Recommended Activism Resources
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES SPECIFIC TO
SOCIAL JUSTICE, ACTIVISM AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT
Please also see the Creativity and Writing pages on this website for further resources specific to writing and poetry, healing, empowerment, creativity and spirituality.
Click Here to view, download or print a PDF of the resources on this page.
BOOKS
Katherine Aalto, Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World
Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2020
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- We Should All Be Feminists
New York: Anchor, 2015 - Americanah
New York: Anchor, 2014
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
New York: The New Press, 2012
Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals
New York: Vintage, 1989
“So we can’t defeat terrorism by bombing countries back to the Stone Age. What can we do? Well, what if we build a new world order based on the principles of the Enlightenment? The ones upon which the constitutions of all Western democracies were written. The ones we all seem to feel in our guts have somehow gotten lost. After all, it was our own governments that armed and trained the fanatics we now call enemies. Would these terrorists now have this power over us if we had not given them terrible power over others?”
Alice Anderson, Some Bright Morning, I’ll Fly Away
NYC: St. Martin’s Press, 2017
Carol Anderson
- One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
NYC: Bloomsbury USA, 2016 - White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
NYC: Bloomsbury USA, 2016
Maya Angelou, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
New York: Random House, 1969
Author, poet and Civil Rights activist Maya Angelou’s classic memoir of her early childhood through the age of seventeen, which details her personal experiences of the intersections between race, discrimination, violence, sexual violence, literacy, empowerment and dignity. Any book by Dr. Angelou is worth the read, but this one remains the one I most often recommend.
asha bandele and Patrisse Cullors, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
Foreword by Angela Davis
NYC: St. Martin’s Press, 2018
Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005
Becky Bond and Zack Exley, Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything
White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2016
Andrew Boyd, Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution
New York: OR Books, 2016
John Braithwaite, Crime, Shame and Reintegration
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989
A leader in the restorative justice movement, Braithwaite argues that the current criminal justice system stigmatizes offenders in destructive ways and shows how restorative justice allows for offenders and victims, through mediation and appropriate shaming of action rather than character, can enable healing for all parties.
Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
New York: Picador, 2010
Albert Camus, Exile and the Kingdom
New York: Vintage, 2007 reissue of this 1957 classic
“From a variety of masterfully rendered perspectives, these six stories depict people at painful odds with the world around them. A wife can only surrender to a desert night by betraying her husband. An artist struggles to honor his own aspirations as well as society’s expectations of him. A missionary brutally converted to the worship of a tribal fetish is left with but an echo of his identity. Whether set in North Africa, Paris, or Brazil, the stories in Exile and the Kingdom are probing portraits of spiritual exile, and man’s perpetual search for an inner kingdom in which to be reborn. They display Camus at the height of his powers.” Camus won The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, Anniversary Edition, 2002
“The classic that launched the environmental movement. Rarely does a single book alter the course of history, but Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring did exactly that. The outrcrythat followed its publication in 1962 forced the banning of DDT and spurred the revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. This is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century.” Introduction by Linda Lear.
John Carolos, David Zirin, The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2006
Melissa Checker & Maggie Fishman, Editors. Local Actions: Cultural Activism, Power and Public Life in America
New York: Columbia University Press, 2004
“Using the methods of anthropology to broaden our understanding of collective action, this volume presents ten case studies of such groups as evangelical Christians in Tennessee, transgender activists in New York, South Asian teenagers in California and Native Americans in Minnesota.”
Noam Chomsky
- Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project)
New York: Metropolitan Books, 2003 - Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky
New York: New Press, 2002
A major collection of Noam Chomsky’s works spanning 30 years. Chomsky is universally accepted as one of the preeminent public intellectuals of the modern era, referred to by The New York Times as “arguably the most important intellectual alive.” Peter Mitchell and John Schoeffel have assembled the best of Chomsky’s recent talks on the past, present, and future of the politics of power.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2015
David Cohen, Rosa de la Vega and Gabrielle Watson, Advocacy for Social Justice: A Global Action and Reflection Guide
Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 2001
A powerful comprehensive guide and tool kit, combining over 60 years of advocacy experience between the three authors.
Phil Cousineau, editor, Soul: An Archeology
San Francisco: Harper Books, 1994
Angela Y. Davis, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2016
Vine Deloria, Jr., God Is Red: A Native View of Religion, 30th Anniversary Edition
Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 2003
Published in 1972, God Is Red remains a seminal work on Native religious views, asking new questions about our species and our ultimate fate. This classic work reminds us to learn “that we are a part of nature, not a transcendent species with no responsibilities to the natural world.”
Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
New York: Crown Publishing, 2016
Robin Diangelo, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Boston: Beacon Press, 2020
Aaron Dixon, My People Are Rising: Memoir of a Black Panther Party Captain
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2012
Martin Duberman, Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left
New York: The New Press, 2012
“Howard Zinn was perhaps the best-known and most widely celebrated popular interpreter of American history in the twentieth century, renowned as a bestselling author, a political activist, a lecturer, and one of America’s most recognizable and admired progressive voices.”
Glennon Doyle
- Untamed
New York: The Dial Press / Penguin Random House, 2020 - Love Warrior: A Memoir
New York: Flat Iron Books / Macmillan Publishers, 2016
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (ReVisioning American History)
Boston: Beacon Press, 2015
Timothy Egan, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher
The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013
Timothy Egan’s biography of the pioneering photographer and advocate Edward Curtis’ 30 years of effort to document over eighty North American Indian tribes, whom Curtis believed were doomed to extinction.
Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and dimed: on (not) getting by in America
New York: Metropolitan Books, 2001
Ehrenreich’s account of her experience of joining Americans across the US working at poverty-level wages. She worked as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson and this book details her insights: Even the “lowliest” occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts and one job is not enough if you hope to have housing, ultimately showing the struggle and tenacity of low-wage Americans.
Mark Eleveld, The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip-Hop, & The Poetry of A New Generation
Naperville, Illinois: Source Books, 2003
Narrated by the founder of the Poetry Slam movement, Marc Kelly Smith.
Mark Enger and Paul Enger, This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century
New York: Nation Books, 2016
Eve Ensler
- In The Body of the World: A Memoir of Cancer and Connection
New York: Metropolitan Books, 2013 - The Vagina Monologues: The V-Day Edition
New York: Random House/Villard Books, 2000
“A poignant and hilarious tour of the last frontier, the ultimate forbidden zone, The Vagina Monologues is a celebration of female sexuality in all its complexity and mystery. Hailed as the bible for a new generation of women, it has been performed in cities all across America and at hundreds of college campuses, and has inspired a dynamic grassroots movement–V-Day–to stop violence against women. Witty and irreverent, compassionate and wise, Eve Ensler’s Obie Award-winning masterpiece gives voice to real women’s deepest fantasies and fears, guaranteeing that no one who reads it will ever look at a woman’s body, or think of sex, in quite the same way again.”
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Austria: Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946
Boston: Beacon Press (English), 1959
“Frankl survived the horrors of one of the 20th Century’s bleakest tragedies: Auschwitz. Some refer to such events as ‘dark nights of the soul.’ At such times we are given a choice: to die or to find some way to move on and live. To move on implies to learn and grow from the experience and implies introspection as much as action. For Frankl, this meant coming to the conclusion that human beings’ innermost motivation for existence is meaning, purpose.”
Charles Ferguson
- Inside Job: The Financiers That Pulled Off The Heist of the Century
New York: Crown Business, 2012
“The definitive big picture on the 2008 financial crisis, from the man behind the Oscar-winning documentary film, Inside Job, that exposed the workings of the new economic elite.” - Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America
New York: Random House, 2013
“Charles H. Ferguson, who electrified the world with his Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job, now explains how a predator elite took over the country, step by step, and he exposes the networks of academic, financial, and political influence, in all recent administrations, that prepared the predators’ path to conquest.”
Crystal Fleming, How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide
Boston: Beacon Press, 2018
Philip S. Foner (Editor); Barbara Ransby (Foreword), The Black Panthers Speak
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 1970
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, new, revised 30th-Anniversary Edition
New York: Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2000
“First published in Portuguese in 1968, translated to English in 1970. The methodology of the late Freire has helped to empower countless impoverished and illiterate people throughout the world. Freire’s work has taken on especial urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is increasingly accepted as the norm. This anniversary edition has a substantive new introduction on Freire’s life and the remarkable impact of this book by writer and Freire confidant and authority, Dr. Donaldo Macedo.
Mahatma Gandhi
- An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth, Translator, Mahadev Desai
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012 reissue
“Mohandas Gandhi is one of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his classic autobiography, he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the 20th century.” - Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha)
New York: Dover, 2001 Reprint
“This volume focuses on Gandhi’s vision of Satyagraha, whereby one appeals to reason and conscience and puts an end to evil by converting the evil-doer. The book begins with an explanation of Satyagraha and proceeds with detailed discussions of the self-training and courage necessary for Satyagraha.”
Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin, Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2012
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union
Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2021
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought
New York: The New Press, 1995
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
New York: Penguin, 2012
“Haidt reveals that we often find it hard to get along because our minds are hardwired to be moralistic, judgemental and self-righteous. He explores how morality evolved to enable us to form communities, and how moral values are not just about justice and equality – for some people authority, sanctity or loyalty matter more. Morality binds and blinds, but, using his own research, Haidt proves it is possible to liberate ourselves from the disputes that divide good people.”
“A landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself.” – The New York Times
Paul Hawkin, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
New York: Penguin Books, 2017
New York Times bestselling book by Project Drawdown as its inaugural body of work on climate solutions, which hasbecome a seminal text on climate solutions, drawing on humanity’s collective wisdom about the practices and technologies that can begin to reverse the buildup of atmospheric carbon by mid-century. The material contained within the pages of Drawdown has influenced university curricula, city climate plans, commitments by businesses, community action, philanthropic strategy, and more. This website provides a supplemental list of references used in development of the book.
Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey
New York: Penguin, 2020
Andrew Harvey
- The Hope: A Guide To Sacred Activism
Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2009
“Andrew Harvey offers not only a guide to discovering your divine purpose but also the blueprint for a better world. It consists of the necessary elements that can inspire greatness in each of us. Based on Harvey’s concepts of Sacred Activism, a global initiative designed to save the world from its downward spiral of greed, pain, and self-destruction, the book is an enlightening text that reflects our world today, while in turn, shapes our future.” - The Return of The Mother
New York: Tarcher 2000
“Here is Andrew Harvey’s most complete statement on Mary and his vision of the Divine Mother as both a social and spiritual revolutionary. “Perhaps the most radical aspect of Harvey’s message is also the simplest: “Only the transforming power of love can make the salvation of the human race possible.”
Chris Hedges, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
New York: Random House, 2002
“As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: “It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living. Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies, corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting the most basic human desires.”
Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt
New York: Nation Books, 2012
“Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges and award-winning cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco set out to take a look at the sacrifice zones, those areas in America that have been offered up for exploitation in the name of profit, progress, and technological advancement. They wanted to show in words and drawings what life looks like in places where the marketplace rules without constraints, where human beings and the natural world are used and then discarded to maximize profit. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is the searing account of their travels.”
