Further Reading/Viewing/Listening
Because I have been asked for further reading, viewing, and listening suggestions, I have compiled lists for different Roving Scholar Workshops. I will continue to update these lists throughout the year, so please check back or contact me for additional titles. (Also, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If I’m missing something, let me know.)
I have attempted to select texts that are both high interest but also accessible to students at various levels of English comprehension.
Youth in The Civil Rights Movement
Fiction
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes (2018)
A Sky Full of Stars by Linda Williams Jackson (2018)
Midnight Without a Moon by Linda Williams Jackson (2017)
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley (2014)
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine (2013)
My Mother the Cheerleader by Robert Sharenow (2013)
Fire in the Streets by Kekla Magoon (2013)
No Crystal Stair by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (2012)
Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O’Roark Dowell (2011)
The Rock and The River by Kekla Magoon (2010)
The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis (1995)
Poetry
A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Philippe Lardy (2009)
Non-Fiction
March Forward, Girl: From Young Warrior to Little Rock Nine by Melba Pattillo Beals (2018)
Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery (2015)
We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson (2015)
Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children and Don’t You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge (2010)
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman (2006)
Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (1999)
Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals (1995)
Documentaries
Mighty Times: The Children’s March (2004)
The Murder of Emmett Till (2003)
Parts of Eyes on the Prize (1987-1990)
The Ernest Green Story (1993)
Nine from Little Rock (1964)
Film adaptations
Sins of the Father (2002): The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
Selma, Lord, Selma (1999): Follows Sheyann Webb on the days leading up to Selma to Montgomery March.
Ruby Bridges (1998): Six-year-old who was the first black student to integrate an elementary school in the south
4 Little Girls (1997): Bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church
Crisis at Central High (1981): made for television movie about the Little Rock Nine
Suggestions for Youth in The Civil Rights Movement (PDF)
The American Teenager in Film and Television
Film Suggestions
Representing 1950s
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
Grease (1978)
Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
Stand by Me (1986)
West Side Story (1961)
Representing the 1960s
American Graffiti (1973)
The Outsiders (1983)
Representing the 1970s
The Lords of Dogtown (2005)
Crooklyn (1994)
Representing the 1980s
Back to the Future (also 1950s) (1985)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Fame (1980)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Footloose (1984)
The Goonies (1985)
Heathers (1988)
The Lost Boys (1987)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Representing the 1990s
Boyz in the Hood (1991)
Clueless (1995)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Kids (1995)
Mi Vida Loca (1994)
Smoke Signals (1998)
Representing 2000 to present
Dope (2015)
Juno (2007)
Mean Girls (2004)
Raising Victor Vargas (2002)
Quinceanera (2006)
Television Shows
Representing the 1950s
Happy Days (1974-1984, ABC and CBS)
Leave it to Beaver (1957-1963, CBS and ABC)
Representing the 1960s
My Three Sons (1960-1972, ABC)
Representing the 1970s
The Brady Bunch (1969-1974, ABC)
That 70s Show (1998-2006, Fox)
The Get Down (2016-2017, Netflix)
Representing the 1980s
Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000, ABC)
Representing the 1990s
90210 (1990-2000, Fox)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003, The WB/UPN)
Dawson’s Creek (1998-2003, The WB)
Everything Sucks! (2018, Netflix)
My So-Called Life (1994-1995, ABC)
Veronica Mars (2004-2007, UPN/The CW)
Representing 2000s to present
Friday Night Lights (2006-2011, NBC)
Glee (2009-2015, Fox)
Marvel’s Runaways (2017-Present, Hulu)
The O.C. (2003-2007, Fox)
Pretty Little Liars (2010-2017, The CW)
Riverdale (2017-Present, The CW)
American Teenager in Film and Television Suggestions (PDF)
DACA, DREAMers, and Immigration
Documentaries
Beyond Borders (2016)
Crossing Arizona (2006)
Documented (2013)
Don’t Tell Anyone (2015)
Farmingville (2004)
Food Chains (2013)
Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America (2016)
Immigration Battle (2015)
New American Girls (2014)
Roadtrip Nation: Beyond the Dream (2016)
Sin Pais (2010)
The Hand That Feeds (2014)
The Other Side of Immigration (2009)
Una Vida, Dos Paises (2015)
Underwater Dreams (2014)
Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary (2005)
Which Way Home? (2009)
Who is Dayani Cristal? (2013)
Films
Alambrista! (1977)
Amexicano (2007)
A Better Life (2011)
Bread and Roses (2000)
Desierto (2015)
El Norte (1983)
Sin Nombre (2009)
Under the Same Moon (2007)