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In her preface to Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank, historian Justene Hill Edwards explains,

A group of white Americans gambled with, plundered, and stole from Black people as they climbed out of slavery into a new era of freedom. People at the highest levels of finance and government pillaged a bank filled with African Americans’ money and destroyed the economic foundations on which recently freed people were building their lives.

One of the origins of America’s racial wealth gap can be found in the failure of the Freedman’s Bank in 1874.

Join us on Monday, February 10, to learn the history of the Freedman’s Bank that should be included in U.S. history and economics courses.

As with all classes in the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle series, it is free and open to the public. ASL interpretation and professional development certificates are provided.

Educators are teaching in perilous times. We face a white supremacist backlash — funded by billionaires — against the 2020 uprising for Black lives, when tens of millions built a multiracial movement against systemic racism.

This is not simply about political rhetoric — it is about reshaping the country into one where dissent is crushed, knowledge is tightly controlled, and entire communities are stripped of their rights. History has shown that fascism rises when economic elites use racism and scapegoating to turn working people against one another while consolidating their own power. We can’t let that happen.

We Refuse

What should be our next steps?

The answer lies in the title to Kellie Carter Jackson’s book, We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance. Refuse to comply with unjust laws, refuse to teach lies, refuse to remove books from the library, refuse to stand by as colleagues are attacked, refuse to be silent.

Listen to our interview with Jackson about her book, which reframes the past and present of Black resistance — both nonviolent and violent — to white supremacy.

Kellie Carter Jackson taps the wellsprings of memory, archives, oral histories, literature, imagination, and personal experience . . . . — Robin D. G. Kelley

Independent News Service

We love hearing how people found us and why they’ve signed up to access people’s history lessons from the Zinn Education Project.

Below are a few reasons people shared when they registered at our site recently.

Close to 170,000 educators have signed up to access people’s history lessons. 

Donate so that we can continue to provide our lessons for free and defend teachers’ right to use them.

Check out events hosted by the Zinn Education Project and our colleagues, including

• Reconstruction Robbery: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank (Feb. 10)
• Solidarity 2025: Public School Strong Training Series (Feb. 19 and more dates)
• Voices of a People’s History: I Know What the Red Clay Looks Like (Feb. 20)
• 2025 Yale and Slavery Teachers Institute (application deadline Feb. 21)
• NCSS 2025 call for proposals (Feb. 28 deadline)
• and more.

You know what we face: 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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