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La Crosse LC Culturally Responsive Teaching PD

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La Crosse LC Culturally Responsive Teaching PD

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Ruby Bridges visits with the President and her portrait - SafeShare.TV

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Ruby Bridges visits with the President and her portrait - SafeShare.TV

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SafeShare.tv - Ruby Bridges visits with the President a...

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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Maya Angelou: Raising the New Generation - SafeShare.TV

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Maya Angelou: Raising the New Generation - SafeShare.TV

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SafeShare.tv - Maya Angelou: Raising the New Generation...

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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Fun Cartoon on Dr.Martin Luther King Jr for Kids! Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Bio: Black History Month - SafeShare.TV

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Fun Cartoon on Dr.Martin Luther King Jr for Kids! Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Bio: Black History Month - SafeShare.TV

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Fun Cartoon on Dr.Martin Luther King Jr fo... - SafeShare.tv

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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Harriett Tubman Biography (Black History Month for Kids/Children) - SafeShare.TV

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Harriett Tubman Biography (Black History Month for Kids/Children) - SafeShare.TV

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SafeShare.tv - Harriett Tubman Biography (Black History...

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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Rosa Parks Story (Educational Videos for Students) Rosa Parks for Kids (Watch Cartoons Online) CN - SafeShare.TV

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Rosa Parks Story (Educational Videos for Students) Rosa Parks for Kids (Watch Cartoons Online) CN - SafeShare.TV

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SafeShare.tv - Rosa Parks Story (Educational Videos for...

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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A Must See Sojourner Truth for Kids Biography! (Black History Cartoon) - SafeShare.TV

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A Must See Sojourner Truth for Kids Biography! (Black History Cartoon) - SafeShare.TV

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SafeShare.tv - A Must See Sojourner Truth for Kids Biog...

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement | Explore Black History | PBS

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Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement | Explore Black History | PBS

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Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement | Explore Black History | PBS

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Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement | Explore Black History | PBS

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Be inspired by the men and women of the African American Civil Rights Movement through this special collection from PBS.

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List of Shows A to Z | Black History & Culture | PBS

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List of Shows A to Z | Black History & Culture | PBS

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List of Shows A to Z | Black History & Culture | PBS

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List of Shows A to Z | Black History & Culture | PBS

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Search our list of shows and films about Black History and Culture available to watch today on PBS.

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we all sing with the same voice - YouTube

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we all sing with the same voice - YouTube

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What Can One Little Person Do (Sing Along) - YouTube

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What Can One Little Person Do (Sing Along) - YouTube

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What Can One Little Person Do (Sing Along)

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I searched online for the lyrics and googled for the pictures. I put it all together with windows movie maker. I don't know who's singing this song; it came home from school with my nephew. They had a program at school this month he had to learn it for.

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We Are The World (USA For Africa 1985) With Lyrics - YouTube

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We Are The World (USA For Africa 1985) With Lyrics - YouTube

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We Are The World (USA For Africa 1985) With Lyrics

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Denver teacher creates heartwrenching, inspiring lesson

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Denver teacher creates heartwrenching, inspiring lesson

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Black History | Iconic Tees | Because of Them We Can

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We run a campaign to educate and connect the young generation to Heroes who have paved the way with our Content, Iconic Tees, Books, Calendars, Posters, etc.

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In an Era of Conflict, Healing the World One Classroom at a Time | MindShift | KQED News

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In an Era of Conflict, Healing the World One Classroom at a Time | MindShift | KQED News

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That means teachers need to go deeper as well to help students rise above current religious, political, and social divides, and to nourish the collegial, broad-minded, and self-sustaining qualities we desire in citizens of the future. To begin addressing some of these issues, consider infusing instruction with a set of 'first' principles imagined as a kind of Hippocratic Oath or similar touchstone that unites teachers in service to youth everywhere, based on four commitments:
Commit to character
To borrow a metaphor, attempting to improve education without addressing the critical role of personal strengths and resilient behaviors is like Starbucks changing the design of their coffee cup rather than the quality of their coffee. The real question is this: How do we change the quality of our coffee to meet the needs of today's customers in schools?

Here's one suggestion: Invent a new Bloom's taxonomy that makes character the foundation for learning. Amidst the chaotic turbulence of a divided world, you cannot navigate and do no harm without empathy, persistence, and-most crucial-an attitude of appreciation and gratitude. How else can you deal with income inequality or immigration or violence except through empathy? How else can you encourage communication and tolerance except through nurturing a collaborative spirit in children?
Commit to being a global teacher
Most teachers express deep care for children, but their concern is largely local, focused on their own students, classrooms, and schools. Plus, their curriculum is subject to the constraints of nationality, religion, politics, and-more recently-the incessant mantra of global competition.

But teachers should become familiar with an underreported fact: Teachers from the U.S., U.K., Turkey, Iran, and Vietnam-or any combination of any countries, anywhere-are engaged in a common conversation about common problems in teaching and learning. Globally, children are disengaged, motivated more by fear than love of learning, and comply with demands but lack a vision of the future. Worldwide, teachers know and agree that something is wrong.

This creates an opening for educators to participate in a global mindshift: Let go of local and commit to taking responsibility for all children and working against a future run by ideologues focused on division rather than cooperation. Help all children move from the dominant win-lose mentality to cooperation-to sustain from compete. In every child, foster curiosity, questioning, and innovative thinking by encouraging appreciation for multiple points of view. The key to learning is openness. That's a shared global goal for every teacher.
Commit to educational innovation
Whether learning takes place in a regimented classroom in a Chinese province, a madrassa in an Islamic country, a makeshift building in Africa, or a sparkling new high school in a highly-developed country, children suffer equally from the lack of a new cognitive map to guide education into the latter 21 st century. Obviously, issues of equity, access, funding, and so forth create enormous disparities in opportunity. But in every corner of the globe, old methods of instruction prevail, driven chiefly by the notion that information can be planted in a child's head.

Just as with student issues, surprising unanimity exists among teachers that the old model does not serve children well. Thought leaders in education usually cite better standards or improved testing as markers for the future, but that's not true in my experience. Worldwide, teachers sense that a more relevant, problem-based, inquiry-oriented, student-empowered form of education is necessary.

The outline of the new model is apparent. The present emphasis on inquiry, projects, deeper learning, personalization, and qualities such as grit, resilience, and empathy are not fads. They're a genuine response to the desire to impact students more deeply, to bring forth the essential goodness that most teacher sense in their students.
Commit to a personal mission
The power of purpose is well known. It fosters resilience, perseverance, and creativity. More important, it liberates the energy necessary to do important work. But industrial education, which too often settles for small outcomes, relies on top-down reform, or treats teachers as cogs rather than innovators, can mute the power of purpose in individuals.

It's time to reclaim the power. It's way past time for teachers to see educational transformation as the sole province of consultants, superintendents, or state and federal officials. Plus, it's time to reveal a well-kept secret: They don't have the answers either. In this peer driven, collaborative world, the real answer is for every teacher to make a personal commitment to becoming local thought leaders of schools and communities, to be innovators at all levels, and to join with colleagues and students in reimagining the future. That's one important way to honor an unmistakable fact of the global world: We're all in this together.
Thom Markham is a psychologist, school redesign consultant, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Find many more resources on his website, www.thommarkham.com.

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In an Era of Conflict, Healing the World One Classroom at a Time

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That means teachers need to go deeper as well to help students rise above current religious, political, and social divides, and to nourish the collegial, broad-minded, and self-sustaining qualities we desire in citizens of the future.

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Uncomfortable Conversations: Talking About Race In The Classroom : NPR Ed : NPR

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Uncomfortable Conversations: Talking About Race In The Classroom : NPR Ed : NPR

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Open up the newspaper or turn on the news these days, and you'll find plenty of talk about race and racism. But it's a different story in many classrooms.

Some teachers don't consider race germane to their math or English syllabus. Others strive for colorblindness in the classroom, wanting to believe we live in a post-racial society. Unfortunately, says H. Richard Milner, we don't.

Milner directs the Center for Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh. He spends much of his time researching effective teaching methods and leading professional development for teachers, schools and districts, helping to implement teaching strategies that deal with race.

He's motivated by research that shows that people who feel good about their own race do better academically.

"I'm someone's father. I'm someone's husband. I'm someone's friend. I'm someone's son," says Milner, "but I'm also a black man. And my being black shapes my experiences, and so if you are not attuned to the part of my being that is race, then it's very difficult for you to understand and respond to my humanity."

Milner's new book, Rac(e)ing to Class: Confronting Poverty and Race in Schools and Classrooms, serves as a tool for educators who want to better understand what talking about race can sound like - with evidence-based approaches and practical classroom tips.
How did your work in classrooms drive you to write this book?
I often found that teachers would shy away from and were very uncomfortable talking about race.

I believe most educators in general have great intentions, but I do believe they are grossly underprepared for the types of complexity they face every day in school. So, until we get race right, until we get class right, until we get the intersection of race and class correct, we're going to reap the consequences of it. So we can continue walking around like race and racism and issues of discrimination are not pervasive, but the students are the ones who are grossly underserved. As adults, even if it might make us uncomfortable, we've got to engage in these uncomfortable conversations. Even if we disagree.
So where does a teacher's work start and where does it end?
One of the reasons this work is so complex is because the outside school experiences of students are quite often inconsistent with what the expectations are inside school. It's the schools' responsibility to take on the onus of understanding language patterns, of understanding what the students experience outside of school.

