–LUCY PHENIX,
YGTM filmmaker/documentarian

They Say I'm Your Teacher

The Story of the Citizenship Schools

In 1957, when African Americans were still required to pass literacy exams to vote in South Carolina, a Charleston beautician became the teacher of the first Citizenship Education School, and helped lay the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

• Download the .pdf Lesson Plan
• Download the .pdf Discussion Guide
• Mira Dicen Que Soy Su Maestra con subtítulos en español

I’m Standing With You Neighbor

The Story of a Community's Fight Against a Toxic Waste Dump

The members of a community group in East Tennessee become involved in shutting down a toxic waste dump in their community after years of being told it was "ordinary waste."

• Download the .pdf Discussion Guide
• Mira con subtítulos en español

We Have the Power, We Can Do It

The Story of Bill Saunders and a Hospital Workers' Strike

The making of a grassroots leader on Johns Island, S.C., who helped to organize the people of Charleston in support of the Hospital Workers strike in 1969 and closed the city of Charleston for 100 days.

• Download the .pdf Lesson Plan
• Mira con subtítulos en español

What's Done to the Land Happens to the People

The Story of Becky Simpson and a Struggle for Environmental Justice

When floods caused by strip mining almost killed her family, a Harlan County, Ky. woman convinced her community that the strip mining companies "have damaged us and they owe us something."

• Download the .pdf Discussion Guide
• Mira Lo que le pasa a la tierra también afecta a la gente con subtítulos en español

Ready to Act

E.D. Nixon and The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Bridging the labor and civil rights movements, E.D. Nixon, a Pullman porter from Montgomery, Alabama, learned how to organize from A. Philip Randolph, the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. When Rosa Parks was arrested in late 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, E.D. Nixon was ready to do what was needed to mobilize the community to boycott the buses. For over a year, Black residents refused to ride buses until the city was forced to lift its bus segregation laws.

• Download the .pdf Lesson Plan

Don't You Think It's About Time?

Bernice Reagon's Story of the Albany Student Movement

Bernice Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, tells of the role music played in the Civil Rights demonstrations of students in Albany, Georgia in the early 1960’s.