Teach Truth Days of Action
Stories and Photos
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These days, a complaint by one individual can lead to a book being pulled from the shelves. During our third annual Teach Truth Day of Action, participants modeled that a different response is possible. Instead of buckling to a well-funded hate campaign, we can defend the freedom to learn.
In dozens of cities, teachers and allies rallied to raise awareness about the threats to public education, LGBTQ+ students, and democracy.
The anti-history education legislation and book bans are led by the same forces passing laws against voting rights, gun reform, trans rights, climate justice, and more. These laws and policies endanger the wellbeing of students, staff, and communities. As Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw said at our Teach Truth event,
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We have the Lost Cause on steroids, because we’re talking about a very few, a minority of a minority, being able to dictate the terms by which we can know our own lives and the terms by which we can create our own futures. | | |
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Teachers, families, students, and allies are speaking out to say that these attacks on education are a threat to us all. Our future depends on an informed public to address the crises in the world today.
Below are photos from the more than 65 Teach Truth Day of Action events.
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Rally and March, Alibi Bookshop, Vallejo, California | |
Rally, African American Civil War Memorial, Washington, D.C. | |
Teach-In on LGBTQ+ History, TEP Center, New Orleans, Louisiana | |
Rally, Harriet Tubman Square, Newark, New Jersey | |
Teach-in on LGBTQ+ History, Stonewall Inn, New York City, New York | |
Teach-In on Fugitive Pedagogy, EdCo, Nashville, Tennessee | |
Book Swap, Sacred African Burial Ground, Richmond, Virginia | |
Rally, Bainbridge Island Historical Museum, Bainbridge, Washington | |
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Cosponsors and Event Hosts
A Collective Effort
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Our hats off to teachers and allies around the country who collaborated with local organizations to host a range of creative events. For example, more than a dozen organizations in New Jersey met weekly to plan dynamic events in four cities around the state.
Nationally, the day of action was organized by the Zinn Education Project, Black Lives Matter at School, and the African American Policy Forum. Fifty-five cosponsors provided outreach and many coordinated events.
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The 2023 Teach Truth Day of Action was featured in local news stories, podcasts, and national news outlets. Check out this clip from Atlanta and more examples. | |
“The fascists can’t stop us!”
— Judy Richardson, SNCC veteran
Teach Truth Rally in D.C.
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In her remarks at the Teach Truth Day of Action in Washington, DC, SNCC veteran Judy Richardson explains why she chose Hands on the Freedom Plow to donate to the “contraband book drive.” | |
Our book shows that regular folks really can organize to change the racist, anti-gay, anti-human conditions we face. | |
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White supremacists say they want to protect their children from feeling bad about racism. What about the pain Black children have felt for decades as we were consistently fed lies and distortions about this country’s history?
That’s what Gov. DeSantis and Gov. Abbott and the Moms for Liberty and the whole kit and caboodle of them want to take us back to: a time when the history was even more whitewashed, so we don’t have the facts — the truth — that will help us make sense of the issues we’re dealing with today.
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Daniel Ellsberg ¡Presente!
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The Zinn Education Project mourns the passing of Daniel Ellsberg, who died last week of pancreatic cancer at the age of 92. Ellsberg’s most famous act — copying and releasing the secret Pentagon Papers history of the war in Vietnam — earned him National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger’s label, “the most dangerous man in America.”
Dan Ellsberg was brilliant, courageous, kind, indefatigable — a social justice activist for more than 50 years. His death represents an enormous loss.
But his life offers educators and students magnificent lessons. It is why the Zinn Education Project agreed in 2010 to produce the teaching guide to supplement The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, the excellent film about Ellsberg’s life.
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People’s History Classes
Teach the Black Freedom Struggle
Register for 2023–2024
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Sign up now for our 2023–2024 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle classes with people’s historians. These free classes offer the chance to learn directly from leading historians and to meet peers from across the country. ASL interpretation and professional development credit certificates provided. | |
Teaching people's history is under attack. Your donation helps us support teachers and provide more free people's history lessons. | | | | |
