In the latest issue of Learning for Justice magazine, LFJ Director Jalaya Liles Dunn points out that “The battleground for racial justice remains in the South, and the victories for justice must be fought for and by ordinary people in the South together with allies from other parts of the nation.” The first feature story, “The Power of Place: Art as a Tool for Social Justice,” highlights how artists in Alabama are depicting honest history and reshaping public narratives of justice in their communities. These articles and the One World poster—including a quotation from Ida B.
This year, as we honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we want to reflect upon the reality of his mission and share with young people the complexity of both the man and the civil rights movement. In recent years, King’s legacy has been used in attacks on critical race theory and attempts to undermine social justice education. These LFJ resources—including words of wisdom from the late Rep. John Lewis—can aid in understanding the contemporary significance of the civil rights movement in countering policies that attempt to limit teaching honest history.
For Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoa), education is important so that we never forget the horrors that hate manifests. But for truly meaningful commitment to learning from and preventing such atrocities, we must come together in the urgency of now—in combating censorship about our country's history, in teaching about racism and the systems of anti-Black oppression, and in countering the patterns of hate in our nation and world today. The Holocaust is not just a singular event of the past; every generation must make the commitment to "never again," and that begins with education.