Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #TeachReconstruction

Most recents (24)

"Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers' sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a white mother's son, we who believe in freedom cannot rest . . ." -- Ella Baker

#tdih 2012 Murder of Trayvon Martin, Sanford, Fla. 🧵
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/tray…
Trayvon Martin was murdered in Sanford on land that had been home of Mayaca people, later the Seminoles.

Town incorporated during Reconstruction. Named for Henry Sanford who secured US recognition of King Leopold II’s colonial claim to the Congo. ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/peoples-h…
#tdih 1965 Jimmie Lee Jackson, civil rights activist & Baptist church deacon, was shot by state troopers in Marion, Ala. during peaceful voting rights march.

His murder was catalyst for Selma to Montgomery march, attacked by troopers on Bloody Sunday.
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/jimm…
Read 7 tweets
#tdih 1870, Hiram Revels was sworn into office as senator from Mississippi, becoming the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Do you know how many African Americans have served in the Senate to date? #TeachReconstruction
Read ⬇️ 🧵
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/hira…
In a white supremacist attempt to prevent Revels from assuming his elected position, his opponents said that despite living in U.S. all his life, he could not be seated b/c Senate required 9 years of citizenship. The 14th Amend. had passed only two years earlier. ("birtherism")
Story of Revels is one of countless examples of why we need to #TeachReconstruction.

Check out our report: “Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction.”

Find state assessments & resources. See: teachreconstructionreport.org Quote and photo by middle school teacher Lois Hammond.
Read 3 tweets
Born #tdih 1868: William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois, one of most important scholars of 20th century. Sociologist, historian, Pan-Africanist, author, editor; co-founder of @NAACP, leader of Niagara Movement, & editor of NAACP’s @thecrisismag. 🧵 ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/web-…
"One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. . . The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that . . . it paints perfect man & noble nations, but it does not tell the truth." ― W.E.B. DuBois Text: "One is astonished in the study of history at the
"The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." -- W. E. B. Du Bois in "Black Reconstruction in America" (1935), reissued 2021.

Video ⬇️of talk on book by Eric Foner, @KeeangaYamahtta, & @HenryLouisGates ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/materials/blac…
Read 10 tweets
#tdih 1870, Hiram R. Revels was elected to serve as senator from Mississippi, becoming first African American to serve in U.S. Senate.

Do you know how many African Americans have served in U.S. Senate to date? #TeachReconstruction
#TeachTruth Read ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/hira…
In a white supremacist attempt to prevent Revels from assuming his elected position, his opponents said that despite having lived in U.S. all his life, he could not be seated because Senate required nine years of citizenship. The 14th Amendment had passed only two years earlier.
Attack on Revels, & rights of people of Miss. to representation: part of history of white supremacist voter suppression & attempts to delegitimize elected Black leaders: not seating Julian Bond, Trump's (media fueled) birther campaigns, & more. Lessons ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/materials/teac…
Read 4 tweets
#tdih 1874 Vicksburg Massacre: Whites attacked Black citizens who had organized to defend Peter Crosby.

Formerly enslaved & a vet of Union army, Crosby had been forced to resign from his elected role as sheriff. #TeachTruth #TeachReconstruction Read ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/vick…
In our national report on teaching of Reconstruction, we note that history standards should (but generally do not) include Black agency (i.e., Crosby holding office) and how white supremacist violence & white media overturned multiracial democracy. More ⬇️
teachreconstructionreport.org
Too often U.S. history standards reference "failure" of Reconstruction.

This obscures successful advances made by political & grassroots leadership of African Americans & white allies; that were then undermined by violent white supremacist attacks. Read: teachreconstructionreport.org Graphic with one of 10 points everyone should learn about Re
Read 3 tweets
#tdih 1887: Thibodaux Massacre. Louisiana militia shot & killed 30 to 60 unarmed Black sugarcane workers, on strike over meager pay issued in scrip, not cash.

No federal inquiry. Assassins unpunished. #terrorism #laborhistory #TeachReconstruction Read ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/thib…
Thibodaux is one of countless massacres in US history to suppress voting rights, land ownership, economic adv't, education, press freedom, religion, LGBTQ rights, &/or labor rights. (Often called "race riots," they were to maintain white supremacy.) See ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/collection/mas…
To #TeachReconstruction, we offer lessons for gr. 7+, student project to make local Reconstruction history visible, national report, open letter from scholars, & recommended teaching guides, K-12 books, podcasts, primary doc collections, & films.

