Classroom Resources for Teaching People's History

Zinn Education Project - Teaching People's History

Seizing Freedom:

The Black Press

In the latest episode of the podcast Seizing Freedom, host Kidada E. Williams speaks with The Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer about:

. . . the role of the Black press in the United States. They look at how conspiracy theories, misinformation, and slander have been used as a form of media propaganda since the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, and how pioneering journalists like Ida B. Wells-Barnett laid the groundwork for identifying and calling out these campaigns.

We share the episode and related resources on the Black press, including a digital archive for the Reconstruction-era New Orleans Tribune, the biography of Simeon Booker, the Soldiers Without Swords documentary film, and Printing Hate, a digital story collection on how the white-owned press incited racial terror and the role of the Black press in providing a counter-narrative.

Reconstruction Vignettes

In our new report, Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction, each state entry begins with a photo, primary document, or story about Reconstruction. Here is an example of the vignette that opens the D.C. assessment. Check out all the vignettes, state by state, or on this Reconstruction vignettes page.

Washington, D.C.

In January of 1869, representatives from Black communities around the country gathered in Washington, D.C., for a national convention. Delegates debated a number of issues tied to the promise of freedom, including labor and land rights, access to quality education, political and legal representation, and the role of the Black press in the advocacy and advancement of multiracial democracy.

The meeting in D.C. built on decades of discussions in the Colored Conventions movement, formed in 1830. Women appear prominently in this sketch of the January 1869 convention. Despite their critical roles in these spaces and the wider Black freedom movement, they were often relegated to the margins of meeting minutes and proceedings.

Image source: Library of Congress

D.C. Assessment

More Vignettes

Colored Conventions Archive

Vanguard: Black Women in the

Fight for Voting Rights

Join us on Monday, Feb. 21 (yes, Presidents' Day) when Martha S. Jones teaches us about more women who threaten the status quo. Jones will be in conversation with Cierra Kaler-Jones about the role of Black women in the long and ongoing fight for voting rights.

Thanks to a donation from the publisher, we will give away 20 copies of the new paperback edition of Jones’ book Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All to teachers who attend the event.

Learn More and RSVP

How Many Members of Congress Enslaved People?

Thanks to a recently released two-year study by The Washington Post, we know the answer to the question is 1,700 Congresspeople, and that they held office and enacted legislation in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Check out the database of members of Congress who enslaved people. Let us know if you use this resource in your classrooms.

The research continues and your students can help. The Post offers a list of names of Congresspeople that still need to be researched. They are in Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and more states. See the names and a research guide.

In addition, one of the lead researchers, Post reporter Julie Zauzmer Weil, is offering to visit classrooms to talk with students about the report. Fill out this form if you would like to have Weil in dialogue with your students.

Explore Database

Request Class Visit

As author Clint Smith suggests, one cannot understand United States history without focusing on the centrality of slavery. This history is essential to help our students make sense of the world around them. The new Washington Post database will shed more light on that history.

At the Zinn Education Project, we offer lessons, discussion questions, and writing prompts to take students deeply into Smith’s brilliant, New York Times best-selling book, How the Word Is Passed.

Read and Download Lessons

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Your support is needed to help more students learn people’s history. Most of the Zinn Education Project’s funding comes from individuals like you.

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