Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action: Feb. 3 – 7, 2020

Black Lives Matter at School, a national coalition of educators organizing for racial justice in schools, organizes a “Week of Action” in schools each February. In 2020, the week is observed February 3 – 7. The goal is to raise awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement’s thirteen guiding principles, teach Black history, and advocate for a set of national demands.

Although there are many ways to participate in the week of action, we hope educators will commit to teach a wide variety of lessons centering Black history and literature.

The Zinn Education Project, Teaching for Change, and Rethinking Schools can help.

Teach Black History

Lunch Counter Sit In Protest | Zinn Education Project

Atlanta, Georgia. A sit-in at the Toddle House with Taylor Washington, Ivanhoe Donaldson, Joyce Ladner, John Lewis, Judy Richardson, George Green, and Chico Neblett. 1964. Source: Danny Lyon/Magnum Photos.

Help students see themselves as change-agents by teaching about the rich history of Black student activism in Teaching SNCC: The Organization at the Heart of the Civil Rights Revolution.
Combat the misrepresentation of the Black Panther Party in textbooks by teaching students What We Don’t Learn About the Black Panther Party — but Should.
Reveal how government policies segregated every major city in the United States, with dire consequences for African Americans.
Disrupt racist myths about who is responsible for the end of slavery by introducing students to a wide variety of Black abolitionists.
Highlight a too often overlooked but powerful moment in the Black freedom struggle by teaching about Reconstruction — a time, like our own, when activists sought to make Black Lives Matter.

Teach Books About Black Lives

Find books for your classroom for read-alouds, novel and story units, independent reading, student research, and more.

Teach for Black Lives All Year Long

Read and teach Rethinking Schools’ book, Teaching for Black Lives and Barbara Ransby’s new book, Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century.
Read and discuss the Winter 2020 editorial in Rethinking Schools magazine: “Black Lives Matter at School: From the Week of Action to Year-Round, Anti-Racist Pedagogy and Protest.”
Start a study group in your union or school.
Give copies to your department chair, principal, and/or school boardShare how you are using the books in your networks and on social media.