Classroom Connections: The Civil Rights Movement Through Photography

by Jason Jules with Graham Marsh

From the most avant-garde jazz musicians, visual artists, and poets to architects, philosophers, and writers, Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style charts a period in American history when Black men across the country adopted the clothing of a privileged elite and made it their own. What Black Ivy explores is how these clothes are reframed and redefined by a stylish group of men from outside the mainstream, challenging the status quo, and struggling for racial equality and civil rights. 

by Steven Kasher

With a striking selection of images and a lively, informative text, Steven Kasher captures the danger, drama, and bravery of the civil rights movement. After an introduction explaining the significance of photography to the movement, the text in this important book proceeds from the Montgomery bus boycott through the students, local, and national movements; the big marches; Freedom summer; Malcolm X; and the death of Martin Luther King.

edited by Leslie G. Kelen; essays by Julian Bond, Clayborne Carson, and Matt Herron; text by Charles E. Cobb, Jr.

This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement is a paradigm-shifting publication that presents the civil rights movement through the work of nine activist photographers—men and women who chose to document the national struggle against segregation and other forms of race-based disenfranchisement from within the movement. Unlike images produced by photojournalists, who covered breaking news events, these photographers lived within the movement—primarily within the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) framework—and documented its activities by focusing on the student activists and local people who together made it happen.

written, produced, and directed by Michael Bicks & Anna Lee Strachan

More than just an item of apparel, America’s tangled past is woven into the indigo blue fabric. From its roots in slavery to its connection to the Wild West, youth culture, the civil rights movement, rock and roll, hippies, high fashion, and hip-hop, jeans are the canvas on which the history of American ideology and politics is writ large.

by Erica Martin

This debut poetry collection walks readers through the civil rights movement, introducing lesser-known figures and moments just as crucial to the movement and our nation’s centuries-long fight for justice and equality. 

by De Nichols; illustrated by Diana Dagadita, Saddo, Olivia Twist, Molly Mendoza, and Diego Becas

From Keith Haring to Extinction Rebellion, the civil rights movement to Black Lives Matter, what does a revolution look like? Discover the power of words and images in this thought-provoking look at protest art by artivist De Nichols.

by Barbara Diggs

Explore five ground-breaking protests that took place during the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s. Become immersed in the excitement, challenges, and spirit of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Draft Card Burning Protests of the Vietnam War, the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott, the first Gay Pride March, and the Women’s Strike for Equality. 

by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin; art by Nate Powell

A multi-volume graphic novel account of the author's lifelong struggle for civil and human rights covers his youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., and his involvement in the Freedom rides and the Selma to Montgomery march.

by Kekla Magoon

Revolution in Our Time puts the Panthers in the proper context of Black American history, from the first arrival of enslaved people to the Black Lives Matter movement of today. Kekla Magoon’s eye-opening work invites a new generation of readers grappling with injustices in the United States to learn from the Panthers’ history and courage, inspiring them to take their own place in the ongoing fight for justice.

by Johanna Fernández

Drawing on oral histories, archival records, and a huge cache of newly released police records, this definitive history of the Young Lords, chronicles their rise and fall as a political organization and demonstrates how they redefined the character of protest and the color of politics.