“I’d never heard of the White Citizens Council,” said one of the teachers in a workshop facilitated by Julian Hipkins III in Benton County in mid-January.

Hipkins traveled to Ashland, Meridian, and Jackson to meet with teachers, administrators, and partners about Teaching for Change‘s statewide Mississippi effort to promote teaching about Civil Rights Movement and labor history.

The visit was coordinated by The Hill Country Project Executive Director, Roy DeBerry and Freedom Summer volunteer Mark Levy. Both of these movement veterans applied their organizing skills to planning Hipkins’ visit. They made sure that every minute of each day was full and that there were opportunities to meet directly with teachers, community members, and administrators.

At Ashland High School, Hipkins conducted the Medgar Evers lesson with the entire staff. During the lesson, teachers met figures from the Civil Rights Movement focusing on the southern freedom movement in Mississippi. After the lesson, teachers discussed learning about people they had never heard of before, and why it is important for students to know the rich history of Mississippi.

Thanks to the meetings set up by DeBerry and Levy, Hipkins was able to introduce the initiative on teaching about Civil Rights Movement and labor history in Mississippi to: Jake Gadd, Superintendent of Benton County School District and four principals in Benton County, Dr. LaKimberly Hobson, Dr. Sharon Albert, Ms. Rosie Ladd, and Mr. Barry Goolsby; Stacey Everett of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum; and Anna Stephenson, Asha el-Shar, and Dr. Bill Scaggs of the The Meridian Freedom Project; Barbara Andrews and Beverly Sakauye of the National Civil Rights Museum, and Dr. Janet Elizabeth Bordelon of the Institute for Southern Jewish Life

Hipkins also attended a meeting of the Mississippi Civil Rights Education Commission where he shared updates about our initiative including the Mississippi Historypin page and the upcoming Mississippi National History Day competition.

Finally, he met with two initiative partners: Chauncey Spears of the Mississippi Department of Education and Cynthia Palmer of the Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.

As a result of this visit, there are now more opportunities for the current teacher fellows and new teachers that are applying to participate. Hipkins will return to Mississippi in March for the Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Annual Conference and the Mississippi National History Day competition.

Have you flown into Mississippi’s capital city recently? If so, you would have entered the recently named Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport. Finally, people are hearing the name of Medgar Evers, a champion for voting and human rights in Mississippi.

But it is just a first step. At best, most people know that Evers worked with the NAACP and was murdered in his driveway.

Middle school teacher Anthony Golding wanted to be sure his students recognized more than Evers’ name, digging deeper into his life and legacy.

Golding used the lesson Meet Medgar Evers: Introduction to the Southern Freedom Movement with his class of 8th grade students at Tupelo Middle School. Golding was introduced to this lesson as part of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Labor History Teaching Fellowship. He is one of sixteen teacher fellows in the 2014-2015 cohort.

Each student received a short bio of a person or institution that played an instrumental role in the southern freedom movement, connected to the life of Medgar Evers. These included Evers’ parents, high school activists Joyce and Dorie Ladner, the Sovereignty Commission, and many more.

The activity gave students a deeper understanding of the voting rights struggle in the late 50’s and early 60’s in Mississippi. Here’s what they said about what they learned and about the lesson:

I learned more by doing the activity because before I thought he was just a man that was murdered…now I see that he really helped people and was a great influence. – Makhia

The lesson was interesting as you get a closer look at Medgar Evers’ life. It gave a better insight than the book.– Alison

I will remember more about Medgar Evers because we acted out the lesson. – Quadarius

The lesson was a fun way of learning. Can we do this more often? – Robbie

Golding added:

The students really enjoyed being able to talk about the life of Medgar Evers rather than just listen. Many of my students requested that we do an activity like this in the future.

“I’d only heard of Medgar Evers. I did not know the names and stories of so many other Civil Rights Movement activists in Mississippi,” said one the dozens of teachers in workshops offered by Teaching for Change curriculum specialist Julian Hipkins III and Freedom Summer volunteer Mark Levy in Starkville, Mississippi last week.

