By Manisha Sinha
If nothing else, President Trump and the Republicans are making Civil War revisionism great again. In the spring of 2017, North Carolina GOP state Rep. Larry Pittman argued that Abraham Lincoln was “the same sort (of) tyrant” as Adolf Hitler, and was “personally responsible” for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans in an “unnecessary and unconstitutional” war.
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By Bob Peterson
While hundreds of thousands of concerned global citizens march for science and climate justice, a massive corporate-financed disinformation campaign on climate change is flooding our nation’s schools.
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During the Howard Zinn book drive for Arkansas, we posted this note from Harrisburg, Arkansas high school teacher Morgan Garland: "I only have one copy of Howard Zinn's book and I make copies of each chapter for all of my students." Garland could not afford a class set. A Zinn Education Project Facebook fan, Yarrow from southern Oregon, saw the post and decided to take action.
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By Bill Bigelow
Last week nearly 700 Arkansas teachers and school librarians received copies of books by Howard Zinn—thanks to a right wing state representative.
Well, not exactly. But here’s the story.
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When we made a call for donations to send books to Arkansas teachers, we were touched by the comments donors gave with their contribution. We share these inspiring quotes with you.
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Maybe you’ve heard: Legislation just proposed in Arkansas would ban books by or about Howard Zinn from all public schools in the state.
In solidarity with Arkansas educators and students, the Zinn Education Project is offering to send a book by Howard Zinn and A People’s History for the Classroom to any Arkansas teacher who requests them.
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We are honored that our lesson, “Hunger on Trial: An Activity on the Irish Potato Famine and Its Meaning for Today” by Bill Bigelow, was used at the 2016 International Great Hunger Commemoration, an annual event sponsored by the Irish government, held in Philadelphia.
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As reported in the Arkansas Times, pending legislation would prohibit any publicly supported schools in Arkansas "from including in its curriculum or course materials any books or other material authored by or concerning Howard Zinn."
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On last Sunday’s CBS show “Face the Nation,” senior Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller defended Trump’s travel ban and said, “The powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.” We need to remind students that this country has been at its best when people have organized to question and challenge presidents.
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With each passing day, it's becoming more apparent that Trump's agenda can only be enacted if people are ignorant of the issues underlying his supposed solutions. Having trouble finding and keeping work? Build that wall. Fearful of terrorist attacks? Ban Muslims. Want energy security and infrastructure development? Build that pipeline. The best antidote to Trump's xenophobia, racism, misogyny, and fossil-fuel soaked future is critical thinking.
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The environmental activist organization Greenpeace, USA posted a short video using the words of Howard Zinn from You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. This one-minute history lesson is a timely reminder of the power that resides outside the three branches of the U.S. government.
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The Zinn Education Project has just posted "Standing with Standing Rock: A Role Play on the Dakota Access Pipeline" by Wolfe-Rocca, her colleague Andrew Duden, and Zinn Education Project co-director Bill Bigelow. The teaching activities help students grasp the issues at stake in the historic struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux for recognition of their treaty rights and for clean water for all.
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In popular culture, the most memorable depiction of Reconstruction was D.W. Griffith's film, Birth of a Nation. Missing from this racist portrait of Reconstruction — and from too many textbooks — was the extraordinary experiment in grassroots multiracial democracy this period represented — land reform, public schools, expanded voting rights, greater equality.
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The Zinn Education Project's ability to get people's history lessons into the hands of teachers is made possible by donations from individuals like you. We express our thanks to everyone who donated last year so that we can reach more classrooms in 2017.
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Dear friends,
More than 65,000 teachers are helping students learn the truth, and teach outside the textbook. Their role has become all the more urgent.
These teachers are often the only chance students have to learn a different story—one that looks honestly at this country’s long history of exploitation, but one that also features the social movements that have made it more just and equal.
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Dear friends,
Right wing media and politicians understand the importance of what children learn—or don't learn—about history in K-12 classrooms.
That's why they went after the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson, Arizona. That's why they attacked the climate change education resolution in Portland, Oregon. They feared the spread of these good examples.
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The Zinn Education Project had a robust two days of discussions and community building during the 2016 National Council for the Social Studies annual conference.
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On December 2, the Zinn Education Project hosted a packed house for the first-ever People’s History Trivia Night. Scheduled during the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference being held in Washington, D.C., this fundraising event brought together people’s history teachers and friends from around the country. It was a lively night of laughing and sharing as everyone enjoyed themselves while learning non-trivial people’s history.
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Pitchfork magazine wrote about the 2016 elections in an article titled, "How to Get Involved in Politics Right Now: Take These Musicians’ Leads." They stressed the importance of teaching people's history, "...we must take seriously the ways in which public school resources represent our history. One easy way to do so it to look at the Zinn Education Project."
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The Zinn Education Project stands in solidarity with those who have denounced Donald Trump’s racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and Islamophobia—as well his ignorant and deadly proposals about the environment and climate change. The role of teachers is crucial in this freedom struggle. Please check out the lessons and resources below.
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“One of the greatest victories for the people of America since Andrew Jackson,” Rudy Giuliani , former mayor of New York City, said of Donald Trump's success in the 2016 election. We agree that Trump and Jackson have a lot in common, but neither election can be accurately described as a victory for anyone other than the wealthy elite.
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As teachers and students return to classrooms this fall, together we have to try to make sense of a tumultuous presidential campaign and a summer of racial violence that have forcefully surfaced the racism that plagues our nation.
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With the 2016 presidential election in the news, we share this article by Emilye Crosby and Judy Richardson, “The Voting Rights Act: Ten Things You Should Know.” Crosby and Richardson discuss key points in the history of the 1965 Voting Rights Act missing from most textbooks. We also share a segment from Democracy Now! on voting rights today.
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Dear Friends:
As Howard Zinn’s daughter, I want to share with you how excited I am to know that more and more students across the country are learning people’s history in school, thanks to their teachers and the Zinn Education Project.
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