Read⬇️
teachreconstructionreport.org
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#tdih Nov. 3 🧵starts with uplifting 1874 Reconstruction election of Robert Smalls to Congress (SC) ⬇️

Next: stories of violent 19th cent. voter suppression in Va. & Ala., Native American protest ('72), Greensboro Massacre ('79), Iran/Contra ('86), more.
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/robe…
#tdih 1874, White League attacked Black voters at the polls in Barbour County, Ala.

7 African-Americans were killed & 70 others wounded.

More than 1,000 African-Americans were driven away from polls. Rewrite the marker. #terrorism #TeachReconstruction
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/1874…
#tdih 1883 Danville, Virginia: White supremacists used terrorism to remove the elected, biracial Readjuster Party.

Armed white supremacists killed five people and patrolled streets to prevent most African Americans from voting. #terrorism #TeachTruth
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/danv…
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#tdih 1890, Mississippi adopted new constitution with poll tax & arbitrary literacy tests to end progress of Reconstruction for African Americans. Precedent for other states. See SNCC's 1964 Mississippi: Subversion of Right to Vote ⬇️🧵#TeachReconstruction zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/miss…
"Every Southern state instituted literacy tests and poll taxes to effectively remove African Americans from the citizenship they were supposed to have been guaranteed by the 14th Amendment." -- James Loewen #TeachOutsideTextbook #TeachTruth
Read ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/materials/five…
For young adults, "Stolen Justice: The Struggle for African American Voting Rights."

YA book includes impact on voting rights of Constitutional Convention, Civil War, 13th & 14th amendments, the 1965 VRA and its dismantling by the Supreme Court in 2013.
zinnedproject.org/materials/stol…
Read 9 tweets
#tdih 1868 Camilla Massacre, Albany, GA. After being expelled from elected office, African Americans & a few whites marched to speak out at a political rally.

Whites opened fire, pursued, & massacred marchers. Followed by more #VoterSuppression. Read⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/cami…
"The year 1868 comes up in textbooks as significant only because of the election of Ulysses S. Grant. This focus on those at the top, misses the groundswell of activity that made the year so explosive." -- Read below about advances and repression in 1868.
zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
The Camilla Massacre of 1868 is a key story in Reconstruction & voting rights history.

Yet, we've not seen it in other major, national "this day in history" timelines.

Students can advocate for greater recognition of this history. #TeachReconstruction zinnedproject.org/news/make-reco…
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"I shall neither fawn nor cringe before any party, nor stoop to beg them for my rights. You may expel us, gentlemen, but I firmly believe that you will some day repent it." -Henry McNeal Turner #tdih 1868 when Georgia denied elected Black reps their seats zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/henr…
"The Black man cannot protect a country, if the country doesn’t protect him; and if, tomorrow, a war should arise, I would not raise a musket to defend a country where my manhood is denied." -- Henry McNeal Turner

#tdih 1868 #TeachReconstruction @vph
zinnedproject.org/materials/henr…
“It’s time for a new Reconstruction story [to] . . . better understand how we got here. A story where the central characters are the Black people who fought to liberate themselves. . . despite every attempt at violent suppression.” — @KidadaEWilliams ⬇️
teachreconstructionreport.org
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Since news broke of SCOTUS draft to overturn Roe, we've seen many people say some version of:

"Never before in U.S. history has a constitutional right been taken away."

Well, the history of Reconstruction tells us otherwise.
#TeachReconstruction 🧵1/7
teachreconstructionreport.org
During Reconstruction, the Constitution finally became a document that people could cite in arguments for equality.

14th Amend., ratified in 1868, demanded equal protection of the laws & due process of law for all people. It authorized Congress to enforce these principles. 2/7
But soon after its enactment, SCOTUS interpreted the 3 Reconstruction Amend's (13th, 14th, 15th) extremely narrowly & Congress retreated from its commitment to use them to protect Black people & democracy itself from white supremacist terror & fraud. 3/7
zinnedproject.org/materials/they…
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When was one of the first (recorded that is) organized protests of segregation on a bus or streetcar?”

Answer: #tdih 1867, after a Freedmen’s meeting in Charleston, South Carolina.

#TeachReconstruction

Read more ⬇️and see book by @profblmkelley
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/stag…
"Between 1900 and 1910, in more than two dozen cities, African Americans tried to stem the tide of their exclusion from public life by taking the fight to the streets." -- Seizing Freedom podcast episode by @KidadaEWilliams on streetcar boycotts ➡️
seizingfreedom.vpm.org/walk-the-stree… graphic of streetcar with people walking above, carrying sig
As Black women fought for right to vote, they had to travel to polls -- and therefore confront white supremacy on public transportation as well. Read about this history in "Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote. . . " by @marthasjones_

zinnedproject.org/materials/vang…
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"Wicked . . . wretched . . . evil . . . hard . . . malignant.

