The complexities of the civil rights movement are rarely presented in elementary social studies. Year after year, students repeat the same decontextualized "I Have a Dream" crafts and assignments, tasks that do little to help students understand the country's history of racism or the racial dynamics of today. Instead of perpetuating the…

The "College, Career, and Civil Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards" guides teachers to initiate complex inquiries by sparking students' disciplinary literacy and critical analysis of rich sources. With effective scaffolding and engaging content, elementary students can explore and contextualize complex historical…

African American high school students' erudition of Black history, including the events and individuals who afforded them freedoms, enhances their informed decision making and impacts them as citizens. The purpose of this article is to detail how African American high school students engage in critical discourse regarding how historical events…

Octavius Catto was one of the only Black members of Philadelphia's premier scientific organization, the Franklin Institute; principal of the city's foremost school for African Americans, the Institute for Colored Youth; and founder of the Pythians, the baseball team that went undefeated in the Negro league and ultimately crossed "the color…

Why do people who claim the same epistemological beliefs interpret and express these beliefs in ways that seem diametrically opposed? And how can the author understand tensions in the classroom that arise from such divergent expressions of religious faith, especially in the context of history? There are a number of ways to examine these questions…

In 1957, a civil rights organization called Fellowship of Reconciliation created a comic book to teach America's youth about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Entitled "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story," the comic book was enormously successful. John Lewis, a young civil rights activist at the time, recalled that the book was…

In this study, I argue that American history textbooks present discrete, heroic, one-dimensional, and neatly packaged master narratives that deny students a complex, realistic, and rich understanding of people and events in American history. In making this argument, I examine the master narratives of Martin Luther King, Jr., in high school history…

Research indicates that history-based curricula--specifically textbooks and trade books--about Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) are problematic and limited. If race relations are arguably America's long, unsettled tension, then Dr. King was one of its most impactful figures. Using the relevant historical research as a framework and the…

Presents a five-lesson, high school instructional unit on the ideas and activities of Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King, Jr. Includes student objectives, step-by-step instructional procedures, and discussion questions. Provides quotations by Thoreau and King. (CFR)

Presents resources for teaching about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Outlines criteria for selecting biographies for children and young adults. Identifies problems in certain biographies of King, and recommends high quality biographies of King. Discusses exercises for integrating themes from King's life into the classroom. (RW)

The first part of this article describes how, as an independent educator, Eve Nussbaum Soumerai developed numerous theatrical tributes to inspirational historical figures (Anne Frank, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Dalai Lama, for example). By participating in these productions, young people learned about the lives of these figures and shared…

Maintains that Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King, Jr. fundamentally altered the tradition of protest and reform. Compares and contrasts the role of each man in U.S. social and constitutional history. Concludes that while Thoreau lacked the broad influence of King, his writings influenced both King and Mohandas Gandhi. (CFR)

Discusses a curriculum on the Holocaust and genocide. Expresses the belief that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of human equality can be a world dream. Argues that the curriculum is not a "Jewish" one, because it addresses examples of genocide from many cultures, and its authors are educators of various faiths. (SG)

Examines the role of the hero in U.S. culture and how the social studies have treated heroes. Urges teachers to explore the ethical dimensions of superheroes. Indicates how Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., for example, need to be understood in their own cultural context and in the fullness of their humanity. (CH)

Students need to see past heroes as real people who struggled with ordinary problems in order to see the relevancy of studying history and to act practically upon the lessons that each leader teaches them. This study attempts to answer two questions relating to Martin Luther King, Jr.: (1) What do we teach our children about King? and (2) Can we…