People's Historians Podcast

Long-time social justice teacher Elizabeth Davis interviewed by Zinn Education Project co-director Deborah Menkart.

Stevie (Stephen) Wilson is an incarcerated prison organizer and educator. In this clip he talks about the relationship between environmental racism and where prisons are located. 

In this episode, from our series on Teach the Black Freedom Struggle, our host, Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian and Rethinking Schools executive director Cierra Kaler-Jones speak to Kimberlé Crenshaw, a brilliant scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, intersectionality, race and racism, and the law. The two discuss the importance of teaching truthfully about U.S. history and why teaching this history is being criminalized today. Read about the event and find related resources.

In this episode, from our series on Teach the Black Freedom Struggle, our hosts, educators Jesse Hagopian and Cierra Kaler-Jones, speak to assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Jarvis Givens, about his book, Fugitive Pedagogy: CG Woodson & the Art of Black Teaching.

Givens discusses the central role of African American educators in the Black Freedom Struggle and their tradition of fugitive pedagogy to smuggle in the truth about Black history–including studies of the Haitian revolution, maroons in Suriname and Jamaica, Reconstruction, and more– into school systems dominated by white supremacy. Read about the event and find related resources.

In this episode, from our series on Teach the Black Freedom Struggle, our host, Jessica Rucker, a high school teacher, speaks to Teach Reconstruction campaign advisor and Northwestern University history professor Kate Masur about her book, Until Justice be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, From the Revolution to Reconstruction.

Professor Masur goes into detail about the nation’s first push for civil rights in the 19th century, specifically in the Northern states from African Americans and their white allies. This activism in the 1850s dovetailed with the rise of the new Republican Party. The Northwestern professor also discusses the violence launched by white reactionaries, attempting to defeat Black advances. Read about the event and find related resources.