“Women can do just as much as men can when it comes to leadership.” This is just one of the comments made by students in Jessica Dickens’ class in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Dickens, a teacher the Kosciusko School District and Mississippi Civil Rights movement and Labor History teacher fellow, recently introduced the lesson, Stepping into Selma: …
Amelia Boynton Robinson and the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL)
Mrs. Amelia Boynton Robinson passed away on August 26, 2015 at the age of 104. She is best known for her iconic photo after being beaten in Selma on Bloody Sunday. While the photo offers evidence of her bravery and sacrifice, people should also know that her activism on the Edmund Pettus Bridge was preceded by …
Changing the Narrative About Selma
Thanks to support from our donors and advisers, we’ve been able to provide vital background information and lessons for schools on the bottom up history of the voting rights struggle. Here is a brief overview. On this 50th anniversary year of the Voting Rights Act, the mainstream media features images of President Lyndon Johnson making …
Selma in Kosciusko
“Women can do just as much as men can when it comes to leadership.” This is just one of the comments made by students in Jessica Dickens’ class in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Dickens, a teacher the Kosciusko School District and Mississippi Civil Rights movement and Labor History teacher fellow, recently introduced the lesson, Stepping into Selma: …
Selma Film Sparks Youth Dialogue
On Saturday, January 24, eleven students from five public schools (in the Center for Inspired Teaching’s Real Word History program) and two private schools in Washington, D.C. gathered for an informal discussion about the film Selma in the atrium of the National Portrait Gallery. Three teachers were also present. The discussion started with the film Selma and moved effortlessly—without …
Stepping into Selma: Voting Rights History and Legacy Today
“The activity helped me understand the reason why certain people took certain sides and why they acted the way they acted.” —Elijah W., high school student This lesson invites students to step into the long history of the freedom struggle in Selma, introducing them to people, turning points, and issues. The lesson offers students the …
Selma in Pictures: Socratic Seminar
By Lynda Tredway In a media driven age, visual images often provide access to important events and political struggles that may be more immediately accessible to students than written texts. At the same time, these images can offer a venue for the development of critical literacy. Images are also useful for differentiating instruction and exposing …
Teaching About Selma
Bring Lessons of Selma to the Classroom
We need your help so that students can learn and apply the lessons from the bottom-up history of the Selma Voting Rights Movement to their lives and struggles for justice today. The release of the film Selma on this 50th anniversary year of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has helped …
The Selma Voting Rights Struggle: 15 Key Points from Bottom-Up History and Why It Matters Today
Also see a shorter version of this article Ten Things You Should Know About Selma Before You See the Film and a free downloadable lesson on Selma. Download full article as a .pdf By Emilye Crosby On this 50th anniversary year of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the Voting Rights Act it helped inspire, national attention is centered on …