Thread by @ZinnEdProject

#tdih 1951, Paul Robeson submitted a petition (edited by William Patterson) to the U.N. titled, “We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People,” signed by almost 100 U.S. intellectuals and activists. zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/we_c…

With the Cold War raging, the U.S. gov't maneuvered to prevent the U.N. Commission on Human Rights from formally debating or even considering the charges brought in the petition.

[One of countless examples of the white supremacist goals/purpose of "Cold War" and McCarthyism.]

U.S. corporate media gave scant coverage to the petition or the crimes it documented. The few Gov't officials who commented on the petition described it as “Communist propaganda.” Elsewhere in world [& in US Black press] it was well received & extensively covered in the press.

As the Black Freedom Movement gathered strength in the following years, Cold War geo-politics influenced [and justified to public] Washington's reaction to major events like the sit-ins, Freedom Rides, voting rights organizing, and so on.

Read ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…

On return to U.S, Patterson's passport was seized, he could no longer speak to foreign audiences. Robeson was prevented from leaving U.S. They & other CRC leaders were harassed & persecuted by FBI & other federal agencies for rest of their lives.

More ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/materials/ball…

The description in this thread of the 1951 "We Charge Genocide" petition is from "Civil Rights Movement Archives," an invaluable online collection of stories & docs created by veterans of the Southern Freedom Movement (1951-1968).

Read here: crmvet.org/tim/timhis51.h…

To learn more about the history in this thread, we recommend the biography of anthropologist and activist Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson by @BarbaraRansby. zinnedproject.org/materials/esla…

Read about the role of the Black press in covering stories such as the "We Charge Genocide" petition that were (and still are) either ignored or vilified by the white and corporate media.

See "News for All the People" ⬇️ by @juangon68 & Joseph Torres.

zinnedproject.org/materials/news…

Engage students in grades 7+ in the lesson below on the long and ongoing struggle for reparations.

Also see lesson on FBI & COINTELPRO. All the lessons at the Zinn Ed Project website are free for download. (Thanks to donations.) #teachoutsidetextbook

zinnedproject.org/materials/stud…