John,

Black History Month is a chance, as a country, to recognize and celebrate the achievements of Black Americans, to examine and reckon with our past, and to reaffirm our commitment to teaching honest history for our future. Through the AFT’s Reading Opens the World program, we’ve distributed more than 1 million books to students—books with characters who look like them and stories they can relate to. We’ve also hosted screenings of documentaries like “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks” to help share these stories and encourage Americans to reflect on the struggles for dignity, equity and freedom.

These struggles continue: As we mourn the tragic and avoidable murders of Tyre Nichols and too many others lost to police violence, we recommit to reforming law enforcement and ensuring equal justice for all Americans. We show up to ensure every American has access to the ballot box. And we fight the efforts of extremists like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to ban books and rewrite history, gut social studies curriculums, prosecute educators for teaching the truth, threaten students’ freedom to learn, and take away our voice on the job by attacking our unions.

It is our duty to stand up to this extremism. And it is vital to our future that we understand our past. That’s why it’s so important that Congress passes the African American History Act, to invest in the educational resources to teach honest history in our schools. Click here to urge your lawmakers to pass it.

This is personal for me. I taught Advanced Placement government classes at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. I coached our debate team. I know the power of teaching kids the facts, presenting them with honest history and asking them to think critically about what our past means for our future. I’ve also seen the joy that learning brings to students firsthand—seeing my students linking their own lived experiences to the experiences of others, building empathy and knowledge to graduate into the world as informed and active citizens.

To gloss over Black history and deny our country’s unforgivable mistakes is wrong and repugnant. It does our students a grave disservice, perpetuating untruths and bigotry for generations to come. And banning books and preventing educators from teaching the truth deprives students of knowledge.

We will not be silenced. Click here to tell Congress: It’s time to teach the truth. Pass the African American History Act!

Thank you for all you do, and happy Black History Month.

In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President