A three-year project called "Teaching Tolerance" gave Pennsylvania a failing grade for civil rights education—a 37 percent or 'D' on a curve. Most states received less than 26 percent for teaching civil rights.

For a score like Pennsylvania's, the Southern Poverty Law Center recommended that the state revise its standards and resources to better teach the movement that is often taught "haphazardly."

The rest of the country performed bleakly as well. Just three states received A's, eight received B's and six received C's while the majority were given D's and F's, or between 0 and 39 percent. South Carolina, Louisiana and Georgia were the only states that were commended with an A for their civil rights education.

The grades were based on a combination of states' own voluntary self-assessments, teaching resources given to teachers and education department standards. 

The authors of the report pointed out that educating students about the past will help them see through the politics of the present, as voting rights are continuously challenged in the states and schools districts re-segregated.

Earlier this year, Pennsylvania public education came under fire after an online video of a local author interviewing public school graduates about the Holocaust showed that many students are not taught about the history of genocide. A house bill could require schools to teach genocide and human rights violations in Pennsylvania. 

According to the report, many states do provide numerous resources to teachers, but nationally significant lessons are either ignored as only relevant to Black student, or fail to portray resistance and the movement fully. 

"We remain concerned that students are likely to remember only two names and four words about the civil rights movement," the authors of the report wrote. "Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and 'I have a dream.'"