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10 Jan, 9 tweets, 8 min read
#tdih 1966: Vernon Dahmer killed when home (with 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. Came home for funeral. Dahmer active in @NAACP & ally of SNCC.

📷 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 @JoyceLadner9

Read more by Ladner: civilrightsteaching.org/voting-rights/… Head and shoulders of young woman in overalls at a microphonMan seated in suit, Vernon Dahmer
"Vernon Dahmer dedicated his life to the power of the vote and the potential of young people."

Learn more about Dahmer (and much more SNCC history) from @snccdigital -- a website with reader friendly profiles (grades 6+), primary docs, & interviews.⬇️
snccdigital.org/people/vernon-…
"They intended to get all of us." -- Ellie and Bettie Dahmer (Vernon Dahmer's wife and daughter) remember night of terror in @StoryCorps interview. #tdih 1966 #otd

Listen here: storycorps.org/stories/ellie-… Two women in coats standing in front of red brick house. Dah
Hundreds of mourners attended Vernon Dahmer’s funeral on Jan. 15, 1966. In his memory & to defy the terrorists, they bravely protested on courthouse steps.

In 2020, a statue of Dahmer was unveiled in front of that Forrest County Courthouse.
Read more: zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/vern… People standing outside, black and white photo. Statue of Vernon Dahmer outside courthouse
"If you don't vote, you don't count." -- Vernon Dahmer (murdered #tdih 1966)

Investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell (@JMitchellNews) pursued case until there was a conviction.

Read about this case and more in his excellent book "Race Against Time."
zinnedproject.org/materials/race…
Teach about SNCC with free 3-lesson unit⬇️by HS teacher & @RethinkSchools editor Adam Sanchez. #TeachTruth And follow @snccdigital.

Not a teacher? Donate so we can reach more classrooms with people's history lessons: zinnedproject.org/donate/.

zinnedproject.org/materials/teac…
Teach long, ongoing history of voter suppression and the fight for voting rights with free 3-unit lesson ⬇️ by HS teacher @LadyOfSardines.

Challenge textbook myth that '65 VRA = full voting rights.

Dahmer murdered in '66 for offering to pay poll tax. zinnedproject.org/materials/teac…

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More from @ZinnEdProject

Zinn Ed Project Profile picture
12 Jan
"In aftermath of [Jan. 6] insurrection. . . many leading historians drew parallels between the violence & the Reconstruction era. . ."
What do students learn of era? See TIME article by @OBWax on release of ZEP report on teaching of Reconstruction ⬇️.
time.com/6128421/teachi…
"While many states expected students to know why Reconstruction failed, the report found less of a focus on the era’s successes — or efforts to help ensure Black Americans could be full citizens."
"The researchers also found the standards tended to focus on events on the federal level. . . which can skew teaching towards the actions of white people at the expense of stories of Black Americans’ resilience, whether at the community level . . .
Read 4 tweets
Zinn Ed Project Profile picture
11 Jan
"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
Read 4 tweets
Zinn Ed Project Profile picture
9 Jan
In Nov. of 1863, Sgt. William Walker organized his soldiers to put down their weapons to protest the Union policy of paying Black soldiers a fraction of what was paid to white soldiers. Walker, a formerly enslaved man, served as an officer in 3rd SC Volunteers. 🧵 1/4
Walker & his soldiers said they “would not do duty any longer for $7/month.” Pay was not only area of inequality. Black troops died at three times the rate of white troops b/c they were they assigned the hardest, harshest work duties and often denied access to medical care. 2/4
“For an account of the treatment that has been given to the men of the 3rd Regt S. C. Vols by a large majority of their officers,” Walker declared at his court-martial, “nine-tenths of those now in service there will be my witness that it has been tyrannical in the extreme.” 3/4
Read 4 tweets
Zinn Ed Project Profile picture
8 Jan
#tdih 1811 Over 500 Africans, from 50 nations & speaking dozens of languages, waged a strategic battle for their freedom & to end slavery & white supremacy.

Which side did U.S. troops & territorial militias take?

Read ⬇️ by Leon Waters. @HiddenHistoryLa zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/loui…
And yes, we all know answer to question ⬆️. But as Lerone Bennett Jr. explained in his books, there have been forks in road throughout history & choices made. Nothing inevitable. Helps young people recognize options that exist today and need to organize.
zinnedproject.org/materials/befo…
See the 2019 re-enactment of the German Coast Uprising of 1811, which took place in the river parishes just outside of New Orleans.

Re-enactment envisioned and organized by artist @DreadScottArt, documented by filmmaker John Akomfrah, here: slave-revolt.com Slave Rebellion Reenactment, people walking and on horseback
Read 6 tweets
Zinn Ed Project Profile picture
7 Jan
#Jan6th insurrection was one in long line of violent actions by white supremacists to undermine right to vote &/or election results. #TeachReconstruction
Most textbooks omit advances & history of voter suppression. Read⬇️& see short Reconstruction 🧵
zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
Important to start with number of Black elected officials and groundbreaking reforms they advanced.

For example, in 1868 Mississippi, interracial gov't provided, for first time, uniform system of free public schools for children regardless of race. ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/miss…
Teach about 1868, when in state after state, African Americans, many of them formerly enslaved, gathered with whites, many of them poor & disempowered until Reconstruction, to rewrite constitutions of South.

Brutal backlash to these advances. See 🧵⬇️
zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
Read 11 tweets
Zinn Ed Project Profile picture
6 Jan
The #Jan6th armed insurrection seeking to overturn the presidential election was not subtle. Neither were the white supremacist vigilantes, paramilitaries, & elected officials who rolled back gains for multiracial democracy during Reconstruction. 1/7 🧵⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/colf…
Connections between the history of Reconstruction’s roll-back & today — sustained attempts to undermine elections, voter suppression, growth of white supremacist organizations — are hard to miss if — IF — you’ve learned about the Reconstruction Era. 2/7 zinnedproject.org/campaigns/teac…
A report we are releasing next week, analyzing how Reconstruction shows up in state standards — in all 50 states plus D.C. — shows that most states do a dismal job of helping educators teach a robust history of the era. 3/7 zinnedproject.org/news/national-…
Read 7 tweets

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