For instance, if students read particular kinds of books outside of school, if they engage in social media outside of school, then teachers must figure out how to utilize that as an anchor for what happens inside of school.

Instructionally, it's the teacher's responsibility to really research and develop learner lenses to understand what's happening with the student outside of school, so that she or he can be responsive to that reality.

Teachers want lessons that make connections, that make it real for students.
So how can teachers incorporate those outside realities into curriculum? You mention a case study in the book that involves a robbery that happened right around the corner from a middle school. When you talked to teachers at that school, what did you recommend?
I was doing a professional development session with the teachers, and I just posed a question. I said, "I'm wondering why you guys didn't mention the robbery in the classroom," and the educators in the room just got offended.

There was a guy who sat in the back and said, "I teach math and science, what does a robbery have to do with my teaching math and science?"

So I gave some examples: You could talk about the relationship between well-lit communities and those that aren't. You could count the number of streetlights in a particular vicinity. You could pull up Google Maps and have the students guesstimate the amount of time it would take the police to drive from the police precinct to the robbery scene at different rates of speed. You could have the students look at the relationship between gun shop access and crime.

There are all these mathematical ways of engaging the incident and being responsive to the things that the students are concerned about. But it takes the teachers' willingness to delve into, to be creative, and to be consistent with and align with the things that they're supposed to be teaching. I would never tell a teacher to teach anything that they are not supposed to teach. Teachers can make lessons relevant and accessible to students and still align with and be consistent with the Common Core standards and so forth.
In the book you give examples from your classroom visits - but you don't always offer solutions or answers. Why? Is that intentional?
So this work is contextual. With the cases, I really want teachers to read them to reflect about their own practices, to problematize them, to call me out and say "I disagree with this."

Just because it's complex and we don't know for sure what's going on doesn't mean we shouldn't be interrogating and trying to figure it out. And that's where I think we really fall short.

We see that particular groups of students, like black and brown male students, are constantly being suspended and expelled from school, and we've got to stop it. We've got to recognize what's going on, and we've got to address it. So with each case, it invites readers to strategize about what they would do in a particular situation.
In the book, you talk about community assets - how negative circumstances can be viewed in positive ways. How does this apply to teachers?
It's the lenses by which we look at situations. On an individual level the fact that a student is able to work six or seven hours every night at McDonald's or Hardee's or wherever it happens to be for several nights a week demonstrates an asset. Rather than saying, "Poor thing, she's barely getting by in my class." That's looking at it from a deficit.

An assets perspective: "Carla demonstrates the capacity to balance her schoolwork and her part-time job. I should talk with her about how I can assist her ..."

Even when talking about neighborhood conditions, a student has made it through a situation where they walk through gang violence. The asset is: That student has been able to navigate and negotiate a challenging set of circumstances.
Do you get any pushback? What do you say to teachers or principals who say, "This is too much" or "This is not my job"?
I do get pushback. Some districts I go in, and the principal will say, "Well, we don't really have a race issue."

I always say that it's important for teachers and people to relax their egos and to realize that it is not only about them. This work is about how we better, more effectively meet the needs of every child, of every student. When I get teachers to a place where they are deliberate about and intentional about reflecting on why they're doing what they're doing in the classroom, people tend to come around, at least in terms of thinking about the possibilities.

I also stress that parents care about their children. They may not know necessarily how to support them educationally, but I have very rarely if ever met a parent who doesn't care about his or her child. All communities care about their children. I think that's important to show teachers.

We are in trouble. This is urgent work. Teachers can wait on parents to change. They can wait on policymakers to come up with something extraordinary. Or they can be proactive and say, "You know what, I am complicit in ensuring the underachievement of some of our students."
What should readers take away from this book?
We've really got to disrupt and confront the attempts to not address issues of race, racism and other forms of discrimination on a micro level as well as a macro level. We can't have conversations about poverty if we're not having serious conversations about race.

The other one is that we can talk about reform, we can talk about shifts to classroom level, but we also need to make sure we're deliberate about making serious shifts on a district level as well. Because there are outstanding individual teachers who go into the classroom, close their doors and great things happen. It really is about how we make changes for black and brown children on a broader level.

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Uncomfortable Conversations: Talking About Race In The Classroom

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Open up the newspaper or turn on the news these days, and you'll find plenty of talk about race and racism. But it's a different story in many classrooms. Some teachers don't consider race germane to their math or English syllabus. Others strive for colorblindness in the classroom, wanting to believe we live in a post-racial society.

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Why Teaching About Social Justice Matters | Teaching Tolerance

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Why Teaching About Social Justice Matters | Teaching Tolerance

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These are questions I have been asked by... well, everyone-from parents to people on Twitter. I've been asked this by other teachers in my prep programs, teachers down the hall, by my own family members. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't ask myself sometimes: Wouldn't it be easier to just let it go? Can't you save "social justice" for them to learn on their own?

And I sit with that: Why can't I just let it go?

Then I realize something most teachers realize at some point: We may control the cultures of our classrooms, but we are not in control of the world our students face when they step away from their desks. So it's not my problem to let go of. It's the one they will face all the time.

Whether or not I talk about it, my students are bombarded with issues surrounding privilege and power every single day. "Activism" is now so rampant that it, for better or worse, even appears in Oscar acceptance speeches. Protests are televised and publicized at the click of a button, and the Internet has turned four hash marks into weapons of mass discussion. Whether or not I talk about it, they will.

Moreover, my students won't just see these issues discussed; they live them. They will wonder why they don't see their stories told on film, or why assumptions are made about them based on their last names. Even in the " racial paradise " some claim Hawai'i is, my students are able to identify these issues in their lives. When asked to write a paper on stereotypes, 40 percent of them wrote about racial stereotypes they faced. Another 20 percent wrote about gender stereotypes. Without knowing what they are called, my students wrote stories about micro-aggressions they dealt with on a daily basis, and lowered or unfair expectations put upon them. My students are not just keen observers of the outside world; they experientially learn from struggles around power and privilege every day. They have important stories to tell and to hear.

So, the issue is not mine to let go. It is either mine to acknowledge or ignore. Every day I teach is a day that these discussions are either a gaping ocean to try and leap over or a tool to help better my students.

Every day I enter the classroom, I think about the lessons I had to learn myself as a student.

As a Mexican-Filipina-American kid growing up in a mostly white neighborhood, I struggled with my own identity. My brown skin and curly hair stuck out like a sore thumb, and my ethnic background was associated with the word dirty -an insult lobbed casually at white boys who had gotten too tan.

I needed someone to show me my culture has glorious role models of integrity, creativity and intellect, and that we need more people to tell those stories.

I also needed someone to teach my other classmates-and, at times, myself-empathy, context and understanding for people from minority backgrounds. We needed to learn how to listen to those stories. Only by hearing and understanding them would real progress be possible.

Yes, cultural and societal knowledge can (and should) be taught at home-those of us who grew from students of color to adults of color often had no other choice.

However, it must be asked: Who will validate these familial educations outside the home? Who will help students of color navigate the murky waters of a system not built for them? Who will give those who do come from cultures of power the impetus and tools to navigate their privilege so they can ally with the disempowered?

Who will teach these students to look at the world around them and figure out the problems and solutions with context and empathy? Who will teach them to tell their stories, and listen with open minds to the stories of others?

Isn't that my job?

I was recently at a parent meeting, and a coach said something that struck a chord with me: "Thank you for giving us the opportunity to work with these students. Thank you for giving us your children."

As teachers, we know this is not just a job; it is a privilege. Being able to teach with and learn from our students is a gift.

I can teach them poetry and about the social issues they see in the outside world. I can show them how stories don't just use beautiful tools like allusion and metaphor, but can be used as tools to subvert power, question normalcy and change society as we understand it.

For that to happen, though, they need to understand society as it is. They need to face the conversation happening in our world right now with frankness and honesty. Teaching "social justice" must occur not simply because it's relevant, but so my students can explore how their stories fit into the larger tapestry of a national and global story. Anything less is a wasted opportunity to challenge and expand not only their minds, but mine as well.

So, it is often not easy. It sometimes doesn't feel good and rarely ends in simple answers. Still, as an educator I must ensure that each student who enters my room at some point leaves feeling empowered to stand up for what they believe in. They may not always agree with me, but at least I will have given them the tools to share those beliefs.

At the end of the day, that's my job, my privilege, my kuleana: When a kid leaves my room, they're going to have heard as many stories as I can give them, and they're going to feel like they can tell their own.
Torres is a seventh- and ninth-grade English teacher in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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Why Teaching About Social Justice Matters

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These are questions I have been asked by... well, everyone-from parents to people on Twitter. I've been asked this by other teachers in my prep programs, teachers down the hall, by my own family members. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't ask myself sometimes: Wouldn't it be easier to just let it go?

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Diversity & Inclusion – Love Has No Labels - YouTube

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Diversity & Inclusion – Love Has No Labels - YouTube

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Urban Ministries of Durham serves over 6000 people every year who struggle with poverty and homelessness. Spent is an interactive game created by McKinney that challenges you to manage your money, raise a child and make it through the month getting paid minimum wage after a stretch of unemployment.

