The Radical Truth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., born January 15, 1929, became the most well known leader of the modern civil rights movement. But the truth of King’s legacy is often whitewashed and sanitized. On his birthday, MLK Day and year round, use these resources to provide students with a more complete, radical context of King's fight for justice—and discuss how his work still creates ripples today.
![Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | Bettmann/Getty Images](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2018-04/MLK-Anniversary-3.jpg?itok=0IiekcNA)
Teaching About King’s Radical Approach to Social Justice
![girl raising hand with peers in class](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2017-07/Teaching%20Tolerance_Mix%20It%20Up_07.jpg?itok=3qb7gIww)
From MLK to #BlackLivesMatter: A Throughline for Young Students
![Martin Luther King Jr speaks](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2017-07/Teaching%20Tolerance_civil%20rights%20movement_003.jpg?itok=Bk4Iv8Qu)
What Does the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mean to You?
Protests at the 2020 Olympics
This week, the International Olympic Committee announced that political protests at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will be regulated. News coverage of the policy creates an opportunity to talk with students about voice, power and what it means to stand against injustice. These resources can help.
![Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists at a 1968 Olympic medal ceremony.](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2020-01/olympic-protest.jpg?itok=yI3ng80Q)
Teach This: Regulating Protest at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
![Take A Knee | Teaching Tolerance](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2017-09/Teaching-Tolerance-Discussing-TakeAKnee-AP_17267628129694-1800x1080.jpeg?itok=MwVec87_)
Discussing #TakeAKnee in Class
![Flag of the United States of America](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2018-08/Teaching-Tolerance-immigration-023.jpg?itok=2TI0g4uo)
Athletes, Protest and Patriotism
Disrupting Islamophobia Amid U.S.-Iran Tension
As news breaks about increased tensions between the U.S. and Iran, your students may encounter Islamophobic comments or sentiments. These resources can help ensure that you’re ready to interrupt and address Islamophobia if it appears in your classroom or school—and that you’re ready to help students do the same.
![Expelling Islamophobia illustration Gracia Lam](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2017-07/TeachingTolerance_TT55_Islamophpobia_GLam_1800px.jpg?itok=_om6MP8D)
Expelling Islamophobia
Confronting Students’ Islamophobia
Countering Islamophobia
Winter Break
This winter break, we hope you’ll take the time you need to relax and reflect on the year so far. We’re grateful for everything you do for students, and we hope these articles offer useful ideas for recharging and for recommitting yourself to the work that lies ahead in the new year.
![teachers holding the hearts of other teachers](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2017-12/TeachingTolerance_TT55-Open-Letter-to-Teachers-Everywhere_KNegley_1800px.png?itok=uXyuJPGg)
An Open Letter to Teachers Everywhere
![Hands hold a plush heart.](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2019-12/Teaching_Tolerance_family_032.jpg?itok=MnisQMUQ)
Self-care for Your Break
![woman looking at sunset](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2017-07/Teaching_Tolerance_religion_003.jpg?itok=0CJvpspc)
A Justice Educator’s New Year
Appropriate Ways to Teach Kids About Slavery
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.
![1858 engraving of enslaved people working in the sugar cane fields of the British West Indes, Lordprice Collection/Alamy Stock Photo.](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2019-12/TT-How-Did-Sugar-Feed-Slavery-1800x1080.png?itok=Mor7nEhH)
How Did Sugar Feed Slavery?
![Abolitionists William Still, Sojourner Truth, William Loyd Garrison, unidentified male and female slaves, and Black Union soldiers in front of American flag](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2018-01/Teaching-Hard-History-American-Slavery-Main-1800x688.png?itok=ZATcJm5Z)
Sample Lessons
![Chains superimposed over an image of the United States Constitution.](/sites/default/files/styles/article_thumbnail_s_m_l_xl/public/2019-08/THH-We-the-People-1800x1080.png?itok=zEJ4HZRB)