While at Mississippi State University in Starkville to attend the Remembering Freedom Summer: Building a Better Future (Oct. 19-21, 2014), Hipkins and Levy took the message of the conference to schools and teacher education programs in the area. Mark Levy worked with Dr. Devon Brenner of Mississippi State University (MSU) to schedule the educator sessions, offered as part of our two-year W.K. Kellogg Foundation funded initiative on teaching about the Civil Rights Movement and labor history in Mississippi. Here are highlights from their time in Mississippi.

Saturday, October 18

They met with Mississippi State University history professor Jason Morgan Ward, author of Defending White Democracy: The Making of a Segregationist Movement and the Remaking of Racial Politics, 1936-1965. They discussed the history of Mississippi, contemporary hate groups throughout the U.S., and the educational opportunities for students at MSU.

Sunday, October 19

They met with Mississippi State University doctoral student Shane McGregor about his research on white privilege and social justice/equity issues. They offered a workshop for elementary education students in their social studies methods class. Students did the Big Shoes to Fill activity with the prompt “write about a time you stood up against injustice.” Once participants completed their shoes, students met in small groups to discuss their stories. Then each group shared one shoe story with the entire group. One participant shared that he often witnessed one of his high school classmates being bullied because he was gay, but he never intervened. Tragically, the student committed suicide. The participant stated that the death of his classmate always haunted him and that from that moment on he made the commitment to no longer be a bystander, but always an ally. Levy shared the present day social justice example of students in Colorado who are challenging the school board attempts to censor history.

Students reviewed materials that could be used in a classroom. In small groups, they examined multicultural picture books about the Civil Rights Movement. Participants were asked to come up with activities that they would do with their students. During the discussion of Mississippi Morning, a student stated, “I don’t know what I would do with this.” Mississippi Morning is the story of a son who learns that his father is a member of the Ku Klux Klan. When other participants were asked for suggestions, the meeting overflowed with ideas about how to handle the sensitive content. Each participant received a copy of A Place at the Table to take home. To introduce an effective practice to prepare for special guest presentations, students worked in small groups using the Question Formulation Technique. The questions they developed formed the basis of their dialogue with Levy about his experiences during Freedom Summer. In the evening, Levy and Hipkins attended a performance of Freedom High about Freedom Summer 1964. It was followed by a video question and answer session with playwright Adam Kraar. After the play, Levy and Hipkins joined some of the other veterans for a photo with the director of African-American studies at MSU, Dr. Stephen Middleton.

Monday, October 20

During the morning plenary, Hollis Watkins led the audience in a rendition of Freedom Songs. This was followed by a a panel discussion with Dave Dennis, Chude Allen, Mark Levy, Dr. Doris Derby, Wilbur Colom, and Hollis Watkins.

Levy served on a panel for the conference session titled “The Life of a Freedom Summer Volunteer.” The moderator was Dr. Ravi Perry with discussants Dr. Doris Derby, Chude Allen, Mark Levy, Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, and Dr. Anthony Harris. Each veteran spoke about their experiences during Freedom Summer and its lasting impact on their lives.

Hipkins met Susan Follett, author of an historical novel for adults and teens about Freedom Summer called The Fog Machine (2014).

Following the panel, Levy and Hipkins met with a group of secondary education majors. Levy opened up by asking students about their education and what they had learned about the Civil Rights Movement. Then students took the Civil Rights Mythbuster quiz. They were amazed to hear myths that they had believed as facts and how much misinformation they had received in their own schooling. Cries of “what???” and “I did not know that!” filled the room. Once students recovered from the quiz, the group began the Medgar Evers and the Southern Freedom Movement role play. In this activity, students took on the persona of people active in or opposed to the southern Freedom Movement at the time Medgar Evers was involved. After about 10 minutes of interviewing fellow participants, the group debriefed. They appreciated the interactive nature of the lesson.

