Based in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain States, Western States Center works nationwide to strengthen inclusive democracy so all people can live, love, worship and work free from fear. We strengthen the organizing capacity of often-marginalized communities, with a particular emphasis on gender justice, racial justice and tribal sovereignty work. We provide training, leadership development and organizational capacity support to social movements and leaders committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. We convene culture-makers to shift the narrative and use culture as a vehicle for base- and
The Sioux Nation protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline is taking on greater significance each day. Don’t miss the opportunity to teach about history in the making.
This excerpt focuses on the lives of African American students during Freedom Summer. After reading Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in class in 1963, students in main character C.J.'s school are asked to share their dreams at an assembly.
Ijeoma Njaka is a writer and education professional committed to social justice. As an undergraduate student, she spent summers teaching art, mathematics, and Swedish classes to bright, urban middle schoolers at LearningWorks at Blake: A Breakthrough Program in Minneapolis, Minn. She graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy and American Institutions. She created U.S. history curriculum with a people’s history approach at Teaching for Change in Washington, D.C. Most recently, she worked at a Boston nonprofit to mentor first-generation college-bound, low-income
Doreen Rappaport tells the story of a young Suzie King Taylor and her brother who attended a secret school for black children in Georgia in the mid-1800s. Later on, Taylor would become the first black woman to teach openly in a freedmen's school.