Teachers Around the Country are Planning Protests Over Laws Restricting Racism Lessons

It wasn’t until George Floyd’s murder that Jared Middleton, a high school special education teacher in Springdale, Arkansas, began to criticize history lessons that didn’t include multiple perspectives or discussions of lasting implications. Along with Middletons recognition that schools have long ignored the history of People of Color, several other teachers have encountered the incorporate lessons on topics ranging from the Tulsa race massacre to the Chinese Exclusion Act. Many conservatives across the country are bothered by how teachers are adding to the discussions of race and racism in U.S. history classes. Now in Arkansas, as well as more than a dozen other states, lawmakers have introduced or passed new laws re-direct the tone of those lessons to dismiss these types of conversations.

Over this past weekend, teacher groups in more than 22 cities have decided to organize rallies and other events to protest legislative efforts to restrict these important conversations. Tamara Anderson, a member of Black Lives Matter at School and an organizer of rally events in Philadelphia stated; “Our children deserve to be taught authentic, connective histories. Indigenous, Black, Latino, Asian and other People of Color make up the fabric of what is actually America.”

Source: USA TODAY