Start w/uplifting 1874 Reconstruction election of Robert Smalls to Congress (for SC) ⬇️
Next: stories of violent 19th cent. voter suppression in Virginia & Alabama, Native American protest (1972), Greensboro Massacre (1979), more. zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/robe…
#tdih 1874, White League attacked Black voters at the polls in Barbour County, Ala. Seven African-Americans were killed & 70 others wounded. More than 1,000 African-Americans were driven away from polls. Rewrite the marker. #terrorism#TeachReconstructionzinnedproject.org/news/tdih/1874…
#tdih 1883 Danville, Virginia: White supremacists used terrorism to remove the elected, biracial Readjuster Party.
#tdih 1964 DC residents were allowed to vote in a presidential election for first time.
Note that while D.C. residents got the vote, they still don't have voting representatives in Congress nor the Senate. #colony#teachvotingrights See @NAACP_LDF ⬇️
#tdih 1972 More than 300 tribes of North America went to D.C. “to demand the government’s fulfillment of all U.S. treaty obligations and to self-determination."
They occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) offices in D.C. for six days.
#tdih 1979 César Vincente Cauce, Michael Ronald Nathan, M.D., William Evan Sampson, Sandra Neely Smith, and James Michael Waller, M.D. were murdered by Klan during a rally in Greensboro, NC. Police were alerted and absent.
See @democracynow segment ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/nov-…
#tdih 1986. Revealed that U.S. gov't. sold weapons to Iran in hostage release deal, despite it being illegal & Reagan’s vow “never to negotiate with terrorists.” Proceeds from arms sale used to wage war against democratically elected gov't of Nicaragua. ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/iran…
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#tdih 1890, Mississippi adopted new constitution with poll tax & arbitrary literacy tests to end progress of Reconstruction for African Americans. Precedent for other states. See SNCC's 1964 Mississippi: Subversion of Right to Vote ⬇️ #TeachReconstructionzinnedproject.org/news/tdih/miss…
"Every Southern state instituted literacy tests and poll taxes to effectively remove African Americans from the citizenship they were supposed to have been guaranteed by the 14th Amendment." -- James Loewen #TeachOutsideTextbook#TeachTruth
Read ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/materials/five…
For young adults, "Stolen Justice: The Struggle for African American Voting Rights."
YA book includes impact on voting rights of Constitutional Convention, Civil War, 13th & 14th amendments, the 1965 VRA and its dismantling by the Supreme Court in 2013. zinnedproject.org/materials/stol…
#tdih 1994 U.S. DOJ announced prison population topped 1 million for 1st time in U.S. history. Now, US is 5% of global pop & has nearly 25% of world’s prison pop.
"When myself and colleagues shall leave these Halls and turn our footsteps toward our Southern homes we know not but that the assassin may await our coming, as marked for his vengeance." -- Joseph Rainey, elected #tdih 1870, on white supremacist terrorism. zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/jose…
"What you give to one class you must give to all. What you deny to one class, you deny to all." -- Congressperson Robert B. Elliott of SC (elected #tdih 1870) in 1874 speech to advocate for Civil Rights Act.
OPHR central demands:
- restore Muhammad Ali’s heavyweight boxing title;
- remove Avery Brundage as head of the International Olympic Committee;
- hire more African American coaches; and
- disinvite South Africa and Rhodesia from Olympics. #tdih 1968 ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
To introduce young people to the history of the Olympic Project for Human Rights and the protest in 1968, we recommend "The John Carlos Story" by John Carlos and Dave Zirin @EdgeofSports via @haymarketbooks -- a gripping read for grades 7+. See ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/materials/john…
#tdih 1792, U.S. White House cornerstone was laid. Federal gov't used enslaved labor for "all aspects of construction, including carpentry, masonry, carting, plastering, glazing, painting and the grueling work of sawing logs and stones.” #theft Read ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/whit…
“When you sing that this country was founded on freedom, don’t forget the duet of shackles dragging against the ground my entire life.” -- @ClintSmithIII in powerful 3 min. reading of letter to U.S. presidents who were enslavers via @pbsnewshour
Slavery "was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, & it must, too, be in our memories." -- @ClintSmithIII
See lessons ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/lessons-h…