Dear John,

Thirty years ago, when Teaching Tolerance was founded by the Southern Poverty Law Center, its goal was clear: eradicating hate by fighting intolerance in schools. Celebrating diversity and promoting contact theory were key to that early work. And, focusing on the difference one teacher could make, we offered resources for creating classrooms where all children could thrive.

Over the years, even we have admitted that “tolerance” is an imperfect term. We justified our name by applying the term broadly, saying no single word quite captured the range of solutions needed to create a fair, equal society. We’re proud of the work we’ve done. But our approach—and our work—have evolved. And our goals have shifted, as well.

We know that justice is the heart of what we want for our young people and for society at large. That’s why we’ve changed our name to Learning for Justice.

Since our work began, we’ve expanded our focus. Our Social Justice Standards bolstered our celebration of identity and diversity with attention to questions of justice and strategies for student action and collective action. We’ve broadened our community. Along with classroom teachers, we work with administrators, counselors, librarians, support staff, teacher educators and more. We’re planning to start working with caregivers and communities too.

We also know that the health of our society largely depends on the state of things in the South, and that’s why we’re planning to become more deliberate about our work in the South, along with the rest of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In this moment, with ongoing racial injustice and blatant white supremacy on display, we’re digging in our heels even more to work for justice and support our democracy.
  
I invite you to watch the video above or read our latest article to learn more about how we’re building on the work we do alongside educators to fight for justice in U.S. schools and why we are making the shift from “teaching” to “learning.”
 
We’re so grateful to all the members of our community who have supported us, encouraged us and pushed us to find a name that better reflects the work we do.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about the name we’ve chosen and about the incredible work we know we’ll do as we continue learning for justice together.

Jalaya Liles Dunn