#tdih 1990, Nelson Mandela released from prison after 27 years.
The U.S. gov't classified Mandela a terrorist.
While Mandela was in jail, U.S. corporate investment in apartheid South Africa grew, & R. Reagan had policy of “constructive engagement.” 🧵 zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/mand…
Hundreds of thousands of people in U.S. & around the world mobilized to oppose apartheid in the 1980s. That successful movement built on decades of links between African liberation movements & activists in the U.S. Rosa Parks in photo ⬇️in D.C. & SNCC in next tweet. #TeachTruth
In March, 1966, James Forman, John Lewis, Bill Hall, Cleve Sellers, & Willie Ricks occupied 14th floor of South African Consulate to “protest the inhuman and barbaric system of apartheid by the South African government.” Read more via @snccdigital at snccdigital.org/events/sncc-pr…
"Primary significance of Mandela and King was not their willingness to lock arms or hold hands with . . . enemies.
#tdih 1900 At Lincoln bday event, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was first publicly performed by 500 school children at Stanton School in Jacksonville, Fla.
School principal James Weldon Johnson wrote the words & his brother Rosamond set them to music. ⬇️🧵 zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/lift…
Art on book cover in tweet ⬆️ is by sculptor & printmaker, Elizabeth Catlett.
Picture book "Sing a Song: How Lift Every Voice and Sing Inspired Generations" by @kelstarly introduces young readers to 120-yr history of song & its role through Great Migration, Jim Crow, Civil Rights Movement, HBCU graduations, @NMAAHC opening, & today. zinnedproject.org/materials/lift…
#tdih 1950 Wisc. Senator Joseph McCarthy delivered a speech in WV; he claimed to hold list of known communists (“enemies from within”) in U.S. State Dep't.
"Whenever organizers challenged the status quo — racism, sexism, capitalism, militarism, & colonialism — its defenders screamed 'communism.' [Yet] . . .it has always been about a lot more than Russian spies, a blustering senator from Wisconsin, and a blacklist in Hollywood."
You've heard of Kent State (1970) & maybe Jackson State (1970). Did you know #tdih 1968, 28 students were injured and three killed (one a HS student) — most shot in the back by state police while involved in a peaceful protest in Orangeburg, SC? 🧵Read ⬇️ zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/oran…
The three young men murdered were Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond Jr., both SCSU students, and Delano Middleton, a local student at Wilkinson HS on his way home.
SNCC organizer Cleveland Sellers was arrested for inciting a riot & sentenced to a year in prison. He'd been minimally involved and was the only person to serve time for the massacre. (Later served as president of Voorhees College.)
"This crusade is much more important than the anti-lynching movement, because there would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom." — Carter G. Woodson
"I could not move, because history had me glued to the seat. . . It felt like Sojourner Truth’s hands were pushing me down on one shoulder & Harriet Tubman’s hands. . .on another." — Claudette Colvin 3/2/1955 (days after Black History Month at her school) zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/clau…
"The Greensboro sit-ins inspired mass movement across the South. By April 1960, 70 southern cities had sit-ins of their own. Direct-action sit-ins made public what Jim Crow wanted to hide – Black resistance to segregation." via youth-led @snccdigital⬇️ snccdigital.org/events/sit-ins…
Read about earlier sit-ins: 1943 with Pauli Murray & other @HowardU students; 1958 with high school teacher Clara Luper & NAACP Youth Council in Oklahoma; 1958 with students Ron Walters and members of the @NAACP Youth Council in Wichita, Kansas, & more. zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/katz…
Allen knew his life was in danger in Amite County, Miss. He stayed because his mother was elderly & needed care.
When his mother died, Allen made plans to move to Milwaukee. (Great Migration continues.)
The night before Allen was to leave, he was murdered. #terrorism
Traditional Civil Rights Movement narratives ignore that fight for civil, voting, & human rights was frequently met with terrorist violence, as exemplified by story of Louis Allen and countless others. #TeachOutsideTextbook