#tdih 1866 Rep. Thaddeus Stevens offered amendment to Freedmen's Bill to distribute "public" (stolen from Native nations) land. How would U.S. be different today if land had been distributed to those who'd created the wealth & returned to Native nations? zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/thad…
That same week, a delegation led by Frederick Douglass met with President Andrew Johnson to advocate for voting rights for people freed from slavery.
Both stories ⬆️are among countless examples of why the demand for reparations. Lesson below introduces students to fight for reparations (not in most textbooks), dating back to Reconstruction, from work of Callie House to Black Panther Party and ongoing. zinnedproject.org/materials/stud…
Learn how this history is taught (or not) in our new national report, “Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction.” Includes state-by-state assessments, recommendations, and teaching resources. teachreconstructionreport.org
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This week, tchrs signed up at ZEP to access people's history lessons in Memphis; Topeka; Waco & El Paso; Tampa; Noblesville, IN; Stone Mountain, Albany, & Athens, GA; Rogersville, TN; Columbia & Lancaster, SC; the Bronx; & many more cities.
69 on Tue, 79 on Wed, & 62 on Thurs.
In response to "how did you find our people's history site?", a teacher wrote: "Honestly, there was a call for us to 'self-report' if we taught this. I was more intrigued than ever, & I came to return to this decades after my grad studies. I'm happy to be here and involved now."
And teachers from every state (close to 8,000) continue to pledge to #TeachTruth, meaning they will not censor U.S. history (& other subjects) in their classrooms & they will encourage critical thinking and dialogue. Read selected pledges ⬇️& add your own. zinnedproject.org/news/teachers-…
"The violence we experience in the present day in 2020 (murder of George Floyd, massacre at Mother Emanuel Church, and more), has a deep history that traces back to Reconstruction. It is a war on freedom." -- Kidada E. Williams, Seizing Freedom podcast ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/materials/seiz…
Greg Carr references W. E. B. Du Bois's description, in "The Souls of Black Folk," of the missed opportunity of Reconstruction.
Allen knew his life was in danger if he stayed in Amite County, Miss. but he had to care for his elderly mother.
When his mother passed away, Allen made plans to move to Milwaukee. (Great Migration continues.)
The night before Allen was to leave, he was killed. #terrorism 2/6
Traditional Civil Rights Movement narratives ignore that fight for civil, voting, and human rights was often met with terrorist violence, as exemplified by story of Louis Allen and countless others. #TeachOutsideTextbook 3/6
Jan. 1966: Vernon Dahmer said on radio he'd pay Miss. poll tax for anyone who couldn't afford to register to vote.
Next day, Klan firebombed his home, killing Dahmer. His sons, in U.S. military to "defend democracy" overseas, returned home for funeral. zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/vern…
In March 1966, SCOTUS banned poll taxes for state & local elections in 1963 lawsuit initiated by Joseph Jordan Jr., a Norfolk attorney on behalf of Evelyn T. Butts. (Virginia poll tax had been made law in 1902, to reverse Reconstruction era gains.) See⬇️
Politicians on the Right keep claiming that the proposed voting rights legislation is an illegitimate "federal takeover" of fed elections. @jbouie refutes those claims in his new column ⬇️, & so has the 15th Amendment since Reconstruction. . . #TeachTruth nytimes.com/2022/01/21/opi…
See "Reconstruction Defined" in our new national report. Here we note that 15th Amendment federally banned racial discrimination in right to vote, and explicitly gave Congress power to enforce this principle.
Read ⬇️ and check out your state's assessment. teachreconstructionreport.org/#what%20was%20…
15th Amendment soon yielded criminal penalties for interference with right to vote & federal oversight of congressional elections through Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871. Overtly violated ever since, including Jan. 6 attack on Capitol. #TeachVotingRights zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
#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…