"As I continued to work on our 'Plague Blues' album over the summer, my dad Gerald Lenoir made a stunning discovery: our family was enslaved on the same plantation in Morgantown, Mississippi as the family of the legendary blues artist, J.B. Lenoir."
Author: I AM AN EDUCATOR
Jesse Hagopian teaches history and is the co-adviser to the Black Student Union at Garfield High School, the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test in 2013.
Jesse is an associate editor of the acclaimed Rethinking Schools magazine, is a founding member of Social Equality Educators (SEE), was recipient of the 2012 Abe Keller Foundation award for “excellence and innovation in peace education,” and was received the 2013 Secondary Teacher of Year award by the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.
Why the Nation Needs the #TeachTruth Movement
On June 11-12, 2022, educators, parents, students, and community organizers are set to hold rallies in dozens of cities and towns throughout the country — from Alaska to Florida — with one clear demand: Teach the truth. Here's what you need to know about the movement for honesty about structural racism and oppression in education.
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#BlackEducationMatters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) 2022 applications open: Nominate a deserving antiracist student today!
Starting Sunday, May 1 through Tuesday, May 31st, nominations will be accepted for the 2022 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA). The BEMSAA organizing committee encourages educators, parents, students, and community organizers to nominate a deserving student for the award today! The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award gives recognition, support, and a $1,000 award to student leaders in Seattle/King County region who demonstrate exceptional leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, ableism, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community. Over the past several years, over 20 Seattle Public Schools students have been honored with the award.
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#TeachTruth: Don’t censor honest accounts of history
State Republican Rep. Jim Walsh recently introduced HB 1807 and Republican Rep. Brad Klippert introduced HB 1886 for this legislative session — two bills designed to mandate educators lie to Washington’s students about structural racism and sexism. It’s fitting that Rep. Klippert’s bill is numbered “1886,” as that was the year a mob of white people in Seattle rounded up more than 200 Chinese people, forced them into wagons, and hauled them to Seattle docks where they were placed on ships and deported. Though 15 people were tried in court in relation to the riot — including Chief of Police William Murphy who helped the mob round up Chinese people illegally — not a single one was ever convicted of a crime.
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Young, Gifted, & Black Student Talent Showcase: Online event (2/3/22, 6-8pm PT) for BLM at School Week
To help celebrate the 5th annual Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, youth in Seattle have taken up organizing a "Young, Gifted, & Black Student Talent Showcase" that will be held online, Thursday, February, 3, 2022 from 6-8pm PT.
I AM AN EDUCATOR 