Civil Rights in the United States: A Toolkit 

More Resources:


General

The United States Constitution (Annotated)
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html

National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel (Memphis, TN)
https://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/



Race

Is Race for Real?
(https://www.pbs.org/race/001_WhatIsRace/001_00-home.htm)

31 Children’s Books to Support Conversations on Race, Racism, and Resistance (website list, 2019)
https://blog.usejournal.com/31-childrens-books-to-support-conversations-on-race-racism-and-resistance-9dbabc28360e

Center for Racial Justice Resources (reading lists)
https://centerracialjustice.org/resources/

Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PrAq4iBNb4nVIcTsLcNlW8zjaQXBLkWayL8EaPlh0bc/edit

Whiteness

The Construction of Whiteness  ‘Seeing White” podcast (sceneonradio.org
Peggy McIntosh, “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”
http://www.nymbp.org/uploads/2/6/6/0/26609299/whiteprivilege.pdf

Intersectionality

Mapping Social Identities (worksheet and discussion activity. Print handouts (social identities wheel, cycle of socialization, do timeline activity)
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/inclusive-teaching/2017/08/24/mapping-social-identity-timeline-activity/

African Americans

The New Jim Crow (book), Michelle Alexander

1619  (2019, New York Times Magazine)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html

1619 Podcast 

1619 Curricular Project
https://pulitzercenter.org/builder/lesson/1619-project-curricular-materials-26514

March, John Lewis (graphic novel) 

I Am Not Your Negro (documentary, Netflix, 1 hr 33 mins)

“Love is the message, the message is death” (Arthur Jafa, video, 7 mins)
https://youtu.be/D1McJ8cci3Y

Black Lives Matter syllabus 

Civil Rights History (syllabus), Boston University, 2017 
http://www.bu.edu/history/files/2017/01/HI-299-Syllabus-Spring-2017.pdf

Native Americans

Ramona Bennett
https://blogs.uw.edu/tchp/2017/10/ramona-bennett-puyallup-tribal-indian-activist/

The Blackwell Companion to American Indian History, ed. Philip Deloria and Neal Salisbury
Teachers’ Guide, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (for Young People) 
http://www.beacon.org/assets/clientpages/IndigenousHistoryYAtg.aspx

Kurtis Lee, “Native women are vanishing across the U.S.” (Newspaper article, Los Angeles Times, January 2020)
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-01-31/murdered-missing-native-american-women

“Why Do So Many Native American Women Go Missing?” (CNN article with 3-minute video)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/09/us/native-american-murdered-missing-women/index.html

Missing Murdered Indigenous Womxn, Girls, and 2-Spirit 
https://www.csvanw.org/mmiw/

The Standing Rock Syllabus 
https://nycstandswithstandingrock.wordpress.com/standingrocksyllabus/

Knowledge 360, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian 
https://americanindian.si.edu/

LGBTQ 

A Queer History of the United States for Young People, Teacher’s Guide
http://www.beacon.org/assets/clientpages/QueerHistoryYAtg.aspx

“The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies”
(1995 documentary, 100 minutes, available on YouTube for rental or purchase)

Brick by Brick: The LGBTQ Advocacy Curriculum (7th-9th graders, National Women’s Law Center)
https://nwlc.org/resources/brick-by-brick-the-lgbtq-advocacy-curriculum/

People with Disabilities

7 Documentaries to watch after ‘Crip Camp’
https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2020/05/04/7-documentaries-to-watch-after-crip-camp/

Solidarity Is, podcast syllabus, May 2018
https://dc491f07-4030-4f6f-8ab3-eec10c1fc234.filesusr.com/ugd/70923b_a3f680cff97b4e8e850c31291b27de3e.pdf

Sins Invalid Study Guide 
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bed3674f8370ad8c02efd9a/t/5c305c924d7a9c0f3df31164/1546673314833/study+guide_questions_02_14-1.pdf

“Patient No More” (documentary/exhibit on disability and civil rights)
https://longmoreinstitute.sfsu.edu/patient-no-more

Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History

“Disability was a significant factor in the three great citizenship debates of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: women’s suffrage, African American freedom and civil rights, and the restriction of immigration.”

https://washingtonpeacecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/https__rs1.uua_.org_documents_bayntondouglas_justification_inequality.pdf

Latinx 

Joy Revolution (Gabby Rivera podcast)
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts–Culture-Podcasts/Joy-Revolution-p1310288/

Under the Feet of Jesús (novel), Helena Maria Viramontes

Zoot Suit (novel), Luis Valdez

“American Me” (film about the Zoot Suit riots)

“A Day Without a Mexican” (satire film) 

Social Justice Curriculum for Children of Color (Chicana Motherwork)
https://www.chicanamotherwork.com/summer-2020

Asian Americans

Viral Histories: Stories of Racism and Resilience in Asian American Communities
https://americanhistory.si.edu/events/viral-histories-stories-racism-resilience-and-resistance-asian-american-communities

Asian American 1968, community history of the 1968 Asian American movement
https://aam1968.blogspot.com/2008/01/introduction-to-asian-american-movement.html

What Do Asian Americans Owe the Civil Rights Movement? (NPR interview, 2015)
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=214833622

“Resistance at Tule Lake” (documentary) 

“Who Killed Vincent Chin?” (Documentary) 

“Conscience and the Constitution” (documentary) 

https://resisters.com/

Tadaima! Japanese American Community Pilgrimage virtual viewing on July 4, 2020 with director and producer Frank Abe

Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen (Young Reader’s Edition) Jose Antonio Vargas (memoir) 

Grapes of Wrath: The Forgotten Filipinos Who Led A Farmworker Revolution (NPR, audio and article, 2015) https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/09/16/440861458/grapes-of-wrath-the-forgotten-filipinos-who-led-a-farmworker-revolution

“Why It’s Important to Know The Story of Filipino American Larry Itliong”  (Smithsonian Magazine, article with video)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-it-is-important-know-story-filipino-american-larry-itliong-180972696/

Cross-racial histories and relationships

Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (book, Mae Ngai, 2004)

Marina Fang, “How Asian Americans Are Addressing Anti-Blackness in their Families” (Huffington Post article)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anti-blackness-asian-americans_n_5ed87ca8c5b6ea15610b5774

Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities: A Reading List 
https://www.blackwomenradicals.com/blog-feed/black-and-asian-feminist-solidarities-a-reading-list

Black Lives Matter 

Black Lives Matter—HerStory of the movement 
https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/

“Through line: American Police” (NPR, interview, 1 hr 5 minutes. Transcript available at link below.)
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/03/869046127/american-police

Art and Social Change 

Library of Congress, “Songs of Social Change”
https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/historical-topics/songs-of-social-change/

Taking Action, Getting Involved 

Adrienne Maree Brown, Pleasure Activism 

Add Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It (book), by Jamie Margolin, 2020

Prison Abolition 

8 can’t wait vs. 8 to abolition 
https://theintercept.com/2020/06/10/ruth-wilson-gilmore-makes-the-case-for-abolition

Teenage Activists 

Malala Yousazafi, Greta Thunberg

(See: Teen Vogue)