This activity was followed with a Q&A with Levy using the Question Formulation Technique. During this session, a question was posed about the current voter ID law in Mississippi. Levy spoke at length about the lack of evidence to support such laws and the idea that in a democracy, it should be as easy as possible for citizens to vote.

Later in the afternoon, Levy and Hipkins met with freshmen and sophomore recipients of the Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Program scholarship. In exchange for their scholarship, students will teach for five years in the state of Mississippi. The session started with the Big Shoes to Fill. The stories of students standing up to injustice were powerful. They took the Civil Rights Mythbuster quiz and many students expressed shock at answers they believed to be correct. This activity was followed by the Medgar Evers lesson.

Levy spoke with them about his experiences during Freedom Summer as well as thoughts on the current state of education in the United States.

While at the conference, Hipkins was able to meet with Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Labor History Education Initiative teacher fellows and partners. These included high school history teachers, Allison Barnette and Julie Heintz and partners, Dr. Michael Williams, Roy DeBerry, and Cynthia Palmer.

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Tuesday, October 21

On Tuesday morning, Levy and Hipkins visited East Oktibbeha High School. They took a tour of the school led by Mississippi State University Assistant Professor Dr. Kenneth Anthony and taught two classes of high school students. Each session began with Levy showing a short video montage of pictures that he took during Freedom Summer.

Hipkins introduced students to the “Unsung Heroes” lesson. Students walked around the room and met different “Unsung Heroes” while wearing a picture of their hero.

During the activity debrief, students shared that they had never heard of most (if not) all of the characters. Hipkins shared the connection between some of the historical events or people that students were familiar with and the characters that they were introduced to.

This was followed by a Q&A session with Levy.

The 3pm conference session, “What Did You Learn in School Today?: Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching,” had close to 50 social studies methods students in attendance. Ms. Sadie Martin, Levy’s student at the 1964 Freedom School in Meridian, Mississippi, was one of the session presenters.

Martin described the segregation that existed in Meridian in 1964 and how she was able to persevere in the face of racist bullying. She also shared memories of being a student at the Meridian Freedom School. Martin shared powerful stories of how she was able to survive encounters with racism and her disdain for the “silent majority.” Then Hipkins introduced participants to the Medgar Evers activity.

Following the Medgar Evers activity, participants were asked to form questions for Levy. During the Q&A session, Levy described the generosity and bravery of his host family in Meridian.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The Remembering Freedom Summer 50th anniversary conference and teacher workshops provided an amazing opportunity to celebrate and learn.

The gathering served as a time to look back while thinking of new ways that the state and country can move forward to provide equal opportunities to all.

All too often students learn about national heroes and not the people in their own state and communities who have made history, behind the scenes.

Now students and teachers have a mechanism for teaching others about Mississippi people’s history, beyond the headlines.

Where can you find this history?

• Personal diaries and letters.
• Photographs.
• Newspapers articles.
• Songs.
• Fliers and commemorative brochures.
• Oral history interviews.
• Gravestones.

The pins can include photos of sites of historic note that you walk by every day and stories from people in your community.

What History Should I Pin?

Highlight a story in Mississippi history, with a preference for stories that are not well known and that reflect the role that every day people play in shaping this country.

While the emphasis will be on stories and images posted by Mississippi students and teachers, the project page is open for anyone in the world who would like to post.

How Can I Pin a Photo or Story?

It is very easy to add content to the map. Here is how:

1. Create a Historypin profile for yourself, your classroom, or your organization
2. Check out the How-To Guides to get familiar with Historypin.
3. Go to the Mississippi project page and click on “Pin your memories.”

We are pleased to share with you the speech delivered by Timothy L. Jenkins on June 27, 2014 in the memorial plenary of the 50th Anniversary of Freedom Summer convening. Hundreds of people of all ages gathered for this historic event at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. The plenary session, convened by Judy Richardson, was called “In the Mississippi River.”

