Elaine Massacre 1919. Textbooks barely mention Red Summer, and when they do, they "downplay both racism and Black resistance, while distorting facts in a dangerous 'both sides' framing." Read "If We Knew Our History" essay below by @LadyOfSardines
"The terrible 'crime' these men had committed was to organize their members into a union for the purpose of getting the market price for their cotton." -- Ida B. Wells in a booklet she wrote called "The Elaine Riot." Read primary doc in full online here: archive.org/details/TheArk…
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas provides detailed description with photos and primary docs of 1919 Elaine Massacre and subsequent trial of "Elaine 12" (Black men convicted for massacre by whites). Photo: Elaine 12 attorney Scipio Africanus Jones #tdih Read: encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/e…
Read about role of the @NAACP, Ida B Wells, and the Black press (including Chicago Defender) and white press during 1919 Elaine Massacre and trial of Elaine 12 at @BlackPastOnline here blackpast.org/african-americ…
Black WWI vets' "achievement and success actually provoked more rage and more vitriol than if they had utterly failed.” -- Adriane Lentz-Smith, author of "Freedom Struggles: African Americans and WWI" via @SmithsonianMag#ElaineMassacre#tdih 1919 smithsonianmag.com/history/death-…
The Elaine Massacre is one of countless massacres in U.S. history designed to suppress voting rights, land ownership, labor rights, education, and more of African Americans. Time to teach about the demand for reparations. See lesson for grades 7+ below.
"Our will can create a new America in 1972, one where there’s freedom from violence & war at home & abroad. Where there’s freedom from poverty and discrimination."
Free lesson ⬇️for gr. 7+, an interactive activity with excerpts from @marthasjones_' book for students to learn about leading role of Black women in fight for voting rights throughout U.S. history. Includes Mary McLeod Bethune in Florida #AllorNothingAP zinnedproject.org/materials/teac…
Jan. 1966: Vernon Dahmer said on radio he'd pay Miss. poll tax for anyone who couldn't afford to register to vote.
Next day, Klan firebombed his home, killing Dahmer. His sons, in U.S. military to "defend democracy" overseas, returned home for funeral. zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/vern…
In March 1966, SCOTUS banned poll taxes for state & local elections in 1963 lawsuit initiated by Joseph Jordan Jr., a Norfolk attorney on behalf of Evelyn T. Butts. (Virginia poll tax had been made law in 1902, to reverse Reconstruction era gains.) See ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/harp…
#tdih 1848 "Our nation seems resolved to rush on in her wicked career, though the road be ditched with human blood, and paved with human skulls. Well, be it so." -- Frederick Douglass on U.S. war with Mexico, in North Star editorial
1/4🧵 zinnedproject.org/materials/nort…
"The taste of human blood and the smell of powder seem to have extinguished the senses, seared the conscience, and subverted the reason of the people." -- Frederick Douglass on U.S. war with Mexico 2/4
"Let the press, the pulpit, the church, the people at large, unite at once; & let petitions flood the halls of Congress . . ., asking for the instant recall of our forces from Mexico. This may not save us, but it's our only hope." --Frederick Douglass 3/4 zinnedproject.org/materials/sold…
In a white supremacist attempt to prevent Revels from assuming his elected position, his opponents said that despite having lived in U.S. all his life, he could not be seated because Senate required nine years of citizenship. The 14th Amendment had passed only two years earlier.
Attack on Revels, & rights of people of Miss. to representation: part of history of white supremacist voter suppression & attempts to delegitimize elected Black leaders: not seating Julian Bond, Trump's (media fueled) birther campaigns, & more. Lessons ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/materials/teac…
"Thousands of largely female workers engaged in a successful walkout, standing firm against mill owners, militia, & police. Meetings were translated into nearly 30 languages." -- Robert Forrant on Lawrence, Mass. Bread and Roses Strike, began #tdih 1912 ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/brea…
Contrary to standard narrative, Bread & Roses Strike was not a spontaneous walkout. The pay cut was flashpoint, but block-by-block neighborhood organizing had taken place for months in advance of the New Year. Workers were fed up & they were ready. @iww zinnedproject.org/materials/brea…
"To suggest that 1912 strike started in a flash over a wage cut diminishes purposeful behavior of immigrant laborers who built unity out of diversity. It also diminishes the importance of organized labor and other org. efforts to challenge injustices today. . ." -- Robert Forrant
#tdih 1966: Vernon Dahmer killed when home (family inside) was firebombed by KKK.
Day before he'd offered to pay poll tax for anyone who could not afford to register to vote. #Terrorism (Year AFTER '65 VRA, still poll tax in local Miss. elections.) 🧵 zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/vern…
Four of Dahmer's sons served in U.S. military to "defend democracy," only to have their father murdered in fight for right to vote in US. They came home for funeral. Dahmer active in @NAACP & SNCC ally.
📷 in tweet ⬆️ by Chris McNair (Denise McNair's father) via @JMitchellNews.
"For Mr. Dahmer, voting was only way to move from second class to full citizenship. [As a teenager], I was spellbound as [he talked] about a subject that was so verboten that one could be killed for it." -- SNCC veteran Dr. Joyce Ladner