A project-based approach to studying the civil rights movement can stimulate student engagement and their sense of connection to this historic period. The authors taught this project-based learning (PBL) unit on the American civil rights movement multiple times in the past 10 years to classes of middle school, high school general education, Advanced Placement, and college-level students. Each time they do it with different classes, they are reminded of the impact that PBL can have on students' engagement with the material and the power that authentic engagement can have on true understanding of a topic and on students' abilities to use what they learn in sustained, meaningful, and transferrable ways. Further, PBL enables students to connect with and deeply understand key events and trends in U.S. history and can make rich historical material accessible as well as exciting to a wide range of student learners. Their PBL units tie to the English Language Arts Common Core standards as well as to the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards; they build and develop in students the most rigorous historical thinking skills and raise students' historical literacy and practice skills--ultimately, helping them perform effectively on standardized tests such as NAEP, state history tests, and the Advanced Placement History exams. In this article, they describe a unit they created and have taught on the civil rights movement and share resources on engaging diverse learners in a complex and multifaceted project that builds their historical thinking, creating, speaking, and writing skills while at the same time teaching them relevant, meaningful, transferable lessons about organizing for social change and the power of ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary feats.