James Hillman. The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling
New York: Random House, 1996
“Hillman presents a brilliant vision of our selves not defined by family relationships or the mentality of victimization. Drawing on the biographies of such disparate people as Ella Fitzgerald and Mohandas K. Gandhi, James Hillman argues that character is fate and shows how the soul, if given the opportunity, can assert itself even at an early age. The result is a reasoned and powerful road map to understanding our true nature and discovering an eye-opening array of choices — from the way we raise our children to our career paths to our social and personal commitments to achieving excellence in our time.”
bell hooks. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
New York: Routledge, 1994
“bell hooks–writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual–writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to “transgress” against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher’s most important goal. hooks speaks to the heart of education today: how can we rethink teaching practices in the age of multiculturalism? What do we do about teachers who do not want to teach, and students who do not want to learn? How should we deal with racism and sexism in the classroom? Full of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines a practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world of emotions and feelings. This is the rare book about teachers and students that dares to raise critical questions about eros and rage, grief and reconciliation, and the future of teaching itself.”
Greg Jobin-Leeds, When We Fight, We Win: Twenty-First-Century Social Movements and Activists That Are Transforming Our World
New York: The New Press, 2016
Wesley Lowery, They Can’t Kill Us All
New York: Back Bay Books, 2017
Chalmers Johnson, Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project) 1st Edition
New York: Metropolitan, 2006
Ibram X. Kendi, How To Be An AntiRacist
New York: One World, 2019
Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism Versus the Climate
New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015
Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2014
Pulitzer Prize-winner The Sixth Extinction, by two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert, draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind’s most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.”
Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities: Children in American Schools, 2nd Edition
New York: Broadway Books, 2012
In 1988, Kozol set off to spend two years with children in the American public education system in neighborhoods across the country, from Illinois to Washington, D.C., and from New York to San Antonio. He spoke with teachers, principals, superintendents, and, most important, children. What he found was devastating. Kozol delivers a searing examination of the extremes of wealth and poverty and calls into question the reality of equal opportunity in our nation’s schools. Savage Inequalities was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and became a national bestseller.
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
New York: Knopf, 2009
“A passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope.”
Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land And Life
Boston: South End Press, 1999
John Paul Lederach, Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies
Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1997
“A major work from a seminal figure in the field of conflict resolution, Building Peace is John Paul Lederach’s definitive statement on peace-building. Marrying wisdom, insight, and passion, Lederach explains why we need to move beyond “traditional” diplomacy, which often emphasizes top-level leaders and short-term objectives, toward a holistic approach that stresses the multiplicity of peacemakers, long-term perspectives, and the need to create an infrastructure that empowers resources within a society and maximizes contributions from outside.”
James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
New York: The New Press, 2008 Revised, updated edition
“The national bestseller and winner of the American Book Award, thoroughly updated for the first time since its initial publication to include textbooks written since 2000 and featuring a new chapter on what textbooks get wrong about 9/11 and Iraq. Since its initial publication in 1995, Lies My Teacher Told Me has gone on to win an American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, and to sell one million copies in its various editions.”
Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1984
One of Lorde’s most powerful books, a compilation of her works in the 1970’s and 1980’s, showing Lorde as one of the foremost voices on the subjects of patriarchy, sexism, homophobia and race relations. Her profoundly compelling speech: The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, is in this collection, in which she states: “Your silence will not protect you.”
Tressie MacMillan-Cottam, Thick: And Other Essays
NYC: The New Press, 2019
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, Abridged Edition
New York: Holt, Rinehart And Winston, 2000
“International hero, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and leader of South Africa’s antiapartheid movement chronicles his life, including his tribal years, his time spent in prison, and his return to lead his people.”
Manning Marable and Leith Mullings, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2015
Jen Marlowe and Martina Davis-Correia, with Troy Davis, I Am Troy Davis
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2013
Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan. Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry
New York: Penguin, 1994
This powerful collection of poems explores the boundaries of skin color, language, ethnicity, and religion to give voice to the lives and experiences of ethnic Americans. Including work by Dove, Baraka, Reed, Ferlinghetti, Harjo and many others.
Dora E. McQuaid, the scorched earth with the scorched earth: spoken audio companion
Expanded, Second Edition
Fort Worth: Baskerville Publishers, 2015
Dora E. McQuaid’s ground-breaking collection of poems about her journey of healing from a history of both sexual and domestic violence into empowerment and advocacy as an award-winning poet, activist, speaker and teacher. The Foreword is by Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues. This Expanded, Second Edition includes a comprehensive 25-page Discussion/Study Guide designed for use across a variety of settings and audiences, and a full-length audio companion of Dora performing the entire collection, and an extensive listing of resources for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, human trafficking and sexual harassment.
Order signed copies here.
Laura Mirsky, “Restorative Justice Practices of Native American, First Nation and Other Indigenous People of North America”.
Bethlehem, PA: International Institute of Restorative Practices, 2004
Kate Moore, The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women
Naperville, IL: SourceBooks, 2018
A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon Charts Bestseller, this is “the incredible true story of the women heroes who were exposed to radium in factories across the U.S. in the early 20th century, and their brave and groundbreaking battle to strengthen workers’ rights, even as the fatal poison claimed their own lives. A timely story of corporate greed and the brave figures that stood up to fight for their lives, these women and their voices led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.”
MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Become a Catalyst for Change
Makawao: Inner Ocean, 2004
As the 2004 presidential race heated up, more citizens were inspired to voice their concerns about the state of the country’s affairs and its role in world politics than in previous elections. MoveOn.org, a catalyst for monumental change in political activism, organized a thought-provoking compilation of 50 personal stories of action taken by its members. The moving essays of this bestselling book — read by Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Joan Blades, Peter Schurman, Eli Pariser, and David Fenton, among others — will mobilize anyone interested in learning more about grassroots activism. Short, lively, and packed with practical information, MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country also includes printable action tips that accompany each essay.
Bill Moyer’s Journal: The Conversation Continues
New York: The New Press, 2013
Soloman Northrup, Twelve Years A Slave
Los Angeles: Graymalkin Media, 2012
Michelle Obama, Becoming
New York: Crown Publishing, 2018
Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
New York: Broadway Books, 1998
Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race
Seattle: Seal Press, 2018
Paul Ortiz, An African American and Latinx History of the United States
Boston: Beacon Press, 2018
M. Scott Peck
- The Road Less Traveled
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978
Peck’s mostly-widely known book, combining spirituality and psychology, it has sold more than seven million copies in the United States and Canada, has been translated into more than twenty-three languages and made publishing history, with more than ten years on the New York Times bestseller list. - People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983
Kay Pranis, Mark Wedge and Barry Stuart, Peacemaking Circles: From Crime to Community
St. Paul, MN: Living Justice Press, 2003
A time-tested paradigm for healing relationships and keeping them healthy, Peacemaking Circles explores how communities can respond to crimes in ways that address the needs and interests of all those affected – victims, offenders, their families and friends, and the community. Based on indigenous teachings combined with current research in conflict resolution, the Circle process described here builds an intentionally safe space where we can bring our best selves to some of our most difficult conversations. Though the book relates the process to criminal justice, the explanation of Circle philosophy and practice can be readily applied to hurts and conflicts in other areas of life.”
Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning
New York: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2020
Adrienne Rich, On Secrets, Lies and Silence
New York: W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition, 1995
“In this collection of prose writings, one of America’s foremost poets, feminist theorists and public intellectuals reflects upon themes that have shaped her life and work. At issue are the politics of language; the uses of scholarship; and the topics of racism, history, and motherhood among others called forth by Rich as “part of the effort to define a female consciousness which is political, aesthetic, and erotic, and which refuses to be included or contained in the culture of passivity.”
Rupert Ross, Returning to the Teachings: Exploring Aboriginal Justice
New York: The Penguin Group, 1996
“Ross invites us to accompany him as he moves past the pain and suffering that grip so many communities and into the exceptional promise of individual, family and community healing that traditional teachings are now restoring to Aboriginal Canada. He shares his confusion, frustrations and delights as Elders and other teachers guide him, in their unique and often puzzling ways, into ancient visions of Creation and our role with it.”
Layla F. Saad, Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor
Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 1920
Gene Sharp, Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential
Manchester, NH: Porter Sargent Publishers, 2005
This groundbreaking work builds on 50 years of Sharp’s definitive academic research and practical experience aiding nonviolent struggles around the world. Dr. Sharp documents 23 significant—and often successful—20th century nonviolent struggles in a range of cultural and political contexts, and reaffirms nonviolent action as a realistic and powerful alternative to both passivity and violence.
Ahmed Shawki, Black Liberation and Socialism
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2006
Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987
An international bestseller, a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and made into a critically acclaimed movie, Shilts’ expose revealed why AIDS was allowed to spread unchecked during the early 80’s while the most trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat, changing the discussion and address of AIDS in the following years.
Jael Silliman, Marlene Gerber Fried, Loretta Ross, Elena R. Gutiérrez, Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice
Boston: South End Press, 2004
Rebecca Solnit
- Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2016 - Men Explain Things to Me
Chicago, IL: Haymarket, 2014
Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy
New York: One World Publishers, 2014
Wladyslaw Szpilman, The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man’s Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945
New York: Picador, 2000
Beverly Daniel Tatum, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together at The Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations
New York: Basic Books, 1997
Keeanga Yamata Taylo, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2016
Tina Turner and Kurt Loder, I, Tina: My Life Story
New York: William Morrow and Company, 1986
Desmond Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness
New York: Doubleday, 1999
“Tutu argues that true reconciliation cannot be achieved by denying the past. But nor is it easy to reconcile when a nation “looks the beast in the eye.” Rather than repeat platitudes about forgiveness, he presents a bold spirituality that recognizes the horrors people can inflict upon one another, and yet retains a sense of idealism about reconciliation. With a clarity of pitch born out of decades of experience, Tutu shows readers how to move forward with honesty and compassion to build a newer and more humane world.”
J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
New York: Harper, 2016
Judy Walgren, The Lost Boys of Natinga: A School for Southern Sudan’s Young Refugees
New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1998
“…Natinga was the temporary refuge for about 2,000 Sudanese boys, ages from 8 to 18, from many different tribes, protected by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, a group that was engaged in a fierce battle with the Islamic Arab regime that took control of the Sudanese government in 1983. In addition to the war, disease and famine, these boys faced constant threats, limited supplies and the loss of their traditional customs. Award-winning photojournalist Judy Walgren traveled to Natinga and met the boys living there. She provides a vivid document of their lives, from the struggle to find sanitary drinking water to the hope of acquiring the knowledge and survival skills that will help them find a new life in their war-ravaged country…”
David Wallace-Wells, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
New York: Penguin/Random House Publishing, 2019
Inspired by Wallace-Wells’ New Yorker Magazine article of the same name, “…The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it—the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress. The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • The Economist • The Paris Review • Toronto Star • GQ • The Times Literary Supplement • The New York Public Library • And many more.
Mary Watkins and Helene Shulman, Toward Psychologies of Liberation: Critical Theory and Practice in Psychology and the Human Sciences
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008
Understanding that the psychological well-being of individuals is inextricably linked to the health of their communities, environments, and cultures, the authors propose a radical interdisciplinary reorientation of psychology to create participatory and dialogical spaces for critical understanding and creative restoration.
Tom Wicker, A Time to Die: The Attica Prison Revolt
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2012
Elie Wiesel, Night
New York: Hill and Wang Publishers, 2006
Sarah Wilson, This One Wild and Precious Life: The Path Back to Connection in a Fractured World
New York: Dey Street Books / Harper Collins
Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women
London: Chatto & Windus, 1991
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
London: Hogarth Press, 1929
Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
New York: Ballantine Books, 1992
Gary Younge, The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream
Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2013
Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2013
Howard Zehr
- The Little Book of Restorative Justice
Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 2002
How should we as a society respond to wrongdoing? When a crime occurs or an injustice is done, what needs to happen? What does justice require? Restorative justice is a process to involve, to the extent possible, those who have a stake in a specific offense and to collectively identify and address harms, needs, and obligations, in order to heal and put things as right as possible. Written by the founder of the Restorative Justice movement. - Changing Lenses: A New Focus for Crime and Justice
Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1990
HOWARD ZINN
Howard Zinn was a renowned American historian, author, playwright, and social activist, who was also a political science professor at Boston University for 24 years and taught at Spellman College for 7 years. Zinn wrote more than 20 books, including:
- A People’s History of The United States, 1942 – present. http://www.peopleshistory.us/
- You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, his 2004 memoir.
