Page 38 – Zinn Education Project

April 28, 1977: Disability Rights Sit-Ins Force Enactment of Section 504

Between April 5 and April 28, 1977, hundreds of disabled and handicapped activists organized, protested, and occupied government buildings around the country to pressure the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Joseph Califano, to enact Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and publish regulations to guide its enforcement.

April 27, 1860: Harriet Tubman Helped Rescue Charles Nalle

Harriet Tubman helped rescue Charles Nalle, a fugitive from slavery in Virginia, in Troy, New York.

late April 1821: U.S. Attack on Maroon Community at Angola

After becoming governor of Florida in 1821, Andrew Jackson attacked the native and Black maroon community at Angola.

April 26, 1968: Kiyoshi Kuromiya Led Protest of Vietnam War Napalm

Lifelong gay rights and anti-war activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya held a demonstration while in college against the use of napalm in Vietnam by announcing that a dog would be burned alive with napalm in front of the university library.

Bombing of Guernica | Zinn Education Project

April 26, 1937: The Bombing of Guernica

During the Spanish Civil War, the Nazis tested their new air force on the Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain.

April 25, 1846: U.S. Mexico War Begins

Today’s border with Mexico is the product of invasion and war. Grasping some of the motives for that war and some of its immediate effects begins to provide students the kind of historical context that is crucial for thinking about the line that separates the United States and Mexico.

Protestors at the Fridays 4 Future protest inside COP 25 in 2019 holding a sign reading "Indigenous Justice is Climate Justice."

April 24, 2009: Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit

Indigenous representatives from around the world met in Anchorage, Alaska, in April 2009, to share experiences and strategies for confronting environmental degradation. They issued a declaration that details their observations and demands from the front lines of the climate crisis.

April 24, 1971: Anti-War Protests in D.C. and San Francisco

500,000 people demonstrated against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C.

April 24, 1867: Richmond Streetcar Protest

African Americans in Richmond, Virginia organized protests against segregated streetcars.

April 23, 1968: Columbia Student Occupation

Students for a Democratic Society, Student Afro-American Society and others began a nonviolent occupation of campus buildings at Columbia University.

Moore was also an activist in his home state. Shown here, he marched to protest segregation at the General Assembly in Annapolis, Maryland.

April 23, 1963: White Civil Rights Activist Murdered on Racial Justice Walk in Alabama

William Lewis Moore, a white postal worker from Baltimore, was murdered on the road in Alabama during a one-person march for racial justice.

April 23, 1951: 16-Year-Old Barbara Johns Leads a Student Strike

Barbara Johns (16-years-old) led her classmates in a strike to protest the substandard conditions in Prince Edward County, Virginia.

April 23, 1866: Freedmen Demand Equal Medical Treatment

William Beverly Nash and several others asked the federal government to intervene to ensure equal medical treatment for all.

April 22, 2004: Football Star Pat Tillman Killed in Afghanistan

Football star and soldier Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan. The U.S. government used his death in pro-war propaganda.

A rally in New York for Earth Day, 1970.

April 22, 1970: First Earth Day

In April 1970, millions of people gathered around the country in one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history to celebrate the first Earth Day and demand action be taken on a variety of environmental issues.

April 22, 1969: Student Strike Shuts Down City College of New York

With a list of five demands, Black and Puerto Rican students at City College of New York (CCNY) orchestrated a campus-wide closure that lasted more than two weeks.

April 21, 1937: Congressman Ordered to Jim Crow Section of Train

Illinois congressman Arthur W. Mitchell was ordered to move to the Jim Crow car of the train once it entered Arkansas.

April 21, 1930: Inmates Burned Alive in Ohio State Penitentiary Fire

Three hundred and twenty-two inmates were killed in a fire at the Ohio State Penitentiary.

April 21, 1856: Workers Protest in Australia

Stonemasons and other construction workers protested for an eight-hour workday.

April 20, 1954: Virginia Interscholastic Association Established

The Virginia Interscholastic Association (VIA) was established to provide African American high school students in Virginia with athletic, artistic, academic, and leadership opportunities unavailable to them in segregated schools.

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