1910–1919 Archives

The battlefield of Verdun is part of France's Zone Rouge, cordoned off since the end of WWI.

July 28, 1914: World War I Begins

The First World War killed roughly 20 million people. Fighting transitioned from mainly human- and animal-powered to fossil fuel-powered technologies and accessing and protecting fossil fuel supplies became part of sustaining a powerful military. The Earth and the environment have suffered ever since.

July 7, 1912: Jim Thorpe Wins Olympic Gold for U.S.

Jim Thorpe was the first Native American to win Olympic gold for team U.S.A.

Nov. 9, 1912: Carlisle Indian School Beats the West Point Football Team

The undefeated Carlisle Indian School football team faced off against the Army football team at the West Point Academy campus in front of a crowd of 3,000 people. The Carlisle team defeated Army 27–6 in this game.

Nov. 5, 1917: Supreme Court Rules Against Segregated Housing

In the case of Buchanan v. Warley, the Supreme Court declared segregated housing to be unconstitutional.

Jan. 20, 1919: Bragg Williams Killed by White Mob

A white mob dragged Black prisoner Bragg Williams from his jail cell and burned him at the stake in one of many acts of white supremacist violence in 1919 and beyond.

Oct. 14, 1916: Paul Robeson Excluded from Rutgers Football Team

As a sophomore, Paul Robeson was excluded from the Rutgers Football team because another team refused to play against a Black player.

Triangle Fire (Film)

Film. Written by Mark Zwonitzer and Directed by Jamila Wignot. 2018. 52 minutes.
After a tragic workplace accident, the private industry of the American factory would never be the same.

July 12, 1917: The Bisbee Deportation

The Bisbee Deportation was the illegal deportation of more than 1,000 striking mine workers (IWW-led strike), their supporters, and citizen bystanders by 2,000 vigilantes.

1919

Book — Non-fiction. By Eve L. Ewing. 2019. 96 pages.
Poetic reflections on the Chicago Race Riots of 1919 — part of 'Red Summer' — in a history told through Ewing's speculative and Afrofuturist lenses.

Oct. 21, 1916: African American Landowner Anthony Crawford Lynched

Successful African American entrepreneur, landowner, and community leader Anthony P. Crawford was murdered by a lynch mob in South Carolina.

Labor Matters

Teaching Activity. By Learning for Justice.
Introduces students to the role of the labor movement in securing contemporary benefits such as the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, and workplace safety regulations.

Slavery by Another Name

Film. By Sam Pollard, Catherine Allan, Douglas Blackmon and Sheila Curran Bernard. 2012. 90 minutes.
Reveals the interlocking forces in the South and the North that enabled “neoslavery” post-Emancipation Proclamation.

Oct. 6, 1917: Fannie Lou Hamer Born

Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist, was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi.

Detail of portrait of Frank Little by Nicole Schulman.

Aug. 1, 1917: Labor Organizer Frank Little Lynched

IWW labor organizer Frank Little was lynched from a railroad trestle.

April 20, 1914: Ludlow Massacre

The National Guard fired on striking miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado.

Jeanette Rankin. Portrait by Robert Shetterly of Americans Who Tell the Truth.

April 2, 1917: Jeannette Rankin Takes Seat as First Woman Elected to Congress

Jeannette Rankin took her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress.

Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library

Picture book. By Carole Boston Weatherford and Eric Velasquez. 2017. 48 pages.
This picture book is a tribute to Arturo Schomburg, the Afro Puerto Rican historian collector and activist who chronicled the Black history of the Diaspora.

May 16, 1918: The Sedition Act of 1918 Enacted

The Sedition Act of 1918 was enacted to extend the Espionage Act of 1917. It forbade the use of “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government.

May 19, 1918: Mary Turner Lynching

Mary Turner, a young African American woman who was eight months pregnant, was lynched in Lowndes County, Georgia.

Bisbee Arizona 1919 (photo) | Zinn Education Project

July 3, 1919: The Battle of Brewery Gulch

A battle between Black soldiers and the local white law enforcement who targeted them in Bisbee, Arizona during Red Summer.

April 8, 1911: Banner Mine Explosion

An explosion at the Banner Mine in Alabama killed 128 men, almost all of them African American prisoners of the state who were forced to work in the mine under the convict leasing system.

May 23, 1914: Indian Migrants on the Komagata Maru Denied Entry Into Canada

Nearly 400 South Asian immigrants — many of whom were Sikh — steamed into Vancouver’s harbor on the Japanese ship Komagata Maru in search of a new home, but were blocked from docking and disembarking due to racist immigration policies.

Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

Book — Non-fiction. By Kelly Lytle Hernández. 2022. 384 pages.
Taking readers to the frontlines of the magonista uprising and the counterinsurgency campaign that failed to stop them, Kelly Lytle Hernández puts the magonista revolt at the heart of U.S. history.

May 3, 1913: California’s Alien Land Law Enacted

California enacted the Alien Land Law to bar Asian immigrants from owning or leasing land. These restrictions, and others imposed later, remained in place through both World Wars.

Triangle Factory Fire | Zinn Education Project

March 25, 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

A fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory took the lives of 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women.

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