People’s History Articles for Elementary and Middle School

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez and Jesse Hagopian. 33 pages. Rethinking Schools.
A mixer role play introduces students to the pivotal and largely untold history of the Black Panthers.

The racist riots of 1919 happened 100 years ago this summer. Confronting a national epidemic of white mob violence, 1919 was a time when Black people defended themselves, fought back, and demanded full citizenship in thousands of acts of courage and daring, small and large, individual and collective.

This erasure of huge swaths of humanity is a fundamental feature of the school curriculum, but also of the broader mainstream political discourse. We usually think about the curriculum as what is taught in school. But as important — perhaps more important — is what is not taught, which includes the lives rendered invisible.

From the urban rebellions to the salute at the Olympics, commemorations of 1968 — a pivotal year of Black Power — have appeared in news headlines throughout this anniversary year. Yet 2018 also marks the 150th anniversary of 1868 — the height of Black Power during Reconstruction.

On Monday, The Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy spoke with students and teachers in D.C. who are studying Native American history with lessons from the Zinn Education Project.

Political activist Yuri Kochiyama was born in San Pedro, California.