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Dec 5 15 tweets 10 min read
#tdih 1955 🧵Montgomery Bus Boycott began.

Powerful organizing story in U.S. history, yet many people associate it with isolated act by Rosa Parks, without context of Parks’ life of activism; decades of public transportation protest; nor 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 @NMAAHC nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/jo-a… & watch "Eyes on the Prize." Typed flier calling for boy...
This wasn't 1st protest against discrimination on public transportation. In 1955, Claudette Colvin & other woman took a stand.

For more than a century, there were hundreds of acts of civil disobedience & other protests. This is not a single story. See ⬇️
civilrightsteaching.org/desegregation/…
Young people can read about brave teenager Claudette Colvin (member of @NAACP Youth Council) in book below & in YA book "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" by @JeanneTheoharis & @brandycolbert (described in this 🧵.)
zinnedproject.org/materials/clau…
"In truth, Montgomery Bus Boycott was a protest against racial and sexual violence, and Rosa Parks’ arrest was but one act in a life devoted to the protection & defense of Black people generally, and Black women specifically." via @dmcguire13
Read more ⬇️
werehistory.org/rosa-parks/
Out of Montgomery’s 50,000 African American residents, 30,000-40,000 participated in the boycott.

For 381 days, they walked or bicycled or car-pooled, depriving bus company of a substantial portion of its revenue.

Read gripping "Daybreak of Freedom" ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/materials/dayb…
To maintain boycott, MIA was created.

"Set up elaborate carpool system, designating 40 pickup stations across town. Police & local whites constantly harassed car pool with tickets & violence. But community pressed on."

More via @JeanneTheoharis Read➡️
rosaparksbiography.org/bio/the-boycot… Black and white photo of pe...
"One of city tactics to try to derail boycott was to dredge up an old law prohibiting organized boycotts. At end of Feb. 1956, city indicted 89 boycott leaders including Rosa Parks."

More via @JeanneTheoharis at Rosa Parks bio website➡️ rosaparksbiography.org/bio/the-city-t… #odt 1955 Six small black and white p...
There are many key people students can learn about in MBB story.

One is E. D. Nixon -- labor (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters) and civil rights (@NAACP) leader.

Read here from Encyclopedia of Alabama ➡️
encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1355 Black and white photo of ma...
#Terrorism "Even after boycott’s successful end, Rosa and Raymond Parks still couldn’t find work [they had both lost their jobs about 5 weeks into boycott] & family continued to get death threats." -- @JeanneTheoharis

Read YA book via @BeaconPressBks zinnedproject.org/materials/rebe…
While there are lots of children's books on Rosa Parks & a few on MBB, there are not many we recommend. Below & YA book above are exceptions, books that tell a people's history of the MBB. First is "Rosa" by Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Bryan Collier.
zinnedproject.org/materials/rosa/
We also recommend story of Georgia Gilmore and the "Club from Nowhere," a grassroots project to provide food and raise funds for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

See picture book by⬇️

For teacher background, read "Household Workers Unite" by @premillanadasen zinnedproject.org/materials/pies…
"Freedom Walkers" -- recommended for grades 5+. "Russell Freedman gives accounts of how much coordination and sacrifice went into conducting the MBB . . . using actual recorded words and deeds of the people to tell the story."
zinnedproject.org/materials/free…
To bring this history to classrooms, we offer a free teaching guide for "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" YA book & the new documentary film. Film is streaming on @peacock, produced by @soledadobrien based on book by @JeanneTheoharis
See below.
zinnedproject.org/teaching-rosa-…
Please help us defend the right of teachers to teach people's history and #TeachOutsideTextbook. The right-wing does not want young people to learn the history in this thread about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. #TeachTruth
zinnedproject.org/donate/

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More from @ZinnEdProject

Dec 6
#tdih 1865. 13th Amendment ratified, officially ends (with big exception) institution of slavery.

The "ownership" & SALE of people had been CENTRAL to U.S. laws and the economy from colonial era to Civil War, in NORTH & South.

Find lessons & films.⬇️🧵
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/13th…
One of the struggles after 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865 (began before & continues today) was for reparations.

Have students read documents from the Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association. & work of Callie House. #TeachTruth See⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/firs…
U.S. history textbooks don't help students understand the demand for reparations. So HS teacher & ZEP team member @LadyOfSardines wrote lesson ⬇️for her students. #TeachOutsideTextbook

As with all lessons at ZEP site, it's free, thanks to your donations.
zinnedproject.org/materials/stud…
Read 5 tweets
Dec 4
#tdih 1969. Assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark -- shot to death by police in their Chicago apartment. #terrorism
Read more ⬇️ and find lessons (free via ZEP) to teach about the Black Panther Party, COINTELPRO, and police. #TeachTruth 🧵zinnedproject.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…
Read 5 tweets
Nov 28
"If the Government had the right to free us, she had a right to make some provision for us and since she did not make it soon after Emancipation she ought to make it now." -- Callie House, call for reparations, #tdih 1898 🧵

Read ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/firs…
Read about Callie House and the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association (first convention #otd 1898) in "My Face Is Black Is True" by Dr. Mary Frances Berry @DrMFBerry. ⬇️
bookshop.org/a/7256/9780307…
Reparations for African Americans are absent from most U.S. history textbooks. Therefore, Ursula Wolfe-Rocca wrote a gr. 7+ lesson. Students design a reparations bill for a mock congressional hearing.

Read⬇️ (Note: All lessons at ZEP site are free.)
zinnedproject.org/materials/stud…
Read 4 tweets
Nov 28
Every season of @QueenSugarOWN has been a gift -- cast, directors, setting, music, storyline. Through lives of a Black family -- stories of farming (now & in history), culture, climate change, police brutality, incarceration, politics, immigration, COVID, sports, art, labor, 🧵
. . .elders' knowledge, & so MUCH more.

And SEASON 7 adds fight over education, & how laws to ban teaching history are linked to efforts to steal land from Black farmers.

Shows power of school board -- & need for justice-minded people to vote, testify, & run for school board.
Queen Sugar posted teaching resources on themes from the series including: sharecropping, Great Migration, redlining, Reconstruction, protest, incarceration, inherited knowledge, African traditions, advocacy, arts activism, & more via @ARRAYNow.

See ⬇️
queensugar101.org
Read 4 tweets
Nov 27
#tdih 1955 Rosa Parks attended mass meeting about Emmett Till, 4 days before her refusal to move on bus.

Parks' (& others') protest was not just in reaction to bus inequities, but also to lynching & criminal "justice" system. ⬇️#TeachOutsideTextbook 🧵
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/rosa…
Read the eye-opening, gripping, beautifully written YA adaptation (with @brandycolbert) of @JeanneTheoharis's bio of Rosa Parks.

Introduces readers to her decades of activism -- long before & after MBB. Also documentary of same name, streams on Peacock.
zinnedproject.org/materials/rebe…
We offer an interactive lesson by @RethinkSchools editor/ZEP co-director Bill Bigelow, based on book by @JeanneTheoharis. Challenges the textbook & mainstream media narratives about Rosa Parks.

For grades 7+, free. ⬇️#TeachTruth
📷by LeRoy Henderson.
zinnedproject.org/materials/rebe…
Read 5 tweets
Nov 24
#tdih 1947 Congress held “Hollywood 10” in contempt for refusal to testify before House Un-American Activities Comm. (HUAC). Next day, Motion Picture Assoc. fired “Hollywood 10.” Censorship led to more racism, sexism, & militarism in popular media. ⬇️🧵
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…
Read 4 tweets

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