A rally is planned on Sunday, Aug. 29, outside the Yesler Community Center at 1 p.m. The focus of the rally will to be to promote and defend teaching students about structural racism and housing justice.
“As lawmakers in states around the country continue their relentless campaign to silence educators who wish to teach their students the true history of structural racism and oppression in this nation, we continue to fight back,” says the press release about the event.
The rally was inspired by the recent push in multiple states to ban or censure schools or teachers that teach the history of structural racism.
“I believe unconditionally in the power of youth to create a better world when they are taught the truth. Students are asking us educators why their schools and neighborhoods are so segregated, why there are so many cases of police brutality, why it is so hard to vote, why more people of color are dying from COVID, and many other questions about structural racism,” says Jesse Hagopian, an educator and the founder of Black Lives Matter at School.
“We have a duty to teach them the truth about these issues.”
Yesler Terrace was chosen as the location for the rally since it was the first racially integrated public housing project in the United States. Construction was completed in 1941.
The scheduled speakers will include Nikkita Oliver, Jesse Hagopian, Seattle School Board Director Brandon Hersey, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, Tye Reed, Marquita Prinzing, Mia Dabney, Rena Mateja Walker Burr and Alexis Mburu.
The rally is being sponsored by Social Equity Educators, WA Ethnic Studies Now, SEA Center for Racial Equity and Be:Seattle.
The rally will take place at Yesler Terrace Park, 903 Yesler Way.
More on social justice:
Change makers: How 5 young activists are working to build a better Seattle