Also the title of the 2004 documentary about Zinn’s life and work. - Artists in Times of War, New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003
- The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy, 1997
- A Power Governments Cannot Suppress, 1996
- SNNC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee): The New Abolitionists, 1964
BOOKS FOR YOUNGER AUDIENCES:
Ben Brooks, Quinton Winter, Stories for Boys Who Dare to be Different
London: Quercus Publishing, 2018
Drew Daywalt, The Day the Crayons Quit
New York: Philomel Books, 2013
Elena Favilli, Francesca Cavallo, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls
London: Penguin Books limited, 2017
Debbie Levy, I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark
New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2016
Nikki Giovanni, Rosa
New York: Square Fish, 2007
Maureen Johnson, Tim Federle, How To Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2018
Jennifer Mathieu, Moxie
London: Hachette Children’s Group, 2017
James Margolin, Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It
Foreword by Greta Thunberg
New York: Hachette Books Group, 2020
Eunice Moyle, Sabrina Moyle, Be the Change: The Future Is in Your Hands. 16+ Creative Impacts for Civic and Community Action
Mission Viejo, CA: Walter Foster, Jr. Publishing, 2018
Innosanto Nagara, A is for Activist
New York: Triangle Square, 2016
Sarah Prager, Zoe More O’Ferrall, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World
New York: Harper Collins, 2017
Clare Press, Rise & Resist: How to Change the World
Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press, 2018
Kate Schatz (author) and Miriam Klein Stahl (Illustrator)
- Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History…and Our Future!
San Francisco: City Lights, 2015 - Rad Girls Can: Stories of Bold, Brave, and Brilliant Young Women
Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press / Crown Publishing, 2018
Joni Seager, The Woman’s Atlas
Sydney, Australia: New South Publishing, 2018
Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give
London: Walker Books Limited, 2018
Greta Thunberg, No One Is Too Small to Make A Difference
New York: Penguin Books, 2019
Duncan Tonatiuh, Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation
New York: Jane Addams Award Books, 2014
Malala Yousafzai, Kerascoët, Malala’s Magic Pencil
New York: Little Brown and Company, 2017
FILMS
500 NATIONS
Director: Jack Leustig, 1995
Kevin Costner hosts this documentary series, which originally aired on CBS, that explores various American Indian nations and their fall to European conquerors. The program chronicles North and Central American tribal history from the pre-Columbian era to the end of the 19th century.
A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Director: Marielle Heller, 2019
“Tom Hanks portrays Mister Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a timely story of kindness triumphing over cynicism, based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod. After a jaded magazine writer is assigned a profile of Fred Rogers, he overcomes his skepticism, learning about kindness, love and forgiveness from America’s most beloved neighbor.”
A GOOD DAY TO DIE
Director: David Meuller, Lynn Salt, 2010
A Good Day To Die chronicles a movement that started a revolution and inspired a nation. By recounting the life story of Dennis Banks, the Native American who co-founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968 to advocate and protect the rights of American Indians, the film provides an in-depth look at the history and issues surrounding AIM’s formation.
THE ACCUSED
Director: Jonathan Kaplan, 1988
Academy Award-winning film based on the true story of a Massachusetts woman who was gang-raped in a bar by 3 men in 1983 and the prosecutions that followed holding the rapists and the men who cheered them on accountable. This film was one of the first to deal with rape in a direct manner, and led to other films on the subject.
ALCATRAZ IS NOT AN ISLAND
Director: James M. Fortier, 2001
Documentary on a small group of Native American students and “Urban Indians” who occupied Alcatraz Island in November 1969, and how it forever changed the way Native Americans viewed themselves, their culture and their sovereign rights.
AMERICAN HISTORY X
Director: Tony Kaye, 1998
The story of two brothers, one a reformed Neo-Nazi skinhead after a prison sentence for voluntary manslaughter of two black men, who tries to prevent his younger brother from going down the same wrong path that he did.
AMERICA’S CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT: A TIME FOR JUSTICE
Director: Charles Guggenheim, 1994
Academy Award-winning documentary short film by “Academy Award-winning filmmaker Charles Guggenheim that captures the spirit of the civil rights movement through historical footage and the voices of those who participated in the struggle, including the movement’s most dramatic moments: the bus boycott in Montgomery, the school crisis in Little Rock, the violence in Birmingham and the triumphant 1965 march for voting rights.”
AMERICAN OUTRAGE
Director: Beth Gage and George Gage, 2008
Documentary film about the Shoshone tribe members Mary Dann and Carrie Dann in their decades-long struggle against the United States Federal Government over their right to graze their horses on tribal land in the Western Shoshone territory. The film follows the Dann sisters and tribal rights advocates as the case was ruled on by the US Supreme Court and the United Nations.
AND THE BAND PLAYED ON
Director: Roger Spottiswoode, 1993
Based on the best-selling 1987 non-fiction book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts.
ANGELS IN AMERICA
Director: Mike Nichols, 2003
An HBO Miniseries adaptation of Tony Kushner’s Tony-award Winning play of the same name, Angels in America, for which Kushner also was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 . The story, set in 1995, revolves around two couples navigating relationships during the period of Reagan era economics, the growing AIDS pandemic and the social and political controversies of the time.
BAMBOOZLED
Director: Spike Lee, 2000
Spike Lee’s satire on race and racism within the modern media world, centering around a frustrated African American television writer who creates a modern-day minstrel show and the fallout of the show’s success.
BARKING WATER
Director: Sterlin Harjo, 2009
A redemptive road trip film in which two aging former lovers set off on a final journey in an attempt to confront their complicated past and for the latter to reconnect with his estranged family. The film was written and directed by Sterlin Harjo, a member of the Seminole Nation.
BIBI
Director: Victor Duenas, 2020
Teaching Tolerance’s streaming classroom film, Bibi, is a story about the intersection of family, identity and belonging, exploring “the beauty and conflict that can arise as we move between languages, places and societal expectations.”
THE BIG SHORT
Director: Adam McKay, 2015
Critically acclaimed film adaptation of the 2010 New York Times bestselling book by Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis, about the financial crisis of 2007 – 2008, which was triggered by the United States Housing bubble.
THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION
Director: Stanley Nelson, Jr., 2015
Documentary film that combines archival footage and interviews with surviving Panthers and FBI agents to tell the story of the revolutionary black organization the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.
BLACK POWER MIXTAPE: 1967 – 1975 Black Power Movement
Director: Göran Hugo Olsson, 2012
For three decades, the film canisters sat undisturbed in a cellar beneath the Swedish National Broadcasting Company. Inside was roll after roll of startlingly fresh and candid 16mm footage shot in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, all of it focused on the anti-war and Black Power movements. When filmmaker Goran Hugo Olsson discovered the footage, he decided he had a responsibility to shepherd this glimpse of history into the world.
THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND
Director: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 2019
The film based on William Kamkwamba’s New York Times bestselling memoir, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, co-authored with Bryan Mealer. 14-year-old William was forced to drop out of school when drought struck his native Malawi, who continued to study science with the help of the local librarian. Working from just one photo in a U.S. textbook book called “Using Energy,” he creates an electricity-producing windmill from spare parts and scrap, saving the crops in his village.
BOYS DON’T CRY
Director: K. Peirce, 1999
Academy Award-winning film based on the true story that “…emerged from middle America about an extraordinary double life, a complicated love story and a crime that would shatter the heartland. In Falls City, Nebraska, Brandon Teena was a newcomer with a future who had the small rural community enchanted. But, Falls City’s hottest date and truest friend had one secret: he wasn’t the person people thought he was.“
BRICK BY BRICK: A CIVIL RIGHTS STORY
Director: Bill Kavanaugh, 2007
The original documentary film about the desegregation struggle that took place in Yonkers, New York, over housing and educational systems, popularized by the HBO miniseries, Show Me a Hero.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Director: Ang Lee, 2005
The Academy Award-winning film adaptation of Annie Proulx’s short story of the same name that depicts the complex romantic and sexual relationship between two men in the American West from 1963 to 1983, and ultimately the consequences of homophobia on both of their lives. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three.
BROKEN ARROW
Director: Victoria Mudd, Maria Florio, 1985
Academy Award-winning feature length documentary film about the history of Navajo Native Americans, focusing on the US government’s enforced relocation of thousands from Black Mesa tribal lands in Arizona after the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act, in the governmental efforts to gain control of the land and its natural gas and mineral deposits based on mining speculation that began in 1964.
BULLIED
Director: Tom Keith, 2019
Documentary film “that traces bullying and the effects of bullying, but also the methods and programs that have proven efficacious in reducing bullying in schools. From those people who live with the scars of having been bullied to those families who now grieve the loss of their child to suicide in the wake of brutal acts of bullying, the film examines the reasons why people bully and the fallout that occurs from that bullying. With the assistance of scholars from around the nation, Bullied takes the viewer on a journey that starts with loss and grief and travels to the destination of hope and overcoming fear.
BULLIED: A Student, a School and a Case That Made History
Directors: Bill Brummel, Geoffrey Sharp, 2010 / Southern Poverty Law Center
“A Teaching Tolerance documentary film that chronicles one student’s ordeal at the hands of anti-gay bullies and offers an inspiring message of hope to those fighting harassment today. It can become a cornerstone of anti-bullying efforts in middle and high schools. An accompanying Viewers Guide provides standards-aligned activities for classroom viewing of Bullied, as well as guidance for educators to create environments that are safe for all students, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students.”
THE BURNING BED
Director: Robert Greenwald, 1984
Farrah Fawcett astounded critics with the depth of her performance in this landmark television movie as Francine Hughes, a violently abused wife charged with her husband’s murder after setting his bed afire following thirteen years of regular beatings and humiliations. The film was the first movie to fully address and depict the horrific and common realities of domestic violence, and the consequences many women face when they seek help or self protection when please for help fail. The film was based on 1980 non-fiction book of the same name by Faith McNulty. Farrah Fawcett was nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Actress, and “The Burning Bed” was named Best Television Movie of 1984.
BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE
Director: Yves Simoneau, 2007
A Western historical drama television film, produced by HBO, adapted from the 1970 book of the same name by Doris Alexander Dee Brown The book on which the movie is based is a history of Native American sin the American West in the 1860s and 1870s, focusing upon the brutal subjugation and cultural extermination of the Sioux tribe in the 19th century as they are forced from their traditional ways of living to living onto reservations and how greed, racial hatred, violence, deception, and injustice motivated the treatment of Native Americans during that period. The title of the film and the book is taken from a line in the Stephen Vincent Benet poem “American Names.”
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
Director: Matt Ross, 2016
“Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a father (Viggo Mortensen) devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education is forced to leave his paradise and enter the world, beginning a journey that challenges his idea of what it means to be a parent.” The work of public intellectual Noam Chomsky figures prominently in this film.
CRASH
Director, Paul Haggis, 2004
Academy-award winning film which won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Film Editing in 2004, Crash is an exploration of racial and social tension and bigotry from varying perspectives in multi-cultural Los Angeles, based on the personal experience of Paul Haggis himself, whose car was car-jacked in Los Angeles.
