The Resistant Communiqués Collective is thrilled to launch the Resistant Communiqués Podcast this May in honor of May Day, International Workers' Day, with a powerful episode featuring Dr. S.E. Anderson.
In 2025, we are living through an era of book bans in the United States, one that rivals the era of McCarthyism. Florida has led the charge nationally with legislation allowing any school district member to challenge books held by a school library. Florida alone has challenged more than 4,000 books in the past few years, and other states are working on passing similar legislation. These political acts are part of an organized strategy to attack civil rights history, LGBTQ history, and women's history.
However, it is vitally important that we produce these stories and make them accessible to all, particularly young people. Dr. Anderson, an author, educator, founding member of the Harlem Black Panther Party and the NYC Coalition to Finally End Mayoral Control, a former member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC), and a lifelong organizer, published a visual primer, a docu-comic, on the Atlantic Slave Trade entitled The Black Holocaust for Beginners.
In the docu-comic, The Black Holocaust for Beginners, Dr. Anderson lays bare the understudied and enduring violence that people of African descent experienced for centuries, written to teach younger generations and non-readers.
In February 2023, while one of our collective members, Jamila, was watching a video by The Conscious Lee about book bans, Dr. Anderson's docu-comic, The Black Holocaust for Beginners, flashed onto the screen as one of the banned books. Jamila reached out and recorded this episode with Dr. Anderson to discuss his critical text.
The Resistant Communiqués Collective chose to launch the Resistant Communiqués Podcast here to honor the foundational yet violently coerced labor of Africans who were enslaved and built the wealth of the United States and to reflect on what that legacy means today.
This episode is a tribute to Dr. Anderson's life’s work, the power of memory as a form of resistance, and a culture of solidarity and resistance in practice.
Listen, share, and study with us using the multimedia syllabus below (here).
In Solidarity and Struggle,
Resistant Communiqués Collective
Learn more about Resistant Communiqués on the About page (here).
Accessibility: The transcript for this episode is available.
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Multimedia Syllabus
Dr. S.E. Anderson, The Black Holocaust for Beginners, & a Culture of Solidarity and Resistance in Practice
Note: This is not an exhaustive bibliography; it serves as a starting point for further research.
SNCC Visual/ Cultural Organizing
AFL-CIO. (2017, January 4). A Brief History of Labor, Race and Solidarity. Labor Commission on Racial and Economic Justice. https://racial-justice.aflcio.org/blog/est-aliquid-se-ipsum-flagitiosum-etiamsi-nulla
Ganeva, T. (2019, July 25). Black Panther Fred Hampton Created a “Rainbow Coalition” to Support Poor Americans | Teen Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/fred-hampton-black-panthers-rainbow-coalition-poor-americans
Thornton, J. K., & Thornton, J. K. (1998). Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800 (Second edition). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800276
Culture of Resistance
Getz, T. (2024, February 1). A Serious History of Black Comics Creators—OER Project Blog—OER Project Teacher Community—OER Project Community. https://community.oerproject.com/b/blog/posts/a-serious-history-of-black-comics-creator
Howell, P. A. (2020, August 17). On the Flourishing of Black Literary Arts, Old and New. Literary Hub. https://lithub.com/on-the-flourishing-of-black-literary-arts-old-and-new/
Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (Director). (2020, June 2). Tom Feelings discusses The Middle Passage [Video recording].
Ukweli, E., & The 19th. (2024, February 27). Black Writers Share Their Favorite Books to Honor Black History Month. Teen Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/black-writers-share-favorite-books-to-honor-black-history-month
Capitalism & the History of the Enslavement of Africans
Anderson, S. E. (with Holley, V. & Cro-maat Collective). (1995). The Black Holocaust for Beginners. For Beginners LLC.
Feelings, T. (with Nelson, K., Feelings, K., & Diouf, S. A.). (2018). The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo (Updated edition). Dial Books.
PBS. (n.d.). Africans in America/Part 1/The Middle Passage. Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p277.html
Thornton, J. K. (1998). Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800 (Second edition). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800276
Black and Indigenous History, Chattel Slavery, and Resistance: the Seminole
Baer, S. (Director). (1992). WARRIOR The Life of Leonard Peltier—YouTube [Video recording].
Dunbar-Ortiz, R. (2014). An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. Beacon Press.
Explore: Black & Indigenous History Mapping
Angelo, B. S. (2023, January 18). Surviving Strategic Discontent. Picturing Black History. https://picturingblackhistory.org/surviving-strategic-discontent/
Native Land Digital. (2025). Native-Land.ca | Our home on native land. Retrieved from
https://native-land.ca/
Visit
"Blacksonian", learn more:
Smithsonian, & National Museum of African American History and Culture. (2025). A People's Journey, A Nation's Story. National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).
https://nmaahc.si.edu/
Listen
CeeCmusic (Director). (2024, September 28). Nina Simone Young Gifted and Black 1969 [Video recording].
Resistant Communiqués Credits
The Resistant Communiqués Collective co-hosts and collaborates on the development of the Resistant Communiqués Podcast.
This episode of Resistant Communiqués:
Recording and podcast production: Jamila Hammami
Syllabus Development: Jamila Hammami and Zeb Larson
Transcript: Arielle Rebekkah
Featuring:
Resistant Communiqués Podcast Introduction: Arielle Rebekkah
Resistant Communiqués Podcast episode Host: Jamila Hammami
Resistant Communiqués Podcast episode guest: Dr. S.E. Anderson
Resistant Communiqués Podcast Outro: Zeb Larson
Royalty-Free Music Editing: Jamila Hammami
Royalty-Free Music:
Karl Casey - New Dawn
Wayne Jones - Connection
Karl Casey - Endless Night
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