Art and truth are closely linked for many, so it seems appropriate that as the second day of the Iowa Arts Festival unfolds downtown, there will be an event elsewhere in Iowa City centered on the importance of students receiving an “honest, inclusive education” about American history and society — especially the parts some might find uncomfortable.
The Teach Truth Rally – Day of Action is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday in College Green Park. There will be more than 90 such rallies around the country on Saturday, but the College Green gathering will be the only one in Iowa.
The four-hour event “will feature an incredible line-up of speakers, musicians, and community members,” organizers said in a news release. “There will be opportunities to take action, play games, and build community.”
Last year’s Teach Truth Rally in Iowa City attracted more than 100 participants.
The rallies are an annual program of the Zinn Education Project. The Washington D.C.-based nonprofit was founded in 2008 by activist and historian Howard Zinn and William Holzman, a student of Zinn’s at Boston University in the 1970s, along with the Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change.
Zinn, who died in 2010 at age 87, was the author of numerous works that use history to illuminate current events. He’s best known for his 1980 book A People’s History of the United States. Written for a general audience, it incorporates the voices and experiences of people who had prior to it usually had been left out of the general histories of the U.S., including workers, Indigenous people, Black and Latino Americans, women’s rights activists and others whose perspectives were typically reserved for specialized academic monographs.
Zinn’s book was a bestseller and became a standard part of curricula in schools around the country for teachers who realized their normal lesson plans created a too narrow a perspective on American history. It also inspired a whole genre of popular “a people’s history” books on wide-ranging topics. The Zinn Education Project promotes Zinn’s approach to creating a broader, more inclusive understanding of history, and provides middle and high school teachers with resources that can be incorporated into their lessons.
The project launched its annual Teach Truth rallies in 2020, as efforts to ban discussions of topics related to race and class in schools increased around the country. Iowa Republican lawmakers, following the example of their fellow Republicans in states like Florida, passed a law restricting discussion of “divisive concepts,” as well as taking action to end commitments to diversity and to ban books conservative parents are likely to find objectionable for all students in K-12 schools.
“Since January 2021, Iowa has joined more than 44 other states trying to censor education, ban diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, defund public schools, stifle academic freedom, and silence student voices,” organizers of the rally in College Green said. “Books centering race, sexuality, gender identity, and social justice are being banned in record numbers by the same forces passing laws to censor education and funneling public funds to private schools. These laws and policies endanger the well-being of students, staff, and communities and threaten democracy.”
In addition to featured speakers and live music, organizers say the rally will provide “many opportunities to network and strategize, have fun and play games.”
“Bring some books to exchange, food or drinks to share, questions, ideas, friends and family, or just bring yourself.”