By Timothy L. Jenkins

I have worn many titles over the years — counselor, professor, trustee, university president, governor of the Postal Service, and erstwhile radical emeritus. But none is greater than that of a SNCC organizer in Mississippi. I thank you, Judy Richardson, for reminding me of who I once had the honor of being.

Go Tell It On A Mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down. O’ Mary, Don’t Cha Weep, Don’t Cha Moan, pharaoh’s army got drownded. We’ve Been ‘Buked And We’ve Been Scorned, we’ve been talked about sure’s we born. But We’ll Never Turn Back, we will go, we shall go to see what the end will be. We’ve Been In The Storm So Long, but The Storm Is Passing Over. This May Be The Last Time, we don’t know. Let us earn the right to sing — Lord We Done Done What Cha Told Us to Do. — These are the hymns of the Movement from the souls of black folk.

This week’s commemorative coming together in Jackson, Mississippi, is to acquaint the larger world with living men and women of whom it may read, but soon will no longer hear or see and to remind us all of those who paid the ultimate price for engaging themselves in this struggle for equality. In Freedom Summer, we moved beyond human rights as sentiment to translate those rights into moral action. While some warned my brother, Charlie Cobb, “This nonviolent stuff’ll get you killed,” we ceased to view disciplined morality as a parallel universe to politics and commerce. Our triumph was to have successfully entered into the sufferings of others as though they were our own. Our pledge was to end white ignorance concerning all that was everyday black knowledge. And that struggle continues fiercely in the high and low courts of our land as well as in the hearts and minds of the people.

Freedom Summer invoked not only the fears of pain, injury, starvation, and predictable danger but embedded the profound awareness of our own mortality and that of our brothers and sisters. That both dreads were overcome was a testament of the durability of hope, and the strength of the songs that carried us through on their waves of light. That summer was a collective moment when a small band of converts viewed the legacy of their acts as equally important as their lives. This work experience provided proof that all energy is, as the scientist had promised, truly indestructible! And it proved what had been prophesied that everywhere that love has gone, is still and ever lit with light.

We invested our gift of youth in the wager that what we ought to be, goes beyond our knowledge of what we are. There is neither the beginning or an end of Freedom Summer. The changes going on then were similar to those that had occurred in the past. And forces, social and political, still at work in the present are exactly the same as those immemorial. Freedom Summer like abolition and the Civil War before simply laid another axe at the root of the inequality tree.

The revealing time we spent in Mississippi taught us that legalisms encourage fictions under which injustice breeds, selectively allowing the law to be made a cloak for malice. Our mission was to convert people from subjects to citizens. The former are governed by a superior’s will, the latter by a superior law. We urged against the people’s fear of political rulers to instead have political rulers come to fear the people.

Freedom Summer was not political form over substance, it was political form transformed into substance. This made it the summer that must not be forgotten. Those who shared our season expressly rejected the unwisdom of Ayn Rand’s “never live for the sake of another man” in favor of Mandela’s, “now is the time to stand together against those from any quarter who wish to destroy the freedom of all of us.”

This is an occasion of remembering for the future symbolized in the Adinkra emblem of Sankofa — a ceremonial design depicting a bird in full forward flight with its head turned back to never forget from whence it came as a guide to tomorrow’s youth. This intergenerational conference is our collective Sankofa moment.

Lest we forget, it is easy to glorify the uniqueness of the sun, when one’s eyes remain ignorant of the larger constellations of which it is but a minor player. So let this be an occasion for a more honest perspective than the narrow lens of popular history which only gives focus to a few faces and names, while ignoring the broader universe in which they were at best a minor part and but an abbreviated moment. Let this be a time to allow we few, we seldom known and happy few, who early answered the summons into the breech to have the larger community, at long last, reflect mindfully and soulfully on those who once were party to our ranks, who remain still and ever keepers of the flame, wholly worthy of the nation’s praise as any of its bemedaled soldiers in arms.

