King of the North: Part Two

On Monday, October 27, 2025, historian Jeanne Theoharis will return to discuss her book, King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life of Struggle Outside the South, with Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian.

This class is part two to a March 2025 Teach the Black Freedom Struggle class with Theoharis where she discussed the book just prior to its release. Given the extent of King’s organizing in the north, and the in-depth history covered in the book, this second class will dive deeper into King’s influence in the north and beyond.

Describing the first session, a participate wrote,

Today reinforced and deepened my understanding of how Martin Luther King Jr. is used as a cudgel to attack present day activists and movements, which is deeply damaging to our students and their organizing and direct action tactics. As King said, “If our direct action tactics alienate our friends, they were never really our friends.”

Watch a short audiogram below where Theoharis describes the relevance of King’s radicalism today and what we lose by the continued misuse of his legacy. Find all the resources from the March class with Theoharis — including the recording, transcript, and recommended resources — here.

Jeanne Theoharis is a distinguished professor at Brooklyn College. She is the author or co-author of numerous books and articles on the Civil Rights and Black Power movements and the politics of race and education. Her books include the award-winning titles The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks and A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History. Theoharis co-founded the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle class series with the Zinn Education Project and invited our staff to collaborate on a teaching guide for The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks book and film. She wrote a piece with Robert Artinian on her family history, “God cried”: Charles’ “destan” on the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, in Armenian Weekly.

ASL interpretation provided.

Professional development credit certificate provided upon request for attendees.

These online classes with people’s historians are held at least once a month (generally on Mondays) at for 75 minutes. In each session, the historian is interviewed by a teacher and breakout rooms allow participants to meet each other in small groups, discuss the content, and share teaching ideas. We designed the sessions for teachers and other school staff. Parents, students, and others are also welcome to participate.