Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice

by Jesse Hagopian, Denisha Jones, Opal Tometi (Foreword by)

Overview

Black Lives Matter at School is an essential resource for all those seeking to build an antiracist school system."
—Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Black Lives Matter at School succinctly generalizes lessons from successful challenges to institutional racism that have been won through the Black Lives Matter at School movement. This book will inspire many more educators and activists to join the Black Lives Matter at School movement at a moment when this antiracist work in our schools could not be more urgent and critical to education justice.

Contributors include Opal Tometi, who wrote a moving foreword, Bettina Love who shares a powerful chapter on abolitionist teaching, Brian Jones who centers Black Lives Matter at School in the historical context of the ongoing struggle for racial justice in education and prominent teacher union leaders from Chicago to Los Angeles and beyond who discuss the importance of anti-racist struggle in education unions. The book includes essays, interviews, poems, resolutions, and more from educators, students and parents around the country who have been building Black Lives Matter at School on the ground.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642592702
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	12/08/2020
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	392,807
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Denisha Jones is a member of the national Black Lives Matter at School steering committee and Director of the Art of Teaching, graduate teacher education program, at Sarah Lawrence College. After earning her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from the University of the District of Columbia, Denisha worked as a kindergarten and preschool teacher, and a preschool director. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana Universityin 2013. In 2018, she earned her Juris Doctor from the David A. Clarke School of Law at the University of the District of Columbia. Denisha is an education justice advocate and activist. She serves as Co-Director for Defending the Early Years, Inc, and is the Assistant Executive Director for the Badass Teachers Association. Currently, her research focuses on utilizing the BLM at School curriculum as cultural citizenship and documenting the value of play as a tool for liberation with an emphasis on global approaches to play.

Jesse Hagopian is a member of the Black Lives Matter at School steering committee and teaches Ethnic Studies at Seattle's Garfield High School. Jesse is an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, the co-editor of the book, Teaching for Black Lives, and the editor of the book More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing. Jesse is a recipient of the 2013 Secondary School Teacher of the Year award and the Special Achievement Courageous Leadership award from the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences. In 2015, Jesse received the Seattle/King County NAACP Service Award. Jesse serves as the Director of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award.

Table of Contents

Foreword Opal Tometi xi

Introduction

Chapter 1 Making Black Lives Matter at School Jesse Hagopian 1

Chapter 2 Black Lives Matter at School: Historical Perspectives Brian Jones 25

Feature: How One Elementary School Sparked a Movement to Make Black Students' Lives Matter Wayne Au Jesse Hagopian 33

The Start of a Movement

Chapter 3 From Philly with Love: Black Lives Matter at School Goes National Tamara Anderson 49

Chapter 4 Organizing the National Curriculum Christopher Rogers 57

Chapter 5 MapSO Freedom School and the Statewide and National Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action Organizing Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price 63

Feature: Letter in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter at School 72

Securing Union Support: Successes and Struggles

Chapter 6 Black Lives Matter to the Chicago Teachers Union: An Interview with Jennifer Johnson 79

Chapter 7 Pushing Our Union to Do Antiracist Work: Los Angeles Teachers Union Tackles Racial Justice Cecily Myart-Cruz Erika Jones 90

Feature: Sample Union Endorsements 95

Chapter 8 The Struggle for Union Support in New York City: An Interview with Myrie 102

Chapter 9 Successes and Challenges Garnering State and Local Union Support in Howard County, Maryland: Art Interview with Erika Strauss Chavarria 107

Chapter 10 Seattle Educators' Lesson Plan for City Officials: Defund the Police and Spend the Money on Social Programs and Education! Jesse Hagopian 113

Feature: Defending the Boston Teachers Union from the Boston Police 122

Educators Doing the Work

Chapter 11 Our Schools Need Abolitionists, Not Reformers Bettina L. Love 131

Chapter 12 NYC Teachers Bring the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action to the Early Years Laleña Garcia Rosy Clark 134

Feature: How to Talk to Young Children about the Black Lives Matter Guiding Principles Laleña Garcia 140

Chapter 13 Bringing the Team Along: When Solidarity Leads to Progress Makai Kellogg 145

Chapter 14 Centering the Youngest Black Children: An Interview with Takiema Bunche-Smith 150

Chapter 15 Organizing the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action in New Jersey: An Interview with Raquel James-Goodman 158

Chapter 16 This Is My Education: Bringing the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action to an African American Immersion School in Milwaukee Angela Harris 167

Feature: Frequently Asked Questions about the Week of Action 175

Chapter 17 Higher Education Organizing for the Week of Action: An Interview with Anthony Dandridge Kiersten Greene 183

Chapter 18 White Educators for Black Lives Rosie Frascella B. Kaiser Brian Ford Jeff Stone 188

Feature: Solidarity with Migrant Families at the Border 193

Chapter 19 The Week of Action Goes from Philadelphia Schools to Higher Education: An Interview with Dana Morrison 196

Chapter 20 The Black Lives Matter at School Pedagogy: Affirming Black Lives, Resisting Neoliberal Reform, and Reimagining Education for Liberation Denisha Jones 200

Chapter 21 Black Lives Matter at School Year of Purpose Statement 208

Feature: Not Just in February! Reflection Questions to Make Black Lives Matter Every Day in Your Classroom Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price Maria C. Fernandez Christopher Rogers 214

