Too often, texts present “great individuals” in a way that leaves readers feeling small by comparison.  “I could never do that,” is the message students can easily take away. 101 Changemakers focuses on extraordinary individuals, but in the context of the broader movements and events that sparked and nurtured their activism.

The editors feature the famous — like John Brown, Mary Beth Tinker, Rosa Parks, and Cesar Chavez — along with the less celebrated — like Harry Hay Jr., Mary and Carrie Dann, and Constance McMillen. Along with 500 word profiles, written by teachers and activists across the country, each selection includes a timeline of the changemaker’s life, provocative questions, and suggestions for further research.

Sample page.

Written for middle school students, but great for high school students, too.

Authors

Michele Bollinger lives in Washington, D.C., where she teaches high school social studies.

Dao X. Tran is an editor based in the Bronx, New York. Dao is currently working on the Domestic Worker Oral History Project. When not reading for work and pleasure, she enjoys time with her daughter Quyen, a changemaker of a different sort.

ISBN: 9781608461561 |Haymarket Books

The post 101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

The public can access most of these treaties through the IDA Treaties Explorer, a digital collection produced by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, New Mexico, in collaboration with the New Mexico State Library, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, and the New Mexico History Museum.

Along with treaties, the IDA Treaties Explorer offers a database of digitized land cessions, maps showing sovereign boundaries, and information about Tribes that have made treaties and agreements with the U.S. government. The list of Tribes includes both historical and modern, federally recognized Tribes.

The post IDA Treaties Explorer appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

This article was originally published in the Summer 2019 issue of Rethinking Schools.

“Because our islands are our life,” Akeke said into the mic in front of more than 1,000 people gathered in the Roosevelt High School commons for our Unity Fest.

On this Friday night, our Ethnic Studies classes had organized an event to bring our community together — one of the most diverse schools in Oregon. Combatting overt acts of racism in our neighborhood, students like Akeke had stepped up in front of a sea of families and peers to deliver a piece of themselves. The entire Pacific Island (PI) Club stood behind him, 27 students strong, shouting together “1.5!” — demanding the world adhere to the target of no more than 1.5° Celsius of warming over pre-industrial levels.

“Because my people’s homes are being destroyed,” read Eseta.

“Because my home is dying and we don’t want to be known as ‘climate refugees,’” echoed Leka.

“1.5!” The room vibrated with the collective boom that spread through the commons as phones recorded and parents crowded in for a better view. “1.5,” J.J. bounced as he shouted, as if trying to reach the rest of the world with his voice.

My students represent a diversity of islands, cultures, and experiences from Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. In early May, all of the PI Club students squeezed into my classroom on a hot spring day, determined to learn, organize, and advocate for their ancestral islands in the face of climate change. This was not a new journey for some with older siblings and cousins who had testified three years ago at a school board meeting and met with district representatives to demand that we stop using textbooks that lie about climate change. From stories students told in my classroom after school, conversations with students’ families, and personal writings, I knew how many of our PI students and families are threatened by the impact of climate change to their home islands.

It was with this in the bellies of their souls that the students walked out for the March 15 climate strike. My Ethnic Studies students had just participated in a Pacific Climate Warriors role play, portraying island peoples finding solidarity to help each other fight for justice through the United Nations. My students walked out to join more than 2,000 young people from around Portland who had gathered to march. Upon their return to campus, Gwenn came into my classroom with her friends and cousins and plopped down at the table.

“So, how was the march?” I asked.

“It was so emotional. It made me cry,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d get emotional like that. So many people were out there and I couldn’t stop thinking about our islands,” she said.

“But they didn’t let us talk,” said Makeleta.

During the student speeches part of the rally at the end of the march, student after student went to the mic but none was Pacific Islander. The students had asked to say a few words and were told there was no time. “How can you say that you don’t have time to hear from us?” said Gwenn.

“This isn’t just some issue,” said Makeleta. “This is about my family,” she echoed.

