Parents, young people, community organizers, and educators describe how they are fighting systemic racism in schools by building a new intersectional educational justice movement.
Illuminating the struggles and triumphs of the emerging educational justice movement, this anthology tells the stories of how black and brown parents, students, educators, and their allies are fighting back against systemic inequities and the mistreatment of children of color in low-income communities. It offers a social justice alternative to the corporate reform movement that seeks to privatize public education through expanding charter schools and voucher programs. To address the systemic racism in our education system and in the broader society, the contributors argue that what is needed is a movement led by those most affected by injustice--students of color and their parents--that builds alliances across sectors and with other social justice movements addressing immigration, LGBTQ rights, labor rights, and the school-to-prison pipeline.
Representing a diverse range of social justice organizations from across the US, including the Chicago Teachers Union and the Genders and Sexualities Alliance Network, the essayists recount their journeys to movement building and offer practical organizing strategies and community-based alternatives to traditional education reform and privatization schemes. Lift Us Up! will outrage, inform, and mobilize parents, educators, and concerned citizens about what is wrong in American schools today and how activists are fighting for and achieving change.

Preface
INTRODUCTION
Building an Educational Justice Movement
Mark R. Warren
PART ONE: Building the Power for Change: Parent, Youth and Community Organizing
CHAPTER ONE
“I Can’t Make a Teacher Love My Son”: A Black Parent’s Journey to Racial Justice Organizing
Zakiya Sankara-Jabar
CHAPTER TWO
#SouthLAParentLove: Redefining Parent Participation in South Los Angeles Schools
Maisie Chin
CHAPTER THREE
Speaking Up and Walking Out: Boston Students Fight for Educational Justice
Carlos Rojas and Glorya Wornum
CHAPTER FOUR
Fighting for Gender Justice: Girls of Color Assert Their Voice
Kate McDonough and Christina Powell
CHAPTER FIVE
The Freedom to Learn: Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline in the Southwest
Pam Martinez
PART TWO: Building Alliances for Systemic Change
CHAPTER SIX
#FightForDyett: Fighting Back Against School Closings and the Journey 4 Justice
Jitu Brown
CHAPTER SEVEN
There Is No National Without the Local: Grounding the School Discipline Movement in the Mississippi Delta
Joyce Parker
CHAPTER EIGHT
The School Is the Heart of the Community: Building Community Schools Across New York City
Natasha Capers
CHAPTER NINE
Fighting for Teachers, Children and Their Parents: Building a Social Justice Teachers Union
Brandon Johnson
CHAPTER TEN
#EndWarOnYouth: Building a Youth Movement for Black Lives and Educational Justice
Jonathan Stith
PART THREE: Educators for Justice: Movement Building in Schools, School Systems & Universities
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Teachers Unite!: Organizing School Communities for Transformative Justice
Sally Lee and Elana “E.M.” Eisen-Markowitz
CHAPTER TWELVE
Can Schools Nurture the Souls of Black and Brown Children?: Combatting the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Early Childhood Education
Roberta Udoh
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
System Change: Following an Inside-Outside Strategy as a School Board Member
Mónica García
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Walking into the Community: Community Partnerships as a Catalyst for Institutional Change in Higher Education
Maureen D. Gillette
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
#schoolismyhustle: Activist Scholars and a Youth Movement to Transform Education
Vajra Watson
PART FOUR: Intersectional Organizing: Linking Social Movements to Educational Justice
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Janitors Are Parents Too!: Promoting Parent Advocacy in the Labor Movement
Aida Cardenas and Janna Shadduck-Hernandez
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The Same Struggle: Immigrant Rights and Educational Justice
José Calderón
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Organizing Intersectionally: Trans and Queer Youth Fighting for Racial and Gender Justice
Geoffrey Winder
CONCLUSION
Conclusion: Educational Justice as Catalyst for a New Social Movement
Mark R. Warren
About the Contributors
Acknowledgments
Notes

Mark R. Warren is professor of public policy and public affairs at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and the founder and cochair of the Urban Research-Based Action Network. The author of three books, including most recently A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform, Warren studies and works with community and youth organizing groups seeking to promote equity and justice in education.
David Goodman is an award-winning independent journalist and the author of ten books, including four coauthored with his sister, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman.