What is BLM at School Week?

Black Lives Matter At School is a national coalition organizing for racial justice in education. We encourage all educators, students, parents, unions, and community organizations to join our annual week of action during the first week of February each year.

This year, as in years past, the Chicago Teachers Union passed a resolution to join national Black Lives Matter at School Week activities to kick off Black History Month! We are proud to join in BLM at School national activities, originating in Seattle in 2016, as educator participation has spread throughout the country.

This week of action highlights four basic demands for our schools:

End “Zero Tolerance” discipline and implement restorative justice.

Mandate Black History and Ethnic Studies.

Hire more Black teachers.

Fund counselors, not cops.

In 2019, thousands of educators around the U.S. wore Black Lives Matter shirts to school and taught lessons about structural racism, intersectional black identities, black history, and anti-racist movements for the nationally organized Black Lives Matter at School week of action. Educators in over 20 cities participated in this national uprising to affirm the lives of Black students, teachers, and families including, Seattle, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, New York City, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and beyond.