Ella Baker, born #tdih 1903 and died #tdih 1986, was a civil, labor, & human rights activist beginning in the 1930s whose career spanned more than five decades. She was instrumental in the launch of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ella…
"In order for us as poor and oppressed people to become a part of a society that is meaningful, the system under which we now exist has to be radically changed." — Ella Baker (1903 – 1986)
"Strong people don't need strong leaders." -- Ella Baker
Portrait of Ella Baker by Phoebe Rotter of Black Lives Matter Greater Burlington. Displayed at Poor People's Campaign, D.C., June 23, 2018. @BRepairers
Read about Ella Baker and many more people involved with SNCC at the invaluable SNCC Digital @snccdigital website with profiles, primary docs, and interviews.
The best book to read about Ms. Ella Baker is "Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision" by @BarbaraRansby. Learn more and read the introduction and first few chapters online via @uncpressblog. See ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/materials/ella…
4/24/1968, Ella Baker addressed Southern Conference Education Fund at a dinner honoring her work.
Howard Zinn introduced Baker as “one of the most consequential and yet one of the least honored people in America.” Listen to recording via @apmreports ⬇️ howardzinn.org/ella-baker-con…
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"Nations reel & stagger. . .; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great & beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?" --W. E. B. Du Bois ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/materials/blac…
Today: New edition of W. E. B. Du Bois's 1935 "Black Reconstruction" released from Library of America. Still needed to challenge "universal lying" in many school standards.
Thankfully, there are a wealth of resources to teach Reconstruction. E.g. "Seizing Freedom" podcast by @KidadaEWilliams w/ dramatic readings of 1st person stories, hear how "African Americans freed themselves. . . & built new lives during Reconstruction.” zinnedproject.org/materials/seiz…
#tdih 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott began. One of most powerful organizing stories.
Yet many people associate it with isolated act by Rosa Parks, without context of Parks’ life of activism; decades of public transportation protest; nor the role of WPC. ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/bus-…
The call to action came from a flier produced by Jo Ann Robinson of Women's Political Council (WPC) and a few associates. They bravely mimeographed tens of thousands of leaflets to distribute across city. Read more at @NMAAHCnmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/jo-a… & watch "Eyes on the Prize."
This wasn't first protest against discrimination on public transportation. In 1955, Claudette Colvin & other woman took a stand.
There were hundreds of acts of civil disobedience & other protests, dating back to 19th century. Not a single story. See ⬇️ civilrightsteaching.org/desegregation/…
#tdih 1969. Assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark -- shot to death by police in their Chicago apartment. #terrorism
Read more below and find lessons (free via ZEP) to teach about the Black Panther Party, COINTELPRO, and police. #TeachTruthzinnedproject.org/news/tdih/blac…
See “The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther,” an interview with lawyer Jeffery Haas (co-founder of the People’s Law Office) on @democracynow ⬇️ democracynow.org/2009/12/4/the_…
Teach about this history with lesson below by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, "Through examining FBI documents, students learn the scope of the FBI’s COINTELPRO campaign to spy on, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt all corners of the Black Freedom Movement." zinnedproject.org/materials/coin…
#tdih 1947 Congress held “Hollywood 10” in contempt for refusal to testify before House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Next day, Motion Picture Assoc. fired “Hollywood 10.” Censorship led to more racism, sexism & militarism in popular culture. ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/holl…
"Movies of 1950s did not display any evidence of populist spirit which infused some of more notable ‘30s & ‘40s films. On the contrary, studios complacently turned out . . . movies which. . .debased women, ignored African Americans, & exalted war & imperialism." -- Allen Rivkin
Not in textbooks: "Red Scare was a scorched-earth policy against most progressive forces: labor unions organizing across racial lines; civil rights orgs. . . ; writers, artists, & journalists who advocated internationalism & peace." -- @LadyOfSardines ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
#tdih 1919 Bogalusa Labor Massacre. Self-Preservation & Loyalty League (SPLL) and Great Southern Lumber Company gunmen killed white allies of African American labor organizer Sol Dacus.
There is a long history of white supremacist massacres in U.S. history designed to suppress voting rights, land ownership, economic advancement, education, freedom of the press, religion, LGBTQ rights, and/or labor rights. See ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/collection/mas…
“Thus grew up a double system of justice, which erred on the white side by undue leniency and the practical immunity of red-handed criminals, and erred on the Black side by undue severity, injustice, and lack of discrimination.” -- W. E. B. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk (1903)
Too often the story of the grand experiment in interracial democracy in the U.S. -- and the white supremacist backlash -- is skipped or rushed through in classrooms across the country.