Voices of a People's History of the United States in the 21st Century

Table Of Contents

Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgments
 
Prologue: Howard Zinn, “Against Discouragement” (May 15, 2005)
 
 
CHAPTER 1: FIGHTING WAR AND INJUSTICE IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
 
Anita Cameron, “And the Steps Came Tumbling Down—ADAPT’s Battle with the HBA” (2000)
 
Manning Marable, “Race, Class, and Globalization: The Global Struggle for Democracy” (April 13, 2001)
 
Kenny Riley, “We Won’t Rest Until They’re Vindicated” (July 4, 2001)
 
Orlando Rodriguez and Phyllis Rodriguez, “Not in Our Son’s Name” (September 15, 2001)
 
Monami Maulik, “Organizing in Our Communities Post–September 11th” (2001)
Boots Riley, “Heven Tonite” (November 6, 2001)
 
Rita Lasar, “To Avoid Another September 11, United States Must Join the World” (September 5, 2002)
 
Rachel Corrie, Letter from Palestine (February 7, 2003)
 
Danny Glover, Speech During the World Day of Protest Against the War (February 15, 2003)

Amy Goodman, “Independent Media in a Time of War” (April 21, 2003)
 
Arundhati Roy, “Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)” (May 13, 2003)
 
Robin D. G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams (June 15, 2003)
 
Toni Smith-Thompson, “If They Don’t Want Politics in Sports Then They Need to Take the National Anthem Out” (March 12, 2004)
 
Camilo Mejía, “I Pledge My Allegiance to the Poor and Oppressed” (July 3, 2005)
 
Cindy Sheehan, “It’s Time the Antiwar Choir Started Singing” (August 5, 2005)
 
 
CHAPTER 2: THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE KATRINA
 
Patricia Thompson, Kalamu Ya Salaam, and Father Jerome Ledoux, Voices from the Storm (Fall 2005)
 
Howard Zinn, “Don’t Despair about the Supreme Court” (October 21, 2005)
 
Elvira Arellano, Statement of Elvira Arellano in Sanctuary (August 15, 2006).
 
Evann Orleck-Jetter, Statement on Marriage Equality (March 18, 2009)
 
Moustafa Bayoumi, “My Arab Problem” (October 24, 2010)
 
Gustavo Madrigal-Piña, “Undocumented and Unafraid” (August 22, 2011)
 
Troy Davis, Letter Given to His Lawyers Before His Execution (September 21, 2011)
 

CHAPTER 3: OCCUPY OPENS A NEW ERA
 
Occupy NYC General Assembly, Declaration of the Occupation of New York City (September 29, 2011)
 
Manissa Maharawal, “So Real it Hurts—Notes on Occupy Wall Street” (October 4, 2011)
 
Naomi Klein, “Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now” (October 6, 2011)
 
Kirstin Roberts, “We Stood Up to the Bullies” (October 6, 2012)
 
Farea Al-Muslimi, “Drone Wars: The Constitutional and Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killing” (April 23, 2013)
 
Roberto Meneses Marquez, “A Day Laborer” (April 30, 2013)
 
Amber Kudla, “518-455-4767” (June 23, 2013)
 
Chelsea E. Manning, “Sometimes You Have to Pay a Heavy Price to Live in a Free Society” (August 21, 2013)
 
 
CHAPTER 4: STANDING UP FOR EACH OTHER
 
Phillip Agnew, “#OurMarch” (August 28, 2013)
 
Airickca Gordon-Taylor, “No Justice, No Peace: Families of Police Brutality Victims Speak Out” (June 28, 2014)
 
Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald, “Standing Up for Each Other” (March 10, 2014)
 
Michelle Farber, “We All Have to Be Brave” (May 14, 2014)
 
Michelle Alexander, “How to Dismantle the ‘New Jim Crow’” (July 2014)
 
Ursula K. Le Guin, Speech in Acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (November 19, 2014)
 
 
CHAPTER 5: THE FERGUSON UPRISING, BARACK OBAMA, AND THE LIMITS OF “EQUALITY”
 
Tef Poe, “Dear Mr. President” (December 1, 2014)
 
Ferguson Action, “About This Movement” (December 15, 2014)
 
Amanda Blackhorse, “This Is What Dehumanization Looks Like” (March 21, 2015)
 
Ross Gay, “A Small Needful Fact” (April 30, 2015)
 
Bree Newsome, “Now Is the Time for True Courage” (June 30, 2015)
 
Sins Invalid, “10 Principles of Disability Justice” (September 17, 2015)
 
