The war on public education is nothing new. It’s a modern tactic rooted in a long history of denying Black people access to knowledge.
During slavery, it was illegal in many Southern states to teach enslaved people to read. After emancipation, white mobs burned Black schools and attacked Black educators. During Jim Crow, unequal funding and forced segregation were used to keep Black communities locked out of opportunity.
Today, the tools have changed — book bans, anti-“critical race theory” laws, defunded schools — but the goal is the same: to control what Black children know and, therefore, who they can become.
You can’t change the future without understanding the past. Some people have made it clear: They don’t want to understand the past and don’t want the future to look any different from the past they built.
You can’t rewrite history and expect us to sit quietly
In “The Battle For Public Education,” the third episode of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Apathy is Not an Option podcast, Ibram X. Kendi reminds us that this isn’t just a new political trend. It’s a continuation of centuries-old suppression.
“During the enslavement era, abolitionist texts were banned. It was against the law for black people, particularly enslaved black people, to read.” he said. “Enslavers resisted publicly funding schools, which connects to those who are trying to defund schools.”
This isn’t about curriculum. It’s about keeping power through controlling the narrative.
No permission needed. We’re teaching anyway
Leah Barlow, assistant professor of liberal studies at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and the catalyst behind the viral HillmanTok channel, knows that waiting for institutions to “allow” truth doesn’t work.
That’s why she turned TikTok into a digital classroom, putting Black history, culture and resistance front and center. Her message?
“Now is the time for autonomy and agency,” Barlow said in the podcast. “Create your own learning environments. Don’t wait for permission.”
Grassroots power is the antidote to whitewashed fear
Liz Mikitarian, founder of Stop Moms for Liberty, connects activists in 45 states to push back against the loud, well-funded forces trying to intimidate educators and rewrite history.
“They want you to think supporting all kids means your kid loses,” she said. “That’s a lie. Equity helps everyone.”
The Department of Education was born from our struggle
Catherine Lhamon, former assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education, reminds us that the government agency was born from the Civil Rights Movement as a response to systemic racism in schools.
It protects students from discrimination, enforces equal access and fixes the inequities most states refuse to address.
When they talk about dismantling it, they’re coming for our legal right to learn.
No schools, no services, no future — that’s the plan
Yterenickia Bell, the Georgia state office director for the SPLC, tells the truth plainly: “When you extract education from a community, you take away jobs, housing and hope.”
When you attack schools, you destabilize entire communities. That’s the point.
Offended by the truth? Good. Because there is a war on the truth, and we’re coming for every lie they’ve ever told.
Listen now or stream it on your favorite podcast platform.
Cassandra Douglas is the digital director for the SPLC and executive producer of the SPLC’s “Apathy is Not an Option” podcast.
Image at top: Episode 3 of the SPLC’s Apathy is Not an Option podcast includes author Ibram X. Kendi. (Credit: Jodi Hunt / Getty )