Education Archives

Brown University students on strike in 1970, holding signs, protesting in a large crown on campus.

May 5, 1970: Brown University Student Strike

Students at Brown University went on strike to demand that the university take a stand against the escalation of the Vietnam War into neighboring Cambodia.

March 24, 1965: Anti-Vietnam War Teach-in at University of Michigan

The first anti-Vietnam War teach-in occurred at the University of Michigan, with more than 3,000 students, faculty and community members gathering on campus to educate each other about escalating U.S. aggression in Vietnam.

A Dangerous Idea: The Scopes Trial, the Original Fight over Science in Schools

Book — Non-fiction. By Debbie Levy. 2025. 288 pages.
The story of John Scopes, a Tennessee teacher who was found guilty of teaching about evolution, and the nationwide debate that followed about what students should learn in school.

Reading, Writing, and Rising Up (Teaching Guide) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word

Teaching Guide. By Linda Christensen. Rethinking Schools., 2017, 2nd edition. 314 pages.
Lessons for teaching a range of writing genres while addressing social justice themes.

Teaching Activity by Linda Christensen

Helen Keller letter to German students. Click image for source page with transcription.

May 9, 1933: Helen Keller Writes to German Students

Helen Keller wrote a letter to the students who planned on burning all books deemed “un-German.”

Spottswood Thomas Bolling Jr. and his mother Mrs. Sarah Bolling of the Bolling v. Sharpe school desegregation case, decided on the same day as Brown v. Board. Image: © The Washington Post by permission from the Washingtoniana Division.

May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board Ruling

After decades of organizing and strategic efforts by parents, teachers, lawyers, and more — the U.S. Supreme Court issued the unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education on school segregation.

Dec. 24, 1829: Georgia Bans Insurrectionary Literature

Enacted in response to David Walker’s Appeal, this law criminalized the distribution of materials that could incite rebellion to slavery, reflecting fears of literacy empowering resistance.

April 7, 1831: Virginia Literacy Ban Enacted

Following the publication of David Walker’s Appeal in 1829, this Virginia law prohibited the education of enslaved and free Black people, seeking to suppress potential uprisings. Several other states enacted similar bans at this time.

May 24, 1833: The Connecticut “Black Law” Enacted

One of many anti-literacy laws at the time, this law prohibited the establishment of schools for Black students who were not residents of Connecticut.

Counted Out

Film. Directed by Vicki Abeles. 2024. 89 minutes.
Explores misconceptions about the role math plays in our lives, who can learn it, and how it should be taught.

Freedom Libraries: The Untold Story of Libraries for African Americans in the South

Book — Non-fiction. By Mike Selby. 2019. 208 pages.
This book reveals the histories of grassroots "freedom libraries" that were at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South and tells the stories of courageous people who operated and used them.

A sign for the Audubon Library Summer Reading Program at the library's St. Helena Parish branch beckons residents in Greensburg.

March 7, 1964: St. Helena Four Stage Sit-In at Louisiana Library

Four Black teenagers tried to enter the whites-only St. Helena branch of the Audubon Regional Library in Greensburg, Louisiana. Instead, the library closed. Undeterred, the St. Helena Four continued to try to desegregate the local library and other segregated facilities.

Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education

Book — Non-fiction. By Jesse Hagopian. 2025. 302 pages.
A call to defend honest education for our students, showing how we can reclaim suppressed history by creating beloved classroom communities and healthy social movements.

Criminalizing Librarians: Threats and Realities

Article. By Mariame Kaba, design by Cindy Lau, artwork by Erik Ruin, and research support by Noah Berlatsky. 2025. 12 pages.
Walks readers through the history of assaults on librarians and examples of library workers pushing back.

June 16, 1976: Soweto Uprising

Student-led protests in South Africa that began in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools.

June 14, 1943: Supreme Court Finds Compulsory Flag Salutes Unconstitutional

On Flag Day 1943, the Supreme Court invalidated a compulsory flag salute law in public schools and established that students possess some level of First Amendment rights.

Book cover illustration showing children of all different shapes, colors, and sizes.

Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race

Picture book. By Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli , and illustrated by Isabel Roxas. 2021. 38 pages.
This read-aloud board book on race offers the opportunity to begin important conversations with young children in an informed, safe, and supported way.

June 26, 1959: Prince Edward County Closes Public Schools

Rather than desegregate, the Prince Edward County, Virginia Board of Supervisors refused to appropriate money from the County School Board to the public schools.

Newspaper clipping of the Wayland Town Crier for June 1954. Headline reads: “Public Hearing on Hale is Scheduled for June 8; School Committee Makes Charges.”

June 25, 1954: Elementary School Teacher Fired in Red Scare

At the height of the anti-Communist Red Scare, Massachusetts second-grade teacher Anne P. Hale Jr. was removed from her position because of her prior membership in the Communist Party.

The Green Feather Movement

Article. By Alison Kysia. 2013.
History of a little-known student resistance movement against McCarthyism and censorship.

Teaching Activity by Alison Kysia

Banned Together

Film. Directed by Kate Way. 2024. 93 minutes.
Follows three students and their adult allies as they fight to reinstate 97 books suddenly pulled from their school libraries.

Oct. 17, 1972: The Wilmington Ten Convicted

Ten young Black activists and community members — known as the Wilmington Ten — were wrongfully convicted in North Carolina for standing up for racial justice and equal education.

Grenada education poster| Zinn Education Project

Grenada: ‘A Lovely Little War’

By Bill Bigelow

Anti-bullying curricula are the rage these days. But the official history curriculum teachers are provided often celebrates, or at least excuses, bullying among nations. Well, at least when the United States is the bully.

A good example is the U.S. invasion of Grenada — Operation Urgent Fury, as it was called by the Reagan administration — launched on Oct. 25, 1983. Grenada made an unlikely target of U.S. military might. Its main product was not oil but nutmeg. Its naval fleet consisted of about 10 fishing trawlers. Grenada’s population of 110,000 was smaller than Peoria, Illinois. At the time of the invasion, there was not a single stoplight in the entire country. So what put Grenada in the crosshairs of the Reagan administration?

April 23, 1951: 16-Year-Old Barbara Johns Leads a Student Strike

Barbara Johns (16-years-old) led her classmates in a strike to protest the substandard conditions in Prince Edward County, Virginia.

Dec. 27, 1937: Harriet Elizabeth Brown Case Settled

Harriet Elizabeth Brown, a teacher from Maryland, sued for equal pay for Black teachers and won the case.

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