Zinn Education Project

Dec. 27, 1937: Harriet Elizabeth Brown Case Settled

Harriet Elizabeth Brown, a teacher from Maryland, sued for equal pay for Black teachers and won the case.

Dec. 26, 1956: Fred Shuttlesworth Leads Protest to Desegregate Birmingham Buses

The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and others were met with coordinated white supremacist violence when attempting to desegregate Birmingham city buses.

Dec. 26, 1907: New York City Rent Strike

Months of organizing work by 16-year-old Pauline Newman culminated in the start of the largest rent strike in New York City’s history.

Indians at Mankato; they were found guilty for their actions during the Dakota Conflict. Public execution of 38 Dakota Illustration by W. H. Childs, 12/26/1862. Courtesy to Pioneer Press: Minnesota Historical Society

Dec. 26, 1862: Mass Execution of Dakota Indians

The mass execution of 38 Dakota Indians was ordered by President Abraham Lincoln.

“The Indians and Negroes Massacring the Whites in Florida, in January 1836,” woodcut engraving depicting the slave uprising at the outbreak of the Second Seminole War.

Dec. 26, 1835: Second Seminole War

Africans and Native Americans formed Florida’s Seminole Nation and defeated a heavily armed U.S. invading army during the Second Seminole War.

Dec. 25, 1951: Murder of Harriette and Harry Moore in Florida

The Ku Klux Klan bombed the home of labor and voting rights activists Harry T. Moore and Harriette Moore — killing them both. Harriette Moore taught elementary school, secretly teaching her students Black history in the face of bans by the state superintendent.

An account of enslaved people's revolts, 1600s–1800s.

Dec. 25, 1521: Enslaved People Revolt in Santo Domingo

Enslaved people on a Santo Domingo sugar plantation owned by the son of Christopher Columbus attempted to free themselves and take over the land in the earliest recorded slave uprising in the Americas.

Dec. 1961: Christmas Shopping Boycott

Aaron Henry (Mississippi state NAACP president, pharmacist, drugstore owner) and the Coahoma County NAACP organized an effective Christmas shopping boycott in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Dec. 24, 1913: Calumet Italian Hall Disaster

The Italian Hall disaster killed 73 people, 59 of them children, from families of striking copper miners.

Line drawing of Ku Klux Klan members who were captured with their disguises and hoods. January 6, 1872.

Dec. 24, 1865: Ku Klux Klan Founded

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee.

Dec. 24, 1829: Georgia Bans Insurrectionary Literature

Enacted in response to David Walker’s Appeal, this law criminalized the distribution of materials that could incite rebellion to slavery, reflecting fears of literacy empowering resistance.

Dec. 23, 1944: The Case of Eddie Slovik

General Dwight Eisenhower endorsed the finding of a court-martial in the case of Eddie Slovik, who deserted from the U.S. Army during World War II.

Dec. 23, 1815: Henry Highland Garnet Born

Henry Highland Garnet, abolitionist and minister, called for a militant slave revolt.

Dec. 22, 1997: Acteal Massacre

Adults and children, members of the organization Las Abejas (The Bees), were massacred while praying in a church in Chiapas, Mexico.

Dec. 22, 1969: Radio Free Alcatraz

Radio Free Alcatraz broadcasts for the first time.

Dec. 1850: Harriet Tubman Engineered First Rescue Mission

Abolitionist and suffragist Harriet Tubman, perhaps the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad, engineered her first rescue mission in December 1850.