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Pink - Perfect (AHMIR cover) - Anti-Bullying video - YouTube

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Pink - Perfect (AHMIR cover) - Anti-Bullying video - YouTube

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Fulecia Stevens Denisha McDonald Roadrunner Talent and Media

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Michael Cheung Tichina Arnold Jessica Kirson Jonathan Fursh

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Pink - Perfect (AHMIR cover) - Anti-Bullying video

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UPDATE - MAY 2016: Our new album of original R&B music is COMING SOON! Real R&B is back. Be a part of history by becoming a limited-time exclusive contributor to our Indiegogo campaign here: https://igg.me/at/ahmir Your continued luv and support is always appreciated and we could never say thank you enough.

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Booker T. Washington - Mini Biography - Safeshare.TV

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Booker T. Washington - Mini Biography - Safeshare.TV

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SafeShare.tv - Booker T. Washington - Mini Biography...

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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Jamila Lyiscott: 3 ways to speak English | Talk Video | TED.com

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Jamila Lyiscott: 3 ways to speak English | Talk Video | TED.com

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Jamila Lyiscott: 3 ways to speak English

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Jamila Lyiscott is a "tri-tongued orator;" in her powerful spoken-word essay "Broken English," she celebrates - and challenges - the three distinct flavors of English she speaks with her friends, in the classroom and with her parents. As she explores the complicated history and present-day identity that each language represents, she unpacks what it means to be "articulate."

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Ruby Bridges painting goes up in Obama White House | NOLA.com

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Ruby Bridges painting goes up in Obama White House | NOLA.com

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Cracking the Codes: Joy DeGruy, A Trip to the Grocery Store - Safeshare.TV

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Cracking the Codes: Joy DeGruy, A Trip to the Grocery Store - Safeshare.TV

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SafeShare.tv - Cracking the Codes: Joy DeGruy, A Trip t...

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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Teach current events in your elementary classroom, grades 1-6.

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Current News

***Update on Museum Hours***

The Jim Crow Museum will be closed to the public each Monday. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. The museum has received an increased number of object donations and will utilize this time to properly process and care for the new objects, and conduct other necessary collections-based projects. To view a continuously updated calendar of available days and hours, please visit this page:
Location/Contact/Hours/Calendar

The staff of the Jim Crow Museum is excited to share with the public a virtual tour of the facility. This tour gives our virtual visitors an opportunity to learn about the museum. View tour

A special thanks to Real Space of Grand Rapids for working with us to create this tool.

Dr. David Pilgrim new book, Watermelons, Nooses, and Straight Razors: Stories from the Jim Crow Museum is available for purchase through PM Press.

Get your copy today.

The book Understanding Jim Crow: Using Racist Memorabilia to Teach Tolerance and Promote Social Justice written by Dr. Pilgrim is also available. Signed copies can also be purchased at the Museum using Check or Money Order for $20.00 tax included.

Dr. David Pilgrim tells the story of how he established the Jim Crow Museum --a unique teaching tool to help people gain a new perspective on racism in America. April 2019

Is there a co-relationship between the African Dip game and Clown Dunk Tanks? Find out more in this month's Question of the Month.

Disneyland was home to the original Aunt Jemima's Kitchen; however, there were many stand-alone locations across the country. Learn more in this month's Question of the Month.

What was the role of the Alphas as a civil rights organization? Learn more about them this month's Question of the Month.

James Reese Europe was the conductor of the famous 369th Infantry Band. Learn more about him in this month's Question of the Month.

Video Spotlight

Tour the Jim Crow museum with founder and curator, Dr. David Pilgrim. Dr. Pilgrim discusses some of the major themes of the Jim Crow Museum. Jim Crow was not just a character or a set of "laws", it was a system that built upon itself to create and sustain a society with a racial hierarchy.
Watch a video of the Jim Crow Museum: History, Purpose and Vision
Traveling Exhibits

From Aunt Jemima advertisements to the board game Ghettopoly, American popular culture is replete with racist images. The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia features an extensive collection of racist objects that trace the history of the stereotyping of African Americans.

"THEM: Images of Separation," is a traveling exhibition that showcases items from popular culture used to stereotype different groups. The negative imagery -- found on postcards, license plates, games, souvenirs and costumes -- promoted stereotyping against such groups as Asian-Americans, Hispanics, Jews and poor whites, as well as those who are "other" in terms of body type or sexual orientation.

Special Features

Notable Visits

The battle continues as racial images and items are produced daily. Objects with racist themes are created, produced, and sold weekly in the United States.

Museum Information

The Jim Crow Museum is open and is FREE to the public. The Museum features six exhibit areas -- Who and What is Jim Crow, Jim Crow Violence, Jim Crow and Anti-Black Imagery, Battling Jim Crow Imagery, Attacking Jim Crow Segregation, and Beyond Jim Crow.

The Museum also offers a comprehensive timeline of the African American experience in the United States. The timeline is divided into six sections: Africa Before Slavery, Slavery in America, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, Civil Rights and Post Civil Rights.

The Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University strives to become a leader in social activism and in the discussion of race and race relations. This facility will provide increased opportunities for education and research. Please join us as we embark on this mission.

Regular hours are Monday thru Friday 12-5 p.m. Extended hours will be every other weekend from 12-5 as the campus calendar allows. Please consult the calendar. Group tours, please continue to make an appointment. To schedule a tour, please contact the museum at (231) 591-5873 or at[email protected] . Please refer to the calendar of events for availability.

Mission and Objectives of the Jim Crow Museum

The mission of the Jim Crow Museum is to use objects of intolerance to teach tolerance and promote social justice.

The Museum's mission is achieved through the following objectives:

Collect, exhibit and preserve objects and collections related to racial segregation, anti-black caricatures, civil rights, and African American achievement.

Promote the scholarly examination of historical and contemporary expressions of racism.

Serve as a teaching resource for Ferris State University courses which deal, directly or indirectly, with the issues of race and ethnicity.

Serve as an educational resource for scholars and teachers at the state, national and international levels.

Promote racial understanding and healing.

Serve as a resource for civil rights and human rights organizations.

Museum Policy Update
For Children Visitors to the Jim Crow Museum Policy, please see Contact page.
Visitors to the Jim Crow Museum are prohibited from photographing or video recording any portions of the Museum.

Exceptions to this policy can be made at the discretion of Museum staff and might include special events, scholars who have made arrangements in advance of their visits, and credentialed members of the press.

Visitors needing assistance

Visitors with disabilities requiring assistance or accommodation to access any portion of this website may contact the Diversity and Inclusion Office at (231) 591-3946, Educational Counseling & Disabilities Services at (231) 591-3057, or the Office of Equal Opportunity at (231) 591-2152.

Patrons with disabilities may contact the museum with questions regarding access to the museum's physical space and contents. The Museum has a wheelchair which patrons may use during their visit, provided as a courtesy to patrons. We do not provide personal attendants or mobility services, however.

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Jim Crow Museum - Ferris State University

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The Jim Crow Museum will be closed to the public each Monday. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. The museum has received an increased number of object donations and will utilize this time to properly process and care for the new objects, and conduct other necessary collections-based projects.

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Inspiring Indigenous Women and Girls to Rise

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Inspiring Indigenous Women and Girls to Rise

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PaHoua Vang

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Our series spotlighting the work of our Board members continues with Stella Tamang, a member of the Tamang, one of Nepal's largest Indigenous groups. She is the chair and founder of the National Indigenous Women's Federation and co-founder of the South Asia Indigenous Women's Network. She also chaired the Indigenous Women Caucus at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2003 and 2004, successfully pushing for the third session to focus on Indigenous women. In 2005 she was jointly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the organization 1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition to her work on women's rights, Tamang founded Bikalpa Gyan Kedra, an organization that works to eradicate child labor among the Tamang by offering alternative educational opportunities.

Born in the Gorkha district of Nepal on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Stella Tamang learned the value of education from an early age. "We are mountain people. I am the first person from my tribe to get a formal education. When my parents went to Burma to work in a mine as laborers, they took us and we had the opportunity to go to school," she says. Upon being admitted into the formal educational system she was not permitted to learn in her native language, Tamang, but was forced to use Nepalese, the national language of Nepal. This experience made a strong impact. Years later when she learned English, she says, "I became aware of how political decisions get made, and that our people were not involved. I also saw how governmental policies and programs were affecting us and the discrimination that was occurring. The majority of my people were being forced to learn the dominant language and culture and were not allowed to grow up with their own culture and language. Many people never realize why they are suffering, poor, or mistreated. They take it for granted that that is their way of life."

In response to this realization, Tamang started a center for alternative learning for young Tamang girls. As the girls become teenagers, they are often sent to the capital to work to support their families back home. The jobs are unsafe and the conditions are very poor. So, Tamang got the idea to start a program whereby, Tamang girls were given a safe space to learn and earn simultaneously. The 18-month alternative learning program, Bikalpa Gyan Kendra, invites girls age 13-17 to a residential school where they learn to read and write in their own language, as well as Nepalese, and develop practical skills for possible job opportunities in the future. The girls ultimately decide for themselves whether they want to stay in Kathmandu or return to their villages.
Making Indigenous Women Part of The Indigenous Movement
Over the years Tamang has become involved with Indigenous women all over Nepal, along with other Indigenous communities in Bangladesh, India, and Bhutan. She explains the origins of the Indigenous women's movement that she helped to launch: "Indigenous women are triply discriminated [against]: you are a woman, you are an Indigenous, and you are poor. In Nepal the women's movement was strong, but it was a very fragmented movement, it was a very exclusive movement because Indigenous women were not included. They would talk about mainstream women's problems and issues, [but] Indigenous women have totally different kinds of problems. We were not allowed to bring up those kinds of women's issues in Indigenous meetings. You were not given space and you were not listened to, and I thought, we cannot go ahead like this. So I started to organize Indigenous women. I not only organized my own Tamang women, but I started to look at other Indigenous women in Nepal and what was happening. I helped them to organize themselves and later we registered ourselves as a women's federation. Now we are about 40 Indigenous women's organizations who are members of a women's federation."