Sprung by and large from the nurturing soil of the social strength which is the South, their entitlement to freedom was innate and not to be denied or held hostage by the threat of opposition or even death. Their insight was stronger than their eyesight. They saw beyond the narrow Now to perceive a wide Tomorrow. They knew life should be made more than they had been allotted even at the price of ultimate sacrifice and they understand that tomorrow never dies!

Shakespeare lied when he said, “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.” The good of our silent comrades remains incarnate in the happy giggles of youngsters swimming in a welcoming public pool, in the pride of elders repeatedly casting ballots without intimidation or molestation, and in common citizens fearlessly and loudly denouncing hypocrisy and public theft of any and all colors, against any and all odds and in the face of any and all pretense of power. Even without knowing their names, the nation must remember the good which was accomplished by their lives and not extinguished with their last farewells.

[At this point, Jenkins paused while a video of the “Heroes and Sheroes” who had passed was played with the names scrolling and photos where they were available. Then a young man and woman of the youth group took turns reading the names of those who had been murdered in the late 50s & 60s, showing on the screens the photos (if available) and whether there had been convictions for the murders or not. Then C. Liegh McInnis performed “For Freedom Summer,” shared here with permission in text-PDF and on YouTube. Then the Freedom Singers sang.]

The ancient Egyptians prophesied that the recitation of a departed’s name would invoke their life anew. In keeping with that time-honored precept it is fitting that we call the roll of our separated during this gathering that may well be the last time we can all do so together. Befittingly we now project and enlarge their images before our eyes and in our hearts on the theater screens here at Tougaloo to underscore the immensity of their gifts. As the cameras roll, look on with wonder this one more time at the ‘sheroes’ and heroes it was our honor to know . . . .

We can never forget their work, their cheerful camaraderie, and their faith in things larger than themselves. We tell them rest not in peace, but rest in triumph. Shame be to us, if while we still know life we ever abandon the sacred trust of your remembrance. You will not sleep alone, nor without special honor from we, your spared sisters and brothers in the struggle.

There is a stubborn mythology, dare I say, theology, that all of the historic giants have been ten feet tall. But as Howard University’s Mordicai Wyatt Johnson would remind, “T’is not so.” This is our occasion to lift up the faded little giants to their deserved stature as paragons of courage, humility and silent sacrifice worthy of the big screen and the Broadway stage, or better still, hymns of praise in quiet, heartfelt moments of reflection, admiration and sobriety by all who believe in freedom. The lemon juice collecting in our eyes on this occasion is not of mourning, but celebration of how our hearts did burn within us as we walked with them along the way.

Let this be the counter-memorial day to that of the World Wars against the so-called “greatest tyranny the world has ever known.” We stage this tribute without any perverse theatrical fanfare of military drills and the ceremonial awards of purple hearts to sing and extoll unspeakably violent exploits against those with other flags. On the contrary, our warriors came only in peace and refused enemy status even to their foes.

This coming together at this time and this place is when we get to stand up in anthem to our combat corps, who did not just dream dreams for themselves, but protected and realized the dreams of others. Who better to play Taps for such warriors, if not we ourselves, who walked with them along the way during that Summer that must not be forgotten?

Let freedom ring as long as we have tongues to teach and hearts to hear and feel the honest gift of their lives.

That concludes the previously-approved King James version of my eulogy to the past.

Now I hear the whispering voices of my elder brothers, Vincent Harding and Martin King saying, “But Timothy, you mus’nt stop there without a Revised Standard Version of a eulogy for the future to ask the primordial biblical question raised in Ezekiel 37 — ‘Can These Dry Bones Live’?” To not say more in response would only lay a verbal wreath at the foot of our venerable heroes’ names and walk away. To avoid such criticism, we must do more than craft a rhetorical wax museum like that of Madame Tussauds — exact in detail and utterly without the breath of life. Instead the dry bones of our departed must be given life anew through us as a living eulogy for the future.

