On the two-year anniversary of Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online classes, we express our appreciation to the educators, scholars, students, organizers, and advocates for teaching people’s history who made the series such a balm in hard times.

When Gov. Reeves proposed a precursor to his anti-history education bill two years ago, we offered people’s history books to Mississippi teachers. Their statements expose Reeves’ lies and also the type of teaching the law is actually designed to suppress.

South Carolina teachers participated in the first state-based workshop on the release of "Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction." It was hosted by the Penn Center, the Zinn Education Project, and the International African American Museum.

In March of 2021, as right wing politicians and media outlets scaled up their attacks on educators’ most basic responsibility — to teach young people accurately and truthfully — the Zinn Education Project launched a #TeachTruth pledge.

On Monday, March 14, 2022, journalist Victoria Law addressed prison resistance and myths about incarceration. This session was part of the Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online people’s history series.

A sampling of Howard Zinn's essays, quotes, trial testimonies, and correspondence related to prisons and prisoners.

The Zinn Education Project will provide free people's history books and lessons to Mississippi middle and high school teachers and librarians in response to the proposed Patriotic Education Fund.

We are offering free copies of Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All by Martha S. Jones to teachers who share their experience with teaching any of the three lessons in "Who Gets to Vote? Teaching About the Struggle for Voting Rights in the United States."

The free workshop will include an opportunity to examine the report findings for South Carolina, learn about Hastings Gantt (who donated the land for the Penn School), and discuss approaches to teaching Reconstruction with fellow people's history teachers in the state.

On February 21, 2022, historian Martha S. Jones spoke about the role of Black women in the long and ongoing fight for voting rights. This session was part of the Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online people’s history series.

Maeve Conran of Free Speech TV's "Just Solutions" interviewed Jesse Hagopian about our new national report Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction.

Our new national report, Erasing the Black Freedom Struggle: How State Standards Fail to Teach the Truth About Reconstruction,includes a teachable vignette from a freedman navigating the era of emancipation in Mississippi.

In the first month of his administration, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has unveiled a host of directives to ban “inherently divisive concepts” from the state’s classrooms. Youngkin’s initiatives join a well-orchestrated right-wing assault on truthful teaching about race.

Georgia Educators, Students, and Community Members, please sign this petition that will be delivered to state legislators.

Students are invited to conduct research to complete the online database of Congress members who enslaved people -- and one of the researchers is available as a guest speaker.

We, the undersigned educators, refuse to lie to young people about U.S. history and current events.

The Zinn Education Project produced a national report on the teaching of the Reconstruction era. The report examines state standards, course requirements, frameworks, and support for teachers in each state. It also includes stories about creative efforts by districts and/or individual teachers in each state to teach outside the textbook about Reconstruction.

Historian Jeanne Theoharis shed light on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s stance on a range of issues, including his longstanding critique of police brutality. This session was part of the Zinn Education Project’s Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online people’s history series.

Although the coronavirus’s threat to the safety of our schools is dire, there is another threat that should not be ignored. Right wing politicians and media outlets are attacking educators’ most basic responsibility — to teach young people accurately and truthfully.

Summer learning opportunities for teachers.

In 2021, the Zinn Education Project (coordinated by Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change) supported and defended the right to teach truthfully about U.S. history. Please help us continue this essential work and expand our reach in 2022, the 100th anniversary year of Howard Zinn (born 1922).