Ida b. wells Education ProjecT
CCSS2022 Resource page
Welcome! This resource page is meant to support educators who are attending our CCSS Workshop:
Joy in Resistance:
Teaching about Oppression with Hope and Inspiration.
Presenters:
Peta Lindsay
Director & Founder Ida B. Wells Education Project
Currently teaches: U.S. History, A.P.U.S.H., African American Studies at Venice High School.
Martin Barrera
Board Member, Ida B. Wells Education Project, Physics, APUSH and Ethnic Studies at LA Leadership Academy High School
Land Acknowledgement (Language borrowed from UCI Libraries):
We are meeting today on the ancestral homeland of Acjachemen and Tongva people who, in the face of ongoing settler colonialism, continue to claim their place and act as stewards of their ancestral lands as they have for the past 8,000 years.
Question for educators: How do you center local Indigenous history and voices in your classes?
Our recommended strategies: Have students research and write land acknowledgements. But don’t end the conversation there! Introduce Indigenous criticism of the Land Acknowledgment practice and engage students in discussion of what real justice might look like. Be sure to invite representatives from local Indigenous communities to speak with your students and center their voices in your materials. You can find resources to aid in building a lesson on Land Acknowledgments here: Starting Conversations about Race in Your Classroom.
There is no such thing as a “neutral” education.
Educators must be intentional in teaching for justice and liberation. We draw inspiration from legendary educator Paulo Freire and his landmark text, Pedagogy of the Oppressed..
Fugitive Pedagogy and Black Teaching for liberation
Black educators have always understood that education is a crucial part of the long movement for Black liberation. We root our work in the long tradition of Black educators who have taught knowledge of our people, culture, organizing and resistance throughout many centuries in which such knowledge was forbidden.
Dr. Jarvis Givens of Harvard University has recently written an excellent text about this tradition. We highly recommend this resource to educators, particularly at a time when truthful and accurate Black history education is once again under attack.
FIRST: BUILD COMMUNITY IN YOUR CLASSROOM
Any educator seeking to tackle tough topics in the classroom must begin by getting to know their students and by building and reinforcing a strong sense of community in your classroom. This work begins on day 1 of the new school year. For help in establishing a classroom environment in which students can have healthy, impactful and necessary conversations about race and history, see these guides from IBWEP educators:
INTRODUCTION TO ESTABLISHING COMMUNITY IN THE CLASSROOM
By Martin Barrera, Board Member of the IBWEP
“We must remember that if we only talk about communities in resistance but never model it, our students will cling to the idea that these efforts are things of the past or the distant future, instead of options we have in the here and now. So we must do our best to carve out time to build our communities and practice holding space for conflict, vulnerability and empowerment so our students can feel inspired to do the same as they grow and progress in life.”
INTRODUCTION TO BUILDING COMMUNITY PRACTICES
By Elana Goldbaum, Member of the IBWEP Instructional Support Committee
It is very helpful for both the instructor and students to use community agreements as an active tool - name them when in use or when they need to be applied. A mistake is to draw up meaningful agreements but never go back to them.”
Do Not Sugarcoat Injustice
Anchor Lessons in Humanity, Community and Resistance
Resources on addressing hard history with focus on resistance
We created an extensive resource page to support our 2.6.21 workshop, “Empowering Education on Resistance to White Supremacist Terror”.
From Reconstruction to the present day, our educators assembled a variety of primary and secondary source materials to help you teaching this history in a way that empowers young people.
Check out our Resource Page here!
What does Joy in Resistance Look Like?
Art: Dancing in Congo Square by Edward Winsor Kemble, 1886.
Suggested activity: Say, Mean, Matter discussion of artwork. Discuss how music, community & culture is resistance!
Archibald J. Motley Jr., Street Scene Chicago, 1936. Oil on canvas.
Suggested Activity: Analyze themes in Harlem Renaissance art: Ask students to identify themes in the artwork, you can begin by identifying themes and techniques used to embody those themes. I ask students, how does this artist express pride in his culture and community? Where do you see themes of protest?
LOVECRAFT COUNTRY LESSON 1
MEET THE REAL LETITIA LEWIS:
BLACK WOMEN FREEDOM FIGHTERS WHO DID NOT BACK DOWN
By Peta Lindsay
Letitia Lewis is not the only Black woman who has faced racist white terror and refused to back down. In this lesson, inspired by episode 3 of Lovecraft Country, “Holy Ghost,” students will learn about the reality of white supremacist terrorism in the Black freedom struggle. They will read first-hand accounts from Black women freedom fighters, who have faced white supremacist threats and violence in their communities, and still kept fighting for justice. This lesson will highlight the lives and work of organizers Ida B. Wells, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Gloria Richardson.
Students will conduct mock interviews with these historical women, answering the questions: How did white supremacist terror affect Black communities in movements for justice? How did Black women keep fighting for justice in the face of that terror?
Read the full lesson introduction by the creator here
Detailed multimedia slides presentation to guide this lesson, is available here.
Full lesson plan with primary sources, graphic organizers and activity handouts is available here.
Primary Source Documents & Handouts available here.
Thank you for joining us today!
Here is a link to today’s slide presentation
Please take our survey!
Join us again in April, for our upcoming meeting for educators:
WAKE: TEACHING WOMEN-LED SLAVE REVOLTS WITH DR. REBECCA HALL
Where are our women warriors in history? How do we recover voices of revolt that have been silenced by mainstream historical narratives? How do we honor and center heroic Black women in our classes and community? If you have ever pondered these questions, please join our Meeting for Educators: Wake: Teaching Women-led Slave Revolts with Dr. Rebecca Hall on Saturday April 30th, 2022.
In this meeting historian and author, Dr. Rebecca Hall, will discuss her powerful graphic novel and her journey in bringing the hidden history of Black women’s revolts into the mainstream. K-12 educators from the Ida B. Wells Education project will also present sample lessons and teaching ideas usingWake and additional archival documents about women-led slave revolts, to help model ways to center this important history in our classrooms and community. Finally, in the last half of this meeting, educators will collaborate in break out sessions structured to help us develop lesson plans and learning materials that will engage our students in uncovering these important stories and celebrating lost legacies of resistance. Join us and let’s empower our students with this important history, together!
Registration required, register here!
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