In the News

“When organizations like Facing History & Ourselves are silent on the devastation in Gaza, it leaves teachers more vulnerable to attack when they try to teach honestly about the region,” said Deborah Menkart, co-director of the Zinn Education Project.

The difficult truth is no one is coming to save us from the banning of history and this slide into fascism — including the Democratic Party. But once we understand this, our task becomes clear. We must build robust, independent, social movements and fight to teach the truth — because no executive order, no political intimidation, and no forced ignorance can erase history, so long as we refuse to stop teaching it.

As the Trump administration sets its sights on cutting the Department of Education, longtime educator Jesse Hagopian spoke to Democracy Now about what he calls an “extremist, authoritarian power grab to dismantle public education and enforce ideological conformity.” Hagopian, whose new book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education, traces the history of racist educational censorship, added, “This isn’t about protecting children. We know that dismantling the Department of Education is really about imposing . . . the violence of organized forgetting.”

At stake is not merely the lens through which we view our past, but the moral and intellectual foundation of the society we aspire to create. Post-truth schooling, fueled by uncritical race theory, aims to dull the capacity of young people to think critically and challenge systemic inequality. Fortunately, resistance to this dystopian vision is springing up already.

SNCC veteran Courtland Cox asks: Who is going to control the narrative? The answer is that we can shift the narrative if we equip young people with people’s history and critical thinking skills to make them impervious to lies. This is why we must support the educators who boldly teach honest, inclusive history. These teachers equip students with the tools to think critically, question harmful rhetoric, and understand the systemic forces shaping the world. Supporting them isn’t just about protecting academic freedom — it’s about building a future where justice, not fear, guides public understanding.

As we have seen educators come under attack for teaching the truth about U.S. history, we have also seen them rise up and fight back. There is one story of educator resistance that has not been reported on: the Teaching for Black Lives (T4BL) study groups and the more than 3,795 educators from across the country — including in states that have prohibited anti-racist education — who have come together over the last several years to read, learn, reflect, and struggle for justice in classrooms and schools. Hundreds of T4BL study groups have formed since 2020

Teachers and union leaders are rallying to protect Black students and public schools from Trump’s Project 2025 policies. “We need an uprising,” Zinn Education Project organizer Jesse Hagopian tells Word In Black. “We need a mass multiracial uprising to challenge those in power. Nobody’s coming to save us.”

Across the country, history and social studies teachers are grappling with balancing the strictures of the public education system alongside their own visions for what their students need and deserve to know. For educators of color, particularly Black teachers who primarily educate students of color, the importance of ensuring that their lessons are reflective of all of the histories, backgrounds, and stories is magnified. Three teachers share how they use resources beyond traditional textbooks to build a more radical and reflective curriculum.