At a workshop for teachers about educating children on American slavery, one instructor grew angry and insisted that Thomas Jefferson – who fathered biracial children with an enslaved woman on one of his plantations – was an advocate for racial equality.
José Vilson co-founded the EduColor collective the same year that George Zimmerman – who fatally shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin – was acquitted of murder, and #BlackLivesMatter was born.
While disturbing incidents of hate and bias in schools are regularly reported in the news media, the incidents are just a fraction of what educators are encountering in schools across the country, a new study by the SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance project finds.
The SPLC launched a digital initiative this month that seeks to correct the false narratives of the “Lost Cause” mythology, which idolizes people who fought against the United States in order to preserve slavery.
When middle school teacher Kristin Heavner shared a photo on social media of a colorful makeup bag filled with disposable menstrual products, she had no idea how people would react.
