| Zinn Education Project

America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s

Book - Non-Fiction. By Elizabeth Hinton. 2021. The rebellion and movement for Black lives of 2020 had clear precursors, this book explains, and any attempt to understand that crisis requires a reckoning with the recent past.

Pacific Climate Warriors Speak at Climate Strike

Film Clip. Pacific Climate Warriors. 2019. During the Global Climate Strike on Sept. 20, 2019, the Pacific Climate Warriors in Portland showed up at their rally carrying their identity with pride and speaking their truths as Pacific islanders fighting for their homes.

Project Censored 2021: State of the Free Press

Book - Non-fiction. Edited by Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth. Forward by Matt Taibbl. 2020. The news-monitoring group Project Censored offers a succinct and comprehensive survey of the most important but underreported news stories of 2020.

“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.

Chokehold: Policing Black Men

Book — Non-fiction. By Paul Butler. 2018. 320 pp. A former federal prosecutor explains how the criminal justice system works against the people and how we can disrupt its abuse.

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy

Book - Non-fiction. By Carol Anderson. 2018. 368 pages. This history of voter suppression highlights the aftermath and challenges to the 2013 Supreme Court ruling that gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Greed as a Weapon: Teaching the Other Iraq War

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. 14 pages. Rethinking Schools. A role play investigating the economic consequences of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Teaching Activity by Adam Sanchez

People’s Climate March, 2014 | Zinn Education Project

Blockadia: Teaching How the Movement Against Fossil Fuels Is Changing the World

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow, Adam Sanchez, and Tim Swinehart. A role-play activity engages students in building solidarity among different groups and organizations fighting fossil fuels and searching for alternatives.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Making All Black Lives Matter (Book) | Zinn Education Project

Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century

Book – Non-fiction. By Barbara Ransby. 2018. 240 pages. "A love letter to the organizers in the Movement for Black Lives, and a tribute to their increasingly expansive vision."

Hate Will Not Define Us | Zinn Education Project

Oct. 24 and 27, 2018: Hate Crimes in Kentucky and Pennsylvania

Two hate crime shootings in one week, one of African Americans in Kentucky and the other of Jews in Pittsburgh.

Sept. 15, 2013: Lummi Nation Began Kwel hoy’ Totem Pole Journey

The Lummi Nation begin the Kwel hoy' Totem Pole journey.

Fireworks over New York | Zinn Education Project

Rethinking the 4th of July

By Bill Bigelow

Apart from the noise pollution, air pollution, and flying debris pollution, there is something profoundly inappropriate about blowing off fireworks at a time when the United States is waging war with real fireworks around the world. To cite just one example, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London found recently that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan alone have killed more than 200 people, including at least 60 children.

Street scene woodcut | Zinn Education Project

Teaching Sacrifice Zones

Teaching Activity. By Rosemarie Frascella. Rethinking Schools. Our extractive fossil fuel-based economy has always demanded that some people’s homes and health be sacrificed for the benefit of more privileged and powerful others. This article explores how one teacher engages her students in thinking about how “sacrifice zones” play out in their lives.

Aerial photo of mountaintop removal | Zinn Education Project

From Mountaintop Removal to Divestment: The Story of Swarthmore Students’ Fight Against Fossil Fuels

Article. By Hannah Jones. The global movement to get institutions to divest from fossil fuels began with students. This article tells the inspiring story.

Yup'ik village children preparing salmon | Zinn Education Project

Climate Change and School in a Yup’ik Fishing Village

Article. By Jill Howdyshell. The author describes how climate change is hitting Indigenous communities in Alaska much harder than other places in the world. And yet, administrators still insist that school discussions should focus on student test scores.

March 16, 2003: Rachel Corrie Killed

Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while undertaking nonviolent direct action to protect the home of a Palestinian family from demolition.

Feb. 14, 2011: Wisconsin Workers Strike

The Wisconsin Workers strike involved as many as 100,000 protesters opposing the 2011 Wisconsin Act 10.

Feb. 13, 2013: Keystone Pipeline Protesters Circle White House

Activists circled the White House to protest the Keystone Pipeline, an oil system that transports crude oil from Canada to various locations in the U.S.

Christopher Columbus: No Monuments for Murderers

By Bill Bigelow

A New York Times article said the symbolism of Christopher Columbus is "murky.” But there is nothing murky about Columbus’ legacy of slavery and terrorism in the Americas. The record is clear and overwhelming. The fact that the New York Times could report this with such confidence — adding that “most Americans learn rather innocently, in 1492 [Columbus] sailed the ocean blue until he discovered the New World” — means that educators and activists still have much work to do.

In Memory of those killed by Hurricane Maria | Zinn Education Project

Sept. 20, 2017: Hurricane Maria Strikes Puerto Rico

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as a major Category 4 storm.

Sept. 6, 2017: U.S. Virgin Islands Hit by Hurricane Irma

The Virgin Islands were hit by Hurricane Irma. Also, on #tdih in 1928, Hurricane Okeechobee formed and hit Puerto Rico and Florida soon in mid-September.

Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth

Film. Graham Street Productions. 2009. 110 minutes. The story of undocumented youth and the challenges they face as they turn 18 without legal status.

Papers: Stories by Undocumented Youth

Book – Non-fiction. Edited by José Manuel, Cesar Pineda, Anne Galisky, and Rebecca Shine. Illustrated by Julio Salgado. 2012. Undocumented youth from around the world tell their stories with simplicity and intimacy in this student-friendly collection.

Taking the Fight Against White Supremacy into Schools

By Adam Sanchez

As a history teacher, there are times when the past reasserts itself with such force that you have to put aside your plans and address the moment. Charlottesville is one of those times. The image of white supremacists openly marching in defense of a Confederate general, viciously beating and murdering those who are protesting their racism — is an image we hoped had died with Jim Crow. That this image is not a relic of the past, is a reality that teachers and students must face.

Fighting for Okinawa — My Home, Not a Military Base

By Moé Yonamine

My family moved to the United States from Okinawa when I was 7. But Okinawa is still home — and I’m hurt and angered at how the United States and Japan continue to treat Okinawa as little more than a colonial outpost. As a teacher, I’m even more dismayed at how the conventional school curriculum keeps young people in this country ignorant about the abuse, but also about the resistance, in my home islands.