Human Rights Education
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The Month of May: Celebrating the Brown v. Board of Education Ruling
Tags Share A landmark Supreme Court decision handed down May 17, 1954, forever shifted education – and life – for Black Americans. While the discussion around school segregation began well before Brown v. Board of Topeka, the most integral legal changes occurred in the 1950s. The NAACP in 1938 took on the case of Lloyd…
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A Mother’s Love: The Resilience of an Immigrant
Tags Share My mom immigrated to the United States in 1997. She worked a series of jobs between the time she arrived and the day she had me six years later. At work, colleagues and customers disrespected her because of her thick accent and initially low capability to speak English. Little did people know that…
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Education as a Pathway to Reconciliation of Historical Harm: The Case of Korean Comfort Women
Tags Share In our most recent Human Rights Defender speaker series event, Dr. Jongwoo Han, President of the Korean War Veterans Digital Memorial Foundation, shared the history of comfort women during World War II, emphasizing education as an important way to heal historical harm and end conflict-related sexual violence. Lead educator Mona Al-Hayani, a history…
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After its first trip focused on addressing climate change, how Emerging Leaders is preparing students to become human rights activists
Tags Share When 12 students from Bangor, Maine, arrived in Washington, D.C. for Speak Truth to Power’s Emerging Leaders trip on April 16, they arrived ready to engage. The Emerging Leaders Trip is an opportunity for students from our partner schools to connect with a human rights issue. This year’s was centered around environmental justice…
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RFK: Personal Anecdotes 55 Years on
Tags Share May 1968 was Robert F. Kennedy’s last full month of campaigning for president before he was killed in June. While he is remembered more broadly for his vision of a more just and peaceful world, it is, perhaps, the anecdotes that best illustrate his character and a place to draw inspiration. Kevin Khadavi…
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Human Rights Education inspiration Prejean talks social justice, activism, on her 84th Birthday
Tags Share On her 84th birthday, Sister Helen Prejean showed few, if any, signs of slowing down. Prejean – the subject of a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Speak Truth to Power lesson plan that has reached roughly 5 million students since 2000 – is the nun who wrote the best-selling book Dead Man Walking…
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Wartime sexual violence against women and children: A case study of comfort women during World War II
Share Join us for the next installment in our human rights education speaker series! This time, students will hear from President at Korean War Veterans Digital Memorial Foundation, Jongwoo Han, history teacher Mona Al-Hayani and student moderator Mya Glover, a senior at Toledo Early College High School, about comfort women in WWII and violence against…
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Student Voices Engaged for Equity
Tags Share While the longstanding impacts of racism permeate our society, discussions of race are largely absent from much of the public school curriculum and have become contentious in today’s educational environment. It’s left many educators searching for strategies to start constructive and open dialogue about race in the classroom. On March 10, we hosted…
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How The Piney Woods School Honors Local Human Rights Defenders
Tags Share “They damaged my leg. I said they damaged my leg. But I still walked in my purpose.” As she raised her voice to emphasize her point, Takira Adams, a freshman at The Piney Woods School, fully and powerfully embodied the spirit of human rights defender Fannie Lou Hamer, a leader in the Civil…
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Learning about human rights and effecting change through theater
Tags Share Their stories were familiar. Their anger and frustration were palpable. “She never made contact again.” “There were men outside our house with guns, and I did not know whether they were to protect us or hurt us.” “That is where the earth ate her.” In a hotel meeting room in Toreón, Mexico, 20…
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Fannie Lou Hamer: An Activist for Civil Rights and Women’s Rights
Tags Share Fannie Lou Hamer, born in 1917, was the 20th child of two Mississippi sharecroppers. Hamer was just 6 when she began working in the plantation fields with her family; she dropped out of school at 12 to work full-time. After marrying Perry “Pap” Hammer in the early 1940s, she went for what she…
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Human Rights Education Summer Institute: Austin
Share Hosted by Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders Meeting location: Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders Our human rights education (HRE) summer institutes provide educators, students and interested community stakeholders an opportunity to learn more about HRE, our whole school work, and engagement opportunities. Register below for this in-person event, taking place…
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