CRIP CAMP
Director: Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham, 2020
Award-winning documentary film that explores the groundbreaking summer camp that galvanized a group of teens with disabilities to help build a movement, forging a new path toward greater equality. President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama serve as executive producers under their Higher Ground Productions banner.
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: A LIFE ON OUR PLANET
Director: Alastair Fothergill, Jonnie Hughes and Keith Scholey, 2020
In his 93 years, David Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring the wild places of our planet and documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. Now, for the first time he reflects upon both the defining moments of his lifetime as a naturalist and the devastating changes he has seen. Produced by WWF and award-winning wildlife film-makers Silverback Films, David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet is a first-hand account of humanity’s impact on nature and a message of hope for future generations.
DEAD MAN WALKING
Director: Tim Robbins, 1995
Adapted from the nonfiction book of the same name, this Academy Award-winning film tells the true story of the relationship between a death row inmate and a nun during the prisoner’s wait for execution.
DOWNPOUR RESURFACING
Director: Frances Nkara, 2003
“Award-winning documentary film about Dr. Robert Hall, poet, meditation teacher and somatics pioneer, who shares his story of child sexual and physical abuse to convey how he transformed their repercussions into a life of confidence and peace. Offering emotional wisdom and analytic clarity from his decades of personal and professional experience, Hall inspires hope in abuse survivors and other trauma victims.”
DREAMCATCHER
Director: Kim Longinotto, 2016
“Dreamcatcher takes us into a hidden world through the eyes of one of its survivors; Brenda Myers-Powell. A former teenage prostitute who worked the streets of Chicago, Brenda defied the odds to become a powerful advocate for change in her community. With warmth and humour, Brenda gives hope to those who have none. Her story is their inspiration.”
DRUNKTOWN’S FINEST
Director: Sydney Freeland, 2014
This film is the response to a news story that characterized director Sydney Freeland’s hometown of Gallup, New Mexico, as “Drunktown, USA.” Filmed in New Mexico, the movie shows the lives of three Navajo teenagers; a rebellious father-to-be, a devout Christian girl, and a promiscuous transsexual, as they strive to escape the hardships of life on an Indian reservation.
EL CABALLO: THE WILD HORSES OF NORTH AMERICA
Director: Doug Hawes-Davis, 2001
Horses arrived in the Americas in the 1500s and quickly became a vital part of the ecology and mythology of the continent. This documentary explores the mounting controversy around the last few wild horses living in the western U.S. and the treatment of them by the Bureau of Land Management, with interviews from a wide-range of experts.
EYES ON THE PRIZE: AMERICA’S CIVIL RIGHTS YEARS
Producer: PBS, Henry Hampton, 1987, 1990:
Award-winning PBS documentary television series on the African American Civil Rights movement, offered in two segments:
- Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years (1954–1965) released in 1987
- Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads (1965–1985) in 1990
FENCES
Director: Denzel Washington, 2016
Academy Award-winning film of August Wilson‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which centers on African American sanitation worker Troy Maxson in 1950’s Pittsburgh. Bitter that baseball’s color barrier was only broken after his own heyday in the Negro Leagues, Maxson tries to be a good husband and father, but his lost dream of glory eats at him and threatens to destroy his family.
THE FIGHT IN THE FIELDS: CÉSAR CHÁVEZ AND THE FARMWORKERS’ STRUGGLE
Directors: Ray Telles and Rick Tejada-Flores, 1997
An excellent documentary on the farmworker movement told by the organizers and farmworkers themselves, covering the life of César Chávez and the history of Mexican-American farmworkers. The film begins in the California fields in the 1860s and closes with the death of Chávez in 1993, covering the history of the heroic farmworker movement and the multiracial solidarity that weaves through the long struggle with Mexicans, Okies, Filipinos and Mexicans, Arab-Americans working together.
THE FIRST RAINBOW COALITION
Director: Ray Santisteban, 2019
Documentary film showing the efforts of Chicago’s Black Panther Party to form alliances across lines of race and ethnicity with other community-based movements in the city to collectively confront issues such as police brutality and substandard housing.
FOOD, INC.
Director: Robert Kenner, 2008
This Academy-Award nominated documentary film “lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.”
THE FORGOTTEN SLAVERY OF OUR ANCESTORS
Director: Howdice Brown III, 2020
Learning for Justice’s documentary short film “offering an introduction to the history of Indigenous enslavement on land that is now the United States. As the featured historians point out, the enslavement of Indigenous peoples stretched from Alaska into South America. It predated and helped shape the system of African enslavement in New England, and lasted until throughout the 19th century in the West. “This,” explains historian Andrés Reséndez, “is our shared history.”
FREEDOM RIDERS
Director: Stanley Nelson, 2010.
The story of more than four hundred Americans who participated in the bold and dangerous experiment in 1961 to test the 1960 Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation in interstate public facilities and transportation throughout the deep South, enduring brutal violence and jailing along the way.
FREEDOM SONG
Director: Phil Alden Robinson, 2006
Based on the actual history of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), student activism, and voter registration in McComb, Mississippi, during the Civil Rights Movement.
FREEDOM SUMMER
Director: Stanley Nelson, 2014
2-hour documentary by award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson introduces viewers to the history of Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964. The film uses documentary footage and interviews with veterans of the southern Freedom Movement.
FOR SAMA
Directors: Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
An intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war. A feature documentary that tells the astonishing story of the 26 year-old female Syrian filmmaker Waad al-Kateab’s through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while conflict rises around her.
GASLAND
Director: Josh Fox, 2010
When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he crosses the country and uncovers a trail of contamination.
GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND
Director: Walter Hill, 1993
Following the expansion of the United States into the Southwest, the Apache Indians are forced onto a reservation to live out their lives as lowly corn farmers. While many resign themselves to this fate, several Apache, including Geronimo refuse to go quietly. Hoping to quell a major rebellion, General Charles Crook dispatches over 5,000 U.S. Cavalry soldiers, led by Lieutenant Charles Gatewood to hunt down Geronimo and his men.
GLORY
Director: Edward Zwick, 1989
The story of the all-Black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment from its organization in the winter of 1863 to the climactic assault of July 18, 1863, against Fort Wagner, during the American Civil War.
GRAN TORINO
Director: Clint Eastwood, 2008
Eastwood stars as a racist Korean War veteran retiring in a crime and gang-ridden neighborhood of Detroit with Hmong immigrant neighbors. The unfolding of their relationship amid the violence of their neighborhood forces Eastwood’s character to confront his own prejudices and bitterness head-on.
HARRIET
Director: Kasi Lemmons, 2019
“Based on the thrilling and inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, HARRIET tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.”
HARVEST OF EMPIRE: THE HISTORY OF LATINOS IN AMERICA
Directors: Eduardo López & Peter Getzels. 2012
Feature-length documentary examines the direct connection between the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America and immigration today. Based on the groundbreaking book by award-winning journalist Juan González, Harvest of Empire exposes the role that U.S. economic and military interests played in triggering an unprecedented wave of migration from Latin America and the Caribbean.
HOLY MAN: THE USA vs. DOUGLAS WHITE
Director: Jennifer Jessum, 2017
The story of Douglas White, an 89-year-old Lakota Sioux medicine man from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, who spent 17 years in federal prison for a crime he did not commit. During the making of this film, filmmakers uncovered new evidence of White’s “actual innocence” and brought the case back to federal court. HOLY MAN offers a rare glimpse into the mysterious world of Lakota religion, their intimate connection to the land, and a provocative expose of the systemic injustice Native Americans face in the criminal justice system. Narrated by Martin Sheen.
HOMELAND: FOUR PORTRAITS OF NATIVE ACTION
Director: Roberta Grossman, 2005
“Homeland tells the stories of five remarkable Native American activists in four communities who are fighting these “new Indian Wars” — each in his own way passionately dedicated to protecting Indian lands against disastrous environmental hazards, preserving their sovereignty and ensuring the cultural survival of their peoples. With the support of their communities, these leaders are actively rejecting the devastating affronts of multi-national energy companies and the current dismantling of 30 years of environmental laws.”
HOSTILES
Director: Scott Cooper, 2017
American Western film that follows legendary Army Cavalry Captain Joe Blocker, headed for retirement, as he is assigned to take his hated foe, long-incarcerated Cheyenne War Chief Yellow Hawk and his family to their homeland in Montana so that the chief can die there in 1892. Along the way, they pick up female homesteader Rosalie, who survived her family’s murder at the hands of members of another Native American tribe. The group must travel a long way, through territory marked with many kinds of hostiles, to reach their destination.
HOTEL RWANDA
Director: Terry George, 2004
The true story of events that unfolded in 1994 during the Rwandan genocide, when hotel manager, Paul Rusesabagina, provided shelter to 1200 Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda in the first days of the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi.
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
Director: David France, 2012
“The story of two coalitions—ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group)—whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists, many of them HIV-positive young men, infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time.”
HOWARD ZINN: YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN
Directors: Deb Ellis, Denis Mueller, 2004
The life and work of Howard Zinn: the historian, activist, and author of several classics including “A Peoples History of the United States“. Archival footage, and commentary by friend, colleagues and Zinn himself.
IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK
Directors: Cher, Nancy Savoca
The movie examines the abortion issue through three stories set in different eras – 50s, 70s and 90s.
IN WHOSE HONOR?
Director: Jay Rosenstein, 1997
“Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves – What’s wrong with American Indian sports mascots? This moving, award-winning film is the first of its kind to address that subject. In Whose Honor? looks critically at the long-running practice of “honoring” American Indians as mascots and nicknames in sports. It follows the story of Native American mother Charlene Teters, and her transformation into the leader some are calling the “Rosa Parks of American Indians” as she struggles to protect her cultural symbols and identity. A compelling analysis of the issues of racism, stereotypes, minority representation, the powerful effects of mass-media imagery, and the extent to which one university and its fans will go to defend its mascot.”
INCIDENT AT OGLALA
Director: Michael Apted, 1992
Narrated by Robert Redford, this dramatic documentary exposes the U.S. government’s desperate attempts to convict Native American activist Leonard Peltier of the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota on June 26, 1975.
INDIA’S DAUGHTER
Director: Leslee Udwin, 2015
“This film pays tribute to the remarkable short life of “India’s Daughter” (Jyoti) and documents the brutality of her gang-rape and murder in Delhi in December 2012. It examines the mindset of the men who committed the rape with exclusive interviews and – perhaps most importantly – it tries to shed light on the patriarchal society and culture which not only seeds but may be said even to encourage violence against women.” Part of the BBC’s ongoing Storyville series.
INSIDE JOB
Director; Charles Ferguson, 2010.
“…Academy Award nominated filmmaker Charles Ferguson offers the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, INSIDE JOB traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships, which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia. Narrated by Academy Award winner Matt Damon…”
THE INVISIBLE WAR
Director: Kirk Dick, 2012
“Award-winning investigative documentary about one of America’s most shameful and best kept secrets: the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military. The film paints a startling picture of the extent of the problem today – The Department of Defense estimates there were a staggering 22,800 violent sex crimes in the military in 2011 – and reveals the systemic cover-up of military sex crimes, chronicling the women rape victims’ struggles to rebuild their lives and fight for justice. It also features hard-hitting interviews with high-ranking military officials and members of Congress that reveal the perfect storm of conditions that exist for rape in the military, its long-hidden history, and what can be done to bring about much-needed change.”