That can only be done if we and each and every one of those coming after us with similar beliefs picks up at least one project of a departed hero to make it our own.—And in keeping with the credo of SNCC, one can never ask of others what one will not do one’s self.—I share with you then, my pledge upon hearing that Lawrence Guyot was no longer with us. — That unwelcome news didn’t surprise me in and of itself, rather the surprise to me, as well as Dick Gregory, was that a person of his fierce and outspoken antagonism to perverted power had died a natural death and of natural causes.

Guyot was especially endeared to me after my suffering an, albeit benign, form of extraordinary rendition at his hands one summer day when he bundled me into the back seat of a car in front of my home and drove me straightaway to Orangeburg, South Carolina to join in the first Obama presidential campaign. There we were walking the steamy streets of Orangeburg and knocking on doors the same as we had done decades before as little more than boys on the streets of Greenwood, Mississippi. Have mercy, it was one thing to follow a seven AM to eleven PM workday in the sixties, but it is quite another having to do so in your own sixties! However, we couldn’t help being motivated to push on when we learned that the HBCU students of Orangeburg State and Voorhees Universities knew nothing of the Orangeburg State Massacre of yesteryear that had shocked the nation during the height of the original student movement. “Old sheep they know the way, young lambs they got to learn.”

That dramatic discovery led Guyot to redouble his educational commitment by inspiring and relentlessly devoting himself to liberate subsequent generations of young people from their innocence on the requirements of history and liberation struggles. Once I learned he was gone, I vowed to pick up his advocacy of the textbook, Putting the Movement Back Into Civil Rights Teaching and I joined the sponsoring board of Teaching for Change to continue his outspoken advocacy. I could do no less.

And you should do no less by committing yourself to some unfinished task of at least one of the heroes we have lionized here as your personal oath. We each owe this as our affirmative answer to the divine question, “Can These Dry Bones Live?” Let us each take the baton from a frozen hand to answer that searching question by continuing their race as in an everlasting relay. Then when the final chapter of our lives is written, perhaps we will be able to join them in saying, Lord, I Too Done Done What Cha Told Me To Do!

Let all who believe in freedom and are committed to abundantly fulfilling the future through these heroic names join in a resounding and collective, Amen!

Printed here with permission of the author.

(c) Timothy L. Jenkins, 2014.

“I am a country boy, so silo has a serious meaning for me. Everything that’s in a silo is either dead or dying and is expected to be eaten. So we want to make sure we don’t find ourselves in a silo. We want to make sure that we spread the work out so that we have a lot of hands on the plow. There is much work to be done. Make sure that we go on and on and on.” – Hollis Watkins, board chair of Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc.

These words guided a convening of historians, activists, museum staff, and educators at Tougaloo College on August 12, 2014. This diverse group had signed on as partners for a program to support teaching about the civil rights movement and labor history in Mississippi. While legislation on teaching about the Civil Rights Movement passed in 2006 and civil rights movement questions are now on the state test, teachers have had limited support on this new content. Thanks to a two-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to Teaching for Change, a teacher fellowship on civil rights movement and labor history will be launched this fall to fill the gap. In addition, the grant provides funding to develop and post lessons online for free teacher access. Chauncey Spears of the Mississippi Department of Education told the group that this initiative is long overdue. He added:

The fellowship program will help to provide a select group of Mississippi teachers the resources, opportunities, and networks to support stronger instruction concerning the civil rights education standards in our social studies framework. I hope that the fellowship will also help to provide impactful educational experiences for our students and enhance race relations and civic engagement in communities around the state.

Before launching the initiative, Teaching for Change brought key partners (see list below) to the table to consider the obstacles and best strategies.

