In the News

When elementary school teacher Katie Rinderle read aloud the international, best-selling children’s book My Shadow is Purple to her fifth grade gifted class at Due West Elementary School in Cobb County, Georgia, she never suspected that she was risking her 10-year career. Less than a month later, the Cobb County School District gave Rinderle the choice to resign or be terminated for violating the district’s policies. She refused to resign. On May 5, she was told she would be terminated by the district, and she was issued her official notice of termination on June 6. “Teachers are concerned that they will be subject to a complaint for simply teaching honestly about U.S. history,” said Deborah Menkart, executive director of Teaching for Change, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building social justice in the classroom and co-director of the Zinn Education Project. From the Southern Poverty Law Center. Read the full article here.  

In this episode of Future Memory, a Monument Lab podcast, co-host Li Sumpter receives a history lesson from Jesse Hagopian, Seattle-based educator, activist, and die-hard advocate for antiracist education. He shares childhood memories that impacted his view of himself, his future path, and his role in the Black Freedom Struggle – a fight that has deep roots in Seattle and the very high school Jesse attended as a youth.  Jesse is an organizer with the Zinn Education Project, author of the upcoming book Teach Truth the Attack on Critical Race Theory and the Struggle for Anti-racist Education and co-editor of the books Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice and Teaching for Black Lives. From Monument Lab. Read the full article here.

In this episode of the Valley Labor Report — the only union talk radio show in Alabama — co-host Adam Keller talks to Greg, an Iowa educator, and Zinn Education Project co-director Deborah Menkart about the importance of teaching truth in the face of book bans and mounting attempts to suppress an inclusive history in classrooms. From the Valley Labor Report. Read the full article here.

On Saturday, June 10, 2023, people came together at roughly 100 locations nationwide for the #TeachTruth National Day of Action. From Ruben F. Salazar Park in Los Angeles and abolitionist bookstore 1977 Books in Montgomery, Alabama, to the Stonewall Inn in New York City and the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C., attendees rallied against the anti-history education bills proliferating across the United States. The Zinn Education Project, the African American Policy Forum, and Black Lives Matter at Schools coordinated the day of action, which had more than 50 co-sponsors, including the SNCC Legacy Project. From Word in Black. Read the full article here.

For the past two years, teachers around the country have rallied at historic sites to speak out against anti-history education bills. On June 10, 2023, teachers are rallying again for the Teach Truth Day of Action, co-organized by The Zinn Education Project, Black Lives Matter at School and The African American Policy Forum. You can join the resistance to teach the truth. Teachers, students, parents and community members are invited to rally across the country and pledge to #TeachTruth and defend LGBTQ+ rights. Let this demonstration of solidarity, mobilization and activism be our history. From the Progressive Magazine. Read the full article here.

History is a human right. The struggle for social justice is many things. However, especially in this era, it must include the recognition of the right to learn honest history — particularly about social movements that have challenged injustice. Without truthful accounts of history and the truthful transmission of that history to the next generations, young people are robbed of the first condition of a democratic society — access to the knowledge needed to shape the future. You, too, can join the #TeachTruth National Day of Action on June 10. Find an event near you. Or, organize your own. An increasing number of communities refuse to repeat the scapegoating and paranoia of the McCarthy era; we won’t let them use race, gender, and sexuality to divide and conquer us. From Word in Black. Read the full article here.

Three years ago, NEA and the Zinn Education Project launched the first national day of action to teach the truth, and another one is on the horizon: Teach Truth Day on June 10, when educators pledge to teach truthfully about U.S. history, defend LGBTQ+ rights, and speak out against anti-history education bills, banned books, and more. NEA leaders firmly and unequivocally support these actions and urge the union's 3-million members to organize, participate, and engage to help raise awareness about the danger of these attacks on public education. From the National Education Association (NEA). Read the full article here.

“There is a divide between places where teachers have the leeway to teach the truth about history and culture, and places where teachers can’t do this even if they want to,” said Wayne Au, a professor of education at the University of Washington-Bothell and an editor at Rethinking Schools, a 37-year-old quarterly publication devoted to promoting social justice. “People have been physically threatened, so there is not always the space for teachers to do anti-racist education. But when states pass legislation that supports multicultural learning, it gives teachers room to create curricula. It also gives them the official backing to do work they know is for the common good. Of course, developing curricula can be complicated and state-approved materials are often safer than we want, but they’re a start.” From Truthout. Read the full article here.