ERIC Number: EJ1045679
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 6
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0037-7724
EISSN: N/A
Education Equality: What Happens to a Dream Deferred?
Davis, Annie
Social Education, v78 n6 p274-279 Nov-Dec 2014
What happens if Americans fundamental freedoms are denied or deferred? What is the ideal of freedom? Boston, Massachusetts, has long been a crucible for social, cultural, and political change. Here was the shot heard 'round the world, stronghold of abolition, home to the U.S. Colored Troops, the birthplace of American literature.... Boston is also a city of contradictions: in the same neighborhood of Beacon Hill and in the same year (1850) that Boston provided safe haven for fugitive slaves, and John Quincy Adams and Charles Sumner argued against slavery, five-year-old Sarah Roberts tried to attend her neighborhood school and was denied access because she was black (see "Roberts v. Boston," 59 Mass. (5 Cush.) 198, 1850); in the same city and same year that Martin Luther King, Jr., earned his Ph.D., the Red Sox refused to accept black players--even Jackie Robinson--and integrated only in 1959 when they were forced to. Boston's public schools were officially integrated in 1855, challenged in the 1960s, and forced to develop a desegregation plan in 1974. The story of Boston's school desegregation continues to the present. Education equality remains a controversial topic across the country, and it provides a rich opportunity for teaching and learning. By examining the actual court records related to this period, students can engage with the real people and events that changed the city and nation. "Morgan v. Hennigan," Boston's desegregation case, is a lens and narrative through which students can investigate a real problem. Educators can guide students to ask questions, to develop and apply skills to new situations, to evaluate and utilize evidence and to better articulate positions based on that evidence. This article provides examples of how teachers can use the records of "Morgan v. Hennigan" to teach about civil rights and address the question: What is the ideal of freedom? By using such primary sources, teachers can cultivate students' understandings of those times and those people and events and how they are relevant today. (Kimberlee Ried served as co-editor on this article.)
Descriptors: Equal Education, Freedom, Civil Rights, Controversial Issues (Course Content), School Desegregation, Desegregation Litigation, Desegregation Methods, Desegregation Plans, Educational History, Teaching Methods, Court Litigation, Questioning Techniques, Inquiry, Primary Sources, Evidence, Educational Resources, Concept Teaching
National Council for the Social Studies. 8555 Sixteenth Street #500, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Tel: 800-683-0812; Tel: 301-588-1800; Fax: 301-588-2049; e-mail: membership@ncss.org; Web site: http://www.socialstudies.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Massachusetts
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A