Although the women's movement was gaining traction, initially it was a fragmented movement. Tamang explains, "At the regional level I organized Indigenous women in India, Bangladesh, and then Bhutan and Sri Lanka. At the South Asia level I was the convenor for the South Asia Indigenous Women Forum. We thought Indigenous women in Asia should come together, so we had a series of conferences and meetings." By joining together under the Indigenous Women's Federation and the South Asia Indigenous Women's Network, which constitutes the seven countries of South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka), Tamang created a network for Indigenous women to work and communicate with one another.

Tamang's work was initially criticized for creating a rift in Indigenous communities between women and men, but now both groups are active within the Indigenous movement at global and local levels. She says her plan was never to split the movement, but to make it stronger and create a community of co-existence within the Indigenous community. In Nepal, she says, "Indigenous people were not recognized for about 20 years. We were treated as a very different person, inferior, not even recognized as a citizen-so our language, our culture, everything was denied. About 1989, the Nepali democracy movement created an environment in which people, especially Indigenous people, had a little more freedom to express themselves and organize. Of course Indigenous Peoples' organizations existed before, but they were underground because such organizations were illegal. In 1989 we also got the opportunity to attend international meetings and conferences for Indigenous people, and those meetings were empowering. I don't know how much the formal agenda of those conferences helped us, but meeting people outside the meeting rooms and hearing experiences was marvelous.

"Back at home I was working at the regional level, ensuring the Indigenous women's network, ensuring the Indigenous women's forum, and then I was very active at the UN organizing and getting women recognized. From the UN I started organizing women at a global level, and this is how I became the chair of the Indigenous Women's Caucus at the UN. Having the Permanent Forum, the first year was a celebration; the second year was on one theme, [and] the third year I said it should be about women because we are talking about half the population of Indigenous people. It was quite a struggle but finally I got it accepted. The best thing that happened was not only at the UN, but all the regions in Africa. Africa had a regional Indigenous women's consultation, Asia had it, the Pacific, Europe, Latin America...so you know it was a great acceptance. Now Indigenous women are active at the global level as well as at the local level."

Tamang refers to the global Indigenous rights movement as an extended family. "The fun and excitement is meeting with Indigenous people from different parts [of the world]. They look different and speak different, but the problems they are suffering are the same," she says. Still, attaining global recognition has been a process. "At the UN level, Indigenous people were not recognized. Now there is a lot of recognition; the UN even has this Declaration of Indigenous people, and we have a forum. Now there is a process. The change, in 10-15 years, the whole question of being recognized at the local level as well as at the global level-I think that is one of the greatest achievements." Such achievements inspire Tamang to continue working for the full recognition, and acceptance, of Indigenous Peoples. "I want my look to be accepted, I want my color to be accepted. With [our] differences, we should be living together with full dignity," she says. "This is the world that I want to see: where different colors, different languages, different looks live together without being discriminated. Being accepted, with full dignity."

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Inspiring Indigenous Women and Girls to Rise: Stella Tamang

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Our series spotlighting the work of our Board members continues with Stella Tamang, a member of the Tamang, one of Nepal's largest Indigenous groups. She is the chair and founder of the National Indigenous Women's Federation and co-founder of the South Asia Indigenous Women's Network.

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PaHoua Vang

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Article of role-models for a minority population

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Fellow parents have turned to Kou Moua for help navigating St. Paul's Johnson High School. Teachers have asked the mother of seven for her magic parenting formula.

Moua's oldest children, Justin and Jepheny, are the East Side school's two most recent valedictorians. Younger siblings, Josalyza and Jethro, are in the running for 2015 and 2016.

That's quite a track record considering that Moua and husband Zaaj Thao came to the United States as young Hmong refugees who spoke no English and had little formal schooling.

The four "JTs," as their children are nicknamed for their identical initials, are the stuff of Johnson High legend: They take the school's most challenging courses and excel at them. They are star athletes and talented performers. Soft-spoken and self-effacing, they win student council and other school elections. Three more promising Thao students are coming up the grades.

Johnson teachers and principals have puzzled over how the siblings find enough hours in the day to do all they do - and do it so well.

"They are an amazing family," said Spanish teacher Leslie Helman. "They have an incredible work ethic."

Throughout Minnesota, the achievement of Hmong students has lagged - a source of concern for community leaders. In St. Paul, a gap of 45 percentage points separates Hmong students' reading proficiency and that of white peers.

But the Thao family and Johnson administrators have a prediction: More success stories like theirs will emerge in the coming years.

They speak of mounting competition to rack up college degrees within extended families and among Hmong clans. They speak of a new generation of parents who look back on their troubled school careers and want a different experience for their children.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Moua and Thao don't have fond memories of their schooling. She arrived in Chicago at age 8. He came to Minnesota at 11.

Neither spoke a word of English. Both traveled from Thai refugee camps to the United States with widowed mothers who were illiterate and too overwhelmed by the transition to get involved in their education.

Neither participated in sports or other school activities. Moua's earliest memory of school involves enlisting a Hmong student who spoke some English to ask the teacher for permission so she could go to the bathroom.

Their kids have been a different story. In 2013, when their elder children were all at Johnson, all four ranked first or second in their classes.

Before heading to Carleton College in Northfield as a pre-med student that year, Justin was the senior class president, the National Honor Society vice president and the soccer and tennis team captain. He played the drums in honors band, mentored younger students in the school's Link Crew program and volunteered at Woodwinds Hospital in Woodbury.

Jepheny, who will follow Justin to Carleton this fall, was involved in student council, the tennis team, the choir, National Honor Society and Link Crew. She is also a member of a Hmong dance group and the lead singer at Hmong Hope Community Church's worship band, where she started out as a seventh-grader so shy the congregation could barely hear her at the microphone.

Sister Josalyza and brother Jethro are quickly racking up similar lists of accomplishments at Johnson, where roughly half of the students are Hmong. Sister Josapheena will be a freshman at Johnson next year; brother Jerusalem and sister Jewellynna are at Capitol Hill Gifted and Talented Magnet.

"I was always asking myself how they were able to do everything they did and at such a high level," said Astein Osei, Johnson High's former principal. "I still don't get it."

Ker Yang, a Johnson counselor, has wondered the same: "They always ask me how they can fit more into their schedules." For their parents, he had a question he's rarely asked in his career: "Are you sure you want your child to take all honors classes?"

HIGH STANDARDS

The Thao siblings make no bones about it: They do so well in school because at home the expectations are high and the rules are hard and fast.

If they get a B on an assignment, they lose their cellphone privileges. If they get caught surfing the Internet instead of doing school research, they lose their modem. Television is only on Fridays after school and on Saturdays.

The Thao children say they understand where their parents are coming from.

Moua and Thao married a couple of years out of high school. They have done all right for themselves: They have a modest home on the East Side and stable jobs. Thao does circuit board repairs. Moua, who has since earned a bachelor's degree in education, works as an educational assistant in the St. Paul district. But with seven children, financial uncertainty has been a constant.

"We work hard so we won't have to work as hard as my parents have all their lives," said Justin. Adds Josalyza: "We don't want to stay where we are right now. We want better lives."

Moua worries sometimes about putting too much pressure on the children.

"My colleagues tell me, 'You need to stop being such a tiger mom,' " Moua said. "But if we don't help our kids be successful, nobody else will."

Between the two of them, Moua and Thao have never missed a parent-teacher conference. Moua stashes away all her kids' schoolwork in cardboard boxes and checks in with teachers when a child gets a B.

"Just being there for them at all costs is very important," said Thao.

Thao and Moua give ground at times. In high school, Justin pitched the idea of getting involved with school athletics. His parents were skeptical.

"When the kids first told us they wanted to be 'well-rounded,' we said, 'What do you mean by that?' " said Moua.

Justin explained the word and vowed his schoolwork would not suffer. He kept his promise, and his siblings have followed suit.

Most recently, Moua stepped in when she found out Jepheny would not get recognition as the class valedictorian at her graduation ceremony. At some district schools, the valedictorian is a shoe-in for graduation speaker; at others, the Top 10 students might get props by, say, wearing different-color robes.

At Johnson, educators select two Liberty Honor Award winners and graduation speakers based on academics and school and community involvement. Jepheny was not one of them. Moua told principal Micheal Thompson she was setting out to make sure top students get recognized.

Thompson says he will make sure the Top 10 students get celebrated in some way during future ceremonies.

HOPEFUL SIGNS

The 2010 U.S. Census found almost 15 percent of Hmong Americans age 25 or older had at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 30 percent for whites and almost 50 percent for all Asians. In 1990, fewer than 5 percent of Hmong Americans did.

That's rapid progress, says University of Minnesota family social science professor Zha Blong Xiong, but challenges remain. Hmong community leaders like him worry about low standardized test scores and relatively high dropout rates.

