The attack on antiracist education is at our front door, and there’s no clearer or more determined voice in this struggle than Jesse Hagopian’s. Jesse is insightful, compassionate, and committed to building a better world. Each page in Teach Truth offers sharp and timely analysis that captures the urgency of our current moment, while also grounding us in the history that brought us here. This is a book that propels us forward.
–Bettina Love, educator & author of Punished for Dreaming
Dear Friends and Fellow Educators,
I’m thrilled to announce the tour for my new book from Haymarket Books, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education! I’d like to invite you to be a part of this movement and to host a book event in your city by inquiring at the “Request Info” button on this link!
This tour is about so much more than just launching a book—it’s about building a national coalition that stands up against what I call “truthcrime” laws that spreading across our country. These laws aim to silence our voices and prevent students from learning the truth about our shared history and ongoing struggles for justice. Together, we can strengthen the movement to protect honest, antiracist education and inspire communities across the U.S. to take action.
At each stop on this tour, I’ll share stories from Teach Truth and connect with educators, students, parents, and community members who are passionate about preserving the right to teach and learn about systemic racism, sexism, and all forms of oppression.
I invite you not only to join me at one of my scheduled stops but also to host an event in your city. Let’s add your school, college, bookstore, or community space to the Teach Truth tour! By doing so, you’ll be joining a growing network of people committed to opposing censorship and building a movement for honest, antiracist education in every corner of our country.
Here are the upcoming stops confirmed so far, with soon to be announced stops in L.A. and Berkeley, California:
I’d love to bring Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education to your city, college campus, school, bookstore, or community event! To book a tour stop or for more information on his talks, please contact Speak Out at info@speakoutnow.org or Inquiring at “Request Info” button on this link!
Here’s a flyer you can share with colleagues at your educational institution or community organization. It provides information on the Teach Truth book tour and explains why hosting a tour stop at your university, school, or community group would be impactful.
If you’re interested in hosting an event, let’s work together to make it happen. I’m excited to connect with educators, students, community members, and organizers everywhere who are passionate about creating a just society.
About Jesse Hagopian: Jesse is a Seattle educator, an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, a founding steering committee member of Black Lives Matter at School, and the Director of the Teaching for Black Lives Campaign of the Zinn Education Project. He is the author of the forthcoming book from Haymarket Books, Teach Truth: The Attack on Critical Race Theory and the Struggle for Antiracist Education, editor of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing, and the co-editor of the books Teaching for Black Lives, Black Lives Matter at School, and Teachers Unions and Social Justice.
Jesse’s writing has appeared in The Seattle Times, The Nation, The Progressive, and his commentary on education and politics has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, The New Yorker, HBO’s Problem Areas with Wyatt Cenac, NBC’s Education Nation, The PBS News Hour with Gwen Ifill, Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal (on TBS), The Dan Rather Report, and Democracy Now!
I’m excited to share that Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education is now available for pre-order anywhere books are sold! Ordering your copy early helps build momentum for the book’s release and supports the movement for antiracist education. I suggest pre-ordering through Haymarket Books, Bookshop.org, or your local independent bookstore.
Thank you for supporting this work and helping to bring Teach Truth to as many readers as possible.
About the Book:
Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education is an urgent examination of the fight for honest education amid growing efforts to suppress critical discussions of race, oppression, and history. In the book, I unpack the rise of what I call “truthcrime” laws—now impacting almost half of all public school students in the U.S. and a growing number of colleges and universities—which ban any teaching of systemic racism, as well as sexism and heterosexism. These legislative initiatives are part of a broader attempt to rewrite history and replace antiracist education with what I call “uncritical race theory”—a set of ideas designed to reinforce existing unequal racial power relations.
Teach Truth draws on interviews with educators, students, and parents—many of whom have faced severe repercussions for their commitment to truth-telling—and combines these narratives with rigorous research and historical analysis to provide a powerful critique of the systems that perpetuate racial injustice.
Hagopian offers a compelling vision for not only defeating the laws that ban honest history but also for building social movements that can transform education into a guide for liberation rather than a tool of conformity. Drawing on decades of experience as an educator and organizer, Hagopian challenges readers to see the fight for honest education as essential to broader struggles for a just society, detailing key efforts already underway and providing strategies to help the movement win.
I hope to see you at one of the events on this tour or at a new stop we create together! If you’re interested in organizing a book event in your city or inviting me to speak at your school, bookstore, or community center, please reach out. Together, we can grow this movement, uplift antiracist voices, and ensure that the truth continues to be taught and heard.
I AM AN EDUCATOR 