IRON JAWED ANGELS
Director: Katja von Garnier, 2004
Based on the true story of the suffragette movement, this film shows the actions of two determined women activists who put their lives at risk during the 1910’s to help American women win the right to vote.
JUST MERCY
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton, 2019
“A Story of Justice and Redemption: A powerful true story about the Equal Justice Initiative, the people we represent, and the importance of confronting injustice, Just Mercy is a bestselling book by Bryan Stevenson that has been adapted into a feature film.”
JUSTICE DENIED
Director: Michael L. Miller, Geri Lynn Matthews 2012 (Vietnam Vet, as well)
“Military Sexual Trauma (MST) is not new. Survivors of this crime tell their stories in this award-winning documentary feature film created by one veteran and the wife of another veteran. The film outlines 3 goals: One: To support other survivors in coming forward and to get treatment; Two: Offer treatment alternatives and Three: To change the existing procedures and laws that would make reporting of these crimes safer for the survivors.”
THE KILLING FLOOR
Director: Bill Duke, 1985 / 2020
Digitally restored in 2020. Set during World War I, this film shows how two African-American men deal with racism in the workplace and the labor union in Chicago during World War I The screenplay by Obie-Award-winner Leslie Lee is based on an original story by producer Elsa Rassbach.
KILLING US SOFTLY
Director: Jean Kilbourne
Author, speaker and filmmaker Jean Kilbourne’s ground-breaking research on the images of women in the media, based on her pioneering perspective of media literacy education as a preventative tool combatting mass media advertising’s destructive consequences.
Killing Us Softly has been offered as four distinct films:
- Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women, 1979
- Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women, 1987
- Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women, 2000
- Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women, 2010
THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO
Director: Joe Talbot, 2019
American drama that centers on a young black man’s efforts to reclaim his childhood home, a now-expensive Victorian in a gentrified neighborhood in San Francisco. “A wistful odyssey populated by skaters, squatters, street preachers, playwrights, and other locals on the margins, The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a poignant and sweeping story of hometowns and how they’re made—and kept alive—by the people who love them.”
LION
Director: Garth Davis, 2016
Award-winning biographical film based on the non-fiction book, A Long Way Home, that tells the true story of five-year-old Saroo Brierley, who gets lost on a train which takes him thousands of miles across India, away from home and family. Saroo is later adopted by a white couple, and twenty-five years later, sets out to find his family and original home. Saroo’s story is one of hundreds of thousands, as there are over 11 million children living on the streets of India, with more than 80,000 going missing each year. This film launched the #LionHeart campaign to raise awareness about these problems and to inspire action on a global scale.
LITTLE WOMEN
Director: Greta Gerwig, 2019
Based on Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic novel of the same name, this Academy Award-winning film is an American coming-of-age period drama. It is the seventh film adaptation of the 1868 novel, which chronicles the lives of the March sisters—Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth—in Concord, Massachusetts, during the 19th century.
LOST GIRLS
Director: Liz Garbus, 2021
Based on the book Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker, this film revolves around the murders of young female sex workers on the South Shore barrier islands of Long Island, New York, committed by the Long Island serial killer, who remains unidentified. Determined to find her missing daughter, Mari Gilbert relentlessly drives law enforcement agents to search for her missing daughter and the serial killer responsible for the murder of 10 to 16 people, mostly young female sex workers, over a period of 20 years.
LOVING
Director: Jeff Nichols, 2016
“Academy Award-nominated film from acclaimed writer/director Jeff Nichols, Loving celebrates the real-life courage and commitment of an interracial couple, Richard and Mildred Loving, who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their hometown. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry – and their love story has become an inspiration to couples ever since.”
MADE IN L.A.
Director: Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar, 2007
Emmy award-winning feature documentary follows the story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles sweatshops on an odyssey to win basic labor protections from a clothing retailer.
MAESTRA (TEACHER)
Director: Catherine Murphy, 2013
Documentary film about the 100,000 Cuban teenagers, most of them girls, who participated in Cuba’s successful 1961 literacy campaign. Historical footage and current-day interviews bring the campaign to life.
MAKING A KILLING: PHILLIP MORRIS, KRAFT AND THE GLOBAL TOBACCO ADDICTION
Directors: Kelly Anderson and Tami Gold, 2001
Documentary short film that shows how the tobacco giant uses its political power, size and marketing skill to spread tobacco addiction internationally, leaving in its wake a trail of death and disease. The documentary was made by award-winning filmmakers Kelly Anderson and Tami Gold, and produced by Corporate Accountability International, the executive producer of Academy Award winner Deadly Deception.
MALCOLM X
Director: Spike Lee, 1992
Based on Alex’s Hailey’s 1965 collaboration with Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Spike Lee’s biopic explores the life and efforts of the controversial and highly influential African American leader of the Black Nationalist movement during the Civil Rights era in the United States, which led to his assassination in 1965.
MANUFACTURING CONSENT: NOAM CHOMSKY AND THE MEDIA
Directors: Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick, 1992.
An exploration of the political life and ideas of world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist Noam Chomsky. Combining new and original footage, biography, archives, imaginative graphics and illustrations, the film highlights Chomsky’s probing analysis of mass media in two parts. Chomsky encourages his listeners to extricate themselves from the “web of deceit” by undertaking a course of “intellectual self-defense.” Appearing in the film are major journalists and critics, including Bill Moyers, William F. Buckley, Jr., Tom Wolfe, Peter Jennings, Jeff Greenfield, philosopher Michel Foucault, White House reporter Sarah McClendon, New York Times editorial writer Karl E. Meyer and revisionist author Robert Faurisson.
MAQUILAPOLIS (CITY OF FACTORIES)
Directors: Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre, 2006
Documentary film that explores the impact of globalization as told through the lives of the women who experience it in Tijuana, Mexico.
MARTIN LUTHER KING: “I HAVE A DREAM”
Producer: MPI Home Studios
Dr. King. Jr.’s famous speech given on August 28, 1963 to 250,000 Civil Rights protestors in front of Lincoln Monument in Washington D.C., in which King called for an end to racism in the United States and was seen as a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement.
MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD
Director: Alex Gibney, 2012
This HBO original documentary film “…documents filmmaker Alex Gibney examination of the abuse of power in the Catholic Church system through the story of four deaf men who set out to expose the priest who abused them during the 1960s, who brought forth the first known case of public protest against clerical sex abuse, known as the Lawrence Murphy case. Through their case, the film follows a cover-up that winds its way from the row houses of Milwaukee, through the ruined choirs of Ireland’s churches, all the way to the highest office of the Vatican.”
A MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE WITH ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ
Directors: Jim Batt, Kim Boekbinder, 2019
7-minute imaginative film that flips the script on our future by illustrating one where we survive climate change and thrive because we took action today.
MILK
Director: Gus Van Sant, 2009
The Academy-Award winning biographical film based on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay person to be elected to a major public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
MISS REPRESENTATION
Director: Jennifer Siebel Newsom, 2011
Documentary film that interweaves stories from teenage girls with provocative interviews from the likes of Condoleezza Rice, Lisa Ling, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Rosario Dawson, Dr. Jackson Katz, Dr. Jean Kilbourne, and Gloria Steinem to give an inside look at the media and its message. The film’s motto, “You can’t be what you can’t see,” underscores an implicit message that young women need and want positive role models, and that the media has thus far neglected its unique opportunity to provide them. The film includes a social action campaign to address change in policy, education and call for socially responsible business.
MOONLIGHT
Director: Barry Jenkins, 2016
“An Academy Award-winning coming-of-age drama that portrays three distinct stages in the life of its main character. Each stage explores the difficulties he faces with his own sexuality and identity, including the physical and emotional abuse he receives as a result of his struggles. Moonlight became the first film with an all-black cast, the first LGBT film and the second lowest-grossing film domestically to win the Best Picture award.”
MOVING THE GIANTS – AN URGENT PLAN TO SAVE THE PLANET
Director: Michael Ramsey, 2015
“David Milarch is an arborist from central Michigan. In 1991, Milarch had a near death experience that inspired a personal quest – to archive the genetics of the world’s largest trees before they’re gone and to replant global forests to fight climate change. This is the story of David and his efforts to save the redwood champions of Northern California from the ravages of climate change.”
THE MUSTANG
Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, 2019
Roman Coleman, a convict in prison who struggles to escape his past, rediscovers his own humanity in gentling an especially unbreakable mustang, Marcus.
NATIVE AMERICA
Director: Scott Tiffany, Gary Glassman, Joseph C. Sousa, 2018
Native America explores the world created by America’s First Peoples. The four-part series reaches back 15,000 years to reveal massive cities aligned to the stars, unique systems of science and spirituality, and 100 million people connected by social networks spanning two continents.
NOT JUST A GAME: POWER, POLTICIS AND AMERICAN SPORTS
Director: Dave Zirin and Jeremy Earp, 2010
Documentary film based on the bestselling book A People’s History of Sports in the United States, Zirin demonstrates that American sports have long been at the center of some of the major political debates and struggles of our time.
NOW CAN WE TALK? 40 YEARS LATER
Director: Lee Anne Bell and Markie Hancock, 2013.
This film and discussion guide offer a powerful way to engage students, teachers, and community groups in honest dialogue about the ongoing problems of racism and what we can do to address them.
ONCE WERE WARRIORS
Director: Lee Tamahori 1994
Award-winning film based on New Zealand author Alan Duff’s bestselling 1990 novel. The film tells the story of an urban Maori family descended from warriors whose societal outcast status results in issues with poverty, alcoholism and domestic and gang violence.
ONE SURVIVOR REMEMBERS:
Director: Kary Antholis, 1995
Produced by HBO and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Academy Award-winning documentary short film that recounts Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann’s six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty, including the loss of her parents, brother, friends, home, possessions, and community.
ONE WOMAN’S VOICE: DORA E. MCQUAID
Director: Kate Bogle, 2003
Documentary short film exploring the path of award-winning poet, activist and speaker, Dora E. McQuaid, from survivor of both domestic and sexual violence to international activist addressing both issues with a focus on healing, empowerment and individual and community action. This film is used nationally as a teaching and training tool.
PARASITE
Director: Bong Joon-ho, 2019
Academy Award Winner for Best Film of 2019, in which greed and class discrimination threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan in this darkly hilarious modern fairytale.
THE PEOPLE SPEAK: EXTENDED EDITION
Directors: Howard Zinn, Chris Moore, and Anthony Arnove, 2009
Feature documentary film based on live dramatic readings and performances inspired by Voices of a People’s History and A People’s History of the United States. Readings by: Matt Damon, Danny Glover, Kerry Washington, Viggo Mortensen, Sandra Oh, Sean Penn, Lupe Fiasco, Rosario Dawson, Don Cheadle, Michael Ealy and musical performances by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, and many other noted artists.
THE POWER OF 504
Director: Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
Award-winning 18-minute documentary video, which captures the drama and emotions of the historic civil rights demonstration of people with disabilities in 1977, resulting in the signing of the 504 Regulations, the first Federal Civil Rights Law protecting people with disabilities.
POWWOW HIGHWAY
Director: Jonatahn Wacks, 1989
Critically acclaimed independent film based on the novel of the same name by David Seals. The spare American deserts become the site of an unforgettable story for two very different men on one incredible journey. Among the Lame Deer tribe in Montana, mystically driven Philbert Bono and big, plain-spoken activist Buddy Red Bow are sent on road trip in a dilapidated 1964 Buick named “Protector” when Buddy’s sister winds up in jail in Santa Fe. Along the way they encounter life-changing experiences that range from hilarious to heartbreaking before they reach their final destiny and a deeper understanding of each other.
