By Tamara V. Russell, NBCT Each year during the months of January and February, elementary school classrooms across the country whitewash the story of Dr. Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. Because students are so young, many times teachers will limit the scope of the movement to the idea that Dr. King was […]
Dr. Martin Luther King
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Opinion: If You Can’t Say “Black Lives Matter” Then You Can’t Use Any Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. […] Now we’ve got to keep attention on that. That’s always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window breaking. (15.1–2, 4–6) This is a quote from the last […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
The Pastor and the President: Race in the American Classroom Today
I am writing on the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr Day, 2018 not just as a social studies teacher, but as an American citizen. I am a pastor’s kid, so I grew up hearing the Christian message of loving one’s neighbor as oneself and to love mercy, do justice, and to walk humbly with […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Why “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” Still Matters in 2017
In April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King and several other Civil Rights activists, including the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, were arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, in the midst of a massive non-violent protest campaign against that city’s segregation practices. Dr. King ultimately spent 10 days in jail that April, and while he was there, he penned one […]