OPINION | Amid Renewed Attacks on Black Education, Black Lives Matter at School Turns 10 in Seattle

"People of color still face racial discrimination in areas like equal employment opportunities, housing, health care, and even education," Camden, a seventh grader in Seattle Public Schools, bellowed into the microphone. "This is called systemic racism, and in the current state of this country, it looks like it may worsen access for me and my family."

Those words opened the Jan. 27 Black Lives Matter at School press conference hosted by the City of Seattle at City Hall.The event marked the 10th anniversary of Black Lives Matter at School in Seattle and the city's new proclamation of Feb. 2, 2026, officially becoming Black Lives Matter at School Day.

The problems that Camden named are only intensifying around the country and here in Seattle.

Nearly half of U.S. students now attend schools where teachers are barred from honestly teaching Black history and the role of slavery and systemic racism in the nation's founding. Black studies courses have been banned in multiple states, and federal civil rights enforcement for Black students has been rolled back — together forming a coordinated assault on Black education.

Seattle has not been spared. District data from the 2021–2022 school year shows Black students were disciplined at roughly four times the rate of the overall student population. Immigrant families — particularly Somali families — live with the fear that ICE could target children at school. And despite Seattle being the first major U.S. city to voluntarily desegregate schools in 1978, The Seattle Times reports that Seattle Public Schools are now more segregated than at any point since the 1980s. Majority-white schools have nearly doubled since the 1990s, driven by attendance boundaries that still mirror 1930s redlining maps.

This is not a natural phenomenon. Seattle schools did not simply drift back into segregation. Integration was actively dismantled by policy and by the courts.

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the district in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, striking down Seattle's voluntary desegregation plan. Seattle's voluntary integration plan did not assign students to schools based on race. Instead, it used race as a tie-breaker — one factor among several — only when schools were becoming racially isolated. The court ruled that these modest efforts to address racial segregation by considering race were unconstitutional. The message was unmistakable: You may acknowledge segregation, but you are not allowed to fix it.

It was within this political and historical context that Black Lives Matter at School emerged in Seattle.

It began in September 2016 at John Muir Elementary in Rainier Valley, where educators and families chose to affirm Black students' lives. DeShawn Jackson, a student support worker, helped organize a welcoming event where the community would high-five students as they entered school; the school planned a celebration of Black history, and staff wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts designed by art teacher Julie Trout. Horrifically, the school received a bomb threat and had to be searched by bomb-sniffing dogs. Defying the violent threat, many community members gathered at the school anyway to uplift their Black students' lives. 

That courage sparked a citywide response. Educators in the Social Equity Educators (SEE) group worked with John Muir staff to win union approval for a districtwide Black Lives Matter at School Day on Oct. 19, 2016. In just weeks, thousands of shirts were distributed, and nearly 3,000 educators across Seattle wore them to school, teaching lessons on the Black freedom struggle alongside parents, the NAACP, and community allies.

That act of solidarity did not stay in Seattle.

Educators in Philadelphia saw on the news what Seattle educators had organized and took it to the next level: They expanded the idea into a Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. The following year, educators and students across the country built on that momentum and organized the first national Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, now observed annually in schools nationwide. The national BLM at Schools organization developed these four demands which are being advanced in communities around the country this year from Feb. 2 through 6:

• End zero-tolerance discipline and replace it with restorative justice.

• Hire and retain more Black teachers.

• Mandate Black studies and ethnic studies

• Fund counselors, not cops, in our schools.

Throughout the week of action, thousands of teachers will teach tens of thousands of students about the Black freedom struggle and the 13 principles of the Black Lives Matter global network. BLM at School nationally will be holding online events throughout the week. In Seattle, organizers are holding an annual Young Gifted and Black student talent showcase at Franklin High School on Thursday, Feb. 5, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

What began as a stand taken by one elementary school in Rainier Valley became a national movement.

Over the past decade, local educators, students, parents, caregivers, community organizations, and activists have continued to build the Black Lives Matter at School movement, playing a vital role in challenging institutional racism in Seattle's schools. As Mayor Katie Wilson put it in this excerpt from her first city proclamation:

"WHEREAS, 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of Black Lives Matter at School organizing in Seattle, representing a decade of sustained organizing to challenge racist discipline practices, curriculum censorship, and the exclusion of Black voices from educational decision-making…

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, Katie Wilson, Mayor of the City of Seattle, do hereby proclaim February 2, 2026, as Black Lives Matter at School Day in Seattle, and I encourage residents, educators, students, families, and community organizations to observe this day by affirming Black lives, defending the right to teach and learn about Black history, and recommitting to building schools — and a city — grounded in justice, care, and dignity for all."

This proclamation reflects years of organizing. Youth at Rainier Beach High School, organizers with Black Lives Matter at School, and the NAACP Youth Council won a Seattle School Board vote to remove police from schools and replace them with mental health supports, even as the fight for full funding continues. BLM at School organizers also helped secure a Black studies department in Seattle Public Schools, while the Seattle Student Union, with BLM at School solidarity, pushed the City Council to approve $20 million for school psychologists, though only half was ultimately allocated.

After 10 years, the lesson is clear: Courage and solidarity are contagious, collective action can confront systemic racism, and students deserve the truth of Black history — because that history shows us not only how oppression works, but how freedom is built.

Catalina from the NAACP Youth Council and BLM at Schools closed the recent City Hall press conference with these words: "To fix a problem, you must understand the history behind it. Many educators avoid teaching this history and instead focus on teaching what feels safe. Ethnic studies highlights the long struggle for justice in Black and Brown communities … Enough sugarcoating, we need change now."

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Jesse Hagopian is a Seattle-based educator, author of "Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education," and serves on the national steering committee of Black Lives Matter at School.