Up until late August -- don't miss @NMAAHC special exhibit "Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies." A visual intro to the history that is missing in textbooks and most state standards. Stories of family, land, political campaigns, & more. nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibi…
Our new report, “Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction,” highlights why the books & exhibit above are needed!
#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…
#tdih 1966, Georgia State House refused to seat Julian Bond despite his election (with 82% of vote) as a state rep, because of his endorsement of SNCC statement against U.S. in Vietnam. They denied Bond & the voters their rights. #VoterSuppression
Read ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/geor…
While fighting for his elected seat, Julian Bond wrote a comic book (graphic novel) about Vietnam War that made connection between struggles of the Vietnamese & of African Americans for self-determination & human rights.
Find link to read in full ⬇️. zinnedproject.org/materials/viet…
"We maintain that our country’s cry of 'preserve freedom in the world' is a hypocritical mask, behind which it squashes liberation movements which are not bound. . . by the expediencies of US cold war policies." -- SNCC statement on Vietnam war.
Read: zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/samm…
#tdih 1968 When asked at White House luncheon why young people are angry, Eartha Kitt said, b/c "You send best of this country off to be shot & maimed."
In retaliation for her honesty, her career in U.S. was ruined for 10 years & CIA tracked her. See ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/eart…
Eartha Kitt describes what happened in an interview with Renee Poussaint for Visionary Project. ⬇️
One of many stories in history of U.S. gov't. (and textbooks') erasure & silencing of critique. (See lesson in 🧵on COINTELPRO & current anti-"crt" laws).
In a 1968 video editorial on WGBH Boston, Howard Zinn nominated Eartha Kitt and Dr. Benjamin Spock for Woman and Man of the Year because they “both refused to play the game” by speaking out against the Vietnam War. #HowardZinn100#TeachTruth
"We are going to keep watch over the lands of our country so that they truly profit her children." -- Patrice Lumumba, democratically elected prime minister of Republic of the Congo 6/30/1960
Learn about Patrice Lumumba and history of colonialism in the Congo from 2011 @DemocracyNow interview ⬇️ with journalist Adam Hochschild, author of "King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa." democracynow.org/2011/1/21/patr…
When students learn about brutal colonial history of the Congo, they often say they would not have used rubber that came from region.
#tdih 1865 demands by Black ministers after Ebenezer Creek Massacre led to Special Field Order #15 -- a short-lived land distribution to freed people. They established civic institutions, schools, militia (to defend from Klan), & more. #TeachReconstruction zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/spec…
"If the government Haveing concluded to befriend Its late enemies. . . "-- Oct. 1865
Read petitions from freedpeople after Johnson ordered that land be restored to former Confederates.
We recommend "Crossing Ebenezer Creek," a YA book of historical fiction by @tonyaboldenbook for HS students (and adults) about massacre that led to demands by Black ministers for Field Order #15. (Check out more of Tonya Bolden's books for young readers.)