The Black Working Class

A People’s History

Black Folk is at once a love song, a blues, and an epic account of the Black working class in the United States. ― Robin D. G. Kelley

A powerful counter to the assumption that the term working class refers only to whites. Rather, Blair Kelley argues convincingly, Black workers have been the nation’s “most active, most engaged, most informed, and most impassioned working class.” ― Kirkus Reviews

Join us on Monday, October 16, when historian Blair L. M. Kelley will discuss Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class, which uses personal narratives to highlight the community and networks of resistance that Black laborers built in the face of racism and segregation.

Kelley says of her work:

I’m a scholar of Black people, and I love Black people. I think we learn so much when we shift our gaze, when we think differently, when we pay attention to other people and glean from their history. Black life has so much to teach all of us about what is possible.

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This not-to-be-missed free class is part of the Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online series with people’s historians.

Participants learn from the scholar in conversation with a teacher and meet in small groups for discussion. ASL interpretation and professional development certificates are provided. One teacher noted,

This is one of the best professional developments I have ever been to, hands-down. I am so grateful. This series gives me hope in this difficult time.

Rethinking Schools

New Issue

The new fall issue of Rethinking Schools features:

three articles about Asian Americans and educational justice.
an interview with the teacher fired for questioning her district’s decision to bar students from singing “Rainbowland.”
an article on the need to include the roots of the climate crisis in world and U.S. history curricula.

Find these articles and more in the latest edition of Rethinking Schools magazine.

If you don’t already, subscribe today.

Read In Full

Eyes on the Prize

Teacher Survey

Documentary filmmakers Marco Williams and Maia Harris are producing a film about the making and legacy of Eyes on the Prize.

An important part of the story is how the 14-hour series is used in classrooms today.

Please share your Eyes on the Prize teaching stories on a short survey.

Survey

Violence in Israel and Gaza

We at Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools are heartbroken over the violence and atrocities in Israel and Gaza.

One cannot understand this tragedy without acknowledging its history. As educators, our role is to help students grasp and analyze this history. But beginning with the “Columbus-discovers-America” myth, the U.S. school curriculum has taught children that some lives matter more than others. We see this hierarchy of human worth playing out now, as Israeli government ministers call Palestinians “human animals.” This dehumanization fuels violence and oppression.

Let’s help our students probe the long history of colonialism and resistance in Palestine/Israel — and the role that our own government has played. As Jewish Voice for Peace writes this week:

The bloodshed of today and the past 75 years traces back directly to U.S. complicity in the oppression and horror caused by Israel’s military occupation. The U.S. government consistently enables Israeli violence and bears blame for this moment. The unchecked military funding, diplomatic cover, and billions of dollars of private money flowing from the U.S. enables and empowers Israel’s apartheid regime.

Let us recommit to teaching and working for the dignity of all peoples.

To learn and teach about this crisis, we recommend the daily coverage by Democracy Now! For articles on how to teach about Palestine/Israel, visit the Rethinking Schools website. Social Justice Books offers a list of titles for K-12 on Palestine.

This Week in People’s History

This week marks the anniversary of the 1950 Empire Zinc Strike, the story featured in the extraordinary labor film, Salt of the Earth.

Other upcoming days in people’s history include the 1968 Olympic Black Power salute, 1859 abolitionists’ raid on Harpers Ferry, 1902 article links burning coal to boiling Earth, 1963 Chicago schools boycott, and much more.

More People’s History

Conferences and Classes

for Social Justice Educators

Check out the list of upcoming events hosted by the Zinn Education Project and our colleagues — including the Zinn Education Project Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online series, the 16th Annual Northwest Teaching for Social Justice Conference, and the 2023 National Council for the Social Studies conference in Nashville.

Events Calendar

We Need Your Help

Teachers are under attack for teaching truthfully about U.S. history. Please donate so that we can continue to offer free people’s history lessons and resources, and defend teachers’ right to use them.

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