In honor of women’s history month, Teaching for Change updated and posted online the popular Women Make History lesson from Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching. In this interactive activity, participants are introduced to 36 women of note and the strategies they used as activists.
Educators use the Women Make History lesson to challenge traditional narratives that often exclude the critical role of women in movements for change. Women don’t just sit at home, but sit at counters during sit-ins, organize boycotts and protests, fight for reform, and courageously risk their lives for what they deem is right.
Stephanie Minor-Harper, co-chair of the Dr. Betty Shabazz Delta Academy program, invited Jenice View, co-editor of Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching, to present Women Make History to youth enrolled in the program.
“The young ladies were like so many other young people today,” Minor-Harper said. “They could recite the names of a few famous persons who were a part of the civil rights movement—like Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Jesse Jackson—but they had little sense of the greater context in which they carried out their work.”
Minor-Harper was thankful that View used the activity to move the participants beyond those few icons. “I was amazed by the breadth and depth of the women’s stories,” she continued. “The youth will definitely remember a few, and that’s an excellent start.”
The updated version of Women Make History is available here.