Dream Defenders, “Social Media Blackout” (September 21, 2015)
 
Lindy West, “I Set Up #ShoutYourAbortion Because I Am Not Sorry, and I Will Not Whisper” (September 22, 2015)
 
Samaria Rice, “Why I Have Not Endorsed Any Candidate: Reflections from a Mom of the Movement” (March 15, 2016)
 
Alicia Garza, “Why Black Lives Matter” (March 18, 2016)
 
Chanel Miller, “Impact Statement” (June 3, 2016)
 
Nick Estes, “Native Liberation: The Way Forward” (August 13, 2016)
 
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, “The Urgency of Intersectionality” (October 27, 2016)
 
Leonard Peltier, “Our Day of Mourning” (November 30, 2016)
 
 
CHAPTER 6: “1,459 DAYS OF RESISTANCE”: RESISTING TRUMPISM AND THE FAR RIGHT
 
Angela Y. Davis, Speech to the Women’s March on Washington (January 21, 2017)
 
Addie Bean, “Dear Donald Trump” (January 21, 2017)
 
Rebecca Solnit, The Mother of All Questions (2017)
 
Bhairavi Desai, “A Moment of Urgency” (February 16, 2017)

Julian Brave NoiseCat, “Standing Rock Is Burning But Our Resistance Isn’t Over” (February 23, 2017)
 
Luticha Doucette, “If You’re in a Wheelchair, Segregation Lives” (May 17, 2017)
 
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Keynote at Hampshire College’s 2017 Commencement Ceremony (May 20, 2017)
 
Linda Sarsour, “Islamophobes Are Attacking Me Because I’m Their Worst Nightmare” (July 9, 2017)
 
Steven Salaita, “Don’t Let Fear Be the Lesson” (July 25, 2017)
 
Victoria-Lola M. Leon Guerrero, “An Open Letter from Guam to America” (August 10, 2017)
 
Jack Christian and Warren Christian, “The Monuments Must Go” (August 16, 2017)
 
Susan Bro, “They Tried to Kill My Child to Shut Her Up” (August 16, 2017)
 
Khury Petersen-Smith, Speech at the Fight Supremacy! Boston Counter-Protest and Resistance Rally (August 19, 2017)
 
 
CHAPTER 7: “WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED”: #METOO AND THE ONGOING RESISTANCE TO TRUMP
 
V, “Even with a Misogynist Predator-in-Chief, We Will Not Be Silenced” (August 23, 2017)
 
Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, “How We Can Organize the South to Save the Country” (September 1, 2017)
 
Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, “700,000 Female Farmworkers Say They Stand with Hollywood Actors Against Sexual Assault” (November 10, 2017)
 
Naseem Johnson Byah, “I Need My Mom, My Family, and My Home” (December 14, 2017)
 
X González, “We Call BS” (February 17, 2018)
 
Katie Endicott, “How the Spark Became a Flame in West Virginia” (March 12, 2018)
 

Naomi Wadler, “I Speak for Black Girls Victimized by Guns Whose Stories Don’t Make the Front Page” (March 24, 2018)
 
Colin Kaepernick, Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award Speech (April 21, 2018)
 
Malinda Limberhand, “A Mother’s Walk for Justice” (May 5, 2018)
 
Carol Anderson, “Voting While Black” (June 7, 2018)
 
Mercedes Martínez, “Hurricane Maria Just Uncovered What’s Been Happening in Puerto Rico for Decades” (June 12, 2018)
 
Victor Ricardo Plua, “Don’t Put Children in Cages! Reunite Families Now!” (June 28, 2018)
 
Winona LaDuke, “Militarizing Minnesota over Line 3” (October 3, 2018)
 
 
CHAPTER 8: “OUR RESISTANCE MUST BE INTERSECTIONAL”
 
African American Policy Forum, “Our Fights Are Connected; Our Resistance Must Be Intersectional” (November 2, 2018)
 
Marc Lamont Hill, “Our Solidarity Must Be a Verb” (November 28, 2018)
 
aja monet, Smoke Signals Studio Artists Manifesto (February 1, 2019)
 
Microsoft Workers 4 Good, “We Did Not Sign Up to Develop Weapons” (February 22, 2019)
 
Isra Hirsi, Haven Coleman, and Alexandria Villaseñor, “Adults Won’t Take Climate Change Seriously. So We, the Youth, Are Forced to Strike” (March 7, 2019)
 
Lenny Sanchez, “Why I’m Striking Against Uber” (May 8, 2019)
 
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Testimony to the House on Reparations” (June 19, 2019)
 
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, et al., “Pastoral Letter on the El Paso Shootings” (August 8, 2019)
 
Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh Martinez, “To Fight for a Just Climate Is to Fight for Everything That We Love” (September 9, 2019)
 
Stacey Park Milbern, “We Need Power to Live” (October 10, 2019)
 
Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, “For All the Aunties, but Especially for Mary Maxine Lani Kahaulelio” (October 28, 2019).
 
