Deep Dive | America 250
Civil Rights Movement (1930s - 1970s)
June 2026
Eager to learn more about U.S. History and the America 250 celebration? Carefully curated by local historians and academics, these modules (one for each month of the America 250 celebration) will offer a deep dive into various periods of U.S. History. These recommendations are offered as a free and optional resource with a corresponding list of books, podcast episodes, documentaries, and more that explore themes and specific timeframes within the history of our nation.
Please note: These resources are offered as an optional learning opportunity and are not a required part of any America 250 programs. All reading and viewing materials are optional and meant to enrich your personal learning experience. Some topics may be thought-provoking or sensitive, but all have been curated with care and respect. We invite you to engage with what interests you and explore at your own pace as we commemorate our nation's past.
These Deep Dives begin with a look at the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Thank you for joining us!
GENERAL INTEREST BOOKS
- Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 - Juan Williams
- Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s - Henry Hampton & Steve Fayer
- Something Must be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, A Virginia Town, A Civil Rights Battle - Kristen Green
- We Shall Overcome - Herb Boyd
- My Soul Is Rested: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South - Howell Raines
- Time to Teach: A History of the Southern Civil Rights Movement - Julian Bond
- Voices in Our Blood: America's Best on the Civil Rights Movement - Jon Meacham
DEEP DIVE
- Parting the Waters : America in the King Years 1954-63 - Taylor Branch
- Pillar of Fire : America in the King Years 1963-65 - Taylor Branch
- At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 - Taylor Branch
- Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America - Gilbert King
- Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America’s Civil Rights Revolution - Peniel E. Joseph
- Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy - Gary May
- The Double V: How Wars, Protest, and Harry Truman Desegregated America’s Military - Rawn James Jr.
- There Goes My Everything: White Southerners in the Age of Civil Rights, 1945-1975 - Jason Sokol
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley - Malcolm X
- Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement - Elaine Weiss
- By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners - Margaret A. Burnham
- The Children - David Halberstam
- A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women Who Desegregated America's Schools - Rachel Devlin
- Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution - Diane McWhorter
- The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation - Gene Roberts & Hank Klibaboff
- Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights - Gretchen Sorin
- His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope - Jon Meacham
- The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America - Raymond Arsenault
- Freedom Libraries: The Untold Story of Libraries for African Americans in the South - Mike Selby
- Fannie Lou Hamer: America's Freedom Fighting Woman - Maegan Parker Brooks
KIDS & YOUNG ADULTS
- March (Graphic Novel) Vol 1,2,3 - John Lewis
- She Stood For Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland - Loki Mulholland & Angela Fairwell
- Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March - Lynda Blackmon Lowery
- The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 - Christopher Paul Curtis
- One Crazy Summer - Rita Williams-Garcia
- I Am Rosa Parks - Brad Meltzer
- Lift as You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker - Patricia Hruby Powell
- Pies from Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott - Dee Romito
- Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 - Alice Faye Duncan
- I Am Ruby Bridges - Ruby Bridges
LITERATURE & HISTORICAL FICTION
- The Two Lives of Sara: A Novel - Catherine Adel West
- The Help - Kathryn Stockett
- The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead
- Let Us March On - Shara Moon
- The First Ladies - Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murry
- A Different Drummer - William Melvin Kelley
- Moonrise Over New Jessup - Jamila Minnicks
- The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - Ernest J. Gaines
- Fences - August Wilson
- The Mountaintop - Katori Hall
- A Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry
- Short Stories of the Civil Rights Movement: An Anthology - Margaret Earley Whitt ed.
- Selma (2015) PG-13
- All The Way (2016) 16+
- Malcolm X (1992) PG-13
- Rustin (2023) PG-13
- Shirley (2024) PG-13
- The Butler (2013) PG-13
- Green Book (2018) PG-13
- Mississippi Burning (1989) R
- Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) NR
- Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) R
- Fences (2016) PG-13
- A Raisin in the Sun (1961) NR
- MLK/X (2024) 16+ (Genius Series - 8 episodes)
- Till (2022) PG-13
- The Great Debaters (2007) PG-13
- The Help (2011) PG-13
- Intruder in the Dust (1949) NR
- The Long Walk Home (1990) PG
- Mudbound (2017) R - Netflix
- Loving ( 2016) PG-13
- Ride to Freedom: The Rosa Parks Story (2002) NR
- The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) NR
- Miss Evers’ Boys (1997) 13+
- 42 (2013) PG-13
- Ruby Bridges (1998) PG
- Boycott (2001) PG
- Betty and Coretta (2013) 13+
- I’ll Fly Away (1991-1993) TV Series - Internet Archive
- Women of the Movement (2022) TV Series
- One Night in Miami (2021) R
- To Kill A Mockingbird (1963) NR
- Four Little Girls (1997) TV-14
- Eyes on the Prize (1987) TV-PG
- I Am Not Your Negro (2017) PG-13
- King in the Wilderness (2018) TV-14
- Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015) NR
- Freedom Summer (10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America)
- Making Black America (2022) TV-14
- John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020) PG
- Spies of Mississippi (2014) TV-PG
- The Murder of Emmett Till (2003) TV- PG
- Freedom on My Mind (1994) TV-PG
- Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise (2016) NR
- Of the People: Women of the Civil Rights Movement (2026) TV-PG
- The March (1964)
- The Loving Story (2011) 18+
- The Blinding of Isaac Woodard (1988) TV-PG
- Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP (2025) 16+
- Reporting Civil Rights
- Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader: Documents, Speeches, and Firsthand Accounts from the Black Freedom Struggle
- The Civil Rights Movement (Library of Congress)
- Civil Rights (National Archives)
- Civil Rights Movement Archive
- Civil Rights in America (National Archives)
- National Civil Rights Museum (Memphis, TN)
- The Civil Rights Movement in Utah
- Civil Rights Act and Desegregation in Utah
- African Americans in Utah
- Faith and Fight: A conversation about the Black Church and Civil Rights Movement
- The first 100 years of the NAACP in Utah
- Civil Rights Movement (Church History Topics)
- Venerated Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr. Speaks at The University of Utah
- Utah's Freedom Riders





