Learning from History
As William Falkner once famously said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” The resources on this page were hand-selected to help paint a picture of the socio-political climate in the United States during the 1960s, and bridge the gap between our past and present.
Books
- At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68 by Taylor Branch
- Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America by Amy Goodman
- Detour Before Midnight by Bernice Sims
- Eyes on the Prize by Juan Williams
- Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Raymond Arsenault
- Freedom Summer: The Savage Season that Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy by Bruce Watson
- Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman
- Justice on the Walls: A Narrative of the Robert and Carolyn Goodman Art Collection by Brad Herzog
- March by John Lewis
- Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement by Danny Lyon
- My Mantelpiece by Carolyn Goodman
- Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch
- Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 by Taylor Branch
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
- The Freedom Summer Murders by Don Mitchell
- The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist
- Wandering Dixie: Dispatches from the Lost South by Sue Eisenfeld
- We Are Not Afraid by Seth Cagin
Documentaries
- 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America: Freedom Summer (2006)
- 1964 (2014)
- 13th (2016)
- 4 Little Girls (1997)
- A Time for Justice (1994)
- Freedom on my Mind (1994)
- Freedom Riders (2010)
- Freedom Summer (2014)
- Neshoba: The Price of Freedom (2008)
- Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot (2015)
- Mighty Times: The Children’s March (2004)
- The March (2014)
- Two Trains Runnin’ (2016)
Movies
- All the Way (2016)
- Free State of Jones (2016)
- Ghost of Mississippi (1996)
- Mississippi Burning (1988)
- Selma (2014)
Other
- 50 Years Later: Civil Rights
- “Mississippi Burning” by Graham Nash
- Modern Civil Rights ChartWheels
- “Souvenir I” by Kerry James Marshall
- “The Assassinated of the 60’s” by Paul Georges
- “The Right to Vote” WebWheel