What can people of faith do to make public education stronger so all children can achieve their highest potential without the restraints of our nation’s chains of racism?

This is the basic question addressed in Faith & Racial Justice: The Intersection of Public Education and Racism, a guide for faith communities understanding and impacting racism in public education — and advancing racial justice. Click here for the guide.
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Faith and community leaders from across Iowa who are part of Faithful Voices for Racial Justice studied, researched, and created this resource to help faith communities dive deeper into the context and factors that connect racism and public education — looking through the lens of their faith or beliefs to understand the intersection of faith, public education, and racism.

To help launch the new guide, a few of our FVRJ leaders joined in a conversation to discuss their work and the importance of the guide. Take a look!

Through study, conversation, and personal reflection, we invite you into your own conversation — challenging your community to learn and formulate your own answer as to how these three are connected, how the intersection impacts children and communities of color, and how your community might take action.

The guide is divided into three sections:

• History and context of racism and public education
• Beliefs of faith traditions about racism, equity, and public education
• The role of faith communities in creating equity in public education

Each section provides information, resources, and study questions. We encourage you to use the guide within the context of your faith community to learn, have a better understanding of the connection of your own faith on the subject, and determine how your community might have an impact.

Faithful Voices for Racial Justice (FVRJ), a project of Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, engages faith leaders and communities in antiracism and racial justice work. Our nation has much work to do in understanding and dismantling racism. And the religious community has an important role to play in that work. Faithful Voices for Racial Justice was created to start conversations, promote learning, work together, and take action.