Tarana J. Burke, “The #MeToo Movement’s Success Took a Decade of Work, Not Just a Hashtag. And There’s More to Do” (December 31, 2019)
 
Antonia Crane, “Dispatch from the California Stripper Strike” (February 8, 2021)
 
Maggie Trinkle, “I (Don’t) Want a Wife” (April 16, 2020)
 
 
CHAPTER 9: “THE REAL PANDEMIC HERE IS CAPITALISM”
 
Astra Taylor, “The Real Pandemic Here Is Capitalism” (March 26, 2020)
 
Christian Smalls, “Dear Jeff Bezos, Instead of Firing Me, Protect Your Workers from Coronavirus” (April 2, 2020)
 
Adam Kaszynski, “You Could Start Making Parts for Ventilators within Twenty-four Hours” (April 9, 2020)
 
Emily Pierskalla, “I Want My Death to Make You Angry” (April 13, 2020)
 
Stacy Davis Gates, “They’re Not Going to Save Us. We Are Going to Save Us” (May 1, 2020)
 
Sujatha Gidla, “‘We Are Not Essential. We Are Sacrificial’” (May 5, 2020)
 
Lateef McLeod, “Disability Justice and COVID-19” (May 8, 2020)
 
Jill Nelson, “Trump = Plague” (May 11, 2020)
 
 
CHAPTER 10: ABOLITION AND THE UPRISING FOR BLACK LIVES
 
Natasha Cloud, “Your Silence Is a Knee on My Neck” (May 30, 2020)
 
Olivia Olson, “This Is What’s Really Happening in Minneapolis” (June 3, 2020)
 

8toAbolition, “#8toAbolition: Abolition Can’t Wait” (June 7, 2020)
 
Mariame Kaba, “Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police: Because Reform Won’t Happen” (June 12, 2020)
 
Ianne Fields Stewart, “Today Is the Last Day of Trans Oppression” (June 14, 2020)
 
Imani Perry, “Racism Is Terrible. Blackness Is Not.” (June 15, 2020)
 
 
CHAPTER 11: “TRUMPISM CAN’T BE VOTED AWAY”

Viet Thanh Nguyen, “Asian Americans Are Still Caught in the Trap of the ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype. And It Creates Inequality for All” (June 25, 2020)
 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “I Could Not Allow That to Stand” (July 23, 2020)
 
Melania Brown, “My Sister Layleen Polanco Died Alone in Rikers. Solitary Confinement Is Torture” (July 23, 2020)
 
Barbara Smith, “How to Dismantle White Supremacy” (August 21, 2020)
 
Anna Kuperman, “The Emperor Has No Clothes” (September 8, 2020)
 
Mumia Abu-Jamal, “Inside the Inside of Lockdown America” (September 14, 2020)
 
Barbara Ransby, “Trumpism Can’t Be Voted Away. We Need Radical Social Transformation.” (November 18, 2020)
 
Hakeem Jefferson, “Storming the US Capitol Was about Maintaining White Power in America” (January 8, 2021)
 
 
CHAPTER 12: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

Jesse Hagopian, “I’m Not Alone in Pledging to #TeachTruth” (June 12, 2021)
 
Cheri Renfro, “Dear Frito-Lay” (July 2, 2021)

Red Canary Song, “Radical Healing from State and Community Violence: Mourning with Asian Massage Workers in the Americas” (August 17, 2021)
 
H. Melt, “I Don’t Want a Trans President” (August 23, 2021)
 
Haley Pessin, “What it Will Take to Defend Abortion Rights” (September 12, 2021)
 
Leta Hirschmann-Levy, “Never Again—Not for Anyone, Not Just the Jews” (February 24, 2022)
 
Dissenters, “Dissenters Opposes Imperialist Violence Everywhere” (February 25, 2022)
 
Dorothy Roberts, “Abolish Family Policing, Too” (June 2022)
 
Michelle Eisen, “No Contract, No Coffee!” (June 17, 2022)
 
Melissa Gira Grant, “The Fight for Abortion Rights Must Break the Law to Win” (June 24, 2022)
 
Permissions
Index