Teaching People’s History Is Under Attack

This year, back-to-school season arrives with continued attacks on teachers and bans on accurate history.

The power of the truth — the solidarity it affords students of history in struggles for justice — is why the right wing targets it relentlessly. In some form or another, attacks on education have existed for centuries. People who owe their wealth and power to the exploitation of large numbers of people have never wanted those they oppress to learn an accurate history of this country and to raise critical questions.

In the Reconstruction era, Black communities founded the South’s first public education systems, with more than 1,000 new schools. White supremacists responded with brutality — burning more than 630 Black schoolhouses.

Challenging traditions of white supremacy was central to Reconstruction and still is today, as the Right tries to quell surges in democracy and justice.

Understanding our place in this long freedom struggle is key to carrying it forward. That is why we must #TeachReconstruction. Find more information and resources at TeachReconstructionReport.org

Read the Reconstruction Report