Community Building

To break down the “silos” referenced by Hollis Watkins and build a collaborative planning team, the partners wrote and shared stories on paper footprints about “in whose shoes am I walking” or “ways I have walked for justice in my shoes.” Here are just a few examples:

Filling others’ shoes can be quite overwhelming. However, I walk in the footsteps of my great-grandfather who was a master carpenter and the only African American to own property in Shuqualak, Miss. I walk in the footsteps of my great-grandmother, who along with her sister, was resourceful enough during the height of the Great Depression to acquire more than 100 acres of land for their children. — Daphne Chamberlain, Tougaloo College, coordinator of Civil Rights and Social Justice Initiatives 

I am walking in the shoes of my aunt, the late, great Alberta Bingham, an English teacher at Jim Hill High School in West Jackson. This educator was brutally killed in her home in W. Jackson. She had given her very best to nurture the youth in that community. I attended Jim Hill High School after my aunt died and now, too, I am an educator living in West Jackson seeking to nurture youth in my community. It is through education and love that we will heal our communities. — Rico Chapman, academic director, Fannie Lou Hamer Institute @ COFO Human & Civil Rights Education Center

I took a very bold stand in 1966 when Freedom of Choice was implemented in Amite County. The people (white) in my little community bought a school bus and painted it white, and their children rode that bus 13 miles to school. I was ostracized by the white community, relatives, and the KKK for not riding the bus. A cross was burned in my yard to warn me, but it did not work! That decision that my parents let me make helped mold me into the person I am today. — Gloria Stubbs, retired educator from the McComb School District 

More shoe stories follow this article.

Feedback on Overall Plan

The group examined the draft working plan, using a “chalk talk” format to share reflections. This led to a discussion of challenges and ideas. Just a few of these are listed below.

Challenges

Will learning local history in depth also prepare them for broader U.S. history questions on the state test?

How can we ensure that school-based administrators are on board?

How can we make sure that the struggle for civil rights and human rights is not limited to the textbook era of 1954-1968?

How do we prevent the local history from being sanitized?

Hands-on, inquiry based U.S. history instruction will be difficult in a “hi stakes” standardized testing environment.

Ideas

Engage students in uncovering, documenting, and recognizing the unknown soldiers and victims of the Civil Rights Movement and of random acts of violence against people of color in each school community.

Introduce students to young people in local communities who have dedicated themselves to positive social change.

Have students travel outside of the classroom and write about their experiences around the particular history theme.

Offer visits to historic sites and opportunities for students to meet and engage in dialogues with people who helped to make history.

Involve teacher ed programs.

Expand labor and civil rights to human rights.

This feedback will be used to guide and evaluate the initiative moving forward.

Teacher Engagement

The partners reviewed the rubric for the selection of teacher fellows and read a dozen of the applications received to date. The project will continue to accept applications for the teacher fellowship through August 29, 2014. While it was encouraging to see that there are strong applications in hand, everyone insisted that due diligence be exercised (such as interviews of top candidates and reference checks) to ensure the strongest possible fellowship team.

An overview was shared of the ways that the initiative will reach beyond the fellows, with teachers throughout the state having access to free downloadable lessons on Mississippi Civil Rights Movement history and a growing list of recommended resources for K-12 classrooms on the CivilRightsTeaching.org website. In addition, the initiative will encourage and support greater participation in the Mississippi History Day competition and the selection of local history topics.

Next Steps

The partners will continue to spread the word about the fellowship. In addition, the partners will invite some of their respective institutions to offer a Mississippi History Day Award. These awards can encourage a deeper exploration of Mississippi’s local history with themes such as women, the railroads, Muslims, school desegregation, etc. The partners will reconvene in January of 2015. All were in agreement that with the wisdom and commitment of the people at the table and the great need for this initiative, there will be many strong “hands on the plow” for history education in Mississippi.

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Partners

Daphne	Chamberlain*	Tougaloo College Department of History
Rico	Chapman*	Jackson State University and Fannie Lou Hamer Institute @ COFO Human & Civil Rights Education Center
Roy	DeBerry*	Hill Country Project and William Winter Institute
Susan	Glisson	William Winter Institute
Julian	Hipkins III*	Teaching for Change
Pamela	Junior*	Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center
Robby	Luckett	Margaret Walker Center
Jackie Bryd	Martin*	William Winter Institute
Renee	McClendon	National History Day in Mississippi
Deborah	Menkart*	Teaching for Change
Cynthia	Palmer*	Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc.
Muhammad Abdur	Rahman*	International Museum of Muslim Cultures
Maryan	Rashid*	International Museum of Muslim Cultures
Okolo	Rashid*	International Museum of Muslim Cultures
Chauncey	Spears*	Mississippi Dep’t. of Education
Gloria	Stubbs*	McComb School District (retired)
Jenice	View*	Teaching for Change and George Mason University
Vondaris	Von Gordon*	William Winter Institute
Minadene	Waldrop	Mississippi College
Michael	Williams*	Tougaloo College Division of Social Sciences

