The 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond.
Students “become” several of the social groups who participated in the 1934 Longshore Workers Strike—some of whom had to answer the question, “Which side are you on?”
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Labor, Organizing, Social Class
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Burned Out of Homes and History: Unearthing the Silenced Voices of the Tulsa Race Riot
Teaching Activity. By Linda Christensen.
Teaching about racist patterns of displacement and wealth inequality through the 1921 Tulsa Massacre.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: African American, Economics, Racism & Racial Identity
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Deportations on Trial: Mexican Americans During the Great Depression
Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
In this role play students analyze who is to blame for the illegal, mass deportations of Mexican Americans and immigrants during the Great Depression.
Time Periods: Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Immigration, Labor, Latinx, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity
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Haiku and Hiroshima: Teaching About the Atomic Bomb
Teaching Activity. By Wayne Au. 3 pages.
Lesson for high school students on the bombing of Hiroshima using the film Barefoot Gen and haiku.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944, Cold War: 1945 - 1960
Themes: Language Arts, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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Learning About the Unfairgrounds: A 4th-Grade Teacher Introduces Her Students to Executive Order 9066
Teaching Activity. By Katie Baydo-Reed.
Students hold a "tea party" and a mock trial in preparation for reading literature about internment.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Asian American, Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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A Lesson on the Japanese American Internment
Teaching Activity. By Mark Sweeting.
How one teacher engaged his students in a critical examination of the language used in textbooks to describe the internment.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Asian American, Democracy & Citizenship, Education, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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The Other Internment: Teaching the Hidden Story of Japanese Latin Americans During WWII
Teaching Activity. By Moé Yonamine. 18 pages.
Poetry, photography, and text are used in this role play to teach about the seldom told history of Japanese Latin American internment during WWII.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Asian American, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Immigration, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, World History/Global Studies
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Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union: Black and White Unite?
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond.
Role play on farm labor organizing in the 1930s shows how racism had to be challenged to create effective worker alliances.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: African American, Labor, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity
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Labor Matters
Teaching Activity. By Teaching Tolerance.
Introduces students to the role of the labor movement in securing contemporary benefits such as the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, and workplace safety regulations.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909, World War I: 1910 - 1919, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Labor, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing
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The Power In Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States
Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 1988.
Role plays and writing activities project high school students into real-life situations to explore the history and contemporary reality of employment (and unemployment) in the U.S.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899, 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Labor
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Protesting the First World War
Teaching Activity. By Colby Smart.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 14 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on anti-war efforts during the first World War, as well as the U.S. government's response.
Time Periods: 20th Century, World War I: 1910 - 1919, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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World War II and McCarthyism
Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 16 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on domestic opposition to the "good war" and the impact of McCarthyism.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944, Cold War: 1945 - 1960
Themes: Democracy & Citizenship, Laws & Citizen Rights, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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From the Jazz Age to the Uprisings of the 1930s
Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer. 20 pages.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 15 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the economic and social realities of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the corresponding rise of unions and the Communist Party.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Labor, Social Class
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A Review of ‘42’: Jackie Robinson’s Bitter Pill
Article. By Dave Zirin.
Dave Zirin describes how 42 limits the story to a tale of “individual triumph through singular greatness,” ignoring the social movements and broader context of the time.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944, Cold War: 1945 - 1960
Themes: African American, Sports
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1919
Book — Non-fiction. By Eve L. Ewing. 96 pages. 2019.
Poetic reflections on the Chicago Race Riots of 1919 — part of 'Red Summer' — in a history told through Ewing's speculative and Afrofuturist lenses.
Time Periods: 20th Century, World War I: 1910 - 1919, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: African American, Art & Music, Racism & Racial Identity
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Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain
Book - Non-fiction. By Russell Freedman. 2014.
An account of Angel Island, California, the entry point for one million Asian immigrants in the early 20th century.
Time Periods: 20th Century, World War I: 1910 - 1919, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Asian American, Immigration
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Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South
Book - Non-fiction. By Robert Rodgers Korstad. 2003. 576 pages.
Chronicles the rise and fall of the union that represented thousands of African American tobacco factory workers in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909, World War I: 1910 - 1919, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Labor, Racism & Racial Identity
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The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Book - Non-fiction. By Richard Rothstein. 2017.
A history of the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments that promoted racial segregation.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944, Cold War: 1945 - 1960, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974, Post-Civil Rights Era: 1975 - 2000, 2001 - Present
Themes: African American, Economics, Racism & Racial Identity
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Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
Book - Non-fiction. By Scott Ellsworth. 1992.
A compelling story of racial ideologies, Southwestern politics, and yellow journalism, and of an embattled Black community's struggle to hold onto its land and freedom.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: African American, Racism & Racial Identity
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The Devil Is Here in These Hills
Book - Non-fiction. By James Green. 2015.
History of one of the most protracted and deadly labor struggles in U.S. history that was waged in West Virginia.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Labor, Organizing, Social Class
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