Category: News and Updates

Teachers can help the origins of jazz and hip-hop come alive for students with resources that highlight these influential music styles.

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Black History Month provides a wonderful opportunity to introduce or reinforce the fact that African and African American music has had a transformative influence on music in the United States. Born out of and continually formed in the midst of brutal cruelty and injustice, the music of African Americans brought styles and innovations that defined and redefined music in the United States and throughout the world.

This story is made up of many characters in thousands of places spanning several continents and hundreds of years. Two places in the United States, Congo Square in New Orleans and 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, tell this story in a particularly clear way. Teaching about these places provides students with a clear entry into this music history as well as anchor points that you can supplement with additional information.

>> Access resource

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

Here are titles on Black history for children, young adults, and educators. See more online.

See more recommended titles on these lists: Civil Rights Teaching, Reconstruction, Slavery, Resistance, and Reparations

Find lessons and additional resources for teaching about African American history at the Zinn Education Project (coordinated by Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools) and the website for Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching.

For information about D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action visit D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice.

Early Elementary | Upper Elementary | Middle – Fiction | Middle – Nonfiction | YA & Adult | Educators

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

Theme: Human Rights in Our World

Citizens for Global Solutions Minnesota invites students to creatively engage with human rights issues through video storytelling. Whether focusing on the right to education, rights of the child, women’s rights, freedom of expression, gender equality, environmental justice, or any other recognized human right—this is your opportunity to raise awareness and inspire change.

• Open to students, residents in the state of Minnesota, currently enrolled in a school (high school, college, or university).   
• Length: Videos must be between 10 to 15 minutes in length. 

Registration and Video Submission Period: From December 1, 2025 to June 1, 2026

>> Learn more and see all requirements and competition rules
For questions, please contact: cgsmn.contact@gmail.com

Co-Sponsored by 
Twin Cities Amnesty and HRE USA, Minnesota 

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

Visit this page to get up to date on the latest HRE USA news.

See past issues of the newsletter here.

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

For over a decade, the Speak Truth to Power video contest has empowered students to use filmmaking as a tool for social change. Screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, these films shine a light on pressing human rights issues, celebrate the defenders working to create change across the nation, and drive real action and advocacy. 

Students from all backgrounds can participate in the contest by submitting short three- to five-minute videos—whether they be documentaries, narrative films, or experimental—without needing expensive equipment or prior video editing skills.

Students interested in participating should submit their films for consideration by May 3, 2026. 

LEARN MORE AND SUBMIT TO THE CONTEST →
 

Students should follow the guidelines for their category, grades 6-12 or College Guidelines.

Submissions are judged by a panel of film industry experts, actors, and educators. 

Questions? Email Benjamin Higgins at higgins@kennedyhumanrights.org.

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.

Join Rethinking Schools, Penguin Random House, Defending the Early Years, and Black Lives Matter at School for a virtual launch and celebration of Main Street: A Community Story About Redlining by Britt Hawthorne and Tiffany Jewell. The webinar will feature a conversation with the authors, followed by a panel of early childhood and elementary educators discussing how to teach young learners about the history of redlining and the power of community organizing.

Date: Thursday, February 5th
Time: 4pm PT/ 6pm CT / 7pm ET

Register here (free ticket).

Participants will need access to Zoom. Register for the Zoom link.

ASL Interpretation will be available.

The event is free. To make events like this available to more educators and activists, we would greatly appreciate your solidarity donation.

Book Description

A girl learns how the history of redlining has affected her neighborhood in this intergenerational picture book about racism, community action, and resilience by two New York Times bestselling authors.

With vibrant illustrations by David Wilkerson and engaging text by Britt Hawthorne and Tiffany Jewell, Main Street celebrates what might happen when neighbors come together for a common goal and everybody pitches in.

HRE USA is a project of the Center for Transformative Action.