Research

Research Library

Find resources that will broaden your personal and global perspective on civil and human rights movements and eras.

From the U.S. Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s to global human rights movements happening right now — peruse our recommended resources on a variety of related topics.

Our Global Defenders Mural

This installation lives in the atrium of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and presents a new set of cultural heroes for our time. This mural signifies a global movement of champions fighting side-by-side for human rights

Learn more about the Global Defenders mural and other campaigns by The People’s Portfolio here.

Related resources

Martin Luther King Jr. Resources
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institution
The Morehouse College, Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection
The King Center

Human Rights Resources
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Freedom House Global Freedom Status
Amnesty International
Minority Rights Group International
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights First
Freedom House

Civil Rights Resources
Cape Up: Voices of the Movement Podcast
Civil Rights Teaching
Facing History and Ourselves
Made By Us: Powering our Future with History

Stories

Gwendolyn Middlebrooks

Gwendolyn Middlebrooks

Though protected from Jim Crow by her family, she began to experience discrimination as a teenager in Atlanta, when she engaged in her first protests. At Spelman College, she was…

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Jane Stembridge

Jane Stembridge

A proponent of freedom, dignity and respect for all humanity, this native white southerner was an original staff member of SNCC and took an active role during Mississippi Summer of…

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    Segregation on Buses in Atlanta

    Black passengers sit in the back of a segregated bus in Atlanta, Georgia in 1956. Middlebrooks remembered following Daddy King’s advice that when they were forced to stand on a bus, she and other students should stack their books in large piles on empty seats next to white passengers. The white passengers would often move to sit next to other whites in the front, making seats available for blacks.

    Detained Protestors

    Black college students including Gwendolyn Harris Middlebrooks (second from right) sit in a women’s detention room in Atlanta, Georgia on March 15, 1960. Middlebrooks was arrested for her participation in a sit-in at the cafeteria at the state capitol building, part of a citywide effort to desegregate restaurants.

    Taking Names of Protestors

    A police officer takes the names of black students involved in a sit-in demonstration at a lunch counter in Atlanta, Georgia on March 15, 1960. Middlebrooks took part in the organized citywide action, protesting at the state capitol building. Sitting silently, she and others were gawked at by onlookers. She remembered feeling that it was “the way animals feel in the zoo.” © Bettmann/CORBIS

    Sit-In at Woolworth’s

    Black protesters mount a sit-in at the Woolworth’s in Atlanta, Georgia on October 20, 1960. Middlebrooks continued to be involved in aiding demonstrations, strategizing nightly as well as transporting students to protests. Working for the King family at the time, she often used the car of Martin Luther King, Jr. to do this.

    KKK Marching in Front of Rich’s In Atlanta

    Members of the Ku Klux Klan march in front of Rich’s department store in Atlanta on December 26, 1960. Upon learning that the Klan would be coming to town to protest, Mayor William Hartsfield urged black protesters to call off their picketing of the store, but they refused.

    Segregationist Sprays Insect Repellant

    Black student activists may have utilized nonviolence to desegregate restaurants, but angry white segregationists did not. This photo shows a young white man spraying insect repellent at the dozens of blacks mounting a sit-in at Woolworth’s in Atlanta in October 20, 1960.

    MLK, Sr. at Ebenezer Baptist

    Martin Luther King, Sr., known as “Daddy King,” delivering a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1964. King’s lessons on the importance of uniting as a people and standing together made an impact on Middlebrooks, who began attending the church in the 1950s.

    An Aerial View of Spelman College

    Middlebrooks, who attended and later taught at Spelman, had family connections at the school.

    The Colored Entrance of the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia

    Middlebrooks first went to the theater when she was sixteen years old and did not realize at first that there was another entrance for white patrons. Her parents had tried to shield her from the reality of segregation.

    The Front Entrance of the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia

    Middlebrooks found a way to protest segregation at the Fox Theater in her own way. When she was a student at Spelman College, Middlebrooks and her friends took an Indian professor to the theater. Dressing in her clothes and pretending that they were all from India, Middlebrooks and the others were able to enter through the front door, something she could never do otherwise.

    Protesting At Rich’s In Atlanta, Ga

    Blacks protesting segregation outside of Rich’s, Atlanta’s largest department store, in December 1960. Middlebrooks recalls that the Ku Klux Klan’s attempt to mount a simultaneous protest actually ended up being counterproductive because “they did a better job of keeping people from shopping than we did.”

    Protesting At Rich’s In Atlanta, Ga

    A woman carries a sign in protest of the segregation of Rich’s department store in downtown Atlanta in December 1960. Harris was involved in the protest of Rich’s, as well as other restaurants and stores in Atlanta, in 1960.

    Ebenezer Baptist Church

    Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. Middlebrooks became a member of the congregation when she was 10 years old.