SNCC 60th

voting-rights suppression and voter nullification laws that are being promulgated across the land. And we who marched for equality and endured jail for Freedom rise now to fight against this new wave of teacher-intimidation and thought-suppression laws being enacted in

Republican-controlled states to distort and deny the violent realities of racism and white-supremacy in American life and history. We who resisted the laws of segregation by sitting at "White Only" lunch counters, and organized voter registration campaigns among those

historically denied the right to vote, stand now in support of those teachers and professors who today defy this new form of McCarthyism by pledging to continue writing, speaking, and teaching about systemic racism, structural inequality, and institutionalized white-supremacy

past and present. These teachers continue to teach the truth. We who were young just the day before yesterday recall our teachers being fired because they dared to support and join the NAACP in defiance of laws enacted by white-ruled governments in the South. And we came of age

in an era when college professors, community leaders, union organizers and famous entertainers were shamed and pilloried in the press, hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and dismissed from their positions because they criticized segregation, or

advocated racial equality, or spoke in favor of anti-lynching laws, or the United Nations or the New Deal, or signed a petition against atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons. From our lived experience we know how bigots, bullies, and demagogues use scare-words to stoke fear,

hatred, and division for their personal gain, and how politicians use bogeyman-terminology to confuse and distract their constituents, and smear organizations who call upon America to "Live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all

people are created equal." Yesterday, their targets were the NAACP, SNCC, SCLC, and CORE. Today they are taking aim at organizations such as the 1619 Project, the Zinn Education Project, Black Lives Matter at School, Learning for Justice, Teaching for Change, and also teachers