinary lessons.
Teaching for Black Lives by Dyan Watson, Jesse Hagopian, and Wayne Au
A book that provides resources and demonstrates how teachers connect curriculum to young people's lives and root their concerns and daily experiences in what is taught and how classrooms are set up.
Engaging with History in the Classroom: The Civil Rights Movement by Janice Robbins
A resource book for teachers in secondary education that focuses on the Civil Rights Movement.
Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement by Hasan Kwame Jeffries
A resource book for teachers in engaging students in critical, thought-provoking topics that focuses on the Civil Rights Movement.
