To protect young people’s right to learn — and thereby protect the future of democracy and justice — we need to expose the right’s agenda and be visible in our defense of teaching people’s history. There are lots of ways to make our voices heard, including:
- Signs at rallies
- Gallery walk or mini-lesson
- Walking tour
- Book display or book swap
- Pop-up information table
Below are suggestions and resources for each approach. These can be brought to events organized by others (like NoKings, MayDay, Pride, Juneteenth, July 4, and more) or you can organize your own event. Let us know your plans or add your event to our map. Even if it is simply taking a sign to a rally, tell us. Our goal is to spread the word everywhere possible about the need to defend the freedom to learn.
In 2026, many of the groups that have led the campaigns to ban books and censor history are focusing their efforts on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. (These include the Heritage Foundation, Hillsdale College, Moms for Liberty, PragerU, Turning Point USA, and more.)
We are focused on the 250th anniversary as well. We offer lessons and campaign materials to Teach Truth about the American Revolution and founding of the United States.
Sign Up for Any of These Activities
Signs at Rallies
With many groups hosting days of action, you can bring signs and postcards to raise awareness about the need to address education. Whatever the topic of the rally, education is critical. The ability to consider real solutions to a range of issues, from the climate crisis to gun violence to voting rights, is curtailed when those topics are silenced in the curriculum.
We can send you postcards, buttons, and posters to share. Use a sign we send you, download a sign, your own, or make a #TeachTruth photo frame like the one below! Share on social media with #TeachTruth and/or email to [email protected]
Gallery Walks and Mini-Lessons
Host a gallery walk on the threats to education and resistance strategies. Pick a site where you can engage a lot of people and make a point about defending the freedom to learn. It could be a city hall, statehouse, union hall, library, or school district building. Or a church or association that wants to inform and engage its members.
Defy censorship by teaching “banned history” in a public space. Showcase the history we are defending the right to teach. For example, create a gallery walk with quotes by noted scholars and activists including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Septima Clark, Malcolm X, and more on the importance and struggle for education.
We provide the quotes on downloadable sheets and other options for gallery walks and/or mini-lessons.
Walking Tour
Plan a walk or march to people’s history sites in your community to raise awareness about the local history that is being censored in classrooms.
Kaley Duong, a recent grad of Meadowdale High School in Lynwood, on a Teach Truth tour of the 1919 history of Seattle. Photo by Chloe Collyer. Read more.
Read descriptions of various walking tours to gain inspiration and ideas.
Book Display or Book Swap
Have everyone bring a book that symbolizes the history they want to protect the right to teach about. In Concord, New Hampshire, there was a book swap. Their invitation said:
Participants are encouraged to bring a book that changed their perspective on systemic racism/inequity that might be considered “divisive” under the new law and treat the event as a giant book swap.
Attendees will be welcomed to place their book on the capitol steps and at the end of the event, anyone who brings a book can pick a new one!
In Pasadena, Maryland, organizers invited people to a banned books “photo booth” at a local library. They set up a table and had visitors take a photo with a banned book and cardboard frame.
Sign Up for Any of These ActivitiesPop-up Display
The Zinn Education Project offers a Teach Truth pop-up display box with banned books with colorful information sheets about why they were banned, plus postcards, buttons, and signs to create a display like the one pictured below. There are at least three picture books that can easily be read by visitors to the table. The box also includes display stands and detailed intructions.
Secure a location and determine if they will provide a table or if you need to bring one. Select a place where people will come to you. It could be a library, bookstore, farmers market, museum, festival, pride parade, or other public place. Host the information table for two to three hours. Identify at least one other person to help you with set up, taking photos, and responding to questions as people come by.
We ask for $25 to help defray the costs of shipping and some of the materials. Read more.
For the past five summers, teachers rallied across the country at historic sites to speak out against anti-history education bills and to make public their pledge to teach the truth. See examples to get ideas for your 2026 action: June and August, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Public Teach Truth events and other local education organizing efforts can be found on the national map below, hosted by our cosponsor Public School Strong/HEAL Together.
Teach Truth Media Guide
Regardless of whether you engage in Teach Truth activities in your classroom or at public events, we recommend reading the Teach Truth Media Guide. It can help with preparation of responses not only for the media, but also for communications with parents, school staff, and the general public.
School Boards
In addition to the actions listed above, we invite everyone to get involved with your local school board. Turn out to vote, testify, and consider running for school board. The statewide anti-history education attacks on teachers and students include a concerted, Koch funded effort to take over school boards. Those of us who value truth-telling in schools do not have the massive funding that the right receives. However, we do have the numbers. Read more.
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