Racism & Racial Identity Archives

Hamburg Massacre Marker | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

July 8, 1876: Hamburg Massacre

During a clear sign of Reconstruction era voter suppression, a Black militia was accused of blocking a road and punished with the Hamburg Massacre.

July 12, 1964: Henry Dee and Charles Moore Case

The bodies of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, were found in the Mississippi River. They had been tortured and murdered by the Klan two months earlier.

July 18, 1966: Hough Uprising

Protest and civil unrest broke out in Cleveland following years of escalation of racial tension.

Southern Homestead Act | Zinn Education Project

June 21, 1866: Southern Homestead Act

The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 was signed, providing land to the formerly enslaved, lands which had been stolen from the Native American inhabitants.

soldiers at a YWCA Hostess House | Zinn Education Project

July 19, 1919: White Mobs in Uniform Attack African Americans — Who Fight Back — in Washington, D.C.

White mobs, incited by the media, attacked the African American community in Washington, D.C., and African American soldiers returning from WWI. This was one of the many violent events that summer and it was distinguished by strong and organized Black resistance to the white violence.

Warriors from Bondage. The attack of Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River, 1816.

July 27, 1816: The “Negro Fort” Massacre

The U.S. Army firebombed a fort on the Apalachicola River in Florida.

Newspaper account of African Americans killed and wounded during labor strife in Polk County, from the New York Times; August 10, 1896.

Aug. 5, 1896: Polk County Massacre

White workers murdered Black workers in Arkansas who were coming to work on the railways.

Aug. 28, 1955: Murder of Emmett Till

Teenager Emmett Till was lynched.

Rock Springs Massacre | Zinn Education Project

Sept. 2, 1885: Rock Springs Massacre

White coal miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, brutally attacked Chinese workers.

Students Bring Reconstruction to Life 1 (Material) | Zinn Education Project

How My Students Brought Reconstruction to Life

Article. By Amy Trenkle.
One of the teachers who piloted the Make Reconstruction History Visible project with her students shares the process she used.

Teaching Activity by Amy Trenkle

Teaching SNCC: The Organization at the Heart of the Civil Rights Revolution

Teaching Activity. By Adam Sanchez. Rethinking Schools. 24 pages.
A series of role plays that explore the history and evolution of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, including freedom rides and voter registration.

Teaching Activity by Adam Sanchez

Clyde Kennard Letter to the Editor, The American, 1959

Article. By Clyde Kennard. 1959.
Letter to the editor the Hattiesburg American about race and integration.

John Earl Reese | Zinn Education Project

Oct. 22, 1955: John Earl Reese Murdered

In an effort to stop the implementation of Brown v. Board through terrorism, 16-yr-old John Earl Reese was killed in Mayflower, Texas.

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 American shoppers in Kentucky and the other of Jewish worshippers in Pittsburgh.

Newspaper headline reading "2 More Join List Of Miss. Victims"

Oct. 30, 1959: Luther Jackson Murdered

Luther Jackson was murdered by Philadelphia, Mississippi policeman Lawrence Rainey.

American Islamophobia (Book) | Zinn Education Project

American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear

Book — Non-fiction. By Khaled Beydoun. 2018. 264 pages.
Describes the many ways in which law, policy, and official state rhetoric fueled the resurgence of Islamophobia in the United States

July 30, 1920: Lynching of Sergeant Edgar Caldwell

Sergeant Edgar Caldwell, a Black man, was hanged before a crowd of spectators in the yard of the Calhoun County jail for riding in a white streetcar.

Headline of article from the Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, September 4, 1919.

Sept. 1, 1919: Lynching of WWI Veteran Clinton Briggs

Decorated WWI veteran Clinton Briggs was killed in Arkansas.

Sept. 4, 1875: Clinton, Mississippi Massacre

Nearly 50 African-Americans were killed by white mobs during the Clinton Riot.

Thirteenth Amendment | Zinn Education Project

Dec. 18, 1865: Ratification of 13th Amendment

Secretary of State William H. Seward declared the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution to have been adopted.

Before She Was Harriet

Picture book. By Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome. 2017. 32 pages.
An illustrated biography of Harriet Tubman written in verse.

Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots

Book — Historical fiction. By Margarita Engle. 2018. 192 pages.
A novel that uses free verse to tell the story of the 1943 Zoot Suit (or Sailor) Riots through a wide range of characters.

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."

March 10, 1903: African American Leaders Protest Streetcar Segregation

African Americans in Little Rock organized a boycott and “we walk” league to protest the Streetcar Segregation Act.

National Memorial for Peace and Justice (photo) | Zinn Education Project

Jan. 22, 1912: Hamilton, Georgia Lynching

Four African Americans (including one minister and three farmers; one of the farmers was a woman) were lynched in Hamilton, Georgia.

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