The teachers’ strike wave shows no signs of ebbing anytime soon. Chicago’s school workers struck in October, teachers in Sonoma walked out this Wednesday, and now 1,800 educators in Little Rock, Arkansas are striking today.

Though every walkout is unique, Little Rock’s action is particularly exceptional: it’s a strike for democracy and racial justice, in a town that stood at the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement’s fight for school desegregation and which today is confronting a billionaire-backed push to dismantle the teachers’ union and public schools.

Little Rock teachers today are not demanding raises for themselves, but an end to the state’s push to resegregate schools, its takeover of their district, its decertification of their union, and its disrespect for school support staff. As second grade teacher Jenni White explains, “this is literally about standing up for our kids and not dividing our community.”