“It is essential to resist the depiction of history as the work of heroic individuals in order for people today to recognize their potential agency as a part of an ever-expanding community of struggle." -- A. Davis, born #tdih 1944 🧵📷by Ilka Hartmann ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/ange…
"KKK & the racial segregation that was so dramatically challenged during mid-20th cent. freedom movement was produced not during slavery but rather in an attempt to manage free Black people who would have been far more successful in pushing forward democracy for all." -- A. Davis
Angela Davis is named in attacks on Black history AP in Florida. But not just South. In Nov. a student-hosted event was cancelled by school district in Rockland, NY.
"Our will can create a new America in 1972, one where there’s freedom from violence & war at home & abroad. Where there’s freedom from poverty and discrimination."
Free lesson ⬇️for gr. 7+, an interactive activity with excerpts from @marthasjones_' book for students to learn about leading role of Black women in fight for voting rights throughout U.S. history. Includes Mary McLeod Bethune in Florida #AllorNothingAP zinnedproject.org/materials/teac…
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 ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/harp…
#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…
"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
#tdih 1966: Vernon Dahmer killed when home (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. They came home for funeral. Dahmer active in @NAACP & SNCC ally.
📷 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 Dr. Joyce Ladner