Too often, Xiong says, new immigrants are comfortable enough with the language and the U.S. school system to assume their children will do all right. Xiong says: "This population is the least involved in their schools."

Researchers are studying ways schools can step up their outreach to these parents.

In the St. Paul district, where Hmong children make up a fifth of students, their graduation rates and test scores have inched up in recent years but still lag behind those of white peers.

Still, at Johnson, some administrators think the Thao family's experience might foretell a broader shift. Yang, the counselor, says Hmong extended families and clans have long tracked and compared college students and graduates, but now those lists are getting longer.

This past spring, five of Johnson's Top 10 students were Hmong. Hmong girls in particular are stepping up in academics and student leadership roles, Thompson said. "I keep saying we'll have a female Hmong mayor in our city some day soon."

To the Thao children, the key ingredient is simple: persistence.

Once in gym class, a teacher told Justin he is one of the guys who sweat the most. The remark was one of the best compliments he's gotten.

"We believe we are not the smartest kids at our school," said Jepheny. "We just work really hard."

In her senior year, with after-school activities and homework help for her younger siblings, Jepheny often tackled school work as late as 8 or 9 p.m. Before going to bed past midnight, she sometimes texted her dad to wake her when he got up for work - at 4 a.m.

Still, says classmate Duacha Yang, Jepheny was always available to help her out with tough chemistry or calculus assignments after school, or just to offer a pep talk.

The Thao siblings are a bit like a support group whose members can get really competitive with each other. They compare GPAs and ACT scores, but they also campaign tirelessly for each other in school elections.

"We should motivate and push each other to do better," said Justin, "not only within our family but within our community."

THE FOUR JTs

Justin, 19

Favorite classes: Calculus, honors band and English literature

Hobbies: Rapping, soccer and tennis

Personal hero: Actor Will Smith

Goal: Own a health care clinic.

Jepheny, 18

Favorite classes: Calculus and chemistry

Hobbies: Singing, playing guitar and piano, tennis and dancing

Personal hero: her dad

Goals: Major in biology or another science at Carleton College and go into medicine.

Josalyza, 17

Favorite classes: U.S. history, chemistry and calculus

Hobbies: Tennis, dancing, cooking and photography

Personal hero: Her grandmother

Goals: Get into an elite college and travel the world.

Jethro, 16

Favorite classes: Chemistry, Spanish and geography

Hobbies: Soccer, volleyball, tennis and running

Personal hero: Actor Bruce Lee

Goals: Work in medicine and become successful

Mila Koumpilova can be reached at 651-228-2171.

Follow her at twitter.com/MilaPiPress.

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From one Hmong family, four of Johnson High's top students

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Fellow parents have turned to Kou Moua for help navigating St. Paul's Johnson High School. Teachers have asked the mother of seven for her magic parenting formula. Moua's oldest children, Justin and Jepheny, are the East Side school's two most recent valedictorians. Younger siblings, Josalyza and Jethro, are in the running for 2015 and 2016.

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Caitlin Carpenter

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We Are The World 25 For Haiti - Official Video

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Tips for Raising Culturally Aware Children

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Tips for Raising Culturally Aware Children

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Emily Bauer

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With Public Schools Under Attack, What Would Martin Say?

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With Public Schools Under Attack, What Would Martin Say?

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Jennifer Olivares - Sorry for posting 2 but this one was too good to pass up

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This year marked the fiftieth anniversary of Mississippi Freedom Summer and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in US history. It also has marked a renewed push by the proponents of corporate education reform to dismantle public education in what they persist in referring to as the great "civil rights issue of our time." The leaders of this effort, including US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, are fond of appropriating the language of the civil rights movement to justify their anti-union, anti-teacher, pro-testing privatization agenda. But they are not social justice advocates. And Arne Duncan is no Reverend King.

In a 2010 speech observing the forty-fifth anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March, Duncan boldly invoked the words of John Kennedy: "Simple justice requires that public funds . . . not be spent in any fashion which encourages, subsidizes, or results in racial discrimination." Duncan enjoined those in attendance, "Let me repeat that, President Kennedy said that no taxpayer dollars should be spent if they subsidize or result in racial discrimination." Yet Duncan and the Obama Administration-through Race to the Top, a program similar to the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind-have pursued policies that exacerbate segregation and racial inequality.

In a 2010 interview with then-chancellor of the New York City Department of Education Joel Klein, Duncan went even further, invoking the name of Martin Luther King to justify attacks on public schools. Dr. King "explained in his powerful Letter from Birmingham Jail why the civil rights movement could not wait," said Duncan. "America today cannot wait to transform education. We've been far too complacent and too passive. We have perpetuated poverty and social failure for far too long. The need is urgent and the time for change is now."

But there is plenty of evidence that King would never have endorsed corporate education reform or privatization. Consider how King defined the role of education.

While still an undergraduate at Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1947, King said: "I too often find that most college men have a misconception of the purpose of education." They "think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses." He continued: "Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end."

Here, King plainly laid out two visions of education that continue to war against each other. While he acknowledged the importance of an education in preparing persons for the workforce, enabling "man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life," he also saw a much deeper purpose.

"We must remember," King warned, "that intelligence is not enough . . . Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education." He asserted, "The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate."

King saw the goal of education as more than performance on high-stakes tests or the acquisition of job skills or career competencies. He saw it as the cornerstone of free thought and the use of knowledge in the public interest. For King, the lofty goal of education was not just to make a living but also to make the world a better place by using that production of knowledge for good. "To save man from the morass of propaganda," King opined, "is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction." The notion that privatization can foster equality is fiction.

King was born into a world in which privatization was the enemy of equality. In the 1930s, for instance, the NAACP struggled against agents of the Democratic Party in many southern states that tried to define it as a private club; they cut off avenues to full political participation through vehicles like the white primary. Poll taxes and literacy tests were also still employed in many locations to deny African Americans political participation. It is hard to imagine King under any circumstances endorsing either testing or privatization as the means of ensuring equality.

In fact, King by implication strongly rebuked the privatizers in his observations regarding Senator Eugene Talmadge, the notorious segregationist governor of his home state of Georgia.

Talmadge, King observed, "possessed one of the better minds of Georgia, or even America," and "wore the Phi Beta Kappa key." King reflected, "By all measuring rods, Mr. Talmadge could think critically and intensively; yet he contends that I am an inferior being. Are those the types of men we call educated?"

The same could be said at present for the cadre of corporate education reformers touting Ivy League degrees and billion-dollar bank accounts without an ounce of empathy for those harmed by their efforts. Like Talmadge, they fail to see beyond the narrow confines of their own self-interest the inherently dangerous and corrosive impact their policies are having not only on the nation's youth but also the foundations of American democracy. When Arne Duncan suggests, for instance, as he did in a speech at a Brooklyn charter school in 2009, that based on high-stakes testing, "we should be able to look every second grader in the eye and say, 'You're on track, you're going to be able to go to a good college, or you're not,' " there is a serious problem. In neglecting to address how the nation would deal with the so-called failures on these high-stakes tests, he is not only betraying the movement but the very function of education as King imagined it.

King would never have endorsed high-stakes testing. "The function of education," he explained in 1947, "is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically." Furthermore, he never would have supported any individual or group that promoted a view of education simply as a means of ensuring job efficiency without human compassion. Education that "stops with efficiency," he warned, "may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals."

King saw how school privatization was used to maintain segregation in Georgia. He witnessed the insidious efforts of Eugene Talmadge's son, Herman, a distinguished lawyer, who succeeded his father in the governor's office. Herman Talmadge created what became known as the "private-school plan." In 1953, before the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Talmadge proposed an amendment to the Georgia Constitution to empower the general assembly to privatize the state's public education system. "We can maintain separate schools regardless of the US Supreme Court," Talmadge advised his colleagues, "by reverting to a private system, subsidizing the child rather than the political subdivision." The plan was simple. If the Supreme Court decided, as it eventually did in Brown, to mandate desegregation, the state would close the schools and issue vouchers to allowing students to enroll in segregated private schools.

What we are seeing in the name of "reform" today is the same plan with slight modifications: brand schools as low-performing factories of failure, encourage privatization, and leave the vast majority of students in underfunded, highly stigmatized public schools.

This effort will create an America that looks more like the 1967 Kerner Commission's forecast, two societies separate and unequal, than Martin Luther King's Beloved Community.

For King, the Beloved Community was a global vision of human cooperation and understanding where all peoples could share in the abundant resources of the planet. He believed that universal standards of human decency could be used to challenge the existence of poverty, famine, and economic displacement in all of its forms. A celebration of achievement and an appreciation of fraternity would blot out racism, discrimination, and distinctions of any kind that sought to divide rather than elevate people-no matter what race, religion, or test score. The Beloved Community promoted international cooperation over competition. The goal of education should be not to measure our progress against the world but to harness our combined intelligence to triumph over the great social, scientific, humanistic, and environmental issues of our time.

While it seeks to claim the mantle of the movement and Dr. King's legacy, corporate education reform is rooted in fear, fired by competition and driven by division. It seeks to undermine community rather than build it and, for this reason, it is the ultimate betrayal of the goals and values of the movement.

Real triumph over educational inequalities can only come from a deeper investment in our schools and communities and a true commitment to tackling poverty, segregation, and issues affecting students with special needs and bilingual education. The Beloved Community is to be found not in the segregated citadels of private schools but in a well-funded system of public education, free and open to all-affirming our commitment to democracy and justice and our commitment to the dignity and worth of our greatest resource, our youth.

