Civil Rights Teaching

Local History Awards at Mississippi History Day 2016

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On March 5, 2016, the annual Local Mississippi History Awards were given at the Mississippi History Day competition at the University of Southern Mississippi.

The goal of the award is to deepen student appreciation of and exploration of the untold stories and role of “everyday people” in local Mississippi history, using the National History Day competition as an incentive and a focus for student projects. (See 2013, 2014, and 2015 awardees.)

Thanks to a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to Teaching for Change, four Local History Awards were given for $100 for each student or student team.

2016 Award Winners

Clash of Cultures in Attala County (Senior Group Website)

Students in Kosciusko conducted interviews with participants in the 1960s freedom movement to learn about the organizing–and the resistance–in their county. One of the people they interviewed was MacArthur Cotton who shared the history of racism in Attala County prior to 1960. Cotton’s grandfather was murdered for teaching young African Americans to read. His father was taken off the voter registration rolls. Cotton went on to become a SNCC organizer and then to work with the Algebra Project.

(L to R) Hipkins, Alexis Caldwell, Maddy Gilmore, Audrey Claire Henderson, Trey Johnson, Feria Mays (Kosciusko High School) Photo credit: Samantha Taylor

Blues in Mississippi (Junior Group Website)

The trials and tribulations encountered by the innovative artists from the Mississippi Delta led to the exploration of a new musical genre that ultimately received worldwide attention in exchange for the musicians’ perseverance.

(L to R): Hipkins, Alyssa Brohawn, Victoria Van, and Evalyn Ramirez. (Not pictured Elizabeth Fulgham and Olivia Dickey) (Tupelo Middle School)

Heber Ladner: Exploring Mississippi Civil Rights and Exchanging Personal Beliefs For Progress (Senior Paper)

Heber Ladner, who in 32 years as Mississippi’s Secretary of State was a central figure in suits by Blacks to revise election and school laws. As the elected Secretary of State from 1948 until 1980, he was a defendant in suits brought by Blacks in the 1960s to achieve school desegregation and proportional representation on county election commissions. In 1968, he administered the oath to Robert G. Clark (pictured below), the first African American in the 20th century to be elected as a state representative to the Mississippi House.

Rachel Bobo (Mississippi School of Math and Science) Photo credit: Samantha Taylor

Croatian Immigrant Explorers of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the Hardships They Encountered (Senior Group Exhibit)

During the early 20th century, Croatian immigrants supplied much of the workforce for the Mississippi coast’s seafood industry which was the region’s economic engine.

Hipkins and Grace Cueva (Nya Laurie not pictured) (Pass Christian High School) Photo credit: Samantha Taylor

Judges, Coordinators, and Teachers

Local history award judges (L to R) Julian Hipkins III, Marsha McNeil, Glendolyn Crowell, and Raymond Brookter. (McNail, Crowell, and Brookter are Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Labor History teacher fellows.)
Local history award judges (L to R) Julian Hipkins III, Marsha McNeil, Glendolyn Crowell, and Raymond Brookter. (McNail, Crowell, and Brookter are Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Labor History teacher fellows.)

 

Mr. Alan Wheat, MHD co-coordinator.
Alan Wheat, MHD co-coordinator and Julian Hipkins III.

2016 Events, Student Competitions, and Professional Development

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Here is a selection of educational institutes, workshops and competitions we recommend for teachers and students in 2016. Send us an email if you have more to add to the list.

Teachers

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“Most Southern Place” Teacher Institute

Educators are invited to apply for a week long residential workshop to learn about the rich history of the Mississippi Delta. Mississippi Teacher for Change Lynne Schneider noted that the workshop was one of the best professional development experiences that she has ever had. Deadline is March 2, 2016.

NEH Summer Programs in the Humanities for School and College Educators

Each year, NEH offers tuition-free opportunities for school, college, and university educators to study a variety of humanities topics. Stipends of $1,200-$3,900 help cover expenses for these one- to five-week programs. Topics include, Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad, the Chinese Exclusion Act, Rethinking the Gilded Age, and much more. See the full list here.

From Plessy to Brown: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Twentieth Century

“From Plessy to Brown” brings scholars together to craft digital tools to expand students’ knowledge of African American history by exploring topics like the early social activism of Black institutions, African American migration to cities, and the influence and impact of African American writers and arts on civil rights organizing. Deadline is March 1, 2016. Apply here.