* Attended the planning meeting.

Additional Shoe Stories

I walk in the footsteps of John Henry Boone Green, a man with a second grade education, who taught himself to read, write, and do math. I honor this man who walked with integrity and fortitude, a man who took care of his family. The hue of his skin was passed on to me and I walk proudly in it. Today, tomorrow, and yesterday I only move because of his movement and his legacy, for because of him I am me! — Pamela Junior

I am standing on the shoulders of the many sung and unsung heroes, especially in Canton, MS, where I was raised. In particular, Flonzie Brown Wright, who in 1968 at the age of 28, a single mother of 3, committed her life to standing up for freedom, despite the many death threats on her life and her children’s lives. The many courageous stands for civil and human rights that I witnessed by the beloved community of Canton compels me to do all that I can to speak to justice for all. — Cynthia Palmer

I am walking in the shoes of and standing on the shoulders of my grandfather who stood up to injustice and modeled the behavior, he wanted his children and grandchildren to exhibit. I am modeling the activism of my community, CC Bryant, Sarah Cotton, Patsy Ruth Butler, Mildred Williams, and others. — J. B. Martin

I stand in the footprints of Freddie Wilkes, music educator in Memphis, TN. Not only did he teach me music, but he taught me to pour myself into my passion, he taught me pride, and the importance of relationships. Without relationships, we cannot build each other up, learn from our history, and so love our collective problems. He taught me also that we can do these things with a back beat and a smile! — Chauncey Spears

I am walking in the shoes of Elmer and Booker Gordon who were the grandchildren of slaves and the parents of my family’s last generation of sharecroppers. Their shoes are worn and the feet in them died tired. The blood pumping through those feet has carried forth through future generations a spirit of courage, family, and love for everyday people. — Von Gordon

I walk in my mother’s shoes, as she walked in our ancestors’ who were forcibly brought here to America as enslaved West Africans. Many were Muslims, who had their own culture and way of life. This included a strong sense of God-consciousness and monotheism and zeal for education and human development. My mom, a sharecropper, always encouraged and said to us, “I want my children to be God-fearing and get an education.” — Okolo Rashid

I walk in the footsteps of my parents. My father was born in Edward, MS and raised in Jackson. Beginning at the age of 13, my father participated in the civil rights movement going on in Jackson. I’ve heard the stories of him walking out of school and marching in protest. My mother was one of the first students to integrate Hinds CC. Therefore, my spirit of activism and going against the odds is derived from their spirit. However, by the mercy and grace of God I fill my own shoes!

I am following in the footsteps of my maternal and paternal grandparents, participants in the Great Migration who maintained their South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee roots while building a new world in Washington DC.  They each treasured whatever formal education they received and made sure that their children and grandchildren did the same. Grandma Minnie performed manual labor and loving cooking to sustain her family, Grandma Aquilah and Grandad Akbar performed manual and intellectual labor to grow the early Nation of Islam and racial justice.  From each of them, I take inspiration and aspiration, hoping that my labors create positive change. — Jenice View

I’m walking in the shoes of:
Grandparents taught me independence.
Dad, Mom taught me love and respect.
Mr. Boyd who taught me history and sense of self.
Mr. Nero taught me courage.
In my shoes, I have:
Picketed the local theater. It closed rather than integrate.
Picketed in Jackson in 1965. Arrested and spent two weeks in jail (fairgrounds).
— Roy DeBerry