Players Coalition Awards $100,000 To Zinn Education Project As Part of Their Continued Investment In Teaching For Black Lives Campaign
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Players Coalition, a nonprofit founded by former NFL players Anquan Boldin and Malcolm Jenkins, dedicated to making an impact on social justice and racial equality, awarded $100,000 to the Zinn Education Project, which promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in classrooms across the country. Players Coalition extended a grant renewal to the Zinn Education Project’s Teaching for Black Lives campaign to increase the reach and awareness of their programming and resources for teachers committed to teaching truth in schools.
At the core of the Teaching for Black Lives campaign, are teacher-led study groups discussing how to teach about racism, resistance, and joy. This is the Zinn Education Project’s fourth year of sponsoring Teaching for Black Lives study groups across the United States. Study groups receive a copy of Teaching for Black Lives and a Rethinking Schools subscription for each participant, a year-long menu of workshops and seminars to choose from, and access to a network of social justice teachers across the United States.
Currently, there are 100 active groups throughout 35 states in the United States, including Arkansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Each group offers a unique learning community that not only deepens knowledge and strengthens practice, but also serves to retain teachers in this challenging time.
Players Coalition recognizes the intersectionality of social issues across our four key pillars and aims to support proactive, preventative models that center youth in the solutions to achieve equitable education and advancement opportunities in underinvested regions across the country. “Defending the freedom to learn is essential so our youth can learn from history and shape a more just future,” said Doug Baldwin, Former Seattle Seahawks and Players Coalition Task Force Member. “Players Coalition is honored to extend our partnership with the Zinn Education Project into 2024 with support of their ongoing Teaching for Black Lives campaign. They will also lead Teach Truth and Freedom to Learn Days of Action in more than 50 cities with voter registration at each site to raise awareness and mobilize local communities around these critical issues. Together, we can all help create a better future for all students.”
The $100,000 donation is part of the larger Players Coalition grant program that awards funding to organizations driving progress and equity across education and economic opportunity for youth.
Jesse Hagopian of the Zinn Education Project, said, “We are grateful to the Players Coalition for their very generous support of the Teaching for Black Lives campaign. One teacher study group member told us, ‘Joining a Teaching for Black Lives study group helped me realize that equity is the lens through which all other education work happens. It’s NOT ‘one more thing’ on my plate. It is the plate!’ This Players Coalition donation makes it possible for hundreds more teachers to receive this kind of support, even in states which are trying to roll back the clock to the Jim Crow era of education.”
About Players Coalition
Players Coalition is structured as an independent 501(c)(3) (charity) and 501(c)(4) (advocacy) organization, working with professional athletes, coaches and owners across leagues to improve social justice and racial equality in our country.
About Teaching for Black Lives
Based on the Rethinking Schools book, Teaching for Black Lives, the Teaching for Black Lives campaign provides teachers support, resources, and encouragement to teach young people honestly about systemic racism and how to organize for justice. Through multiple opportunities — classes, study groups, workshops — educators are invited into a national network of teachers, school librarians, counselors, administrators, and school staff who are defying efforts to ban what students can learn in school by vowing to teach for Black lives.
About Zinn Education Project
The Zinn Education Project, coordinated by the non-profit organizations Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change, promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in classrooms across the country. For 15 years, the Zinn Education Project has introduced students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. With more than 155,000 people registered, and growing by more than 10,000 new registrants every year, the Zinn Education Project has become a leading resource for teachers and teacher educators.