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With Public Schools Under Attack, What Would Martin Say?

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This year marked the fiftieth anniversary of Mississippi Freedom Summer and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in US history. It also has marked a renewed push by the proponents of corporate education reform to dismantle public education in what they persist in referring to as the great "civil rights issue of our time."

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Posted by Tiffany Graewin

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Changing the World, One Word at a Time! | The Queen Latifah Show

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Finding music by African Americans on early phonograph records is more difficult than one might surmise. Black artists rarely performed on early recordings. Racial prejudice may only be a contributing factor.

Although black singers and musicians were well known, in its early years, the recording industry was not looking for known artists. At its inception, beginning in the 1890s, it was the song that sold a record and not (with some exceptions) the artist.

Talent scouts from the record companies were on the lookout to recruit anybody with a good clear voice and good diction. Recruits were trained to utilize the various techniques of making a successful recording--such as backing away from the recording horn at loud passages to avoid "blasting."

There was no need to seek out famous stage artists. The Berliner, Edison, and Columbia companies of the 1890s had established a cadre of professional white "recorders" able to render both up to the minute hits as well as old favorites--and for a lower fee than a famous performer required. These white recorders could also reproduce the works of African-American performers with "authentic" dialect. So why hire Ernest Hogan, Cole and Johnson, Williams and Walker, and others when the in-house talent could do the job? Besides, many artists famous for their strong stage voices did not record as clearly as the professional record makers.

Earliest Black Recording Artists

In 1890 George W. Johnson became the first African American to record commercially. A common story is that Johnson, a former slave, was discovered singing on the streets of Washington, D.C., by Berliner recording agent Fred Gaisberg. Gaisberg himself perpetrated this myth along with the falsehood that Johnson was later hanged for murdering his wife.

According to historian Tim Brooks, Johnson was a familiar figure in New York City's Hell's Kitchen and made his first commercial recordings in the spring of 1890 for the Metropolitan and New Jersey Phonograph companies. Previously, Johnson had also made tin foil exhibition recordings. Later in 1890, a group called The Unique Quartette followed Johnson into the recording studio. The Unique Quartette recorded again in 1893, and one of their titles, "Mama's Black Baby Boy" survives in stunning fidelity.

In 1891 banjoist and raconteur Louis "Bebe" Vasnier recorded several titles for The Louisiana Phonograph Company. At least one of his "Brudder Rasmus" sermons survives, albeit barely audible.

George W. Johnson continued recording throughout the 1890s and eventually was recorded by Berliner, Edison, and Columbia. Johnson's specialty was "laughing songs" done in the popular "coon" manner. It is not surprising that Johnson's jocular performances seem restrained in dialect and stereotype compared to white singers of "coon songs" such as Billy Golden. Golden's broad black caricature, while polished, was undignified.

Williams and Walker

The earliest representative of African-American performers on this site is George Walker ("Her Name's Miss Dinah Fair"). Walker, along with his partner Bert Williams, were perhaps the most famous (to both black and white audiences) black entertainers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the summer of 1897 they played many of the first class vaudeville houses in New York City.

In October 1901 Williams and Walker made the first of their 15 recordings (both as soloists and a duo) for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Along with comic George W. Johnson, The Dinwiddie Colored Quartette, and a few other persons, they were the only black recording artists to be advertised by a national company until the Fisk University Jubilee Singers recorded for Victor in 1909.

The Victor sessions yielded only three Walker solos compared to two duets with Williams and Williams' eight solo recordings. These recordings are extremely rare today. The early stampers for the making the discs wore out quickly and often necessitated the artists returning to re-record the selections.

Because of Williams and Walker's extremely busy schedule and also perhaps because of George Walker's reluctance to record (it is said that he detested the way his voice sounded on recordings), Victor did not record Williams and Walker after their November 1901 session. Another factor likely contributing to the limited number of recordings was the expense involved in bringing in big stars such as Williams and Walker.

In 1906 with the advent of their show Abyssinia, Williams and Walker were engaged by The Columbia Record Company. Bert Williams performs solo on most of these recordings. There is only a single title recorded by the pair, "Pretty Desdemone"; this was actually issued in two separate performances, one each on cylinder and disc. There were no solos by Walker. His biggest stage hit, "Bon Bon Buddy," was later recorded for Victor by the white tenor, Billy Murray.

Around 1911, the artist became a bigger draw than the song. After the illness and death of George Walker, Bert Williams appeared in one book musical, Mr. Load of Koal. He then joined the Ziegfeld Follies and became a regular. Once he was a part of Ziegfeld's company, his popularity soared and he became one of Columbia Records' biggest sellers. Williams' repertoire had grown greatly and still mainly consisted of works by African Americans such as Will Vodery, Alex Rogers, and himself. But after 1911, the public bought Bert Williams' records to hear Bert Williams, the star.

Black Composers, White Performers

There were other black performers whose fame rivaled Williams and Walker, such as Ernest Hogan and the team of Cole and Johnson. However, as far as is known, the latter did not make records. Their compositions, however, were represented on recordings by white vocalists and instrumental ensembles. For example Hogan's outrageous and misunderstood "All Coons Look Alike To Me" was recorded for the Edison Company by baritone Arthur Collins.

Arthur Collins (1864-1933) was one of the most prolific recordings artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His specialty was "coon songs" sung in dialect and frequently in partnership with Byron G. Harlan (1861-1936). Collins recorded many selections associated with Bert Williams including Williams' famous "Nobody." He also recorded several Williams' specialties that Williams never recorded such as "That's a Plenty" (not the jazz standard), a song that Williams introduced in the 1909 production Mr. Load of Koal.

Not all vocal recordings of compositions by African Americans were stereotyped dialect. J. Leubrie Hill's "At the Ball That's All" was charmingly sung by white vaudevillians Harry Mayo and Harry Tally for the Edison Company. "Under the Bamboo Tree," a smash hit by Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson, was treated rather artistically for Victor Records by stage star Marie Cahill. Other exceptions include the melodramatic ballads of Gussie L. Davis, composer of "My Creole Sue" and "In the Baggage Coach Ahead " (1896).

Bob Cole (1868-1911) and J. Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) were extraordinarily successful songwriters and performers. Their vaudeville act was performed in elegant evening clothes and was devoid of caricature. A frequent third member of their team was Rosamond's older brother, James Weldon (1871-1938).

One of the popular songs by Cole and Johnson was a comic Irish caricature entitled "Oh Didn't He Ramble." Committed to wax several times during the early 1900s by both Arthur Collins and Dan W. Quinn, the song has had a rather long and interesting life. Composed by an African-American duo, it told of the "black sheep" of a New York Irish immigrant family. The wayward son, Buster, had "rough and rowdy ways" and "rambled all around, in and out the town... 'till the butcher cut him down."

"Oh Didn't He Ramble" became popular among the black brass bands in New Orleans via the published band stock arrangement. The piece became standard repertoire for New Orleans jazz funerals, played in both the original 6/8 and 4/4 time, as an upbeat tribute to the deceased as the band and mourners leave the cemetery exclaiming that "he rambled 'till the butcher cut him down."

The Roots of Jazz and Stock Arrangements

Another popular number with New Orleans brass bands was William H. Tyers' (1876-1924) Carribean-flavored song, "Panama." This song first shows up on a 1922 record by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK), some 11 years after its initial publication. In their recording, the NORK take liberties with the harmonies and rhythms as originally intended by Tyers. Luis Russell's romping 1930 version took the piece further away from its source. Thus began a journey of reinterpretation for "Panama" to the point of faint resemblance.

Traditional jazz bands still play "Panama" regularly without much idea of the beauty that was intended. However, the 1923 version by (W. C.) Handy's Memphis Blues Band made for The Okeh Company is fairly faithful to Tyers' originally-published stock arrangement.

Tyers composed other Carribean-flavored works that found great success, including "Maori" and "Admiration." Both works appeared on various phonograph records at the time of their publication. "Maori" was recorded as a piano solo by Mike Bernard in 1913. A vanity recording of "Admiration" by St. Louis pianist Gus Haenschen and his "Banjo Orchestra" was recorded and sold locally in 1916. Both pieces were recorded in 1930 by Duke Ellington's orchestra.

While African-American composers may not have dominated the world of published music, their music was certainly well-represented. This situation was reflected strongly in the recording industry.

From the early days of the recording industry, many African-American composers had their works recorded. In the case of instrumental selections, the house orchestra or band almost always used the published stock arrangement. Occasionally, this is also true for vocal selections. Fred S. Stone, noted Detroit musician, had his hit instrumental "Ma Ragtime Baby" recorded for Edison prior to 1900. Composer, conductor, violinist, and generally larger-than-life character Will Marion Cook was well represented on disc and cylinder. By 1901 his hits such as "On Emancipation Day," "Darktown is Out Tonight," and "Who Dat Say Chicken in Dis Crowd?" were recorded many times over, both in instrumental and vocal versions. In 1914 Cook himself conducted a group, the Afro-American Folk Song Singers, in a Columbia recording of Cook's black folk-anthem entitled "Swing Along." They render an enthusiastic reading of Cook's majestic music that had been used in the opening chorus of Williams and Walker's "In Dahomey." "Swing Along" is heard on this site, sung by the Orpheus Male Chorus on Edison.

