Eight Ways to Participate in the August Days of Action

This weekend (August 27 to 29), educators and allies are pledging to teach truth in actions at historic sites across the country. In the face of right-wing attacks on the teaching of history and antiracism, we come together to say we will not lie to children and we will teach the truth. Here are eight ways to participate:

#1: Join an Action

Teachers have organized public actions in close to 50 cities including Anchorage, Baltimore, Chicago, Kansas City, Las Cruces, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Portsmouth, Seattle, Trenton, Youngstown, and many more. Teachers have planned these activities as they return to school for another challenging year.

Find an Action Near You and Show Up

#2: On Your Own. Pick a Historic Site, Take a Photo, Share to #TeachTruth

No event in your area? You can still participate on your own or with a small group of friends or family. Find a historic site (history is everywhere!). Take a photo with one of our signs or make your own. Post to social media with #TeachTruth.

Download Signs

#3: Amplify #TeachTruth Events on August 27 – 29

Actions will take place across the country on August 27 – 29!

You can help boost the influence of those actions by sharing, liking, retweeting, and reposting #TeachTruth content all day long.

Change your profile picture to show up in solidarity!

Download social media images.

#4: Learn More and Join the Resistance

All of my students’ first language is Spanish and/or Indigenous. They deserve to know our history, especially as it pertains to their rights and their peers’ rights. We cannot mask the truth. — Alethea Maldonado, Middle School ESL Teacher, San Marcos, Texas

Racial Justice, Our Classrooms, and the Right-Wing Attacks in Rethinking Schools

Educators Across the U.S. Pledge to Teach Truth: “We Refuse to Lie to Young People About U.S. History” in Ms. Magazine

Read more about the bills that sparked the Days of Action and find ways to combat the attack on education in your own community.

#5: Social Media Challenge

We invite you to use the power of your social media platform to protect teachers and ensure that our children learn the truth about history so that they can shape a more just future. Participate in the social media challenge. Learn more.

#6: Teach Truth About Voting Rights

The Pledge to Teach Truth Days of Action are happening on the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington. The Zinn Education Project is a partner with March On for Voting Rights, which is also hosting events this weekend across the United States.

According to Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, an organizer and curriculum writer at the Zinn Education Project, there is a connection between the spate of laws that restrict teachers’ ability to look at the historic roots of inequality and the ongoing struggle for voting rights. She notes:

Since the 2020 election, more than two dozen new laws have passed that make it harder to vote. Educators cannot help their students make sense of this wave of voter suppression legislation without introducing them to the longer history of racist disenfranchisement, from Reconstruction to the present.

Link the issues. Join a March On for Voting Rights event and bring TeachTruth signs.

#7: Pledge to Teach the Truth

Sign the pledge to resist efforts by lawmakers across the country to pass legislation that would require teachers to lie to students about the role of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and oppression throughout U.S. history.

Sign the Pledge

#8. Defend People’s History Teachers

Donate so that we can continue to organize events like these and support the right of teachers across the United States to teach people’s history. Donate Today