segregation

Trouble the Water

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Copies: 6

There's an old yellow dog wandering around town, and you can bet that eleven-year-old Callie--fearless, a little stubborn, and a lot nosy--is gonna figure out who he belongs to. But her sleuthing causes her to cross paths with Wendell, a white boy her very same age. As the two try to find the old dog's owner, their segregated town doesn't take kindly to their new friendship.

Author:

Frances O'Roark Dowell

Lexile:

920L

Letter from Birmingham Jail

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Letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 and published in the Atlantic.

We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March

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Copies: 7

In 1963, the Civil Rights movement was falling apart. After a series of setbacks across the south, the movement was losing direction and momentum. No southern city was more divided than Birmingham, Alabama, home of the infamous Bull Connor.

Author:

Cynthia Levinson

Lexile:

1020L

We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March

The Girl from the Tar Paper School

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Copies: 7

Before the Little Rock Nine, before Rosa Parks, before Martin Luther King Jr. and his March on Washington, there was Barbara Rose Johns, a teenager who used nonviolent civil disobedience to draw attention to her cause. In 1951, witnessing the unfair conditions in her racially segregated high school, Barbara Johns led a walkout—the first public protest of its kind demanding racial equality in the U.S.—jumpstarting the American civil rights movement.

Author:

Teri Kanefield

Lexile:

1100L

Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later (2007)

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In 1957, Little Rock Central High School became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement when, in defiance of federal orders to integrate the school, the Governor of Arkansas called out the National Guard to prevent nine African-American students from entering the building.

Grade Level:

Middle

High

Length:

01:10

Nine From Little Rock (2005)

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The heroism of nine students in Little Rock, Arkansas
Pioneers of desegregation

Nine From Little Rock chronicles the Arkansas school integration crisis and the changes wrought in subsequent years.

Grade Level:

Middle

High

Length:

00:19

With All Deliberate Speed: A look at the landmark Brown vs. The Board of Education (2005)

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History Ignored is History Repeated

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education that the concept of "separate but equal" school segregation was unconstitutional. But in this landmark ruling, the Justices used a four-word phrase that many believe has delayed the process of change for over 50 years: "With All Deliberate Speed."

Grade Level:

Middle

High

Length:

01:51

With All Deliberate Speed: A look at the landmark Brown vs. The Board of Education

The Watsons Go to Birmingham

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The Watsons are an African-American family that live in Flint, Michigan where they're raising three children in the 1960's. The oldest son, Byron, is hanging with the wrong crowd and his parents want to change his environment. The whole family piles into their old car for a trip to Birmingham, Alabama, where Byron's strict grandmother lives. While traveling in the South, they encounter overt racism and segregation, and a tragic event that will shake their world. They realize that the love of family gives them the strength to endure most anything.

Director:

Kenny Leon

Grade Level:

Middle

Length:

01:26

Rosa

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On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery, Alabama city bus and refused to give up her seat to a white man, an act that ignited a movement that changed modern history.

Author:

Giovanni, Nikki

Grade Level:

Primary

Elementary

Middle

Length:

00:14

The Progressive Paradox (2005)

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After examining how and why American identity, freedom, and equality had changed since 1876, the Progressives and the causes they pursued are profiled. The meaning of progressive reform and the paradox of segregation is assessed.

Grade Level:

Middle

High

Length:

00:30