A number of my students were set to attend the PPS (Portland Public Schools) Climate Justice Committee’s strategy day in April. My students expressed the urgency in representing their voices as PI students within the broader fight for climate justice education. Nine students from Roosevelt attended, blending in with about 50 high school and middle school students across the district. They spent the day analyzing the PPS climate justice resolution that Roosevelt PI students before them had helped propose and pass just three years ago. My students were now strategizing ways to hold PPS accountable.

At the end of the meeting, students developed actions they could take to push for a bold climate justice education. “Have a PI version of this meeting,” said Melipone. “We need to talk together first because this is an emergency for us,” he said. This became one of the key demands from the youth gathering.

Back at school, Akash said, “I hate that we have to keep waiting and ask PPS for money when this is so serious for us. I say we just do it. Just do the PI Summit, with or without PPS.” And from there, the idea of a PI Climate Youth Summit was born with the seniors taking the lead in organizing an action project.

The next week, a three-hour summit was ready, with facilitation by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner and Makerusa Porotesano. Kathy had been to my classes several times in recent years, teaching students about the power of poetry to talk back to the world, modeling stories from the Marshall Islands in a voice of resistance. Makerusa had presented about climate change and the often untold histories of Samoa to my Ethnic Studies classes. The students knew right away that they wanted Kathy and Makerusa to lead them to a place where they can learn, gather their voices, and find their own fight as immigrants and members of a Pacific Island diaspora.

Through the course of the afternoon, wrapped up in an unbearably hot classroom with 11 fans blowing, climate change was the joke of the day as students sat uncomfortably. Despite the heat, students were eager to understand climate change, to be educated about fighters who look like them, and to joyfully connect across stories and laughter of island culture.

My family is important. Our food is good. Our culture matters. The ocean is our home. That is our HOME. Our islands are sinking.

At the end of the afternoon, Kathy turned to the board and wrote, “1.5 because . . .” And from there, each student wrote — some about memories of being home, a few telling about sacred grandparents and family members they left behind and others addressing the pain, the fight, and the determination of rising up together. Threading the poem together in one collective voice, everyone agreed that this was the piece they had to do together at the Unity Fest as PI Club — to show up for their communities and home islands symbolically as one.

Stepping up to the four microphones facing the huge crowd of people at the Unity Fest, the students roared “1.5!” to the screaming and clapping of their peers and families.

“It’s either walk now or swim later,” said Akash.

“Because if our islands drown, our identity goes with it,” read Leka.

“And I don’t want to lose my roots,” said Kaiya.

Taking the words of 350 Pacific’s Climate Warriors, the 27 students closed in unison:

Because we are not drowning.

We are fighting.

Moé Yonamine teaches at Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon. She is a Rethinking Schools editor and co-editor of the third edition of The New Teacher Book.

1.5 Degrees, Because . . .

By the students of Roosevelt’s Pacific Island Club

1.5
Because our islands are our life
Our loved ones are there
Our animals roam free in paradise

1.5
Because the coconuts my mom always talks about
The sweet pineapple, taro, and lu sipi as a part of who we are
Listening to our elders’ ancestral stories

1.5
Because people’s homes are being destroyed
Our music is becoming extinct
Our sacred coral will die

1.5
Because family members are dying
My home is dying
And we don’t want to be known as climate refugees

1.5
Because our islands shouldn’t be history but something to live on forever
It is where our heart is
It’s what our lives and futures depend on

1.5
Because if our islands drown, our identity goes with it
And I don’t want to lose my roots

1.5
Because the sinking of my friends’ islands
Protecting the treasure of our people
The warming of the globe that our islands made the smallest impact on

1.5
Because of my history and ancestors
Our cultures valuable to each of us from different islands

1.5
Because my roots come from there
It’s where I grew up
It’s where my family is
It’s where my life is
It’s a part of me

1.5
Because I don’t want to lose the ocean that we swim in and the beach that we eat on
I don’t want to see more of my family members struggle through the “American lifestyle”
I don’t want to see my family go through the pain of leaving their home

1.5
Because the islands is what represents me
and I want to be able to show my kids and grandkids where we come from

1.5
Because our feelings matter
It’s either walk now or swim later
and we don’t want to be known as climate refugees

1.5
Because our voices need to be heard loud and clear
1.5 because “we are not drowning, we are fighting”

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2019 issue of Rethinking Schools. Subscribe to the Rethinking Schools magazine today.

