NEA's Conference on Racial & Social Justice

The Conference on Racial and Social Justice provides a unique space for educators, students, parents and families, organizers, community members and leaders to unite for the advancement of Justice in Education.

2025 Conference on Racial and Social Justice Details

Join us in Portland, Oregon at the Oregon Convention Center on June 29 – July 1, 2025, to Promote. Protect. Strengthen. Public Education: A Joyous Rebellion!

Together with educators, creatives, activists, organizers and other leaders we will advance racial and social justice for Our Schools, through the power of Our Stories and organize for Our Future.

The Conference on Racial and Social Justice is presented by NEA’s Center for Racial and Social Justice. The purpose of the conference is to provide a unique space for educators, students, parents and families, organizers, community members and leaders to unite for the advancement of Justice in Education.

*For more detailed information on the Registration Types click this link or click the CRSJ RESOURCES AND POLICIES tab, scroll down, and click the document titled 2025 CRSJ REGISTRATION TIER TYPES.*

CRSJ Goals

BUILD LOCAL POWER: Spark dialogue about our successes and challenges to inform our own strategies and tactics to grow the movement for education justice.

BE FORWARD THINKING: Make space for new ideas and map the road to the long term change we seek for our students, schools, and our communities.

CENTER INTERSECTIONALITY: Uplift the intersections of social justice, identity, and democracy in the movement for education justice.

BUILD COMMUNITY: Be an engaging, fun, and inviting space for new and long standing attendees to come together in community.

2025 CRSJ Film Festival Pre-Session, Film Screenings, and Engagement

Putting Films to Work: How to Move People to Action Using Film

Sunday June 29, 1:00-1:35 pm, 30 minute Pre-Session

Mara Henderson, Impact Coordinator for Working Films

Have you ever watched a documentary (or any film) that made you feel moved to learn more or take action on a specific issue? Working Films believes that films have the power to educate, shift harmful narratives, connect people across communities, and ultimately move people to action.

Film screenings are a highly accessible first step in community education and civic engagement. For example, there are many people who won’t come to a city council meeting as their first means of action, but they WILL come to a film screening, especially if there’s popcorn or food!

In this interactive pre-session, Working Films will share their experiences from over 20 years of using films for change, lift up others’ experiences with using film or art in their work, and share key elements of how to organize strategic, intentional, goals-based film screenings that move people to action.

Film Screenings and Engagements

Sunday June 29, 1:45-4:00 pm

The Films:

Honesty in Education: Banned Together
LGBTQ+ Rights: Disclosure
Housing Crisis: Divisible
Immigration: Immigration Nation, episode 3
Voting Rights: Let the People Decide

Banned Together

A diverse cast of visionary teenagers, stirring public protests, private threats, criminal charges, and drama-filled school board meetings: this is the explosive world of Banned Together. The film pulls back the curtain on two of the most controversial issues in America today: book bans and curriculum censorship in public schools. Banned Together follows three students and their adult allies as they fight to reinstate 97 books suddenly pulled from their school libraries. As they evolve from local to national activists – meeting with bestselling/banned authors, politicians, Constitutional experts, and more – the film reveals the dark forces behind the accelerating wave of book bans in the U.S.

Disclosure

DISCLOSURE is an unprecedented, eye-opening look at transgender depictions in film and television, revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. Leading trans thinkers and creatives, including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, and Chaz Bono, share their reactions and resistance to some of Hollywood’s most beloved moments. Grappling with films like A Florida Enchantment (1914), Dog Day Afternoon, The Crying Game, and Boys Don’t Cry, and with shows like The Jeffersons, The L-Word, and Pose, they trace a history that is at once dehumanizing, yet also evolving, complex, and sometimes humorous. What emerges is a fascinating story of dynamic interplay between trans representation on screen, society’s beliefs, and the reality of trans lives. Reframing familiar scenes and iconic characters in a new light, director Sam Feder invites viewers to confront unexamined assumptions, and shows how what once captured the American imagination now elicit new feelings. DISCLOSURE provokes a startling revolution in how we see and understand trans people.

Divisible

This award-winning film provides a detailed look into redlining: what happened, where it came from, who was involved, how it supposedly “ended”, and why the 1968 Fair Housing Act did not actually get rid of redlining or its impact. Told through a combination of expert and personal interviews, Divisible explores how redlining impacted and continues to affect the following topics: white privilege, housing, health, education, economics, the highway system, and the criminal justice system. The nature of Divisible is about educating and making a positive impact in our target communities. That is a human endeavor, rarely accomplished and fully actualized by one person. Therefore, Divisible has always been a collective effort, because it’s not a story that can be told if those who are the focus of it are not in the room as well.

Immigration Nation, Episodes 3 and 5

With unprecedented access to ICE operations, as well as moving portraits of immigrants, this docuseries takes a deep look at US immigration today. Episode 3: “Power of the Vote” US Military veteran César tries to get politicians to ease his undocumented status. He is one of many seeking veterans who despite serving their country, was deported. Episode 5: “The Right Way” Asylum seeker Berta has been held by ICE for 17 months in an attempt to discourage others. As asylum laws get stricter, exiles face greater hardships.

Let the People Decide

'Let the People Decide' traces the history of voting rights struggles in the United States from 1960 through the present day. The film draws parallels between the Mississippi voter registration drive of the early 1960's and North Carolina's 'Moral Monday' movement in the present day. A key goal of the film is connecting the dots between the generations to contextualize the current political environment surrounding race and voting. In 3 acts the film will travel across nearly 60 years to show how the current battles over voting are not a new front in the struggle over who gets to vote, but part of a continuing conflict that goes back many decades. Now as then, both sides claim the moral high ground. In the 1960's, race was the clear driving force of the conflict, today the fight is couched in claims of fraud and suppression. Political parties have drawn lines in the sand and this project will present arguments from all sides in order that the film can live up to it's name and 'Let the People Decide'.

*For more detailed information on the Registration Types click this link or click the CRSJ RESOURCES AND POLICIES tab, scroll down, and click the document titled 2025 CRSJ REGISTRATION TIER TYPES.*

Through my union, I have been able to do a lot more things, build my network and access more resources. Last summer I was at the Racial and Social Justice Conference. I got to meet the most amazing teachers who are like-minded. It was like I was at the Oscars!

Quote by: Gloria Pereyra-Robertson, Kindergarten teacher, Oregon Education Association

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