Teaching Mississippi’s Complex History

MDAH will host a week-long teacher workshop on teaching Mississippi’s complex history through primary source documents and artifacts from June 20 – June 24, 2016. The sessions will be led by Chauncey Spears from the Mississippi Department of Education and Jennifer Stollman from the Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation. Deadline April 15. More here.

2nd Annual MDAH Spring Workshop: Innovators and Inventors

The second Spring Teachers Workshop at Delta State University, Cleveland will focus on the theme Innovators and Inventors. The workshop will take place on March 5. Click here for the registration and schedule.

The Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institutes

Immerse yourself in the practice of teaching with primary sources from the collections of Library of Congress this summer. Apply to attend a week-long professional development program for K-12 educators in the nation’s capital. Application deadline: February 29. More here.

World War II and the Home Front

Educators from across the country will travel to the Bay Area to explore the workshop themes through scholar lectures, visits to landmarks of national significance, and intellectual discussions that inspire curriculum development. The workshops will be offered June 27-July 1 and July 11-15, 2016. More here.

Youth

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Summer Youth Institute

The Summer Youth Institute sponsored by the William Winter Institute helps rising high school sophomores and juniors learn about civil rights, advocacy, critical thinking and relationship building from an international staff. Deadline is March 6, 2016. Apply here.

Speak Truth To Power

Sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, Tribeca Film Institute, and the RFK Human Rights and based on Kerry Kennedy’s book Speak Truth To Power, the middle and high school competition encourages students to become engaged in human rights through video production. The entry deadline is March 6. More here.

Evers Scholar Program

The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Research Scholars Program encourages work in the history of civil and human rights at the state archives in Jackson. The Evers Scholars recipient must be an upper level student enrolled in a graduate program at an accredited college or university, or a faculty member early in their academic career. Applications must be received by March 11. More here.

Facing History Together Student Essay Contest

One U.S. high school senior will be awarded a $2,500 Upstander Scholarship, with their educator receiving a $250 Classroom Award. Five Upstander Awards of $500 will be given to U.S. 7th-12th grade students, with their educators receiving Classroom Awards valued at $250. Submissions due by March 16. More here.

Videographer Wanted

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CWHGQNBWsAAcjKtTeaching for Change is looking for a Mississippi-based videographer to create a three to four minute promotional film on teaching about the Civil Rights Movement.

The film would be used by Mississippi teacher fellows to demonstrate how students respond positively to lessons about the unsung heroes in their state. The Mississippi teacher fellows requested this film for use in presentations to school district leaders, administrators, and elected officials.

The goal is to produce the short film in the spring of 2016. The primary content of the film will be of students engaged in interactive lessons on the Civil Rights Movement in a Mississippi classroom. (There are a few school districts to choose from. Proximity to the filmmaker can be a factor in the selection.)

Candidates must have at least three years experience in film editing and production. Interested persons can send a letter of interest, resume, links to sample work, and fee schedule to fellowship coordinator Julian Hipkins III.

Southern Freedom Movement Workshop at NCSS Conference

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Anthony Golding and Julian Hipkins III.

At the 2015 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference in New Orleans, Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Labor History Teacher fellow Anthony Golding and fellowship director Julian Hipkins III presented a workshop on the freedom movement in Mississippi.

Hipkins began the session session by engaging participants in a critique of the traditional textbook narrative on the Civil Rights Movement. For example, textbooks mark the launch of the Civil Rights Movement in 1954 with the Brown v. Board ruling, but the struggle began long before that moment. One participant said “No, it started back in Jamestown in 1619.” The participants then worked in pairs to correct other textbook disinformation about the role of the federal government, youth, women, leadership, goals, and the north, in the Civil Rights Movement. (Here is the activity handout from Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching.)

IMG_7028The rest of the workshop was devoted to a lesson that can be used to teach the historically accurate narrative of the Civil Rights Movement. Golding introduced the southern freedom movement lesson. He said,

I’m a middle school teacher. If you’ve taught middle school you know engagement is key. So, this lesson requires that everyone get up and move around.

Each participant was given the name and bio of someone who had played a role in the Mississippi southern freedom movement. The bios included civil rights activists such as Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Medgar Evers to opponents such as representatives of the Sovereignty Commission and the White Citizens Council.

The history was brought to life as participants donned name tags with images of their historical figure and met others involved in the freedom struggle and it quickly became clear that this lesson helps fill the gaps in the traditional textbook narrative of the movement by introducing individuals that aren’t usually mentioned in mainstream history textbooks.