The post Because Our Islands Are Our Life appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

Source: Jocelyn Ng and Aravapo Leo, artists

By Bill Bigelow

At the urging of teachers, parents, students, and community activists, in the spring of 2016 the Portland, Oregon, school board passed a sweeping climate justice resolution. A key part of the resolution states, “All Portland Public Schools students should develop confidence and passion when it comes to making a positive difference in society, and come to see themselves as activists and leaders for social and environmental justice — especially through seeing the diversity of people around the world who are fighting the root causes of climate change.”

The resolution calls on teachers “to investigate the unequal effects of climate change and to consistently apply an equity lens as we shape our response to this crisis.”

As with so much else in the world, gender is one of the crucial variables determining how the climate crisis affects us.

Catherine Pearson’s short, classroom-friendly HuffPost article, “Why Climate Change Is a Women’s Issue,” summarizes how many of the key features of climate change — drought and uncertain rainfall, rising sea levels, more frequent superstorms, spread of new viruses, rising temperatures, and worsening air quality — often hit women harder than men. Women in poor countries spend more of their time finding water and collecting fuel. For a host of reasons, women are much more likely than men to be killed in natural disasters, and much more vulnerable to the rape and abuse that so often follow the trauma of climate-related hurricanes, floods, or wildfires. Most of the world’s farmers are women, and the ravages of climate change more quickly upend their lives. Rising temperatures worsen air pollution, which can cause respiratory distress for pregnant women and lead to low infant birth weight. And on and on. Of course, women are not only the victims of climate change, but also some of its most formidable opponents. Around the world, women activists are on the front line of the fight against the oppressive systems hastening our climate crisis.

Download article to continue reading.

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of Rethinking Schools.

The post Climate Change, Gender, and Nuclear Bombs appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

First-person accounts, vignettes, and Rush’s own observations provide students and teachers with a model for how to critically, poetically, and humbly interrogate the ways the climate crisis impacts ethnically, politically, and socioeconomically diverse U.S. communities.

Her tone avoids shaming and instead asks us to imagine and grapple with the inevitability of the effects of climate change happening here and now.

Rush adds to a growing collection of writing about the climate crisis that weaves stories of community struggle and resistance with relatable science and emotional intelligence. [Description from Rethinking Schools.]

Reviews

A rigorously reported story about American vulnerability to rising seas, particularly disenfranchised people with limited access to the tools of rebuilding. ― Pulitzer Prize Jury Citation

ISBN 9781571313812 | Milkweed Editions

The post Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

The United States tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshalls, including the 1954 Castle Bravo test on Bikini Atoll, 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The Marshalls are now ground zero for a different kind of colonial invasion — this time of rising seas and king tides, products of “development,” of climate change.

In her poetry, Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner confronts the intersection of colonialism, nuclear testing, climate change, and resistance. Her work is beautifully and painfully accessible to middle and high school students. [Description from Rethinking Schools]

ISBN: 978-0-8165-3402-9 | University of Arizona Press

Visit Jetñil-Kijiner’s website to learn more about life, activism, and art.

See also the Democracy NOW! video featuring Jetñil-Kijiner:

Related Teacher Stories

Read two Rethinking Schools articles, “Teaching to the Heart: Poetry, Climate Change, and Sacred Spaces,” a teacher’s account of how she introduced Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner’s poetry to her middle school classroom, and “Climate Change, Gender, and Nuclear Bombs” by Bill Bigelow.

