Resources for Teaching Black History

• America's Civil Rights Movement captures the struggle and heroism of the Movement through historic news footage, the voices of participants and biographies of those who died in the struggle.

• Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks tells the story of how one woman inspired a community to unite in its opposition to segregation.

• Mighty Times: The Children's March tells the heroic story of the young people of Birmingham, Ala., who brought segregation to its knees.

• 101 Tools for Tolerance booklet has simple ideas for promoting equity and celebrating diversity.

Teaching Tolerance provides grants of up to $2,500 for innovative classroom-centered projects that counteract bullying. Here are just two of our recent grantees:

• A 6th grade American history teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio, received a grant for a civil rights study. Students studied history in light of present issues and were actively engaged in connecting history to disparities in contemporary society.

• A history teacher in West Milford, NJ, requested a grant to develop an oral history project for her middle grade students. The teacher challenged her students, who generally lead a "sheltered life" in the homogenous school, to escape the traps of racism and ethno-centrism. Afterward, one student remarked, "I feel like I know how to stand up for my rights or fight for other people's rights."

• Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture
  One of the four research divisions of the New York Public Library, their resources include a research library and a museum, as well as a traveling exhibition program.
  (212) 491-2200

• The Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies
  The Center produces exhibitions, documentary films and videos, symposia, educational materials, and kits.
  (202) 287-3424

• National Civil Rights Museum
  This museum offers curriculum kits and educational materials that explore civil rights history in the United States from the 1600s to today.
  (901) 521-9699

• Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
  by James Loewen
  An exploration of myths and misinformation about American history.
  $16.00
  Touchstone
  A Division of Simon & Schuster
  1230 Avenue of the Americas
  17th floor New York, NY 10020
  New York, NY 10020
  Fax (212) 698-7171

• The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture
  A survey of the Library of Congress holdings in the history and culture of black Americans.
  by Debra Ham, Ed.
  $24.00
  Washington, DC: Library of Congress
  Retail Marketing Office
  101 Independence Ave SE, stop 4985
  Washington, DC 20540-4985
  888-682-3557

• There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America
  An examination of African Americans from captivity to the Civil War.
  by Vincent Harding
  $13.26
  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
  6277 Sea Harbor Drive
  Orlando, FL 32887-6777
  407-345-2000

• Now Is Your Time! The African-American Struggle for Freedom
  A historical overview for younger readers.
  by Walter Dean Myers
  HarperCollins Children's Books
  10 53rd Street
  New York, NY 10022
  212-207-7000

• The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class
  An account of the origins of ideas about race and racism among the working class.
  by David R. Roediger
  $13.49
  Verso
  180 Varick Street
  New York, NY 10014
  212-807-9680