PRECIOUS
Director: Lee Daniels, 2009
Based on the novel Push by Saphire, this Academy-Award winning film chronicles the story of an overweight, illiterate teen in Harlem who is pregnant with her second child and is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.
RABBIT PROOF FENCE
Director: Phillip Noyce, 2002
In 1931, three aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff and set off on a journey across the Australian Outback.
REEL INJUN
Director: Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, Jeremiah Hayes, 2009
Canadian documentary film directed that explores the portrayal of Native Americans in film, from the noble savage and to the drunken Indian, detailing the ways in which native people have been maligned, misunderstood, and blatantly misrepresented in inaccurate and damaging ways in film.
REGRET TO INFORM
Director: Barbara Sonneborn, 1998
Teaching Guide by Bill Bigelow.
Chapter from A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
A profound, Oscar-nominated documentary film on the impact of war, with a teaching guide and the chapter of A People’s History of the United States on the Vietnam War, Impossible Victory. Viewers follow director Barbara Sonneborn as she travels to Vietnam to the site of her husband’s wartime death.
RENT
Director: Chris Columbus, 2005
Based on Jonathan Larson’s Tony award-winning musical by Tony Larson of the same name, this rock musical is based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Boheme and tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in NYC’s Lower East Side under the mounting shadow of HIV/AIDS pandemic.
RUBY BRIDGES
Director: Euzhan Palcy, 1998
The true story of Ruby Bridges, the six-year-old girl who helped to integrate the all-white schools in New Orleans, Louisiana.
SAFE HAVEN
Director: Lasse Hallström, 2013
“Katie Feldman moves to a small town on the North Carolina coast, determined to make a new life for herself. She takes a job as a waitress and keeps a low profile, but she is soon won over by the warmth and caring of the close-knit community, especially that of widower Alex. With the help of Alex and his children, Katie learns to love and trust again — but when a mysterious stranger arrives and starts asking questions, Katie’s dark past (the abusive husband that Katie fled to save her life) threatens to reclaim her”. Based on the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name.
SALT OF THE EARTH
Director: Herbert Biberman, 1954
Over sixty years ago a team of radical filmmakers made this film against all possible odds as a powerful representation of the agency of US workers. The majority of the filmmakers involved in its creation had been blacklisted by Hollywood for their alleged involvement in communist organizing during the McCarthy era politics and the ‘Red Scare”. Only 5 of the actors were professional, with the rest of the cast culled from actual mineworkers, due to the film plot centering on a long and difficult strike based on the 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grants, New Mexico. The film was denounced by the United States House of Representatives for its communist sympathies, and the FBI investigated the film’s financing. The American Legion called for a nationwide boycott of the film. After its opening night in New York City, the film languished for 10 years because all but 12 theaters in the country refused to screen it. This film was one of the first to advance the feminist social and political point of view, as well as highlight unions, workers’ rights, and grassroots activism.
SAVE THE AMERICAN WILD HORSE
Director: James Kleinert, 2007
A powerful documentary hosted by Viggo Mortensen, Sheryl Crow and Peter Coyote, which examines the politics behind the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) controversial policies regarding wild horses on public lands and questions the fate of America’s Wild Horses and Burros, whose very existence is in jeopardy.
SCANDALIZE MY NAME: STORIES FROM THE BLACKLIST
Director: Alexandra Isles, 2000
Unflinching documentary film about the impact of the McCarthy era on African American performers and the use of “Red Scare” politics to hinder America’s civil rights movement. This film documents first-hand experiences of African-American performers faced with “blacklists,” loyalty oaths and other tactics of discrimination on the performers’ careers and on civil rights as a whole. Includes accounts by Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Harry Belafonte, among many others.
SEARCHING FOR DEBRA WINGER
Director: Rosanna Arquette, 2002
A documentary film based on a series of interviews with leading actresses who discuss the various pressures they face as women working in the film industry while trying to juggle their professional commitments with their personal responsibilities to their families and themselves.
SEGREGATED BY DESIGN
Director: Mark Lopez, 2019
An animated documentary of how the federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally
SELMA
Director: Ava DuVernay, 2014
“Selma…chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.”
SELMA: THE BRIDGE TO THE BALLOT
Director: Bill Brummel, 2015
Documentary film that tells the story of a courageous group of students and teachers of Selma, Alabama who, along with other activists, fought a nonviolent battle to win voting rights for African Americans in the South, combining historic footage, interviews, photos, and dramatic drawings (like a graphic novel) of selected scenes—all to a freedom song soundtrack.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: ORLANDO AND PHYLLIS RODRIGUEZ: IN OUR SON’S NAME
Director: Gayla Jamison, 2015
Documentary film that offers an intimate portrait of Phyllis and Orlando Rodríguez, whose lives are transformed by their son’s death in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Despite overwhelming grief, Phyllis an Orlando nevertheless oppose war in Afghanistan and Iraq, befriend the mother of avowed 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, speak out against anti-Muslim actions, and find meaning in work with prison inmates – challenging conventional ideas about justice and healing.
SITTING BULL: A STONE IN MY HEART
Director: John Ferry, 2008
Award-winning documentary makes extensive use of Sitting Bull’s own words, giving the viewer an intimate portrait of one of America’s legendary figures in all his complexities as a leader of the great Sioux Nation, presents the story of a warrior, spiritual leader and skilled diplomat. Sitting Bull’s words, as portrayed by Adam Fortunate Eagle, dominate the story. Augmented by a narrator’s historical perspective, over six-hundred historical photographs and images, and a compelling original music score, the film brings to life the little-know human side of Sitting Bull as well as the story of a great man’s struggle to maintain his people’s way of life against an ever-expanding westward movement of white settlers.
SKINS
Director: Chris Eyre, 2002
Rudy Yellowshirt is an investigator with the police department and witnesses firsthand the painful legacy of Indian existence. Now faced with the discovery of a bloodied body, a flaming liquor store just off native land that sells millions of cans of beer a year to the native population, and his brother’s ongoing self-destruction, Rudy goes on a quest to avenge himself, his family, and his culture and to seek justice.
SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME
Director: Sam Pollard, 2012
Based on Douglas A. Blackmon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War, this film explores how in the years following the Civil War, insidious new forms of forced labor emerged in the American South, persisting until the onset of World War II.
SMOKE SIGNALS
Director: Chris Eyre, 1998
Based on short stories from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, Smoke Signals is the first feature made by a Native American crew and creative team. Arnold rescued Thomas from a fire when he was a child. Thomas thinks of Arnold as a hero, while Arnold’s son Victor resents his father’s alcoholism, violence and abandonment of his family. Uneasy rivals and friends, Thomas and Victor spend their days killing time on a Coeur d’Alene reservation in Idaho and arguing about their cultural identities. When Arnold dies, the duo set out on a cross-country journey to Phoenix to retrieve Arnold’s ashes.
SNOWDEN
Director: Oliver Stone, 2016
Academy Award-winning film based on the books The Snowden Files by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena, about how The National Security Agency’s illegal surveillance techniques were leaked to the public by one of the agency’s employees, Edward Snowden, in the form of thousands of classified documents distributed to the press.
STANDING ON MY SISTERS’ SHOULDERS
Director: Laura J. Lipson, 2002
Award-winning documentary that tells the compelling story of the Mississippi Civil Rights movement from the point of view of its remarkable and courageous women who changed the course of history.
THE PEOPLE SPEAK: EXTENDED EDITION
Directors: Howard Zinn, Chris Moore, and Anthony Arnove, 2009
Feature documentary film based on live dramatic readings and performances inspired by Voices of a People’s History and A People’s History of the United States. Readings by: Matt Damon, Danny Glover, Kerry Washington, Viggo Mortensen, Sandra Oh, Sean Penn, Lupe Fiasco, Rosario Dawson, Don Cheadle, Michael Ealy and musical performances by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, and many other noted artists.
THE STORY OF BOTTLED WATER
Director: Annie Leonard, 2010
Employing the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand, specifically how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when they can get it almost free from a tap, through this 7-minute animated film.
THE STORY OF STUFF PROJECT
Director: Annie Leonard
Award-winning animated short films about items we use every day that stream online for free on the Story of Stuff Project website, answering the pressing “demand for honest conversations about our consumption-crazed culture.” These short films are ideal for introducing lessons on and conversations
THE 13TH
Director: Ava DuVernay, 2016
Award-winning documentary exploring the “intersection of race, justice and mass incarceration in the United States”. The film title references the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which freed the slaves and prohibited slavery (unless as punishment for a crime).
THE TRUE COST
Director: Andrew Morgan, 2015
“This is a story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing?”
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
Director: Avi Lewis, 2015
Inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction bestseller This Changes Everything, the film presents seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana’s Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond. Interwoven with these stories of struggle is Klein’s narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there. Throughout the film, Klein builds to her most controversial and exciting idea: that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.
THUNDERHEART
Director: Michael Apted. 1992
Loosely based fictional portrayal of the 1973 incident at Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the dynamics between the American Indian Movement (AIM) members and the Federal Government, whose policies toward Native Americans led to occupation of Wounded Knee by AIM. Topics addressed include political and social activism, discrimination, corporate and government collusion to exploit Native lands for profit and environmentalism efforts.
THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK
Director: Rob Epstein, 1984
“One of the first feature documentaries to address gay issues in America, this film follows the political career of Harvey Milk and portrays life inside San Francisco’s Castro District community of the 1970s. Milk became an icon of gay political achievement and advocacy for civil and human rights through his journey from grassroots neighborhood activist to San Francisco’s first openly gay supervisor. The film uses original interviews, exclusive documentary footage, news reports, and archival footage to document the life, political visions, and 1978 assassination of Harvey Milk.”
TINA
Directors: Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin, 2021
With a wealth of never-before-seen footage, audio tapes, personal photos, and new interviews, including with the singer herself, TINA presents an unvarnished and dynamic account of the life and career of music icon Tina Turner. The documentary charts Tina Turner’s early fame, the private and public personal and professional struggles, including her years of torturous domestic and sexual violence while married to and performing with her ex-husband, Ike Turner, and her return to the world stage as a global phenomenon in the 1980s.
TRAIL OF TEARS: CHEROKEE LEGACY
Director: Chip Richie, 2006
Documentary film that explores one of the great historical tragedies of America’s aboriginal people. In 1830, eager to gain access to lands inhabited by Native Americans, President Andrew Jackson enacted the Indian Removal Act which forced the Cherokee Nation to leave their homeland and relocate into unchartered territory. Many of these forced settlers suffered from exposure, disease and starvation and upon arriving in Indian Territory, they arrived with no past and no future.
TRAIL OF TEARS: WE SHALL REMAIN
Director: Chris Eyre, Ric Burns and Stanley Nelson, Jr., 2009
A five-part, collaborative documentary series as part of PBS American Experience programming about the history of Native Americans that spans the 17th to the 20th centuries:
- After the Mayflower
- Tecumseh’s Vision
- Trail of Tears
- Geronimo
- Wounded Knee
TRAINING RULES: NO DRINKING, NO DRUGS, NO LESBIANS
Director: Dee Mosbacher, 2009
Award winning, true-story documentary that follows Penn State basketball champ Jennifer Harris as she takes on the 30-year history of homophobia and discrimination by Penn State’s Women’s Basketball Team Coach, Rene Portland.
