Support the Zinn Education Project in the face of the 2025 Red Scare
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The Red Scare
Used Against Educators Today
The right-wing media is on the attack against the Zinn Education Project.
For example, The Washington Examiner said the Zinn Education Project “promotes political violence” because we share materials on the Stonewall Rebellion. Fox News cites our reference to the Green New Deal and to Mexicans on this land before there were borders as “anti-American.” The J*CA said the Zinn Education Project “depicts U.S. and Israeli history primarily through the lens of colonialism and racism.” Well, that is true.
In their Red Scare vitriol, these media outlets discredit activism and critical analysis in people’s history.
The real targets of these attacks are the educators who teach outside the textbook.
We need YOUR support so that we can continue to offer all ourresources for free and defend teachers’ right to use them.
Lessons on McCarthyism are essential to help immunize young people against Red Scare tactics used by this administration.
In this mixer lesson by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, students meet dozens of people who were victims of government harassment and repression to analyze what social movements the U.S. government aimed to suppress.
Albuquerque high school English teacher Nick DePascal wrote:
Students were shocked by the many and various ways people from all jobs and walks of life were hounded and persecuted by their own government under the guise of national security.
What I love about this lesson and all of the Zinn Ed Project’s teaching resources are that they are expertly researched and detailed, and they show both the indignities real people suffered, while still centering the way these same people fought back. In this way, students learn the shocking truths of our history, while still seeing where the spaces for action and revolt can exist in our present moment. They can see how they themselves can act in the face of injustice.
The Direct Line from the Red Scare to Red Hats by Kelly Jensen. Florida is embracing McCarthy era politics in their updated state social studies standards — it’s the normalization of today’s sociopolitical reality.
The Red Scare Is American Past and Present by Benjamin Balthaser. If we want to understand how we arrived in this authoritarian moment in 2025, we need to understand one of the central pathways that brought us here: McCarthyism.
Education Censorship
Free Book for Your Story
To receive one of the books featured above, share a story about the impact of anti-history education laws, executive orders, the chilling effect in your school or school district, and whether or how educators and communities are resisting this repression. Our appreciation to Seven Stories Press, Haymarket Books, and individuals for donating the books.
As Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, and more islands in the Caribbean face the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa, the mainstream press is silent on the climate crisis while the Trump administration is making it much worse.
It is time to offer direct support for those in the eye of the storm and to teach about climate justice to address the root causes of the crisis for the future. We offer free resources to Teach Climate Justice.
On Democracy Now!, Jamaican British climate justice activist Mikaela Loach says the hurricane was “caused by the climate crisis,” and that fossil fuel companies are to blame. It’s important to “direct that anger towards people who are responsible,” Loach says, suggesting that hurricanes be named after oil executives.
Fall of Freedom call for creative resistance by artists (including K–12 art teachers and students), November 21–22
105th National Council for the Social Studies Conference in person, December 5–7, Washington, D.C. Several workshops are by Zinn Education Project contributors and we’ll have a booth. The SNCC Legacy Project is offering a full-day pre-clinic on December 4, “Using Toolkits to Teach SNCC and the Fight for Democracy and Self-Determination.”
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.
