1920–1944 Archives

Mine workers in Gary, West Virginia, 1908

Sept. 4, 1921: Battle of Blair Mountain Ends

The end of fighting at the Battle of Blair Mountain, which was the largest example of class war in U.S. history.

Oct. 10, 1942: Petition from Aleut Women

Aleut women from the Pribilof Islands Program wrote a petition about the dangerous incarceration camp conditions during World War II.

May 30, 1942: Fred Korematsu Arrested

Fred Korematsu was arrested on a street corner in San Leandro, California for resisting Executive Order 9066, in which all people of Japanese descent were incarcerated in U.S. concentration camps.

GI Bill Denied LOC | Zinn Education Project

June 22, 1944: GI Bill Signed

President Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (USA), known as the GI Bill, to provide financial aid to veterans returning from WW II. White supremacy prevented equal access to those benefits.

Rabbit-Proof Fence

Film. Directed by Phillip Noyce. 2002. 79 minutes.
In 1931, three aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff and set off on a journey across the Outback.

Oct. 12, 1925: U.S. Fights Panama Renters’ Strike

Protesting rising rents and unsanitary conditions, tenants in Panama City, Panama were met with swift force and violence by U.S. soldiers, with six killed during the weekend.

No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice

Book — Non-fiction. By Karen L. Cox. 2021. 224 pages.
Tells the story of the efforts to raise, preserve, protest, and remove Confederate monuments across the United States.

Nov. 2, 1920: The Ocoee Massacre

More than fifty African Americans killed in the Ocoee Massacre after going to vote in Florida.

A Peoples History of the United States Book | Zinn Education Project

A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn. 2005, with a new introduction by Anthony Arnove in 2015. 784 pages.
Howard Zinn's groundbreaking work on U.S. history. This book details lives and facts rarely included in textbooks—an indispensable teacher and student resource.

Feb. 22, 1943: White Rose Members Executed

Student activists Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst were executed for urging students to rise up and overthrow the Nazi government.

Jan. 18, 1943: Jewish Resistance in Warsaw Ghetto

Jews in the Warsaw ghetto organized armed self-defense units to oppose deportations to forced-labor camps and to the Treblinka extermination camp.

August 21, 1939. Arrest of five young Black men for peaceful protest at the whites-only "public" library in Alexandria, Va.

Aug. 21, 1939: African Americans Arrested for Going to Public Library

Five Black men were arrested for staging a peaceful sit-in at the Alexandria “public” library that denied access to African Americans, making this the anniversary of one of the earliest instances of this form of non-violent protest that became popular in the mid-20th century.

“Riots,” Racism, and the Police: Students Explore a Century of Police Conduct and Racial Violence

Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
Students explore three documents produced in the wake of three major episodes of racial violence (1919, 1967, 2014) to understand the long trajectory of police violence in Black communities.

Nov. 21, 1922: Ricardo Flores Magón Assassinated at Leavenworth Prison

Mexican anarchist, organizer, and journalist Ricardo Flores Magón was imprisoned for “seditious conspiracy” and assassinated while imprisoned in the United States.

Partisans: A Graphic History of Anti-Fascist Resistance

Book — Historical non-fiction. By Paul Buhle and Raymond Tyler. 2025. 96 pages.
Through vivid illustrations and compelling narratives, Partisans brings to life the struggles and triumphs of those who resisted fascism.

Fight for the Right to Read

Book — Historical non-fiction. By Jeff Gottesfeld and Michelle Y. Green, and illustrated by Kim Holt. 2025. 36 pages.
The story of Samuel Wilbert Tucker, who organized a sit-in and subsequent court cases to challenge the exclusion of African Americans from public libraries.

Japanese American Internment Featured Image

A Lesson on the Japanese American Incarceration

Teaching Activity. By Mark Sweeting. Rethinking Schools. 4 pages.
How one teacher engaged his students in a critical examination of the language used in textbooks to describe the Japanese American incarceration.

March 21, 1937: Ponce Massacre

Police shot peaceful protesters, killing 19 and wounding over 200 others in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

May 29 Disney Strike | Zinn Education Project

May 29, 1941: Disney Animators’ Strike

Disney animators went on strike and demanded unionization.

Dec. 30, 1936: Sit-Down Strike Begins in Flint

The Flint sit-down strike represented a shift in union organizing strategies from craft unionism (organizing white male skilled workers) to industrial unionism (organizing all the workers in an industry). The sit-down strike changed the balance of power between employers and workers.