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This week, a photograph of a math assignment asking fifth graders to set prices for enslaved people went viral. Assignments like this are clearly harmful. But students can learn about slavery in ways that recover the lives and histories of enslaved people or dehumanize them; celebrate their resistance or erase their agency; recognize how slavery shaped our nation or ignore it completely. Educators can teach this hard history—and teach it well—in any discipline, to students of almost any age. Here are a few examples of how.

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.