2001- Archives

Dec. 19, 2008: Tim DeChristopher Protests Bureau of Land Management

Tim DeChristopher of Peaceful Uprising protested a Bureau of Land Management auction of public land in Utah’s redrock country.

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."

April 10, 2006: Immigrants’ Rights Protests Peak

During a Spring filled with pro-immigrant activism, on this day the largest number of people gathered in over 100 cities in the United States to protest new anti-immigrant legislation.

June 4, 2010: Haitian Farmers Burn “Gift” of Monsanto Seeds

Approximately 10,000 Haitian farmers protested the donation of 475 tons of Monsanto hybrid seeds.

June 27, 2015: Bree Newsome Removes Confederate Flag

While politicians debated the implications of taking down the Confederate flag after the white supremacist murder of nine African Americans at Emmanuel AME Church, Bree Newsome scaled the South Carolina state flag pole and took the flag down.

Philando Castile by Pollen | Zinn Education Project

July 6, 2016: Philando Castile is Killed by Police

Philando Castile, an African American, was shot to death by a police officer at a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Castile had worked as a nutritional supervisor at an elementary school.

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.

Chokehold: Policing Black Men

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

“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.

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.

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.

No #DAPL crowd | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

April 1, 2016: Standing Rock Sioux Oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline

The Standing Rock Sioux and allies founded a Spirit Camp along the proposed route of the Bakken oil pipeline, Dakota Access to protest the route's construction, and to raise awareness of its threat.

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

Book — Non-Fiction. By Elizabeth Hinton. 2021. 224 pages.
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.

Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America’s Schools

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Joel Westheimer. Foreword by Howard Zinn. 2007. 219 pages.
Educators address the politics of patriotism in schools.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, 10th anniversary edition

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Book — Non-fiction. By Michelle Alexander. Introduction by Cornel West. 2010, updated 10th-anniversary edition released in 2020. 336 pages.
A critical analysis of the role the justice system plays in the oppression of African Americans in the United States.

Cindy Sheehan: “It’s Time the Antiwar Choir Started Singing”

Film clip. Voices of a People's History.
Dramatic reading of Cindy Sheehan's speech "It's Time the Antiwar Choir Started Singing" (2005) is read by Marisa Tomei and Staceyann Chin.

Coal, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Mountaintop Removal

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. 15 pages.
Using chocolate chip cookie "mining," this lively activity takes a critical look at how the coal industry teaches the impact of coal mining.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Mitch Daniels and academic freedom cartoon | Zinn Education Project

Indiana’s Anti-Howard Zinn Witch-hunt

By Bill Bigelow

Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States, one of the country’s most widely read history books, died on January 27, 2010. Shortly after, then-Governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels got on his computer and fired off an email to the state’s top education officials: “This terrible anti-American academic has finally passed away.”

Native American Activism: 1960s to Present

Overview of Native American activism since the late 1960s, including protests at Mt. Rushmore, Alcatraz, Standing Rock, and more.

Berta Cáceres: Environmental Organizer

Profile. Overview and related resources about Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres.

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.

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.

The Koch Brothers Sneak into School: How Right-wing Billionaires Seek to Shape the Social Studies Curriculum

How Right-wing Billionaires Seek to Shape the Social Studies Curriculum

By Bill Bigelow

This month in Boston, thousands of teachers will gather for the annual National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference. Two non-teachers will be there, too: Charles and David Koch, the notorious right-wing billionaires.

Well, the Kochs won’t be there in person, but they will be represented by a Koch-funded and controlled organization: the Arlington, Virginia-based Bill of Rights Institute.

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.

How Right-wing Billionaires Seek to Shape the Social Studies Curriculum

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