Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching
Teaching the Civil Rights Movement Conference in DC
In 1995, Teaching for Change partnered with Poverty & Race Research Action Council and the Howard University History Department to host a full day conference on teaching about the Civil Rights Movement for 300 D.C. area teachers. The conference featured keynote speakers Bob Moses, Howard Zinn, Suzan Shown Harjo, Sonia Sanchez, and multiple workshops.
Civil Rights Movement Teaching Guide Published
Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching was published in 2004, in partnership with Poverty & Race Research Action Council and with a stellar list of advisors. The book was launched at in DC at the National Council of Negro Women with Dorothy Height, Jesse Jackson Jr., Eloise Greenfield, and other esteemed speakers.
Professional and Curriculum Development in Mississippi
The book led to an invitation by the superintendent of the McComb Public Schools (where SNCC got its start in Mississippi, also known as the church burning capital of the state during the Civil Rights Movement) to work with his staff beginning in 2006. This led to six years of work in McComb and now a statewide effort on teaching about the Civil Rights Movement and labor history.
Lessons and Other Resources
Teaching for Change maintains the CivilRightsTeaching.org website and develops lessons for the classroom, most recently on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and on Selma. TfC has also partnered with the SNCC Legacy Project to bring veterans on virtual visits to classrooms and other strategies to bring the history of SNCC to public awareness.
