1961–1974 Archives

Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt

Book — Non-fiction. By Orisanmi Burton. 2023. 328 pages.
Drawing on oral history and applying Black radical theory in ways that center the intellectual and political goals of incarcerated people, this book argues that prisons are a domain of hidden warfare within U.S. borders.

Sept. 5, 1971: Unofficial Women’s World Cup

In 1971, Denmark beat Mexico in the second unofficial Women’s World Cup in front of a sold-out crowd of 112,500 fans at Mexico’s Aztec Stadium. As of 2024, it is still the most attended women’s sporting event on record.

Barrio Rising: The Protest That Built Chicano Park

Picture book. By María Dolores Águila and illustrated by Magdalena Mora. 2024. 40 pages.
The true story of how community members organized a massive protest in 1970, forcing the city council to change its plans.

Aug. 28, 1964: Columbia Avenue Uprising in Philadelphia

The Columbia Avenue Riot began in the predominantly African American neighborhoods of North Philadelphia after an altercation with the police and continued for three days.

Guns and the Southern Freedom Struggle: What’s Missing When We Teach About Nonviolence

By Charles E. Cobb Jr.

The best way to understand this Mississippi movement episode is...as a story of organizers and the communities they were embedding themselves in during the Freedom Movement of the 1960s. Within this organizing experience, guns in the hands of supporters sometimes existed in tension with the nonviolence usually used to define movement philosophy and practice, but that more often existed in tandem with nonviolence. In other words, something more complex was at play.

May 28, 1963: Woolworth Sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi

Students and faculty from Tougaloo College held a sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Jackson, Mississippi.

March 8, 1971: FBI’s COINTELPRO Exposed

A cab driver, a day care provider, and two professors broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole more than 1,000 classified documents.

Sept. 20, 1962: James Meredith Attempts to Register at University of Mississippi

James Meredith attempted to register at the University of Mississippi.

Nov. 13, 1969: San Marcos 10 Protested War

A group of students were suspended at Southwest Texas State University for peacefully protesting the Vietnam War.

Feb. 8, 1968: Orangeburg Massacre

Two years before the Kent State murders, 28 students were injured and three were killed in Orangeburg, South Carolina — most shot in the back by the state police while involved in a peaceful protest.

Members of the Black 14 holding a sign during their protest

Oct. 17, 1969: 14 Black Student Athletes Fired at Hint of Protest

Fourteen Black football players at the University of Wyoming were fired when their coach learned they wanted to wear black armbands during a game against Brigham Young University.

Oct. 25, 1969: Opening of Malcolm X Liberation University

Opening of the Malcolm X Liberation University in Durham, North Carolina.

March 10, 1972: National Black Political Convention

Thousands of Black leaders gathered to create a cohesive political strategy at the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana.

Feb. 12, 1971: Raiford Florida State Prison Uprising

Prisoners at Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida, staged a sit-down strike to protest prison conditions. The 700 incarcerated protesters were met with gunfire by prison guards, leaving 63 prisoners injured.

April 22, 1969: Student Strike Shuts Down City College of New York

With a list of five demands, Black and Puerto Rican students at City College of New York (CCNY) orchestrated a campus-wide closure that lasted more than two weeks.

Women & Gender Toolkit: A SNCC Digital Gateway Companion

Book — Non-fiction. By SNCC Digital Gateway. 2024. 22 pages.
Provides concrete ways for people to engage with and learn about SNCC’s work and the role of women within SNCC, explore primary source materials, and connect contemporary issues in their own lives and communities to central themes in SNCC’s history.

The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights

Book — Non-fiction. By William P. Jones. 2013. 296 pages.
A vital text on the hidden history and significance of the March on Washington.

Teaching Activity by William P. Jones

Freedom Day in Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Article. By Howard Zinn. From Chapter 6 of You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.
Zinn describes the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) voting rights campaign called Freedom Day in Hattiesburg, Miss.

March 26, 1964: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X met briefly by chance as they were waiting for a press conference.

Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong

Picture book. By Dawn Bohulano Mabalon and Gayle Romasanta. Illustrated by Andre Sibayan. 2018.
The first nonfiction illustrated Filipino-American history book for children tells the story of labor activist Larry Itliong, who organized farmworkers on the West Coast in the mid-20th century.

March 20, 1969: Mexican-American Students Walkout in Colorado

Mexican-American youth walked out of school to protest racial discrimination in Denver, Colorado.

April 3, 1969: Judge George Crockett Jr. Defends Equal Justice

In the face of white supremacists’ threats, a Black Detroit judge upheld the law and acted for equal justice for Black churchgoers detained unlawfully after a deadly police shoot-out.

March on Washington | Zinn Education Project

Claiming and Teaching the 1963 March on Washington

By Bill Fletcher Jr.

August 28 marks the anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Publicly associated with Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, this march brought more than 250,000 people to the nation’s capital. The day went down in history as a powerful show of force against Jim Crow segregation. Over time this great event has risen to levels of near mythology. The powerful speech by Dr. King, replayed, in part, for us every January on Martin Luther King Day, has eclipsed all else — so much so that too many people believe that the March on Washington was entirely the work of Dr. King. It is also barely remembered that the March on Washington was for freedom and jobs.

Pentagon Papers collage | Zinn Education Project

Camouflaging the Vietnam War: How Textbooks Continue to Keep the Pentagon Papers a Secret

By Bill Bigelow

In the Academy Award-winning documentary Hearts and Minds, Daniel Ellsberg, who secretly copied and then released the Pentagon Papers, offers a catalog of presidential lying about the U.S. role in Vietnam: Truman lied. Eisenhower lied. Kennedy lied. Johnson “lied and lied and lied.” Nixon lied.

Ellsberg concludes: “The American public was lied to month by month by each of these five administrations. As I say, it’s a tribute to the American public that their leaders perceived that they had to be lied to; it’s no tribute to us that it was so easy to fool the public.”

In June of 1971, Ellsberg surrendered to federal authorities at Post Office Square in Boston. Forty-two years later, few of the historical secrets that Ellsberg revealed — especially those that focus on the immediate post-World War II origins of U.S. involvement in Vietnam — appear in the school curriculum.

April 6, 1968: Tuskegee Student Uprising

The Tuskegee Student Uprising of 1968 was one of many instances when Black students fought to expand educational opportunities and create more equity on college campuses.

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