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

Table of 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 9, 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 Act” (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 Peterson-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)
• Cherie 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