Teaching Untold Stories

Teaching Untold Stories with a Park Ranger:

Choose an untold story from the list below and contact Presidio Rangers to schedule a class presentation (currently not scheduling programs, please check back in Spring 2025).

 

A Question of Color - (Offering programs during the Spring of 2025)

How in 1897, did John Harris, an African American, win his suit against Sutro Baths for its discriminatory policy of “whites only” only a year after the landmark Plessy vs. Ferguson decision? We look at the activism of San Francisco’s African American community and California’s groundbreaking landmark 1897 Civil Rights Act, predating the National Civil Rights Act by 67 years. Supplement for unit on Plessy vs. Ferguson, roots of Civil Rights legislation

 

We Are All Americans (Not offering during 2024-2025 school year)

People of Japanese ancestry faced a deep moral dilemma in the 1940s when confronted with the military draft while their families were incarcerated in concentration camps without due process. Why did individuals make the choice to join or resist? What drove others to register as a Conscientious Objector or to resist the draft? How were families and communities affected? Supplement for unit on 1940s incarceration, Conscientious Objectors; in partnership with the National Japanese American Historical Society

Please check the National Japanese American Historical Society website for parter program offerings.

 

Uprooting Chinatown (Not offering during 2024-2025 school year)

When 1890s San Francisco’s power elite tried to remove the Chinese community and their places of cultural significance far from the city center citing health concerns, the community fought back through the courts. Learn about this legal protest and nationally significant cases that originated here, including the 1890 case of Wong Kim Ark and the enduring definition of citizenship. Supplement for unit on citizenship and the constitution, 20th century social history

 

Honorable Duty (Offering programs during the Spring of 2025)

African American soldiers fought in US expansionist wars in the Pacific during the 1890s and into the early 20th century at the height of Jim Crow. We consider the contradictions of fighting other people of color across the world through the eyes of the Buffalo Soldiers and the African American press. Why did activists such as Ida B. Wells object to military service for African Americans? How did African Americans voice support for individual soldiers while simultaneously opposing US policies of white supremacy? Supplement for unit on the Spanish American War, War for Independence in the Philippines, and American expansionism in the Pacific.

If you are interested in a Teaching Untold Stories with a Park Ranger program, please e-mail: [e-mail]