Chris Smith (1879-1949) was another prolific black composer. He is best remembered as the composer of "Ballin' the Jack"--recorded countless times from the teens up to the present day. Smith also was responsible for the music to "Good Morning Carrie" (lyric by R. C. McPherson aka Cecil Mack). Williams and Walker used this song in vaudeville and also recorded it for Victor in 1901.

Smith's compositions, such as "Balling the Jack" and "Down in Honky-Tonky Town," retained their original shapes and sounds when adopted into the jazz repertoire--unlike William Tyers' "Panama." Smith collaborated frequently during the early 1920s with pianist and comedian Jimmy Durante. Their "I Got My Habits On" was a big hit and was recorded many times.

James Reese Europe

The year 1913 saw the first recordings by a keystone member of the African-American composers' elite--James Reese Europe. Composer, conductor, and organizer, Europe controlled several dance orchestras in New York during the 1910s and had become the president of the Clef Club, a union for African-American musicians. Europe's recording contract with Victor Records came with his appointment as conductor for the sensational dance team Vernon and Irene Castle.

The Europe recordings pre-date the first recordings of a jazz band by four years and are fascinating glimpses of African-American dance music. Europe's recording of his own composition "Castle House Rag" is an exciting, vigorous performance driven by aggressive drumming from legendary "Buddy" Gilmore. Supposedly this recording features several banjos, mandolins, violins, two pianos, and a small complement of brass and winds. Lead violin and percussion are the most audible-- the other instruments sound off in the distance and are indistinct. Europe uses a special arrangement on the recording and the published stock is quite different.

Other prominent members of the Clef Club found their way onto phonograph records and into well-paying, high-profile engagements. Ford Dabney's band made many recordings for the Aeolian-Vocalion Company. He also led his orchestra for Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic at the New Amsterdam Roof.

By the time James Reese Europe's Victor contract ran out (seemingly concurrent with the end of his association with the Castles) there seemed to be an increase in recordings by black instrumental groups. White dancer Joan Sawyer's accompanying musicians, the African-American "Persian Garden Orchestra" made several sides for Columbia. In 1916 pioneering "stride" pianist C. Luckeyth Roberts made two masters for Columbia that were never released. The first commercial recordings of clarinetist Wilbur Sweatman also appeared in 1916.

The New Era of "Race Records"

It wasn't until 1920 that the concept of the "race record" was born. At the insistence of black composer, pianist, and talent promoter Perry Bradford, Okeh Records recorded a young African-American woman named Mamie Smith. Her initial releases were greeted with great enthusiasm. Suddenly it was realized that a large profit could be made by marketing special recordings to African-American buyers. Coincident with the success of Mamie Smith, recordings by white rural artists similarly came into being, as did more selective recordings of immigrant musicians performing their native music.

Finally, African-American music of all types was recorded in earnest. By 1926 both major and minor companies were focusing extraordinary attention to their "race" catalogs, often making trips "into the field" to record the itinerant as well as the famous.

Bibliography
Print Sources:
Brooks, Tim. The Columbia Master Book Discography, Volume I. Westport: Greenwood, 1999.

____. Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004.

Gaisberg, Frederick William. The Music Goes Round. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1942.

Kenney, William Howland. Recorded Music in American Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Koenigsberg, Allen. Edison Cylinder Records, 1889-1912. New York: Stellar Productions, 1969.

Millard, Andre. America on Record: A History of Recorded Sound. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Rust, Brian A. L. Jazz Records 1897-1842. New Rochelle: Arlington House, 1978.

Rust, Brian A. L., and Allen G. Debus. The Complete Entertainment Discography from 1897 to 1942. New York: Da Capo Press, 1989.

Spottswood, Richard K. Ethnic Music on Records. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990.

Web Sources:

Recording Pioneer George W. Johnson
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5224572External

Mainspring Press
http://www.mainspringpress.com/victorsales.htmlExternal

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African American Performers on Early Sound Recordings, 1892-1916

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Finding music by African Americans on early phonograph records is more difficult than one might surmise. Black artists rarely performed on early recordings. Racial prejudice may only be a contributing factor. Although black singers and musicians were well known, in its early years, the recording industry was not looking for known artists.

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*** Pedro Nunes *** (1502-1578) *** Alberto Pedro Calderón *** (1920-1998) He was born in Alcácer do Sal, Portugal *** Jose Ádem *** (1921-1991) Nonius He was born in Mendoza, Argentina Considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of his time. He was the first to propose

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How Many Black People From History Do You Know?

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How Many Black People From History Do You Know?

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Not all student appropriate but gives adults a glimpse at the history of black people.

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How Many Black People From History Do You Know?

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How Many Black People From History Do You Know?

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Student appropriate

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Famous Leaders for Young Readers,Black History Month

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Teach current events in your elementary classroom, grades 1-6.

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Ruby Bridges: A Simple Act of Courage Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources | Scholastic

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In November 1960, Ruby Bridges became the first African American child to integrate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Teach your students abo

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Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin

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Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin

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Few people know the story of Claudette Colvin: When she was 15, she refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white person - nine months before Rosa Parks did the very same thing.

Most people know about Parks and the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott that began in 1955, but few know that there were a number of women who refused to give up their seats on the same bus system. Most of the women were quietly fined, and no one heard much more.

Colvin was the first to really challenge the law.

Now a 69-year-old retiree, Colvin lives in the Bronx. She remembers taking the bus home from high school on March 2, 1955, as clear as if it were yesterday.

The bus driver ordered her to get up and she refused, saying she'd paid her fare and it was her constitutional right. Two police officers put her in handcuffs and arrested her. Her school books went flying off her lap.

"All I remember is that I was not going to walk off the bus voluntarily," Colvin says.

It was Negro history month, and at her segregated school they had been studying black leaders like Harriet Tubman, the runaway slave who led more than 70 slaves to freedom through the network of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. They were also studying about Sojourner Truth, a former slave who became an abolitionist and women's rights activist.

The class had also been talking about the injustices they were experiencing daily under the Jim Crow segregation laws, like not being able to eat at a lunch counter.

"We couldn't try on clothes," Colvin says. "You had to take a brown paper bag and draw a diagram of your foot ... and take it to the store. Can you imagine all of that in my mind? My head was just too full of black history, you know, the oppression that we went through. It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn't get up."

Colvin also remembers the moment the jail door closed. It was just like a Western movie, she says.

"And then I got scared, and panic come over me, and I started crying. Then I started saying the Lord's Prayer," she says.
'Twice Toward Justice'
Now her story is the subject of a new book, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.

Author Phil Hoose says that despite a few articles about her in the Birmingham press and in USA Today, and brief mentions in some books about the civil rights movement, most people don't know about the role Colvin played in the bus boycotts.

Hoose couldn't get over that there was this teenager, nine months before Rosa Parks, "in the same city, in the same bus system, with very tough consequences, hauled off the bus, handcuffed, jailed and nobody really knew about it."

He also believes Colvin is important because she challenged the law in court, one of four women plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the court case that successfully overturned bus segregation laws in Montgomery and Alabama.

There are many reasons why Claudette Colvin has been pretty much forgotten. She hardly ever told her story when she moved to New York City. In her new community, hardly anyone was talking about integration; instead, most people were talking about black enterprises, black power and Malcolm X.

When asked why she is little known and why everyone thinks only of Rosa Parks, Colvin says the NAACP and all the other black organizations felt Parks would be a good icon because "she was an adult. They didn't think teenagers would be reliable."

She also says Parks had the right hair and the right look.

"Her skin texture was the kind that people associate with the middle class," says Colvin. "She fit that profile."

David Garrow, a historian and the author of Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, says people may think that Parks' action was spontaneous, but black civic leaders had been thinking about what to do about the Montgomery buses for years.

After Colvin's arrest, she found herself shunned by parts of her community. She experienced various difficulties and became pregnant. Civil rights leaders felt she was an inappropriate symbol for a test case.

Parks was the secretary of the NAACP. She was well-known and respected and, says Garrow, Parks had a "natural gravitas" and was an "inherently impressive person."

At the same time, Garrow believes attention to Colvin is a healthy corrective, because "the real reality of the movement was often young people and often more than 50 percent women." The images you most often see are men in suits.

Hoose says he believes Colvin understands the pragmatism that pushed Parks to the fore, but "on the other hand, she did it."

Hoose says the stories of Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. are wonderful, but those are the stories of people in their 30s and 40s. Colvin was 15. Hoose feels his book will bring a fresh teen's perspective to the struggle to end segregation.

CLAUDETTE: One of them said to the driver in a very angry tone, "Who is it?" The motorman pointed at me. I heard him say, "That's nothing new . . . I've had trouble with that 'thing' before." He called me a "thing." They came to me and stood over me and one said, "Aren't you going to get up?" I said, "No, sir." He shouted "Get up" again. I started crying, but I felt even more defiant. I kept saying over and over, in my high-pitched voice, "It's my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right!" I knew I was talking back to a white policeman, but I had had enough.

One cop grabbed one of my hands and his partner grabbed the other and they pulled me straight up out of my seat. My books went flying everywhere. I went limp as a baby-I was too smart to fight back. They started dragging me backwards off the bus. One of them kicked me. I might have scratched one of them because I had long nails, but I sure didn't fight back. I kept screaming over and over, "It's my constitutional right!" I wasn't shouting anything profane-I never swore, not then, not ever. I was shouting out my rights.

