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Katie Rinderle, a 5th-grade teacher in Georgia, received a notice of termination for reading My Shadow Is Purple to her class. She had purchased the title from her school’s Scholastic book fair. Rinderle said,

These kind of attacks are why we organized the Teach Truth Day of Action. We ask everyone to speak out to defend teachers committed to teach outside the textbook.

Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw joined Cierra Kaler-Jones, Rethinking Schools executive director, and Jesse Hagopian, Zinn Education Project staff, to talk about critical race theory and the attacks on teaching about U.S. history. Crenshaw spoke to the urgent times we are in:

Hear Crenshaw’s insights about race-conscious teaching in this two-minute clip.

To hear more, check out the full recording, including an “after party” with SNCC veteran Judy Richardson.

We are delighted that the documentary The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks was honored by the Television Academy at the Emmys.

The ceremony included an excellent four-minute film that speaks to the importance of the documentary in today’s political context. Watch below and hear the Zinn Education Project mentioned at the end.

In preparation for the Independence Day holiday, we offer a collection of more than a dozen people’s history stories from July 4th beyond 1776.

The stories include July 4th anniversaries, such as when slavery was abolished in New York (1827), Frederick Douglass’s speech “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” (1852), the Reconstruction era attack on a Black militia that led to the Hamburg Massacre (1876), protest of segregation at an amusement park in Baltimore (1963), and more.

Thanks to the support of donors, the Zinn Education Project has hosted hundreds of Teaching for Black Lives study groups. Teachers discuss how to teach for Black lives and gain the strength to face right-wing attacks. There is power in numbers. We periodically spotlight Teaching for Black Lives groups.

Twenty-six educators from Hayward Unified School District in California formed a study group that meets monthly “sharing best practices around the anchor text, Teaching for Black Lives,” with the goal to “co-create a resource that we can use internally to build staff capacity to be specifically culturally responsive to our Black students, families, and staff.”

Dr. Candace Cofield, the study group coordinator, has led groups in 2022 and 2023, and will lead a group next year. She also participates in all our people's historians classes.

Donate so that we can double the number of study groups in 2023–2024.

Going to the NEA Conference on Racial and Social Justice? If so, look for a Zinn Education Project staff member at the Teach Banned Books installation. If not, make your own pop-up display.

Check out the list of upcoming events hosted by the Zinn Education Project and our colleagues — for example, the upcoming classes in the Zinn Education Project Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online series.

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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PO BOX 73038, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20056 

202-588-7205 | zinnedproject.org