Anti-Racism Resources 

Definitions of Anti-Racism

Videos and Short Films

Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Our Schools.

Red Folder from Ben Kallam on Vimeo.

Sometimes You're a Caterpillar.

TEDxHampshireCollege - Jay Smooth - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race.

How microaggressions are like mosquito bites • Same Difference

Movies
    • A recent HBOmax movie on Fred Hampton, Judas and the Black Messiah, gives a wonderful overview of his very short, but powerful life. 
    • BlacKkKlansman: Ron Stallworth, an African American detective in Colorado Springs who infiltrated the KKK in the late 1970s. He was the first African American to graduate from the ranks of the Police Cadet Program at that time. 
Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006)

Octavia was a science fiction writer, who was born in Pasadena, CA. She attended community college and while participating in a writer’s workshop, she was encouraged to focus on science fiction—a realm of writing that was dominated by white males.

By the late 1970, she became a well established writer with the publication of her first novel Patternmaster in 1976, and her career breakthrough came in 1979 with her novel Kindred a novel in which she tells the story of an African American woman who travels back in time to save her salved ancestors. Her use of science fiction writing served Octavia in addressing social and political issues that faced the African American community.

Gayle Jones (November 23, 1949) 


Gayle Jones was born in Lexington Kentucky. Her love for writing was apparent when by the age of 7 she was writing her own stories. Jones graduated from Connecticut College with honors, and was accepted into the writing program at Brown University in 1971. Her first novel Corregidora was published in 1975 which received the praise of Toni Morrison. The novel centered around a Blues singer Ursa Corregidora who was hospitalized after a fall, and it explored issues such as family traumas, domestic and sexual abuse, and womanhood and motherhood. 

Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) 

Fred Hampton was a Black Panther leader who quickly rose through the ranks at quite a young age. He was a charismatic leader, an excellent orator, and an effective community leader who drew many followers. He helped find the Illinois chapter of the movement and served as a chairman of the chapter. Through his work with the Black Panther group, he served his community with various services such as free breakfasts and health clinics.  

Claudette Colvin (September 5, 1939)  

Before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin. Claudette was only 15 when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white person and was imprisoned for that. The same act that made Rosa Parks famous 9 months later. Claudette was truly the first to challenge that law.

Marcus Garvey (August 17, 1887- June 10, 1940) 

“Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-born Black nationalist and leader of the Pan-Africanism movement, which sought to unify and connect people of African descent worldwide. In the United States, he was a noted civil rights activist who founded the Negro World newspaper, a shipping company called Black Star Line and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, or UNIA, a fraternal organization of black nationalists.” Marcus Garvey became one of the most famous and powerful Black visionaries of the 20th century.  

Medgar Evers 

Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was the first state field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi. As such, he organized voter-registration efforts and economic boycotts, and investigated crimes perpetrated against Black people.  

Emerging from his car and carrying NAACP T-shirts that stated, “Jim Crow Must Go”, Evers was struck in the back with a bullet that ricocheted into his home. He staggered 30 feet before collapsing, dying at the local hospital 50 minutes later. Evers was murdered just hours after President John F.

Queen Anna Mbande Nzhinga

One of the great women rulers of Africa, Queen Anna Nzinga (circa 1581-1663) of Angola fought against the slave trade and European influence in the seventeenth century. Known for being an astute diplomat and visionary military leader, she resisted Portuguese invasion and slave raids for 30 years.

Emmett Till

Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store. 

Myles Horton

Myles Falls Horton was an American educator, socialist, and co-founder of the Highlander Folk School, famous for its role in the Civil Rights Movement. Horton taught and heavily influenced most of his era's Civil Rights leaders.

Myles Horton tells the story of the Highlander Folk School in The Long Haul:An Autobiography. An influential catalyst for social change in the United States for more than 70 years, this school has affected great leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Pete Seeger.

Work for change in our society and schools by using these lesson plans, videos, and other anti-racism resources.