Kindred is a novel rich in themes related to slavery, trauma, resistance, love, family, and more. While Butler’s use of time travel is a great hook to get students into the novel, the more important objective is to examine, throughout our reading of the novel, the ways in which Butler employs this device to comment both on the Antebellum South and late capitalist America of the 1970’s. The novel is set only nine years after Loving v. Virginia was decided by the US Supreme Court, and so issues of and feelings around interracial relationship and marriage were by no means decided or “solved” at the time this novel takes place, and certainly not in the Antebellum South. By looking at and researching the laws that were in place throughout the US in regards to miscegenation and interracial marriage, having students reflect and discuss what laid behind these laws, and connecting these ideas and laws to the novel, we can begin to consider how the past, in Butler’s novel and own world, has influenced and continues to influence our lives, politics, and world in the present.

The second lesson has students compare and contrast the strategies and goals of organizations fighting for social justice. Additionally, the lesson incorporates two groups that often get left out of traditional history textbooks: The Black Panthers and The Young Lords. By placing these organizations in the context of the broader freedom struggle, students gain an appreciation of grassroots organizing and the efficacy of certain strategies used to affect change.

For that reason, students in this lesson will seek to answer the question: What is the legacy of Brown vs. Board of Education in Philadelphia’s schools? Students will be able to understand how the Brown ruling, the refusal by local governments to enforce the ruling, the organizing by Black families to integrate schools, and the resistance by White parents have led to sustained segregation over the past several decades . 

As students learn about these international connections between the Independence and Civil Rights movements, it is important to connect this material to international connections for human rights today. For example, we can ask students to discuss or explore how the protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in the US impacted struggles against police brutality abroad. We can also ask them if any current events or freedom movements from abroad have shaped their political opinions. This lesson aspires to get students to think about how struggles against exploitation and for human rights are connected across the globe.

Moreover, this lesson(s) uses the power of audiovisuals to show how unifying the fight for freedom was in 1969, and break with the normalization of the Black Panthers as a simple gang and rather as a political movement. As the lesson builds upon the demythification of the Black Panthers it also looks forward into the act of how communities build solidarity amongst them, and how intersectionality through the crossing of races and cultures strengthen the fight and build bridges, along with the Young Lords. This lesson reflects on the idea of the grassroot perspectives of solidarity and stretches it to include the Puerto Rican communities and other Latinx communities. 

Through the learning of the Rainbow Coalition, a black-led movement that brought the Black 
Panther Party, the Young Patriots, the Young Lords, and other organizations together we will reflect on the broader implications of solidarity. As an antiracist, anticlass, and multicultural movement the Coalition brought to light the fight, engaging in joint direct action against poverty, corruption, racism, police brutality, and substandard housing. With solidarity, it confronted some of the most pressing and violent aspects of white supremacy.

Some key understandings students will develop through the lesson are that the Black Panthers are not what has been portrayed in our current educational system. Furthermore, they will also develop an understanding of the organizational solidarity that existed across multiple communities and how effective it was in providing public services to historically excluded communities. 

Each of you shares some critical goals with existing organizations and groups you’re working with; but you also experience a sense of alienation from these groups, ways in which you feel your identity or ideas are unwelcome. 

At a crossroads, you must decide:

In this week-long unit, you will study the difficult choices that those who are different — women, gay and trans folks, people with disabilities, and activists working within Latinx organizations — made in order to fight against racism and in protest of all forms of inequality. These civil rights heroes were trailblazers of intersectionality. 

We will learn about Ella Baker, Flo Kennedy, Bayard Rustin, Pauli Murray, Denise Oliver-Velez, and Brad Lomax. Link below :)

My Lessons highlight the importance of community organizing led by community members AND youth. 

I decided to focus on SNCC because I never heard of this organization when I was in school. I think this organization allows the Civil Rights Movement to become a people’s movement and I believe it could be very empowering for young people when it comes to standing up against injustices. 

I designed this lesson for 4th-6th grade students. I would introduce this in the spring during our section on activism at the end of the year. By then, students have focused on recognizing injustices around them. 

I hope students will develop their understanding of the larger context surrounding the Civil Rights Movement without emphasizing the contributions of one or two individuals. I also want students to receive an introduction into one of the most important organizations in the movement that emphasized community organizing and youth leadership. 
There are Google Slides embedded in the Google doc.

Topics for student groups: 
1. Harlem Hellfighters
2. Tusla Massacre
3. Elaine, Arkansas Union organizing and massacre
4. Writings of W.E.B. DuBois
5. War effort of Alice Dunbar Nelson
6. The struggle in the courts

[Devin]

 

Students will conduct mock interviews with these historical women, answering the questions: