Schedule of Events

Current high school students are expected to understand the legal precedents established by landmark cases such as Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v Board of Education of Topeka  (1954) as they pertain to the African American fight for equality during the Civil Rights Movement. While their toil and eventual victory culminated in the passage of the Civil Rights act of 1964, it was not without contributions from other marginalized communities in the U.S. Students are increasingly curious about diversity, equality and inclusion of the past and its effects on the present. By broadening the scope to include other landmark court cases and events students begin to develop a deeper understanding of the Civil Rights timeline. Marginalized communities in California have been actively fighting public school segregation by race since 1885. Through the examination of primary source documents, secondary source documents, and court cases, students will have the tools for a developed understanding of the urgency for the Civil Rights Movement. These proceedings in California, which started before 1896 and that impacted Chinese, Japanese, Native American, and Hispanic children, provide context for desegregated public schools in the American South. Typically, students only perceive desegregation as a public-school issue or Southern issue. This project will expand that view through providing students with a diverse scope of understanding so they are better suited to become civically engaged and knowledgeable beyond traditional textbook material. 

Late 19th Century Russia provided a glimpse into the discontent of the Tsarist government by Russian citizens. The period marked a span of a decade where the Russian government experienced issues with industrialization, population booms, and famine. The dissatisfaction with the Tsarist government grew following the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, which led to social unrest within the country. Although Tsar Nicholas remained adamant that Russia remained a dominant force in East Asia, his commitment to Russian hegemony proved impossible due to Russian military failures at the outset of World War I. This failure instigated a year of rebellion on the home front, culminating in the Russian Revolution in October 1917, the year Russia also withdrew from the war. Although many Russian citizens supported the revolution, a group known as the White Russians fought to keep the czarist regime in place. Historians have long argued the primary reasons for the failure of the White Russians to lead a successful counter revolution against the communists.  As counter revolutionaries, the White Russians during the Bolshevik Revolution ultimately failed due to a lack of coordination and unclear ideology evidenced by personal accounts of the war and secondary historiography. Furthermore, primary source documents, including speeches and oral histories, suggest that latent divisions along racial and religious lines also played a role in the failure of the Whites to oust the Bolsheviks and to present a united front. 

When high school students learn about World War II, they typically learn about the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, the build-up and major battles of the war, and the Holocaust. These topics, while essential to studying World War II, often exclude women from the narrative. As California has evolved its curriculum to keep up with the demand for a more diverse view of world history, school districts are often unable to keep up with the cost of new textbooks that include these Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. To combat this, teachers need to add their own DEI components to their lesson plans to augment the information that the textbook provides. For WWII, this means showing how women from all over the world were involved in fighting the war. History books teach that women took control of the Home Front and never that women were also involved in the actual fighting. Students do not typically get a chance to learn about Lady Death (a deadly female sniper from the USSR), the SOE (a female espionage initiative in England), the female codebreakers of Bletchley Park, and the WASPs (an all-female group of pilots). Through primary sources, students will be presented with diverse women and how they contributed to the war effort in order to show the efforts of traditionally under-represented groups.

Historically, militias have been utilized for protection and to quickly increase the numbers of soldiers in a military force. In times when militias were insufficient in bringing in enough men, such as during the French and Indian War, it was necessary for colonial governments to create draft policies. Following the success of the Minutemen during the Revolutionary War, conscription became a mainstay of military service in the United States and has come to be known as fundamental to understanding United States history and tradition. From the Conscription Act of 1863, the first U.S. national draft, to the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, the draft has undergone many adjustments and played several different key roles. This presentation aims to describe the evolution, connotations, and principles of conscription as well as its many interpretations through contrasting lenses. The culmination of sentiments surrounding the progression and function of the United States draft can be illustrated by physical artifacts and oral histories. By utilizing personal family histories, photos, draft records, newspaper clippings, and war memorabilia, we can see the effects and roles of conscription at distinct points in time throughout United States history.

On February seventeenth 1979, the People’s Republic of China declared war on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.  Despite the Sino-Vietnamese War only lasting 27 days, the invasion was a pivotal moment in the shaping of international politics and marked many unprecedented developments in the Communist world.  Despite this, the conflict remains relatively absent from the public eye internationally and many explanations for the underlying cause of the conflict remain conflicted.  This paper uses the analysis of various historians, political-theorists, and journalists following the outbreak of the war to understand the contending explanations for the war.  It also analyzes various primary source documents including China’s official declaration of war, as well as public statements from both countries leading up to the war.  In doing so, it comes to the conclusion that although tensions had been rising between China and Vietnam due to a number of unrelated conflicts of interest, such as the treatment of Chinese immigrants in Vietnam, border conflict, and the war’s connection to the concurrent Vietnamese-Cambodian War, the war between China and Vietnam was primarily motivated by China’s ambitions post Sino-Soviet Split. Namely, China wished to show to the world that it was a credible threat in regional conflicts without, and even when facing, Soviet involvement.  Alongside this, China hoped that its support for Cambodia and against Vietnam would have the added benefit of normalizing relations with the United States.

When looking at what history defines as the Enlightenment it tends to look at the traditional European philosophers and thinkers of the 16th and 17th Century. However, the perspectives of global scholars and women fall to the wayside in traditional accounts of history. Historians describe the Enlightenment as a western phenomenon however we see many examples across the world of thinkers debating  and applying rationalist thought. In order to fulfill California Diversity Equity Inclusion standards without placing the financial burden on schools for new textbooks, we look upon historians such as Sebastian Conrad and primary source resources from worldly writers of the time for this project. This framework celebrates thinkers around the world and gives a voice to those less represented in traditional accounts. For the perspectives of women we look at great thinkers such as Laura Bassi, who broke gender norms and academic barriers with her work in Europe. Around the world we look upon enlightened political actors such as Tipu Sultan in India, who made strides in their own respective movements. Many nations of the period, such as Egypt and China, were making steps similar to the Enlightenment before European intervention.  They emulated the Enlightenment thought and attempted to apply these ideas to bring upon a rational modern society. Students can further expand their perspectives on politics and metaphysics, while seeing figures of the world and their writings. Overall, showing the unsung heroes of a time in which rationalism dominated.

The American Revolution remains among the most studied and revered events of recorded history. The leaders of the colonial independence movement are immortalized in history: Washington, Jefferson, Revere. Their names ring with sentiments of patriotism and bold defiance against tyranny. To overcome the greatest world power of their time with a colonial agricultural society required the skills and contributions of professional soldiers and farmers alike, as well as colonial women and members of underrepresented ethnic groups. While the Founding Fathers and Sons of Liberty are credited with leading the charge against British oppression, new research from primary and secondary sources reveals that the Revolution was far more diverse than is traditionally understood. Women and persons of color, male and female, as well as first-nation peoples were involved in critical roles in forwarding the cause of American freedom, each with their own unique circumstances and motives. This research serves to uncover unrecognized figures such as Akiatonharónkwen, the Abenaki-African Iroquois leader who served as a commissioned officer of the Continental Army, to Deborah Sampson, a Massachusetts-born woman who served in disguise for the Continental Army for nearly eighteen months, and many others from historically marginalized groups. By bringing these figures out of obscurity, a multi-dimensional and more inclusive perspective of the American colonial state serves to display the reality of the diversity of the American Revolution, and of the colonies themselves.