TRUDELL
Director: Heather Rae, 2006
This documentary film follows the extraordinary life of Native American poet and activist John Trudell, from his impoverished childhood in Omaha to his leadership in the American Indian Movement (AIM) and his reincarnation as an acclaimed musician and spoken word poet. Using decades-old 16 mm and Super 8 film and video footage as a backdrop, an intimate portrait emerges of a man whose spirit and words have awakened the Native consciousness.
UNCONSTITUTIONAL: THE WAR ON OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES
Director: Nonny de la Peña, 2004
A documentary film that examines the Patriot Act, and investigates the ways in which the civil liberties of U.S. citizens and immigrants have been diminished, both constitutionally and legally, since 9/11/2001 and the passage of the Patriot Act. Features interviews with law-abiding citizens who’ve been disaffected by the broad interpretations and implications of its regulations.
THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE UNITED STATES
Directors: Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick, 2012
Ten-part documentary series that reviews the pivotal but under-reported events that crucially shaped America’s unique and complex history over the 20th century. From WWII and the atomic bombing of Japan to JFK’s assassination, to the Cold War, the fall of Communism and the Bush presidency, this series offers an in-depth and surprising perspective.
VIVA LA CAUSA
Director: Bill Brummel, Alonso Mayo, 2008
Documentary film that focuses on one of the seminal events in the march for human rights—the grape strike and boycott led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta in the 1960s. Viva la Causa shows how thousands of people from across the nation joined in a struggle for justice for the most exploited people in our country—the workers who put food on our tables.
THE WAR YOU DON’T SEE
Director: John Pilger, 2010
Documentary film exploring the role and reliability of the media during various conflicts throughout the world, especially in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also discusses the role of embedded reporters who have served as a front-line means of reporting on conflicts as far back as The Great War. The film’s premise questions the true value of such individuals when the art of warfare has greatly changed since the 1910s, greatly elevating the issues of civilians being caught in a crossfire, if not losing their lives. The documentary features interviews with media historians, reporters and politicians, exploring perspectives and insights on when honest reporting malevolently transforms into war propaganda.
WE STILL LIVE HERE: ÂS NUTAYUNEÂN
Director: Anne Makepeace
Documentary film that tells the remarkable story of cultural revival by the Wampanoag of Southeastern Massachusetts their revival the Wampanoag language, a language that was silenced for more than a century. Their ancestors ensured the survival of the Pilgrims in New England, and lived to regret it. Now they are saying loud and clear in their Native tongue, Âs Nutayuneân – We Still Live Here.
WE SHALL REMAIN: AMERICA THROUGH NATIVE EYES
Directors: Chris Eyre, Ric Burns, Stanley Nelson Jr., Dustinn Craig, Sarah Colt
A five-part, 7.5-hour documentary series about the history of Native Americans in the United States, from the 17th century into the 20th century. It was a collaborative effort with several different directors, writers and producers working on each episode, as part of the PBS AMERICAN EXPERIENCE series.
WE WERE CHILDREN
Director: Tom Wolochatiuk, 2012
Canadian documentary film about the experiences of First Nations children in the Canadian Indian Residential School System, which recounts the experiences of two resident school survivors: Lyna Hart, who was sent to the Guy Hill Residential School in Manitoba at age four, and Glen Anaquod, who was sent to the Lebret Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. We Were Children combines interviews with the two with dramatic recreations of their experiences.
WHEN WE WERE KINGS
Director: Leon Gast, 1996
Twenty-two years in the making, this American documentary explores the relationship between African Americans and the people of the African continent during the Black Power era in terms of both popular culture and international politics, including the brutality of then-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko set against the Heavyweight Championship Boxing match known as the “Rumble in the Jungle” between champion George Foreman and challenger Muhammad Ali that took place in Kinshasa, Zaire on October 30, 1974. Winner of the 1996 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
THE WEST or KEN BURNS PRESENTS: THE WEST
Director: Ken Burns, 1996
A nine-part PBS series chronicling the turbulent history of one of the most extraordinary landscapes on earth. Beginning when the land belonged only to Native Americans and ending in the 20th century, the film introduces unforgettable characters whose competing dreams transformed the land.
WILD HORSES AND RENEGADES
Director: James Anaquad-Kleinert, 2010
This documentary film examines the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) controversial policies on public lands, while investigating the elimination of America’s wild horses and burros. With the American mustang crisis in the news worldwide, this star- studded environmental film features Willie Nelson, Viggo Mortensen, Daryl Hannah, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, musician Robert Mirabal and Pulitzer Prize winning American Indian Author Scott Momaday in a call to action to save the American Wild Horses. www.theamericanwildhorse.com
WINTER IN THE BLOOD
Director: Alex Smith, Andrew Smith, 2013
Winter in the Blood is a hauntingly beautiful film that is true to the lyrical and unflinching spirit of James Welch’s classic 1974 novel of Native American life. Virgil First Raise wakes in a ditch on the hardscrabble plains of Montana. He stumbles home to his ranch on the reservation only to learn that his wife, Agnes (Julia Jones), has left him. Worse, she’s stolen his beloved rifle. Virgil sets out to find her, beginning an odyssey of inebriated intrigues. James Welch was the leader in the Native American Renaissance in literature.
YAKARI
Director: Xavier Giacometti, Toby Genkel, 2005
Netflix television series about the brave little Sioux boy with a magical gift. Yakari, a Sioux boy, lives everyday as a great adventure in the wilderness with his best friends, Rainbow and Buffalo Seed, his horse Little Thunder and his protective totem, Great Eagle, who gave him the power to talk to animals.
WEBSITES:
THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
The “supreme” law of the United States, adopted on September 17, 1787
The first Ten Amendments to the United States Constitution
TITLE VII OF THE 1964 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT
The landmark civil rights legislation of the United States, which outlaws discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women.
UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Extensive Data Base, developed by the UN Human Rights Office, illustrates existing measures and practices to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance at the international, regional and national levels.
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION (ACLU)
“The ACLU is our United States’ guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.”
THE FELLOWSHIP OF RECONCILIATION (FOR)
“The oldest interfaith peace and justice organization in the United States…Since 1915, the Fellowship of Reconciliation has carried on programs and educational projects concerned with domestic and international peace and justice, nonviolent alternatives to conflict, and the rights of conscience. An interfaith, tax-exempt organization, FOR promotes active nonviolence and has members from many religious, spiritual, and ethnic traditions. FOR-USA is a branch of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), which coordinates affiliates in more than 50 countries.”
“Amnesty International is a global movement of people fighting injustice and promoting human rights.”
“#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.”
MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES / M4BL
“The Movement for Black Lives is an ecosystem of individuals and organizations creating a shared vision and policy agenda to win rights, recognition, and resources for Black people. In doing so, the movement makes it possible for us, and therefore everyone, to live healthy and fruitful lives.”
THE ONE CAMPAIGN: Actions. Speak. Louder.
An international nonpartisan non-profit organization using advocacy and campaigning to fight extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring international political leaders to support effective policies and programs to save lives and improve futures. ONE, co-founded by U2’s Bono with 11 organizations: Bread for the World, CARE, DATA, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Plan USA, Save the Children U.S., World Concern, World Vision, has 3 million supporters worldwide with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
THE INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL LABOUR AND HUMAN RIGHTS
“The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights is a non-profit 501(c)(3) human rights organization dedicated to the promotion and defense of internationally recognized worker rights in the global economy. Founded in 1981 as the National Labor Committee, the Institute’s research, in-depth reports, high profile public campaigns and widespread media coverage have been instrumental in creating the anti-sweatshop movement in the United States and internationally.”
“The Economic Policy Institute’s mission is to inform and empower individuals to seek solutions that ensure broadly shared prosperity and opportunity.”
Howard Zinn was a renowned American historian, author, playwright, public intellectual and social activist, who was also a political science professor at Boston University for 24 years and taught at Spellman College for 7 years.
The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. Based on the lens of history highlighted in Howard Zinn’s best-selling book A People’s History of the United States, the website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and reading level. The Zinn Education Project is coordinated by two non-profit organizations, Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change. Its goal is to introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula.
SPEAKOUT – THE INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION AND CULTURE
Is dedicated to the advancement of education, racial and social justice, cultural literacy, leadership development and activism, offering a network of speakers, artists, and strategic partners who provide experiential learning opportunities through lectures, workshops, film screenings, performances and curriculum development.”
“Films For Action is a community-powered learning library for people who want to change the world. Film offers us a powerful tool to raise awareness of important issues not covered by the mainstream news. Our goal is to provide citizens with the information and perspectives essential to creating a more just, sustainable, and democratic society. Our website has cataloged over 3000 of the best films and videos that can be watched free online, sorted into 40 subjects related to changing the world.”
“MoveOn is the largest independent, progressive, digitally-connected organizing group in the United States. Launched in 1998, MoveOn pioneered online organizing and advocacy techniques that have become standard in politics, nonprofits, and industry in the U.S. and worldwide. We combine rapid-response political campaigning with deep strategic analysis, rigorous data science and testing, and a culture of grassroots member participation that allows us to consistently and quickly identify opportunities for progressive change and mobilize millions of members to seize them.”
LEARNING FOR JUSTICE (formerly Teaching for Tolerance)
Founded by the Sothern Poverty Law Center under the name Teaching Tolerance in 1991. “In our work with educators, schools, students and communities, Learning for Justice seeks to uphold the mission of the Southern Poverty Law Center: to be a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people.”
TALKING ABOUT RACE
National Museum of African American History and Culture with The Smithsonian
“Talking about race, although hard, is necessary. We are here to provide tools and guidance to empower your journey and inspire conversation.” This website offers an excellent listing of Resources for Teaching Race.”
Dedicated Americans Protecting Democracy: The Lincoln Project is holding accountable those who would violate their oaths to the Constitution and would put others before Americans.
“From Editor Robert Parry: We founded Consortiumnews.com in 1995 as the first investigative news magazine on the Internet. The site was meant to be a home for important, well-reported stories and a challenge to the inept but dominant mainstream news media of the day.”
“Tell the facts, name the names.”
“Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the U.S., Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, NPR, community, and college radio stations; on public access, PBS, satellite television and on the internet.”
“FAIR, the national media watch group, has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. As an anti-censorship organization, we expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive group, FAIR believes that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.”
“Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”
“Mother Jones is a reader-supported nonprofit news organization and the winner of the American Society of Magazine Editors’ 2017 Magazine of the Year Award. Our staff does independent and investigative reporting on everything…some 11 million people come to this site each month, and we also publish a bimonthly, 200,000-circulation magazine.”
“The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred. — From The Nation’s founding prospectus, 1865”
“A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good! Since 1909, The Progressive has aimed to amplify voices of dissent and those under-represented in the mainstream, with a goal of championing grassroots progressive politics. Our bedrock values are nonviolence and freedom of speech.”
“Our Vision and Mission: Inform, Empower & Advocate
Nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, the Center for Responsive Politics is the nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. OUR VISION is for Americans to be empowered by access to clear and unbiased information about money’s role in politics and policy and to use that knowledge to strengthen our democracy. OUR MISSION is to produce and disseminate peerless data and analysis on money in politics to inform and engage Americans, champion transparency, and expose disproportionate or undue influence on public policy.”
“Truthout is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing independent reporting and commentary on a diverse range of social justice issues. Since our founding in 2001, we have anchored our work in principles of accuracy, transparency, and independence from the influence of corporate and political forces.”
“CorpWatch works to promote environmental, social and human rights at the local, national and global levels by holding multinational corporations accountable for their actions. We employ investigative research and journalism to provide critical information on corporate malfeasance and profiteering around the world to foster a more informed public and an effective democracy.”