Thaddeus Stevens has been called all these names, and more.

He can lay claim to being one of the best-hated men in our past."

-- Milton Meltzer in 1967 book for young people on the Reconstruction era legislator.
"The harsh judgments his enemies made in his lifetime still echo in the textbooks students use now.

What did Thaddeus Stevens do to deserve this?

He fought to establish free public schools.

He fought for passage of the 13th, 14th, & 15th amendments to the Constitution. . ."
"Why is Robert E. Lee — who led armies in a bloody war to preserve slavery — called a saint [and honored with countless statues, school names, street names], while Thaddeus Stevens — who warred against slavery — is called a devil?" #TeachReconstruction
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/thad…
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#tdih 1865 the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established in the War Department "to undertake the relief effort and the unprecedented social reconstruction that would bring freedpeople to full citizenship." ⬇️
#TeachOutsideTextbook zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/free…
Freedmen’s Bureau issued food & clothing, operated hospitals, helped locate family members, promoted education, legalized marriages, supervised labor contracts, settled freed people on abandoned or confiscated lands, & more. See records at @USNatArchives: archives.gov/research/afric… black text on white backgro...
Imagine if everyone whose knowledge, skills, & labor had been stolen for generations, for centuries — had been compensated as Richard Brown was promised in doc ⬇️ to “take possession of & occupy forty acres of land, situated in St. Andrews Parish, Island of James.” #reparations Land Order, April 1, 1865 ....
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Born #tdih 1868: William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois, one of most important scholars of 20th century. Sociologist, historian, Pan-Africanist, author, editor; co-founder of @NAACP, leader of Niagara Movement, and editor of NAACP’s @thecrisismag.
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/web-…
"One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. . . The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that . . . it paints perfect man & noble nations, but it does not tell the truth." ― W.E.B. DuBois Text: "One is astonished in the study of history at the
"The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." -- W. E. B. Du Bois on "Black Reconstruction in America" (1935), just reissued. Video ⬇️of talk about book by Eric Foner, @KeeangaYamahtta, & @HenryLouisGates
zinnedproject.org/materials/blac…
Read 10 tweets
#otd 150 years ago, the Ku Klux Committee submitted its report to Congress.

It remains an invaluable source for those who #TeachReconstruction – and an object lesson in the power of historical denialism.

Its official name, btw, was a little less pithy:
Under a Republican majority, it spent 8 months interviewing 100s of witnesses and compiling a report of 13 volumes and 8,000 pages.

The evidence was overwhelming—of Klansmen whipping and murdering black and white Republicans, raping freedwomen, and burning schools and churches.
The Democratic minority included virulently racist opponents of Reconstruction.

Among them: Frank Blair Jr, who called Black Americans “semi-barbarous” and ran for vice president in 1868 on a platform calling the Reconstruction Acts “unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void.”
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#tdih 1866 Rep. Thaddeus Stevens offered amendment to Freedmen's Bill to distribute "public" (stolen from Native nations) land. How would U.S. be different today if land had been distributed to those who'd created the wealth & returned to Native nations? zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/thad…
That same week, a delegation led by Frederick Douglass met with President Andrew Johnson to advocate for voting rights for people freed from slavery.

Johnson reiterated his opposition to Black suffrage. Read transcript: hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/45144
#TeachReconstruction #TeachTruth Pixilated black and white picture of head and shoulders of F
Both stories ⬆️are among countless examples of why the demand for reparations. Lesson below introduces students to fight for reparations (not in most textbooks), dating back to Reconstruction, from work of Callie House to Black Panther Party and ongoing.
zinnedproject.org/materials/stud…
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Politicians on the Right keep claiming that the proposed voting rights legislation is an illegitimate "federal takeover" of fed elections. @jbouie refutes those claims in his new column ⬇️, & so has the 15th Amendment since Reconstruction. . . #TeachTruth
nytimes.com/2022/01/21/opi…
See "Reconstruction Defined" in our new national report. Here we note that 15th Amendment federally banned racial discrimination in right to vote, and explicitly gave Congress power to enforce this principle.
Read ⬇️ and check out your state's assessment.
teachreconstructionreport.org/#what%20was%20…
15th Amendment soon yielded criminal penalties for interference with right to vote & federal oversight of congressional elections through Enforcement Acts of 1870 & 1871. Overtly violated ever since, including Jan. 6 attack on Capitol. #TeachVotingRights
zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
Read 7 tweets
#tdih 1870, Hiram Revels was elected to serve as senator from Mississippi, becoming first African American to serve in U.S. Senate.

