In the spring of 2003, the author worked with a team of eighth grade teachers at Asheville Middle School in North Carolina on a project that combined fine art, music, the history of the railroads, and the African American experience in the state and nation. In her classroom, students interviewed a retired train conductor, who was African American, to learn about his work environment before and after desegregation. They watched and discussed a video made by older students at nearby Owen High School about the role of African Americans in laying the railroad tracks in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Finally, they learned about the life and works of three African American artists who depicted their society during the first half of the twentieth century and created a work of art (in the style of the times) that drew upon the many things that they had learned in this unit of study. The unit of study is described in this article. (Contains 6 notes.)