MANZANITA

Manzanita Publishing

Telling stories from the past to grow towards a better future...
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​MISSION

Manzanita Books will engage young people with West Coast and California history, highlighting under-represented stories through colorfully-illustrated texts. Centering #ownvoices, Manzanita’s books will honestly face our complicated history. Different groups of people have been, and continue to be, a part of this land — like the native manzanita plant — the seeds, shoots, roots, and flowers. Manzanita Books will explore this history, centering indigenous, Black, Latinx, Asian American, LGBQT+, and disabled people’s stories, but also looking frankly at the place of Whiteness in the state’s establishment.  

​When we walk on ground knowing what happened in the past, we have a personal connection to that place, those people, and their stories. They become OUR stories. It is time to look more honestly and openly at this history, so that we can organize collectively to build towards a better future.
Books will be written by people whose lived experience connects to the story. If authors aren’t children’s writers, books can be co-written by Laura Atkins as took place with the Fighting for Justice series. The goal is to publish first books in August 2020.
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proposed titles

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William Byron Rumford
  • Selina Solomons (1862-1942) – (Elaine Elinson and Laura Atkins, co-authors) Jewish woman who engaged with working-class women in San Francisco in the fight for suffrage across the state. Goal to publish in Spring 2021 to honor the centenary of the 19th Amendment’s passage in 2020. 

  • Whiteness in California (1849-1860s – (Laura Atkins) Using individual stories to explore the construction of Whiteness in establishing California, including testimony exclusion laws, educational segregation, lack of suffrage, and the legal enslavement of Black people and Native Californians.

  • Toypurina (1760-1799) – A medicine woman from the Tongva Nation in what we currently call Southern California, and leader in a 1785 planned uprising against the Mission San Gabriel.

  • José Sarria (1922-2013) – First out gay person to run for office in the U.S. in 1961, he resisted police targeting of drag queens and founded a philanthropic pageant to support LGBQT+ causes.

  • Section 504 Sit-ins (April 5-30, 1977) – Longest occupation of federal building in US history, young disabled activists stayed 26 days, leading to federal protections and  a national civil rights movement.

  • William Byron Rumford (1908-1986) – First Black person elected to state public office in Northern California, leader in passage of fair housing law which became model for federal Fair Housing Act.

  • Philip Vera Cruz (1904-1994) – (Carl Angel) Filipino-American leader in the farmworkers movement alongside Mexican-Americans, improved working conditions for migrant workers.

  • East L.A. Walkouts (1968) – Movement of thousands of L.A. high school students who walked out to protest unequal education in first mass mobilization of Mexican Americans in the region.
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  • Reid’s Records (1945-2019) – (Diara Reid and Laura Atkins, co-authors) Black music business founded by Mel and Betty Reid in South Berkeley, community hub and impact of gentrification. 

background

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​How can we study the influx of people during the Gold Rush without centering the existence and rights of 300,000 indigenous people who inhabited this land for over ten thousand years — a number that dropped to 35,000 by 1860? How might we see immigration differently if we learned that Mexican-Americans lived in what we currently call California before most other immigrant groups, including European Americans, and that the California constitution was written bilingually in English and Spanish? Manzanita Books aims to address the many gaps in how we tell these and other stories for upper elementary, middle school and high school-aged young people.
Too often we learn history from an East Coast perspective: the Mayflower and the “Founding Fathers.” But California and the West Coast have our own stories to tell. We can empower young people to look back honestly at the past, recognizing who had power, why, and what they did with it. This will help them to understand current circumstances, and how we got here. We will highlight stories of resistance and resilience, and how communities survived and flourished in the face of attempts at disempowerment and erasure. Learning these stories can empower today's young people to be engaged members of their communities.
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  • Home
  • Manzanita Community
    • Classes
    • Conversations & Features
    • Mentoring & Workshop Program
    • Resources
  • Manzanita Books
  • Contact