Do you know how many African Americans have served in U.S. Senate to date? #TeachReconstruction
#TeachTruth Read ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/hira…
In a white supremacist attempt to prevent Revels from assuming his elected position, his opponents said that despite having lived in U.S. all his life, he could not be seated because Senate required nine years of citizenship. The 14th Amendment had passed only two years earlier.
Attack on Revels, & rights of people of Miss. to representation: part of history of white supremacist voter suppression & attempts to delegitimize elected Black leaders: not seating Julian Bond, Trump's (media fueled) birther campaigns, & more. Lessons ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/materials/teac…
Read 5 tweets
Great @LEEandLOW #TeachReconstruction session today by Rita L. Hubbard @ritalorraine & Michelle Coles @mjcoles2015, based on their titles "Hammering for Freedom" (bit.ly/3tHtRD1) & "Black Was the Ink" (bit.ly/3qJbhbK). Read the books and visit @NMAAHC exhibit! Book cover, Hammering for Freedom, man with black apron, doiBook cover for Black Was the Ink. Boy in red sweatshirt in f
Up until late August -- don't miss @NMAAHC special exhibit "Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies." A visual intro to the history that is missing in textbooks and most state standards. Stories of family, land, political campaigns, & more.
nmaahc.si.edu/explore/exhibi…
Our new report, “Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction,” highlights why the books & exhibit above are needed!

Read (and share) the overall narrative & then look at your state assessment. ⬇️
teachreconstructionreport.org
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#tdih 1865 demands by Black ministers after Ebenezer Creek Massacre led to Special Field Order #15 -- a short-lived land distribution to freed people. They established civic institutions, schools, militia (to defend from Klan), & more. #TeachReconstruction
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/spec…
"If the government Haveing concluded to befriend Its late enemies. . . "-- Oct. 1865

Read petitions from freedpeople after Johnson ordered that land be restored to former Confederates.

At Freedmen and Southern Society Project, here:
freedmen.umd.edu/Edisto%20petit… h/t
@Stephen_A_West Black text on white background, says: "General we want
We recommend "Crossing Ebenezer Creek," a YA book of historical fiction by @tonyaboldenbook for HS students (and adults) about massacre that led to demands by Black ministers for Field Order #15. (Check out more of Tonya Bolden's books for young readers.)

zinnedproject.org/materials/cros…
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#tdih 1868 South Carolina constitutional convention met with a majority of Black delegates, adopting a constitution that provided for all people regardless of race, economic class, or gender. "SC Constitution was revolutionary."

#TeachReconstruction 🧵zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/Sout…
"The 1868 Constitution abolished debtors’ prison, provided for public education, rights for women, abolished property ownership as a qualification for office holding. . . Provisions [in schools] for the deaf and blind were also ordered. Black Codes were overturned." And more.
"It was in 1868, in state after state, when Black men, many of them formerly enslaved, gathered with white men, many of them poor & disempowered until Reconstruction, to rewrite the constitutions of the South." - Adam Sanchez

⬇️ w/ Lerone Bennett quotes
zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
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#tdih 1868, Mississippi Const'l Convention held, with African American & white politicians.

Passed one of first laws for uniform system of free public education for children regardless of race.

(Violently rolled back in 1890.) ⬇️

#TeachReconstruction
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/miss…
Lerone Bennett Jr. called 1868 the Glory Year in his book on Reconstruction: "This was the year of the 14th Amendment; this was the year men made the Declaration of Independence walk in the streets; this was the year almost all things were made new. . . " zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
Do students learn about history of progressive legislation & constitutions by interracial state & local gov'ts?

Read report we release next week: “Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction.” ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/national-…
Read 3 tweets
#Jan6th insurrection was one in long line of violent actions by white supremacists to undermine right to vote &/or election results. #TeachReconstruction
Most textbooks omit advances & history of voter suppression. Read⬇️& see short Reconstruction 🧵
zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
Important to start with number of Black elected officials and groundbreaking reforms they advanced.

For example, in 1868 Mississippi, interracial gov't provided, for first time, uniform system of free public schools for children regardless of race. ⬇️
zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/miss…
Teach about 1868, when in state after state, African Americans, many of them formerly enslaved, gathered with whites, many of them poor & disempowered until Reconstruction, to rewrite constitutions of South.

Brutal backlash to these advances. See 🧵⬇️
zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our…
Read 11 tweets

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