It just killed me to leave the bus. I hated to give that white woman my seat when so many black people were standing. I was crying hard. The cops put me in the back of a police car and shut the door. They stood outside and talked to each other for a minute, and then one came back and told me to stick my hands out the open window. He handcuffed me and then pulled the door open and jumped in the backseat with me. I put my knees together and crossed my hands over my lap and started praying.

All ride long they swore at me and ridiculed me. They took turns trying to guess my bra size. They called me "nigger bitch" and cracked jokes about parts of my body. I recited the Lord's Prayer and the Twenty-third Psalm over and over in my head, trying to push back the fear. I assumed they were taking me to juvenile court because I was only fifteen. I was thinking, Now I'm gonna be picking cotton, since that's how they punished juveniles-they put you in a school out in the country where they made you do field work during the day.

But we were going in the wrong direction. They kept telling me I was going to Atmore, the women's penitentiary. Instead, we pulled up to the police station and they led me inside. More cops looked up when we came in and started calling me "Thing" and "Whore." They booked me and took my fingerprints.

Then they put me back in the car and drove me to the city jail-the adult jail. Someone led me straight to a cell without giving me any chance to make a phone call. He opened the door and told me to get inside. He shut it hard behind me and turned the key. The lock fell into place with a heavy sound. It was the worst sound I ever heard. It sounded final. It said I was trapped.

When he went away, I looked around me: three bare walls, a toilet, and a cot. Then I feel down on my knees in the middle of the cell and started crying again. I didn't know if anyone knew where I was or what had happened to me. I had no idea how long I would be there. I cried and I put my hands together and prayed like I had never prayed before.

* * *

MEANWHILE, schoolmates who had been on the bus had run home and telephoned Claudette's mother at the house where she worked as a maid. Girls went over and took care of the lady's three small children so that Claudette's mother could leave. Mary Ann Colvin called Claudette's pastor, the Reverend H.H. Johnson. He had a car, and together they sped to the police station.

* * *

CLAUDETTE: When they led Mom back, there I was in a cell. I was cryin' hard, and then Mom got upset, too. When she saw me, she didn't bawl me out, she just asked, "Are you all right, Claudette?"

Reverend Johnson bailed me out and we drove home. By the time we got to King Hill, word had spread everywhere. All our neighbors came around, and they were just squeezing me to death. I felt happy and proud. I had been talking about getting our rights ever since Jeremiah Reeves was arrested, and now they knew I was serious. Velma, Q.P. and Mary Ann's daughter, who was living with us at the time, kept saying it was my squeaky little voice that had saved me from getting beat up or raped by the cops.

But I was afraid that night, too. I had stood up to a white bus driver and two white cops. I had challenged the bus law. There had been lynchings and cross burnings for that kind of thing. Wetumpka Highway that led out of Montgomery ran right past our house. It would have been easy for the Klan to come up the hill in the night. Dad sat up all night long with his shotgun. We all stayed up. The neighbors facing the highway kept watch. Probably nobody on King Hill slept that night.

But worried or not, I felt proud. I had stood up for our rights. I had done something a lot of adults hadn't done. On the ride home from jail, coming over the viaduct, Reverend Johnson had said something to me I'll never forget. He was an adult who everyone respected and his opinion meant a lot to me. "Claudette," he said, "I'm so proud of you. Everyone prays for freedom. We've all been praying and praying. But you're different-you want your answer the next morning. And I think you just brought the revolution to Montgomery."
Excerpted with permission from Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Phillip Hoose.

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Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin

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Few people know the story of Claudette Colvin: When she was 15, she refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white person - nine months before Rosa Parks did the very same thing.

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King's "I Have a Dream" Speech

Freedom's Ring is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, animated. Here you can compare the written and spoken speech, explore multimedia images, listen to movement activists, and uncover historical context. Fifty years ago, as the culminating address of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, King demanded the riches of freedom and the security of justice. Today, his language of love, nonviolent direct action, and redemptive suffering resonates globally in the millions who stand up for freedom together and elevate democracy to its ideals. How do the echoes of King's Dream live within you?

Credits & Acknowledgements

Director, Art and Content: Evan Bissell
Design and Programming: Erik Loyer
Content, Curriculum Design and Project Coordinator: Andrea McEvoy Spero
Project Advisor: Clayborne Carson
Video: Owen Bissell
Project Administration: Regina Covington

Freedom's Ring is a project of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University in collaboration with Beacon Press's King Legacy Series.

We extend our deep appreciation to the many people whose work and lives contributed to Freedom's Ring. Thank you to the interviewees: Aldo Billingslea, Clayborne Carson, Dorothy Cotton, Miriam Glickman, Kazu Haga, Bruce Hartford, Ericka Huggins, Clarence B. Jones, Kim Nalley, Wazir Peacock, and Marcus Shelby.

Thank you to Tenisha Armstrong. Her dedication and tireless efforts in editing Dr. King's papers allow us to make this history available to teachers and students.

Thank you to the many photographers whose work has inspired much of this project and allowed these important histories to continue. We have made our best efforts to credit these photographers. They include: Bob Adelman, Eve Arnold, George Ballis, Martha Cooper, Benedict Fernandez, Bob Fitch, Declan Haun, Matt Herron, John Loengard, Danny Lyon, Spider Martin, Charles Moore/Black Star, Herbert Randall, Steve Schapiro, Flip Schulke, Maria Varela, and Tamio Wakayama.

Thank you to David Stein for his invaluable contributions and conversations about this history. Thanks to Lucas Guilkey for his work on the videos, Ming-kuo Hung for editing support, and Naomi Wilson for her comments on content.

Thanks to Beacon Press for editing support.

Thanks to Headlands Center for the Arts for the time and space to finish the project.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Staff:

Clayborne Carson
Director

Tenisha Armstrong
Associate Director and Editor of the King Papers Project

Regina Covington
Administrator

Andrea McEvoy Spero
Director of Education

Clarence B. Jones
Scholar in Residence

Susan Carson
Editorial Consultant

Stacey Zwald
Assistant Editor

Dave Beals
Research Assistant

Video hosting by Critical Commons
Content management by Scalar,
a project of the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture

Works Cited

Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. New York: Dell, 1985. Print.

Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King years, 1954-63. New York : Simon and Schuster, 1988. Print.

Carson, Clayborne, eds. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.. New York: Intellectual Properties Management; Warner Books, 1998. Print.

Freed, Leonard. This Is the Day: The March on Washington. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2013. Print.

Hansen, Drew D.. The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation. New York : Ecco. 2003. Print.

Johnson, Charles and Bob Adelman. King: The Photobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York : Viking, 2000. Print.

Jones, Clarence B. and Stuart Connelly. Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Print.

Jones, William P.. The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights. New York : W.W. Norton, 2013. Print.

Jones, William P. and Labor and Working-Class History Association. "The Unknown Origins of the March on Washington: Civil Rights Politics and the Black Working Class." Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas 7.3 (2010). Print.

Kasher, Steven. The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68. New York: Abbeville, 1996. Print.

Katznelson, Ira. Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time. New York: Liveright, 2013. Print.

Kelen, Leslie G., eds. This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2011. Print.

LaFayette, Jr., Bernard and David C. Jehnsen. The Nonviolence Briefing Booklet: A 2-Day Orientation to Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation. 1995. Galena: Institute for Human Rights and Responsibilities. 2007. Print.

Le Blanc, Paul. "Freedom Budget: The Promise of the Civil Rights Movement for Economic Justice." WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor & Society 16 (2013), 43-58. Print.

Levine, Ellen. Freedom's Children : Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories. New York : Putnam, 1993. Print.

Lewis, John and Michael D'Orso. Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998. Print.

Sundquist, Eric J.. King's Dream. New Haven : Yale University, 2009. Print.

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Freedom's Ring is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, animated. Here you can compare the written and spoken speech, explore multimedia images, listen to movement activists, and uncover historical context. Fifty years ago, as the culminating address of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, King demanded the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

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A must watch...I laughed and even teared up. Rita proclaims, "Teaching and learning should bring joy!" I proclaimed "AMEN!"

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Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion... - SafeShare.tv

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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To Change is to Plan First

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SafeShare.tv removes unwanted distractions from YouTube and Vimeo videos and reduces ads, so you can focus on the content. Perfect for schools and businesses!

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Wisconsin's Guiding Principles for Teaching and Learning

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Wisconsin's Guiding Principles for Teaching and Learning

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What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong) | Playing For Change | Song Around The World

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A Better Place | Playing For Change | Song Around The World

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We invite you to view this new Song Around The World of children across the globe performing "Love Is All". Turn it up, spread it around and lets make the world a better place one heart and one song at a time... This video was produced in partnership with Okaïdi childrens clothing stores.

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1. Do you think these photographs present W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington as accomplished, learned men? If so, how? If not, why not? 2. Why do you think Cornelius Battey had W. E. B. Du Bois look slightly off-center rather than directly into the camera?

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Laurice Freeman, Supervisor of Community Education Services for the Fond du Lac Area School District, shares how CREATE has made a difference not only in her school, but in the community.

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Donna's Story: CREATE Culturally Responsive Education

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Donna Hart-Tervalon has served as the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction liaison for the CREATE initiative. CREATE mobilizes educators to reflect on their educational practices. The objective is to identify strategies that contribute to eliminating the achievement gap and utilize those approaches through professional development, training and technical assistance.