Critiquing the Traditional Narrative

Resources to examine and challenge the traditional narratives of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Lessons

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Hidden in Plain Sight: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Radical Vision

Lesson by Craig Gordon
This lesson helps students penetrate the curtain of clichés and lies the corporate media have erected around Martin Luther King Jr. in order to make him “safe” for public consumption.

Teaching About Race and the Media

Lesson by Julian Hipkins III
During the Civil Rights Movement, the media often worked to portray events happening across the country through a lens of white supremacy, ignoring or misreporting tales of state sponsored terrorism. The objective of this lesson is to introduce students to the struggle of African-American to share the stories omitted and misrepresented by the white press.

The Rebellious Lives of Mrs. Rosa Parks

Lesson by Bill Bigelow
In this mixer lesson, students learn about Rosa Parks' many decades of activism by taking on roles from various times in her life. In this way, students learn about her radicalism before, during, and long after the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Readings

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The View from the Trenches

Reading by Charles Payne
A critique of the master narrative of the Civil Rights Movement.

Uprooting Racism and Racists in the United States

Reading by James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs
A short history of racism in the United States.

Advanced Ideas About Democracy

Reading by Vincent Harding
Excerpts from Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement, a well-annotated list of historic events for teaching the full story of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Politics of Children’s Literature: What’s Wrong with the Rosa Parks Myth

Reading by Herbert Kohl
A critical analysis that challenges the myths in children’s books about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The Limits of Master Narratives in History Textbooks: An Analysis of Representations of Martin Luther King

Reading by Derrick Alridge
A study of how U.S. history textbooks present prescribed, oversimplified, and uncontroversial narratives of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that obscure important elements in King’s life and thought.

What Julian Bond Taught Me

Reading by Jeanne Theoharis
Freedom movements don’t just happen, they are made—and not by charismatic leaders, but by everyday people possessing great courage. Reflections on what Julian Bond taught us about how social movements are built and sustained.

Patriotism over Democracy: A Critical Analysis of U.S. History Textbooks

Reading by James Loewen
Examination of how U.S. history textbooks misrepresent the role of the federal government in foreign and domestic policy, minimizing the potential power of the people.

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

Reading by Charles E. Cobb Jr.
Asserting their right to defend themselves when attacked was a tradition that safeguarded and sustained generations of Black people in the United States. Yet this tradition is almost completely absent from the conventional narrative of the Southern civil rights struggle.

What Happened to the Civil Rights Movement After 1965? Don’t Ask Your Textbook

Reading by Adam Sanchez
Too often, students are taught that the Civil Rights Movement ended in 1965 with passage of the Voting Rights Act. It didn’t. Adam Sanchez argues that it is essential to teach the long, grassroots history of the Civil Rights Movement in order to help students think about today’s movements for racial justice.

Nonviolence vs. Jim Crow

Primary Document by Bayard Rustin
This essay, based on an experience Rustin had in 1942, is one example of the countless challenges to Jim Crow and the use of non-violence as a tactic that predate the traditional 1954 start date for the Civil Rights Movement.

Mississippi Burning Is Still Burning: A Critical Film Review

Reading by Judy Richardson
A critical review of the film Mississippi Burning, which ignores the Civil Rights Movement, characterizes the local African-American community as passive victims of racist violence, and lifts the role of the FBI to heroic proportions.