Chapter 22 Hire More Black Teachers Now: A Research Statement from Black Lives Matter at School and Journey for Justice 219

Voices of Students

Chapter 23 They Don't Know the Half Kalani Rossman 229

Chapter 24 "Tearing It Down and Rebuilding": An Interview with Student Activist Marshé Doss 232

Chapter 25 Minneapolis Public Schools Expel the Police! An Interview with Student Leader Nathaniel Genene 242

Chapter 26 "Living in a Future of Success": An Interview with Student Activist Israel Presley on Organizing for the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action 248

Chapter 27 Students Deserve: The Organizing Work of a Grassroots Coalition 255

Chapter 28 Montpelier High School Racial Justice Alliance Statement to the School Board 261

Chapter 29 "It Will Stay Up until Institutional Racism Is Over": Raising the Black Lives Matter Flag at Montpelier High School; An Interview with Student Activist Noel Riby-Williams 263

Chapter 30 Black Lives Matter Student Creative Challenge 2020 Submissions 269

Epilogue

Inequity and COVID-19 Jesse Hagopian 274

Contributors 278

Notes 293

Index 304

Editorial Reviews

"The educators, students, and community activists whose stories are documented here are fighting for a transformative vision of what public schools can be, and the grassroots efforts we will need to get there. Black Lives Matter at Schoolis an essential resource for all those seeking to build an antiracist school system."
—Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

"Black Lives Matter at School is a remarkable contribution to understanding that education can be a powerful pathway to justice and liberation. Here is inspiration for anyone who cherishes young people both inside and outside of schools."—Barbara Smith, Cofounder the Combahee River Collective

"We need this book right now. The shadow-loving fungus of white supremacy won’t continue to send its spores to infect our children if we act now to bring the curative light of anti-racist knowledge, compassion, and justice into their lives. Built upon the Black Lives Matter at School organization’s Week of Action, this volume provides the adults in our educational institutions with inspiration, organizing principles, strategies, and examples to take 'bold action against anti-Blackness.' The authors – visionary educations of what is possible – call on all of us to radically reshape learning environments to make them safe, supportive, and transformative for all students (and teachers). Please read ASAP!" — Lisa Delpit, Executive Director of the Center for Urban Education and Innovation at Florida International University

"There is no easy way to talk about the complexities of race facing our school system in America—but we have to talk about it if we are ever going to achieve the schools our children deserve. The Black Lives Matter at School movement has been disrupting the complacency of those who, for too long, have been comfortable not having these conversations about the impact of racism in the schools. Black Lives Matter at School is a playbook for undoing institutional racism in the education system. — Michael Bennett, NFL defensive lineman, Superbowl champion, and author, Things That Make White People Uncomfortable

"This book asserts that we are at a critical moment in time, where the racial uprisings underpin the absolute need to transform education and it’s foundational practices. Black Lives Matter is a movement sweeping the globe and affirms that our babies lives matter. It’s time for educators to be bold, standing up for our students and communities. Our students are looking to us to lead the fight against injustice and dismantle systemic racism as we aspire to realize the schools our students deserve.” — Cecily Myart-Cruz, UTLA President, NEA Black Caucus Chair

"This book makes the strong case for why we need to elevate Black lives and people in our curriculum and pedagogy year-round. This book serves as a blueprint to achieve this honorable goal." — José Luis Vilson, author, This Is Not A Test, A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education

"Black Lives Matter at School centers the humanity of our children. It is a sharp rebuke of white supremacy—the very thing that interrupts the healthy development of Black youth. School communities must affirm Black lives. Educators have to dismantle systems of oppression—systems that we influence daily. We have to be radically different from the missionary educator depicted in popular culture. BLM at School is essential. Period."— Stacy Davis Gates, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union

"Toni Morrison reminds us: 'If you can’t imagine it, you can’t have it.' This book helps us to imagine Black Lives Mattering in schools. With accounts from teachers across the country doing the work, along with student interviews, poems, posters, and historical background, this is a primer for anti-racist educators to see the way forward in terms of reshaping school curriculum, diversifying teacher hiring, and transforming school discipline." — Jeanne Theoharis, author, A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History

“The new book, is part documentary, part guide to this movement for racial & educational justice on school campuses” — Seattle Times

“Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice... springs from a movement that started several years ago to resist racism and imbue anti-racism in school curriculums as well as educational practices and policies.” — Washington Post

From the Publisher

12/01/2020

In this volume, Jones (education, Sarah Lawrence Coll.) and Hagopian (coeditor, Teaching for Black Lives), both of whom are members of the Black Lives Matter at School steering committee, bring together other leaders and participants in the movement to tell its story. That story starts with its early history, built on the growing strength of the Movement for Black Lives, and the origins of its four stated goals: end zero tolerance discipline and implement restorative justice; hire more Black teachers; mandate Black history and ethnic studies in K—12 curriculum; and fund counselors, not cops. The story continues with the growth of the movement from local events in Seattle, Philadelphia, and Rochester to the nationally coordinated Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. Multiple chapters provide case studies and interviews with practitioners around the movement's work with teachers unions, and the organization and integration of the curriculum in various locations and contexts. The final section of the book highlights students involved with the movement. VERDICT Inspirational and aspirational: a road map for working toward antiracist school systems. Will appeal to a broad readership, particularly educators but also anyone looking for inspiration to effect positive change in their school communities.—Sara Holder, Univ. of Illinois Libs., Champaign

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