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In their closing evaluations, participants noted that they looked forward to using the lesson themselves since “Interactive lessons tend to be more meaningful than merely a teacher lecturing on subject matter” and “role playing opens the door to help students learn about the unknown people that assisted the movement.”

Not only did NCSS workshop participants walk away with a new lesson they could use, but this was also the first time that Mississippi middle school teacher Golding had presented a professional development workshop. One of our goals for the Mississippi fellowship program is to support the teachers in their effort to introduce the grassroots history of the Civil Rights Movement to their peers. Even though this was Golding’s first time presenting at a conference, his careful preparation of the session with Hipkins and his experience having taught the lesson himself to middle school students made his facilitation a big success.

Jacqueline Dace Visits Ashland High School

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Juniors and seniors at Ashland High School in Ashland, MS had an opportunity to learn about the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum (due to be completed in 2017) from the project manager, Jacqueline Dace on November 4, 2015. The students saw designs of the museum’s interior and exterior plans. Dace also shared a timeline of Mississippi’s Civil Rights Movement history from the 1800s to the present.

This visit was coordinated by Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Teaching Fellows Dr. Renee Hooper and Ayesha Brooks. They met Dace at the fall convening in Jackson where they immediately invited her to talk with students in Ashland.

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Teacher Fellows Plan for Future

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The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Labor History Teacher Fellows came from across the state for our mid-fall convening in Jackson from October 18-20, 2015. In just two short days, the fellows explored new lessons for the classroom, learned about opportunities for students to showcase their work, heard from inspiring guest speakers, wrote stories from their own classrooms, and planned the future of the fellowship. Throughout, they deepened their teacher community, truly sharing and building a sustaining fellowship. These sentiments were shared in the closing reflection:

Thank you again for allowing me to be a part of this fellowship. I have always felt as though I wanted to be an agent for change but was lost on how to do it, especially in a place like Mississippi. This organization and fellowship has helped me find a place where I can feel as though I have a greater purpose. It has literally brought me “fellowship.” I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.

I am so proud to be a part of this! It is making me a better and a happier teacher.

Here are some of the highlights from the two days, participants:

  • Wrote about their classrooms. A story from Rethinking Schools served as the prompt for writing about their own teaching and they had dedicated quiet time to write, get peer feedback, and revise. The stories will be shared in upcoming Mississippi e-newsletters.
  • Met with Jacqueline Dace, project manager of the upcoming Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson and Chauncey Spears from the Mississippi Department of Education.
  • Heard an informative and moving presentation by award-winning investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell of The Clarion Ledger. Mitchell’s work has helped put numerous criminals behind bars including Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers. When speaking about the racism that led to the murder of Civil Rights workers in the 60’s and the murder of nine people in Emmanuel AME in Charleston, SC, Mitchell stated “When people dehumanize, they give themselves the right to hate.” During his talk, Mitchell spoke of the courage civil rights workers in the face of state sponsored terrorism. He opened and closed his presentation with the inscription on the gravestone of Civil Rights Movement martyr James Chaney, “There are those who are alive, yet never live. There are those who are dead, yet will live forever. Great deeds inspire and encourage the living.” The teachers wrote to Mitchell about the impact of his presentation. One said,

Thank you so much for taking the time to sit and talk with us teachers. As someone who admires your work and has taught about the difference you have made in history and in people’s lives, it was an honor to meet you and hear your stories.

  • Learned more about National History Day in Mississippi from the new state co-coordinator, Alan Wheat. His presentation, based on his own experience as a classroom teacher, was inspiring. All the fellows agreed to either work with students on a project to enter for this year or to serve as a judge.
  • Reflected on the impact of the sessions they hosted in September and October with Julian Hipkins to introduce more teachers and students to resources for teaching about Mississippi’s Civil Rights Movement history.
  • Designed plans for the year ahead to deepen their own education and to engage others. Key ideas were a summer bus tour of Mississippi historical sites for teachers and a video to show policy makers how excited students are when they engage in interactive lessons based on grassroots Mississippi history.
  • Discussed a name for the fellowship. After much consideration of various options, they settled on Mississippi Teachers for Change. The next step is getting a logo and posters for outreach.

Thanks to the support of Cynthia Palmer, executive director of the Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc., we were able to convene at the historic Woodworth Chapel on the campus of Tougaloo College.