Truth + Democracy Teach-In: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Changed Everything

LIVE ON THE GROUND IN ALABAMA

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Join us on Zoom!

February 2026 is the 100th Black History Week/Month in America. In 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson founded this annual highlighting of the lives and work of Black Americans. The Institute for Common Power celebrates this 100-year anniversary on February 1, 2026, with a National Teach-In for Truth and Democracy, on zoom, focused on the revolutionary, nation-changing Montgomery Bus Boycott. We will teach live from the iconic locations in Montgomery where city buses were boarded by (a) Ms. Claudette Colvin in March 1955 -- after a month of Black History Month education in her school -- and Ms. Rosa Parks in December 1955, where (b) Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the speech that turned a one-day action into more than a year of democratic protest, where (c) Black citizens built a car-pool operation that outsmarted and outlasted white leadership attempts to crush the boycott, and we will conclude by diving into the collective-memory narratives offered by three public statues of Ms. Parks in Montgomery. This is an event that honors the boycott and the everyday Americans who made it happen, and carries forward its commitment to a more just and inclusive American democracy.

Teach-In Leaders:

Dr. Terry Anne Scott

Director, The Institute for Common Power

Dr. Terry Anne Scott is an award-winning historian, author, and speaker. She is the Director of the Institute for Common Power, an educational 501(c)3 branch of Common Power that catalyzes people to action through experiential learning opportunities such as workshops, lectures, courses, learning tours, national educational events. Dr. Scott is a former Professor of African American History and Chair of the Department of History at Hood College. She has also taught at the University of Washington and the University of Maryland. Dr. Scott is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Sports History and a member of the Editorial Staff for the Journal of American History. She is the author of several books, including Lynching and Leisure: Race and the Transformation of Mob Violence in Texas (winner of the 2022 Ottis Lock Endowment Best Book Award) and the forthcoming From Bed-Stuy to the Hall of Fame: The Unexpected Life of Lenny Wilkens. She is also the editor of Seattle Sports: Play, Identity, and Pursuit in the Emerald City. Dr. Scott appears in several critically-acclaimed documentaries, including “Lynching Postcards: Token of a Great Day,” which won a 2022 NAACP Image Award and was short-listed for an Academy Award. She is also featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary “Sound of the Police.”

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Dr. David Domke

David Domke worked as a journalist for several newspapers in the 1980s and early 1990s before earning a PhD in 1996. He served as a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington until retirement in 2021. His research focused on communication, politics, and public opinion in the United States. In 2002 he received the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2006, he was named the Washington state Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. At Common Power he supports the staff through raising money, teaching about voting rights, and providing political analysis and strategy. He can eat more than two dozen chocolate chip cookies in one sitting.