The Zinn Education Project will be attending the National Council for the Social Studies Conference, Nov. 13-14, 2015, in New Orleans. Our booth is always abuzz with inspiring conversations as educators meet to share teaching people's history success stories, challenges, and resource ideas.

Recently, a remarkable thing happened. A longtime Zinn Education Project (ZEP) supporter—a retired social studies teacher and teacher union activist—came to us with a proposal: "I want to help the Zinn Education Project reach hundreds of thousands more students. We need to provide every teacher with a people's history alternative to their textbook."

The recent If We Knew Our History article, “Time to Abolish Columbus Day,” has gone viral, as the call to change the name to Indigenous Peoples’ Day gains support across the country. The article has received more than 140K Facebook likes on Common Dreams and the Huffington Post. It has also been referenced in national news media, including MSNBC, The Washington Post, Nonprofit Quarterly, and Common Dreams, and was posted on AlterNet.

With every passing day, the climate crisis announces itself with greater urgency. The drought in California. The wildfires in the West. The summer of 2015 was the hottest ever recorded. What's next? The good news is that activism is on the rise, too. The movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground is growing by leaps and bounds.

With all the hate speech and misinformation from presidential candidates about Muslims, we revisit the Zinn Education Project article by Alison Kysia, "A People's History of Muslims in the United States." Kysia writes, "Most of my students reference 9/11 as the first time they heard of Muslims. Mainstream textbooks do little to correct or supplement the biases that students learn from the media. These books distort the rich and complex place of Muslims throughout U.S. history."

As educators in Seattle lead the city’s first teacher strike in 30 years, we share this interview with Rethinking Schools associate editor and history teacher Jesse Hagopian and Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant.

We thank everyone who voted for the Zinn Education Project on the CREDO donation ballot in July. The results are in. Thanks to your votes and outreach, we received a donation of $59,162 from CREDO/Working Assets.

As Pope Francis prepares to canonize Junípero Serra on September 23 despite widespread protests, we share the Zinn Education Project's If We Knew Our History article by Deborah Miranda,“Lying to Children About the California Missions and the Indians." Miranda exposes what's missing from the textbooks when students learn about California Missions.

In June, the Zinn Education Project reached the milestone of 50,000 teachers registered to download…

In January, Janet Kelly contacted the Zinn Education Project to help her 7th and 8th grade students research Fred Ross Sr., a little known but influential grassroots organizer, for their History Day Project about the United Farmworkers' Union.

The Zinn Education Project has engaged more people than ever with quality, thought-provoking people's history lessons for students and stimulating articles that challenge myths about our history. With your continued support, we can reach more classrooms. We bring you a quick snapshot of 2015 so far.

The Zinn Education Project is delighted to announce the posting of three new articles and activities on race, housing, and displacement. Originally published in Rethinking Schools magazine, these articles offer compelling examples of how teachers engage their students in exploring the roots of today’s economic inequality.

This month we feature the very popular article on how the commercialization of Cinco de Mayo perpetuates stereotypes and misconceptions of this holiday that commemorates the defeat of Napoleon III, not Mexico’s Independence Day. Published on the Huffington Post and the Zinn Education Project websites.

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By Sudie Hofmann I recently came across a flier in an old backpack of my daughter’s: Wanted: Committee Chairs for this Spring’s Cinco de Mayo All School Celebration. The flier was replete with cultural props including a sombrero, cactus tree, donkey, taco, maracas, and chili peppers. Seeing this again brought back the moment when, years earlier, my daughter had handed the flier to me, and I’d thought, “Oh, no.” The local K-6 elementary school’s Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) was sponsoring a stereotypical Mexican American event. There were no Chicana/o students, parents, or staff members who I was aware of in the school community and I was concerned about the event’s authenticity. I presumed the PTSA meant well, and was attempting to provide a multicultural experience for students and families, but it seemed they were likely to get it wrong. Continue reading.

Thank you to the 209 donors in 2014 whose support makes it possible for the…

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam Peace Movement which is being commemorated at the Vietnam: The Power of Protest convening in Washington, D.C. on May 1-2. As conference organizers explain, "This effort began last fall in reaction to the Pentagon’s plans for their own commemoration, including extensive public outreach and a false and one-sided website history of the Vietnam War that excluded the peace movement."

We’re delighted to announce the posting of four new articles and activities on environmental justice issues. At a moment when the dimensions of the climate crisis are becoming more apparent, the Zinn Education Project is committed to providing teachers more resources to help students confront the causes and consequences of climate change and the broader environmental crisis. Our collective house is burning down. The least we can do is help our students understand why and consider ways to respond.

We are featuring some of our favorite people's history artists as a resource to connect art and social justice in the classroom.

We express our heartfelt appreciation to Alison Kysia for her work with the Zinn Education…