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION (NAME)
“The Founders of NAME envisioned an organization that would bring together individuals and groups with an interest in multicultural education from all levels of education, different academic disciplines and from diverse educational institutions and occupations. NAME today is an active, growing organization, with members from throughout the United States and several other countries. Educators from preschool through higher education and representatives from business and communities comprise NAME’s membership. Members in 22 states have formed NAME chapters and more chapters are currently being organized.”
“The term Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) comes from the landmark 1998 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente. ACEs describe 10 categories of adversities in three domains experienced by age 18 years: abuse, neglect, and/or household challenges. A child or adolescent who experiences ACEs without the buffering protections of trusted, nurturing caregivers and safe, stable environments can develop a toxic stress response, which can impact brain development, hormone and immune systems, and genetic regulatory systems. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. Working together, we can help create neighborhoods, communities, and a world in which every child can thrive.”
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK, DIVERSITY DATABASE
The University of Maryland’s Diversity Database is a comprehensive index of multicultural and diversity resources.
NATIONAL VISIONARY LEADERSHIP PROJECT (NVLP)
“The mission of NVLP is to develop the next generation of leaders by recording, preserving, and sharing the stories of extraordinary African American elders–Visionaries—who have transcended barriers, shaped American history, and influenced the world through the rich African American tradition of social change. Since its founding in 2001, NVLP has developed a unique program portfolio designed to target three specific areas: cultivating social responsibility, learning to value differences and connecting generations.”
GLOBAL WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP NETWORK (GWLN)
“GWLN exists to help women step out of survival and dependence into their inherent power, enabling the transformation of world conditions – woman by woman. Our policy is to work for women, in partnership with individuals, NGOs and corporations, to create an environment conducive to broad participation for major social change around the world.”
“Since 1993, Women for Women International has helped more than 447,000 marginalized women in countries affected by war and conflict. We serve women in 8 countries offering support, tools, and access to life-changing skills to move from crisis and poverty to stability and economic self-sufficiency.”
“Founded by Eve Ensler, award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues, V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex slavery.”
“One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. The global campaign, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action, based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Each year, the One Billion Rising movement expands internationally.”
“We are a global champion for the human rights of women and girls. We use our powerful networks to find, fund, and amplify the courageous work of women who are building social movements and challenging the status quo. By shining a spotlight on critical issues, we rally communities of advocates who take action and invest money to empower women.”
“At Women’s Link Worldwide we use the power of law to promote social change that favors the rights of women and girls, especially those who face multiple inequities.”
EQUALITY NOW: A Just World For Women And Girls
“At Equality Now, we believe in creating a just world where women and girls have the same rights as men and boys. We tackle the most difficult issues, challenge ingrained cultural assumptions and call out inequality wherever we see it. Social change often begins with legal change and so we use the power of the law to create enduring equality for women and girls everywhere.”
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN
“Since its founding in 1966, NOW’s goal has been to take action to bring about equality for all women. NOW works to eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, the justice system, and all other sectors of society; secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women; end all forms of violence against women; eradicate racism, sexism and homophobia; and promote equality and justice in our society.”
THE NATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY ALLIANCE
The National Women’s History Project recognizes and celebrates the diverse and historic accomplishments of American women by providing informational services and educational and promotional materials.
THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, OFFICE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
“The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) provides federal leadership in developing the national capacity to reduce violence against women and administer justice for and strengthen services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.”
MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN
“MMIW USA’s number one mission is to bring our missing home and help the families of the murdered cope and support them through the process of grief….Our broader goal is to eradicate this problem so that the future generations thrive.”
“Jewish Women International (JWI) is the leading Jewish organization working to empower women and girls by ensuring and protecting their safety, health, rights, and economic security; promoting and celebrating inter-generational leadership; and inspiring civic participation and community engagement.”
“CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end U.S. funded wars and occupations, to challenge militarism globally, and to redirect our resources into health care, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities.”
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR UNIVERSITY WOMEN
“The American Association of University Women (AAUW) is the United States’ leading voice promoting equity and education for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research. Since our founding in 1881, AAUW members have examined and taken positions on the fundamental issues of the day — educational, social, economic, and political.”
Dorie Hagler is a photographer humanist/activist with twenty years of professional photography experience and a lifelong commitment to social justice. The focus of her work is gender equality and criminal justice reform. She is also the founder of me&EVE the powerful online collection of photo-biographies of women and their stories. As Dorie says, “When women are seen, heard and respected, change happens. me&EVE is uniting women one story, one photo and one post at a time…” Dorie’s photographs appear in The New York Times, NYMAG, Glamour, People Magazine, Forbes.com, Upworthy, Abcnews.com, Sports Illustrated, New Mexico Magazine and many others.
Laughing At The Sky website is for seekers of courage and healing. It offers words of wisdom, brave books, and personal stories and recommendations from people who are rising above major life challenges to accomplish the extraordinary. Heidi Love, founder of Laughing at the Sky and the author of a much-awaited memoir about her own path of empowerment, showcases the stories of people whose lives remind us that your dreams can be bigger than your fears.
Amanda Gorman, Poet and Activist, was profiled as a Gutsy Goddess before she performed her poem, The Hill We Climb, during the 2021 Inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris, which inspired the nation.
Dora E. McQuaid appears twice on Laughing at The Sky:
THE NATIONAL NETWORK FOR IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS
“Dream. Rise. Organize. The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) works to defend and expand the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless of immigration status. Since its founding in 1986, the organization has drawn membership from diverse immigrant communities, and actively builds alliances with social and economic justice partners around the country. As part of a global movement for social and economic justice, NNIRR is committed to human rights as essential to securing healthy, safe and peaceful lives for all.”
UNITED NATIONS PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES
“The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), with a mandate to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights.”
AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT (AIM)
“The official website of the American Indian Movement and its Grand Governing Council. “Pledged to fight White Man’s injustice to Indians, his oppression, persecution, discrimination and malfeasance in the handling of Indian Affairs. No area in North America is too remote when trouble impends for Indians. AIM shall be there to help the Native People regain human rights and achieve restitutions and restorations.”
SEVENTH GENERATION FUND FOR INDIAN DEVELOPMENT
“Founded in 1977, Seventh Generation Fund is an Indigenous non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and maintaining the uniqueness of Native peoples and the sovereignty of our distinct Nations. We offer an integrated program of advocacy, small grants, training and technical assistance, media experience and fiscal management, lending our support and extensive expertise to Indigenous grassroots communities.”
INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK (IEN)
“Established in 1990 within the United States, IEN was formed by grassroots Indigenous peoples and individuals to address environmental and economic justice issues (EJ). IEN’s activities include building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.”
“The American Indian Law Alliance, founded in 1989, ; it is an Indigenous, non-profit, non-partisan organization that works with Indigenous nations, communities and organizations in our struggle for sovereignty, human rights and social justice for our peoples.”
STANDING ROCK TRIBAL GOVERNMENT
http://standingrock.org
“Standing Rock Tribal Government strives to be a more effective, efficient and visible government providing opportunities for our economy to grow through business development by educating our members, to enhance the health and wellness of the people of Standing Rock.”
“The Oceti Sakowin Camp is a historic gathering of Indigenous Nations, allies and people from all walks of life standing in solidarity to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline. The most recent such assembly of Tribes occurred when the Great Sioux Nation gathered before the Battle at the Little Big Horn. In honor of our future generations, we fight this (Dakota Access or DAPL) pipeline to protect our water, our sacred places, and all living beings.”
ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER INSTITUTE ON GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
“The Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence is a national resource center on domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence in Asian/Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. We envision a world free of gender-based violence for communities with equal opportunities for all to thrive.”
“Founded on a core commitment to the ideals of service and engagement, Machik works to develop opportunities for education and training, as well as supporting initiatives that advance innovative and solutions-oriented approaches to the challenges of community revitalization and sustainability. By providing new resources, networks, tools and technology, our goal is to establish a portal for developing new partnerships and synergies that can help create alternative pathways toward a strong, healthy and more sustainable future on the Tibetan plateau.”
THE AMERICAN WILD HORSE CAMPAIGN
“The American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) is a nonprofit organization fighting to ensure the future of America’s iconic wild horses and burros and the Western public lands where they roam. We work to reform the cruel and costly federal wild horse and burro roundup program and replace it with humane management that keeps wild horses and burros wild, protected, and free. AWHC manages the largest, humane fertility control for wild, free-roaming horses in the world.”
“The We All Have AIDS Campaign. For this revolutionary PSA campaign, launched by fashion designer Kenneth Cole, Kenneth united famous HIV/AIDS activists to stand for one message. Many of them represented their own charities and organizations, but in an act of solidarity, they all put their best foot forward for this effort. The campaign was photographed in New York, Los Angeles, and South Africa by Mark Seliger.”
PARENTS, FAMILIES, AND FRIENDS OF LESBIANS AND GAYS (PFLAG)
“PFLAG is a national non-profit organization…with almost 500 affiliates in the United States. This vast grassroots network is cultivated, resourced and serviced by the PFLAG national office, located in Washington, DC, the national Board of Directors and 14 Regional Directors.”
THE GAY, LESBIAN AND STRAIGHT EDUCATION NETWORK (GLSEN)
“Our mission is to create safe and affirming schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Provides news on LGBT issues for teachers and students, as well as K-12 lesson plans, curricular tools and teacher training programs. GLSEN strives to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.”
“The Bisexual Resource Center works to connect the bi+ community and help its members thrive through resources, support, and celebration. We envision an empowered, visible, and inclusive global community for bi+ people.”
“Founded in 1998 by the creators of the Academy Award®-winning short film TREVOR, The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25.”
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING: CAPITALISM VS. THE CLIMATE
Based on award-winning journalist Naomi Klein’s 2014 international bestseller, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate, this project connecting multiple platforms and initiatives argues that the climate crisis requires us to fundamentally rethink how we organize social, political and economic life.”
“Founded in 2014, Project Drawdown® is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help the world reach “Drawdown”— the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline, thereby stopping catastrophic climate change — as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.”
The Exponential Roadmap Initiative brings together innovators, scientists, companies and NGOs with the mission to halve emissions before 2030 through exponentital climate action and solutions. The Exponential Roadmap Initiative is an official partner of United Nation’s Race to Zero campaign and TED Countdown, and is a founding partner of the SME Climate Hub.
THE GLOBAL WHITE LION PROTECTION TRUST
“Established in 2002 by author and conservationist, Linda Tucker, the Global White Lion Protection Trust (WLT) is a South African based non-profit conservation and community development organisation. Operating in the greater Timbavati bush region, the WLT is responsible for protecting the White Lions and developing the related cultural values that hold them sacred.”
SAGE INSTITUE FOR CREATIVITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS
“Sage Institute is an educational non-profit organization that supports the promotion and practice of all forms of meditation and mindfulness. We offer trainings in mindfulness, and also trainings to teach people how to teach mindfulness in their own communities. We believe in consciousness, creativity, and meditation as vehicles for personal and political transformation in our world.”
Dora has served the Board of Directors of Sage Institute since 2009.
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS
“The Academy’s work is wide-ranging and multidisciplinary. Honoring excellence and leadership. Working across disciplines and divides. Advancing the common good. From 1780 to today.”
Award-winning animated short films about items we use every day that stream online for free on the Story of Stuff Project website, answering the pressing “demand for honest conversations about our consumption-crazed culture.” These short films are ideal for introducing lessons on and conversations about the environment, social and environmental activism, economics and consumption.”