The post Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

The 1897 Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii. Source: National Archives

Who was in favor of annexation? Just look at who was named Governor of the newly annexed islands by President McKinley: Sanford B. Dole.

Here is a description of the annexation from our report on teaching about Reconstruction.

During the later years of Reconstruction, the federal government withdrew military power from the South and increasingly channeled it into western U.S. expansion and settler colonialism. Non-native white officials and industrialists in Hawai’i made plans to monopolize the islands’ sugar trade and other resources, increasingly pushing for annexation. In January of 1893, U.S. troops invaded the capital city of the Hawaiian Kingdom and incited a coup. They immediately helped these pro-annexation, non-native residents overthrow Queen Lili’uokalani, who had recently issued a new constitution that would expand suffrage for native Hawaiians. As the United States moved toward annexation, the islands’ Indigenous people organized to assert Hawaiian sovereignty. This image shows one page of a petition that more than 21,000 native Hawaiians — over half of the islands’ Indigenous population — signed in 1897 to protest annexation. The United States annexed Hawai’i the following year.

Learn more in the related resources below.

The post July 8, 1898: Hawai’i Annexation appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

Guam Commission on Decolonization Registry Staff-2013.

The post Jan. 5, 1997: Guam Commission on Decolonization appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

Queen Lili’uokalani. Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

On Jan. 17, 1893, Queen Lili`uokalani of the independent kingdom of Hawai`i was overthrown as she was arrested at gunpoint by U.S. Marines.

American businessmen, particularly sugar plantation owners, led by Lorrin Thurston, had supported annexation of the islands to the United States. The Queen had been working on a new constitution that would restore voting rights to native Hawaiians.

A new provisional government was installed with Sanford B. Dole as president. The troops had landed the day before, providing support “to protect American lives and property.” In 1898, Pres. William McKinley signed a joint resolution of Congress authorizing the annexation. [Description from Peace Buttons.]

The post Jan. 17, 1893: Queen Lili`uokalani of Hawai`i is Overthrown appeared first on Zinn Education Project.

Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1

In 1956, Merril Eisenbud, director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Agency’s health and safety laboratory, described the government’s plans for sending Marshallese back to Rongelap, just three years after the largest nuclear test in history: “That island is by far the most contaminated place on Earth and it will be very interesting to get a measure of human uptake when people live in a contaminated environment.” Eisenbud added, “While it is true that these people do not live the way Westerners do, civilized people, it is nevertheless also true that these people are more like us than the mice.” Nuclear Savage not only chronicles the experimentation on the Marshallese but also introduces us to individuals who continue to work for justice. It’s a film that needs to be a staple in U.S. and modern world history curricula. [Review by Rethinking Schools.]

Featuring recently declassified U.S. government documents, survivor testimony, and unseen archival footage, Nuclear Savage uncovers one of the most troubling chapters in modern American history: how Marshall islanders, considered an uncivilized culture, were deliberately used as human guinea pigs to study the effects of nuclear fallout on human beings.

Between 1946 and 1958 the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons above ground on or near Bikini and Enewetok atolls. One hydrogen bomb was 1000 times larger than the Hiroshima bomb. Entire islands were vaporized and populated islands were blanketed with fallout. As the film shows, the heavily exposed people of Rongelap were then enrolled as human subjects in the top-secret Project 4.1 and evacuated to a severely contaminated island to study the effects of eating radioactive food for nearly 30 years. Many of the Marshall Islanders developed cancers and had babies that were stillborn or with serious birth defects.

Nuclear Savage follows the islanders today as they continue to fight for justice and acknowledgement of what was done to them. Despite recent disclosures, the U.S. government continues to deny that the islanders were deliberately used as human guinea pigs. The film raises disturbing questions about racism, the U.S. government’s moral obligation to the people of the Marshall Islands, and why the government is continuing to cover up the intent of the tests and Project 4.1 after several decades. [Producer’s description]

Produced by Video Project.

Trailer

The post Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1 appeared first on Zinn Education Project.