Resistance 101: A Lesson on Social Justice Activists and Strategies

Framing the Movement
Written By Josh Davidson

This introductory lesson by Teaching for Change allows students to “meet” people from throughout U.S. history who have resisted injustice and to learn from the range of strategies they have used.

It is important to note, and to point out to students, that this list represents just a small sample of the people, time periods, struggles, and strategies we could have included. It is our hope that students not only choose to learn more about the people featured in this lesson, but that they also research and create more bios. In fact, students could create a similar lesson with activists in their community, youth activists, environmental activists, or other groups of activists.

High school students in Washington, D.C. participated in the Resistance 101 lesson during the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.

 
“My students learned that you do not have to be famous or powerful to do your part to help change injustices in your communities. Some students even started planning their own resistance efforts as a result.”
— Michelle Epperson, middle school social studies teacher, Coburg, Oregon
 

The lesson is based on the format of a Rethinking Schools lesson called Unsung Heroes and draws from lessons by Teaching for Change on women’s history and the Civil Rights Movement, including Selma.

Participants become aware of how many more activists there are than the few heroes highlighted in textbooks, children’s books, and the media. However, the lesson provides only a brief introduction to the lives of the people profiled. In order to facilitate learning more, we limited our list to people whose work has been documented well enough that students can find more in books and/or online.

Grade Level: 7th grade+
Time Required: One class period

Materials and Preparation

Handout 1: Biographies

Each student or workshop participant and the instructor should receive one bio each. There are more bios than you are likely to need. Please refer to the teacher guide interview sheets when creating your shorter list and ensure that there is at least one bio for each of the questions.

Handout 2: Interview Sheets

Each student receives one version of the interview sheet. Note there are two versions so that not all the students are asking the same questions.

SAMPLE BIOS

Emma Tenayuca (1916–1999)

I was born in San Antonio, Texas. I was one of 11 children, and I lived with my grandparents when I was young. My first knowledge of the plight of workers came from visits to the “Plaza del Zacate,” the Trafalgar Square of San Antonio, where socialists and anarchists came to speak. I was first arrested at the age of 16, at a union picket against the Finck Cigar Company. From 1934–48, I supported almost every strike in the city, writing leaflets, visiting the homes of strikers, and joining them on picket lines. “I was arrested a number of times. I never thought in terms of fear. I thought in terms of justice.” Contact with fired workers led me to join the Workers Alliance (WA) in 1936 and the Communist Party in 1937. The WA held demonstrations for jobs, not relief, and demanded that Mexican workers have the right to strike without fear of deportation, and the right to a minimum wage.

When 12,000 pecan shellers marched out of the factories in 1938, I was unanimously elected strike leader. What started out as a movement for organization for equal wages turned into a mass movement against starvation, for civil rights, and for a minimum wage law, and it changed the character of West Side San Antonio.

As a result of the anti-Mexican, anti-Communist, and antiunion hysteria that pervaded the United States, I was forced to leave Texas to ensure my safety and well-being. I returned to San Antonio years later and worked as a teacher. I dedicated my life to speaking out at a time when neither Mexican Americans nor women were expected to speak at all. I became known as “La Pasionaria.”

 

Destiny Watford (1996– )

I grew up in a tight-knit Baltimore neighborhood, Curtis Bay. Our neighborhood has a high number of oil refineries, chemical plants, and other facilities that emit pollution. Many of my neighbors suffer from asthma and lung cancer. In high school, I attended a play called Enemy of the People, about a community that was being poisoned by a polluted hot spring. The play struck a chord with me, and after discussing it with a school advisor, I co-founded Free Your Voice, a student organization dedicated to community rights and social justice.

With plans for the nation’s largest trash incinerator to be built in Curtis Bay moving ahead, we decided to protect our community from the plant’s pollution and bring positive alternatives within reach. We found out Baltimore City Schools had signed an agreement to purchase energy from the incinerator, so we attended a school board meeting to urge them to divest from the project. I gave a compelling presentation, students showcased art, and parents testified.

By the end of 2015, all 22 incinerator customers canceled their contracts. The victory marked a moment of rebirth for residents who finally felt that their voices were heard. We put intense public pressure on government agencies to pull the project’s permits. In 2016, the Maryland Department of the Environment declared the incinerator’s permit invalid. Now we are pushing to reclaim the site for clean energy alternatives such as a solar farm and a recycling center. In 2016, I won the Goldman Environmental Prize. I continue to organize.

We have created a template to help teachers facilitate this mixer activity remotely during distance learning. Once you access the template, it will ask you to make a copy for your students. To consider ways to teach this and other interactive lessons remotely, read Teaching ZEP Lessons Remotely: Recommitting to the Why — If Not the How — of Our Pedagogy by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. In particular, see the suggestions for teaching mixer role plays.

 
Josh Davidson
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