The State of Civil Rights Education in the United States

About the Report

This report was prepared by the Southern Poverty Law Center under the guidance of Teaching Tolerance Director Maureen Costello. The principal researcher and writer was Kate Shuster, Ph.D. The report was reviewed by Hasan Jeffries, Ph.D. and Jeremy Stern, Ph.D. It was edited by Maureen Costello, Alice Pettway, Adrienne van der Valk and Monita Bell and designed by Scott Phillips and Sunny Paulk.

About the Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society.  Using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy, the Center works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality.

About Teaching Tolerance

Founded in 1991, Teaching Tolerance is dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation’s children.

The program provides free educational materials to educators for use by millions of students. Teaching Tolerance magazine is sent to 410,000 educators, reaching nearly every school in the country. Tens of thousands of educators use the program’s film kits and more than 6,000 schools participate in the annual Mix It Up at Lunch Day program.

Teaching Tolerance teaching materials have won two Oscars, an Emmy and scores of honors from the Association of Educational Publishers, including two Golden Lamp Awards, the industry’s highest honor.

On the cover: (Gov. George Wallace blocks the entrance to the University of Alabama 1963) AP Images; (Voters March Washington 1963) Marion S Trikosko/Library of Congress; (Daisy Bates at her NAACP office 1957) Thomas D. McAvoy/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; (Segregated school following the supreme court case Plessy vs Ferguson 1896) Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images; (Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X 1964) Marion S. Trikosko; U.S. News & World Report Magazine/Library of Congress; (Vivian Malone, at University of Alabama 1963) Rolls Press/Popperfoto; (Bayard Rustin with Cleveland Robinson 1963) O. Fernandez/World Telegram & Sun/Library of Congress; (President John F. Kennedy addresses nation on civil rights 1963) Abbie Rowe/National Park Service; (Pete Seeger with Fannie Lou Hamer 1965) David Gahr/Getty Images; (Little Rock integration protest 1959) John T. Bledsoe U.S. News & World Report Magazine/Library of Congress; (President Lyndon Johnson signs Voting Rights Act 1965) Yoichi R. Okamoto/U.S. Government; (Abernathys march with MLK in Selma to Montgomery march 1965) Abernathy Family Photos; (1943 “Colored Waiting Room” sign) Esther Bubley/Library of Congress; (Crossing of Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma 1965) AFP/Getty Images; (Firefighters spray children at Birmingham Children’s March 1963) Bill Hudson/AP Images/Corbis;  (Integrated D.C. classroom 1957) Warren K. Leffler U.S. News & World Report Magazine/Library of Congress; (Black Panther demonstration New York City 1969) David Fenton/Getty Images; (Rosa Parks 1955) Bureau of Public Affairs; (Ku Klux Klan rally 1967) Ed Eckstein/CORBIS; (Federal troops on University of Alabama campus 1963) Warren K. Leffler U.S. News & World Report Magazine/Library of Congress