- Zinn Education Project

101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History

Book — Non-fiction. By Michele Bollinger and Dao Tran. 2012.
A collection of 101 brief and accessible profiles of rebels, radicals, and fighters for social justice.

IDA Treaties Explorer

Digital collection. View digitized historic treaties between Indigenous tribes and the U.S. government alongside key historic works that provide context to the agreements made and the histories of shared lands.

Because Our Islands Are Our Life

Article. By Moé Yonamine. Rethinking Schools, Summer, 2019.
A high school ethnic studies teacher describes how students in the Pacific Island Club used poetry to refocus the narrative surrounding climate justice onto frontline communities.

Teaching Activity by Moé Yonamine

Jetnil Kiiner Student Mural (Art by Jocelyn Ng and Aravapo Leo) | Zinn Education Project

Climate Change, Gender, and Nuclear Bombs

Article. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools, Spring 2018.
Gender is one of the crucial variables determining how the climate crisis affects us.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore

Book — Non-fiction. By Elizabeth Rush. 2019. 328 pages.
A book about the impact of climate change on U.S. communities and societies that privileges the voices of those too often kept at the margins.

Poems from a Marshallese Daughter (Book Cover) | Zinn Education Project

Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter

Poetry. By Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner. 2017. 90 pages.
Poetry reveals the traumas of colonialism, racism, forced migration, the legacy of American nuclear testing, and the impending threats of climate change.

The 1897 Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii.

July 8, 1898: Hawai’i Annexation

Hawai’i was annexed to the United States.

Jan. 5, 1997: Guam Commission on Decolonization

Guam established a Commission on Decolonization.

Jan. 17, 1893: Queen Lili`uokalani of Hawai`i is Overthrown

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

Nuclear Savage: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1

Film. By Adam Jonas Horowitz. 2012. 60 and 87 minutes.
History of the U.S. government's testing of nuclear weapons and fallout on the people of the Marshall Islands.

Paradise Lost: Introducing Students to Climate Change Through Story

Teaching Activity. By Brady Bennon. Rethinking Schools. 7 pages.
A high school humanities teacher introduces students to the human cost of climate change, building empathy for climate change refugees like those in the island nation of Kiribati.

The Insular Empire: America in the Mariana Islands

Film. Directed by Vanessa Warheit. 2009. 60 minutes.
Documentary about U.S. colonies in the western Pacific.

‘Don’t Take Our Voices Away’: A Role Play on the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change

Teaching Activity. By Julie Treick O’Neill and Tim Swinehart. Rethinking Schools. 16 pages.
A role play on the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change asks students to develop a list of demands to present to the rest of the world at a climate change meeting.

Teaching Activity by Tim Swinehart

Teaching About Asian Pacific Americans: Effective Activities, Strategies, and Assignments for Classrooms and Communities

Teaching Guide. Edited by Edith Wen-Chu Chen and Glenn Omatsu. 2006.
Comprehensive collection of articles and lessons on Asian Pacific American history.

What the Tour Guide Didn’t Tell Me: Tourism, Colonialism, and Resistance in Hawai’i

Teaching Activity. By Wayne Wah Kwai Au. Rethinking Schools. 5 pages.
Lesson on the history of Hawai'i and the impact of colonization and tourism.

A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

Book — Non-fiction. By Ronald Takaki, with a foreword by Clint Smith. 2023. 576 pages.
A multicultural history of the United States, in the voices of Indigenous people, African Americans, Jews, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and others.

Act of War: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Nation

Film. By Na Maka o ka `Aina. 1993. 58 minutes.
A comprehensive documentary that focuses on the events surrounding the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893.

Resistance in Paradise: Rethinking 100 Years of U.S. Involvement in the Caribbean and the Pacific

Teaching Guide. Edited by Debbie Wei and Rachel Kamel. 1998. 199 pages.
Readings and teaching ideas for high school students on the Spanish-American War.

Pacific Climate Warriors Speak at Climate Strike

Film clip. Pacific Climate Warriors. 2019.
During the Global Climate Strike on Sept. 20, 2019, the Pacific Climate Warriors in Portland showed up at their rally carrying their identity with pride and speaking their truths as Pacific islanders fighting for their homes.

Sept. 1, 1946: Hawaiian Sugar Plantation Workers Stage Mass Strike

Led by the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU), sugar workers on 33 of Hawai’i’s 34 plantations went on strike, which lasted almost three months and led to substantial improvements in pay, housing, and working conditions.

Why We Should Learn About the FBI’s War on the Civil Rights Movement (If We Knew Our History) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Why We Should Teach About the FBI’s War on the Civil Rights Movement

By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

On March 8, 1971 — while Muhammad Ali was fighting Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden, and as millions sat glued to their TVs watching the bout unfold — a group of peace activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole every document they could find.

Delivered to the press, these documents revealed an FBI conspiracy — known as COINTELPRO — to disrupt and destroy a wide range of protest groups, including the Black freedom movement. The break-in, and the government treachery it revealed, is a chapter of our not-so-distant past that all high school students — and all the rest of us — should learn, yet one that history textbooks continue to ignore.

Indigenous People's History Young Readers (book cover) | Zinn Education Project

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People

Book — Non-fiction. By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz; adapted by Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza. 2019. 244 pages.
The original academic text is fully adapted by renowned curriculum experts Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza, for middle-grade and young adult readers.

Asian Americans in the People’s History of the United States

Profile. Brief profiles of people and events from Asian American and Pacific Islander people's history.