Wars & Related Anti-War Movements Archives

Company E 4th U.S. Colored Infantry at Fort Lincoln Photo

April 9, 1865: Civil War Officially Ends

The U.S. Civil War ended when the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in south-central Virginia.

We the Resistance (Book cover) published by City Lights 2019

We the Resistance: Documenting a History of Nonviolent Protest in the United States

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Michael G. Long, foreword by Chris Hedges, afterword by Dolores Huerta. 2019. 610 pages.
Encounter the voices of activists sharing instructive stories through narrative and primary documents.

The Untold History of the United States: Young Readers Editions, Vols 1 (1898-1945) & 2 (1945-1962)

Book — Non-fiction. By Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick. Adapted by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and Eric S. Singer. Vol 1. 2014. 400 pages. Vol 2. 2019. 320 pages.
These are two volumes of illustrated histories, adapted for students from a documentary book and film of the same name.

Fort Pillow Massacre, by Katz & Allison. Source: Library of Congress via Equal Justice Initiative

April 12, 1864: Union Soldiers Massacred at Fort Pillow

Confederate troops massacred over 500 surrendering Union soldiers, majority African American, at the Civil War Battle of Fort Pillow.

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.

May 13, 1846: U.S. Congress Approves Declaration of War Against Mexico

The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly voted in favor of President James K. Polk’s request to declare war on Mexico.

May 30, 1942: Fred Korematsu Arrested

Fred Korematsu was arrested on a street corner in San Leandro, California for resisting Executive Order 9066, in which all people of Japanese descent were incarcerated in U.S. concentration camps.

GI Bill Denied LOC | Zinn Education Project

June 22, 1944: GI Bill Signed

President Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (USA), known as the GI Bill, to provide financial aid to veterans returning from WW II. White supremacy prevented equal access to those benefits.

One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps

Book — Non-fiction. By Andrea Pitzer. 2017. 480 pages.
Starting with 1890s Cuba, this book is a chronological and geopolitical history of concentration camps that is filled with prisoner perspectives.

June 3, 1943: The Zoot Suit Riots

White U.S. servicemen and police entered a majority-Mexican American neighborhood in East Los Angeles and attacked and detained hundreds of young people in the “zoot suit riots.”

Share Your Story and Get Ten Copies of New Whistleblower’s Handbook

Receive 10 copies of "The Whistleblower's Handbook" in appreciation for a classroom story about any or all of the lessons from "Teaching the Vietnam War: Beyond the Headlines."

Teach About Iran, Iraq, and the Escalating War

Teach students about U.S. imperialism and war in the Middle East, and offer a historical context, with people's history resources.

Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn. 2003. 368 pages.
A selection of passionate, honest, and piercing essays looking at political ideology in the United States.

Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn. 1968.
A cogent defense of civil disobedience.

Battle of Algiers

Film. Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. 1966. 123 minutes.
This film documents the armed insurgency against the French colonial powers in Algiers, showing the brutality and desperation of war.

Glory

Film. Directed by Edward Zwick. 1989. 122 minutes.
The all-Black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment is brought to the screen in this star-studded Civil War film.

July 18, 1863: Sgt. William Carney Earns Medal of Honor on Civil War Battlefield

A volunteer infantryman performed an act of courage that was the earliest event to earn an African American soldier the Medal of Honor.

Teaching the “American War” 75 Years After Vietnamese Independence

Here are resources to help students probe the roots of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the impact of the Vietnam War — which the Vietnamese rightly call “The American War” — and resistance to the war.

Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution: An Inquiry Into the Civil War and Reconstruction

Teaching Guide. By American Social History Project with foreword by Eric Foner. 1996.
Primary documents, essays, and questions to teach the untold story of Reconstruction.

Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage

Book — Non-fiction. By William Loren Katz. 2012. 272 pages.
History book for ages 10 to adult that traces relations between Blacks and American Indians since the time of the conquest.

Teaching Activity by William Loren Katz

The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The “Great Truth” about the “Lost Cause”

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by James W. Loewen and Edward H. Sebesta. 2010. 484 pages.
Primary documents on the causes of the Civil War.

Cindy Sheehan: “It’s Time the Antiwar Choir Started Singing”

Film clip. Voices of a People's History.
Dramatic reading of Cindy Sheehan's speech "It's Time the Antiwar Choir Started Singing" (2005) is read by Marisa Tomei and Staceyann Chin.

The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights

Book — Non-fiction. By Steve Sheinkin. 2014. 208 pages.
The story of 50 African American sailors charged with mutiny during World War II for challenging working conditions after a deadly munitions explosion.

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.

Fireworks over New York | Zinn Education Project

Rethinking the 4th of July

By Bill Bigelow

Apart from the noise pollution, air pollution, and flying debris pollution, there is something profoundly inappropriate about blowing off fireworks at a time when the United States is waging war with real fireworks around the world. To cite just one example, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London found recently that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan alone have killed more than 200 people, including at least 60 children.

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