Video from Kimberle Crenshaw, American Revolution curriculum workshop and teaching resources, & more
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Coordinated by Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change.
Teach Truth About the American Revolution
Kimberlé Crenshaw
Professor Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, founder and director of the African American Policy Forum, shares why she supports the Zinn Education Project’s Teach Truth About the American Revolution campaign:
As our nation prepares to celebrate 250 years of the American Revolution, one thing is certain: However loud the fireworks are sure to be, the silences will be louder.
This short video highlights the dangers of misrepresenting the Revolution and can spark discussion in high school or college classrooms.
Let’s make visible the fact that teachers everywhere are teaching truthfully about the American Revolution.
Sign up to participate. We are adding quills to the map to show where teachers are participating, but we will keep your information confidential. Help us fill the map to reflect participation in all 50 states and territories.
Amid crises like education censorship, climate disasters, and rising authoritarianism, it’s vital to give students tools for an honest study of the American Revolution.
On Tuesday, April 21, join Zinn Education Project program manager Mimi Eisen and Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian to pilot a new high school lesson for teaching the people’s history of the American Revolution.
Through a mixer activity, participants will surface choices and outcomes navigated by an array of Indigenous and Black people in the Revolutionary period — and examine what freedom meant to those excluded from it at the U.S. founding.
For the sixth year, the Zinn Education Project is fueling communities of anti-racist educators by sponsoring 50 Teaching for Black Lives study groups for the 2025–2026 school year nationwide.
Amid ongoing attacks on honest history education, educators continue to help students think critically and imagine a more just future. This year’s groups span 30 states, with many returning to deepen their learning and organizing.
The Montclair group applied because they wanted to challenge themselves and their peers to examine their racial biases, and understand how those biases affect students:
We believe that until teachers and administrators realize the impact racism has on our students and parents, we are failing our community.
The Zinn Education Project is now accepting applications for the 2026–27 Prentiss Charney Teacher Fellowship. The 18-month fellowship participants will meet for six Saturday sessions (3 hours each) to elaborate and receive feedback on their projects and to field test, publish, and share their work.
This will be the third cohort of Prentiss Charney fellows; meet the first and second cohorts. Applications accepted until May 1, 2026.
Ewing shows how schools have historically “civilized” Native students and prepared Black students for subservience, challenging the idea of schools as equalizers.
She calls for education that weaves together multiple histories and strengths, and for rethinking the broader systems of power and inequality that shape it.
Check out these events hosted by the Zinn Education Project, our coordinating organizations — Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change — and our colleagues. All events are online unless noted otherwise.
In the next decade, the AI education market is projected to top $112 billion — more than double the federal K–12 budget. Tech executives, administrators, and some union leaders are pushing AI for lesson planning, feedback, and “ethical” use.
On Thursday, April 9, join Rethinking Schools contributors and editors in conversation about what’s wrong with AI in schools and how we can teach and organize for human-centered learning.
OnMonday, April 13, join historian Matthew Delmont and Rethinking Schools executive director Cierra Kaler-Jones for a discussion of Delmont’s latest book, Until the Last Gun Is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight to Save America’s Soul. The book tells the story of the Vietnam War through the lives of Coretta Scott King and Dwight “Skip” Johnson and includes the history of SNCC, the Fort Hood Three, the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and more. Twenty attendees will receive a free copy of the book.
ASL interpretation and professional development certificates provided.
Freedom Was in Sight: Reconstruction as the Second Founding, a weeklong teacher seminar at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and local historic sites, will be held from July 6–10. The seminar will be facilitated by the NMAAHC Teaching and Learning unit and Reconstruction historian Kate Masur.
Teachers 4 Social Justice is hosting the Ethnic Studies Everywhere conference in San Francisco on April 25.
There will be workshops with educators and students who use Ethnic Studies concepts, histories, and critical lenses to enrich classrooms across disciplines from math to literature, from arts to science, and from early childhood education to university.
Teachers are under attack for teaching truthfully about U.S. history. Please donate so we can continue to offer free people’s history lessons and resources, and defend teachers’ right to use them.
