Enacted following Nat Turner’s Rebellion, this Virginia law prohibited the education of enslaved and free Black people, seeking to suppress potential uprisings. Several other states enacted similar bans at this time as well.
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One of many anti-literacy laws at the time, this law prohibited the establishment of schools for Black students who were not residents of Connecticut.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Rebecca Nagle. 2024. 352 pages.
The generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma is told through a contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance.
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In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the state did not have jurisdiction over crimes committed on Native reservations, affirming Indigenous treaty rights and sovereignty.
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In Symm v. United States — the only case that addresses the 26th Amendment — the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to prevent college students from voting where they attended school.
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Book — Non-fiction. Edited by James Forman, Premal Dharia, and Maria Hawilo. 2024. 496 pages.
Surveys various approaches to confronting the carceral state, exploring bold but practical interventions involving police, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, prisons, and even life after prison.
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Following a kiss by a 7-year-old white girl, two young Black boys ages 8 and 9 were unlawfully arrested and brutally treated in Monroe, North Carolina.
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California enacted the Alien Land Law to bar Asian immigrants from owning or leasing land. These restrictions, and others imposed later, remained in place through both World Wars.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker. 2013. 448 pages.
A sweeping history of the role of the dispossessed in the making of the modern world.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Aran Shetterly. 2024. 480 pages.
Drawing from survivor interviews, court documents, and FBI files, this book details the “Greensboro Massacre.”
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In the case of Buchanan v. Warley, the Supreme Court declared segregated housing to be unconstitutional.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Martha S. Jones. 2018. 266 pages.
The story of how African American activists remade national belonging through battles in legislatures, conventions, and courthouses.
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The Supreme Court determined that the government could not infringe upon the First Amendment rights of corporations to spend unlimited funds on electoral campaigns.
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U.S. Marshals arrested Shadrach Minkins, who had escaped from slavery in Norfolk, Virginia.
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Executive Order 9066 issued by President Roosevelt authorized the incarceration (internment) of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent.
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The courts ruled in favor of the Mendez family and their co-plaintiffs in California, finding segregated schools to be unconstitutional.
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The constitutional climate case Juliana v. United States was filed by 21 youth against the U.S. government. The defendants said that the government's policies are causing catastrophic climate change and constitute a violation of their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Jason Stanley. 2024. 256 pages.
A global call to action for those who wish to preserve democracy — in the United States and abroad — before it is too late.
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In the case of John T. Scopes vs. the State of Tennessee, the defendant, Scopes, was found guilty and fined $100 for teaching about evolution — which was illegal in the state at the time.
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The Columbia Uprising took place in Columbia Tennessee on February 26, 1946, when Black residents collectively defended themselves against rioting police officers and local white supremacist militants.
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Book — Fiction. By Cory Doctorow. 2008. 384 pages.
A contemporary novel for teenagers that explores Homeland Security and freedom of speech in the post-9/11 United States.
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At age 15, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Montgomery, Alabama.
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The elected and interracial Reconstruction era local government was deposed in a coup d’etat in Wilmington, North Carolina.
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Hiram Revels was sworn into office as senator from Mississippi, becoming the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate.
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