Unit 10 6-8: Learning Plan

Teacher Background Knowledge

During the Jim Crow era, Black educators faced immense challenges within a segregated and unequal education system. Despite these barriers, they used innovative and often covert methods to ensure that African American students were exposed to their history, culture, and the skills necessary for empowerment. This resistance, often referred to as “fugitive pedagogy,” involved teaching beyond the approved curriculum, creatively circumventing oppressive restrictions. Figures such as Carter G. Woodson, known as the “Father of Black History,” and Anna Julia Cooper were pivotal in this effort.

Woodson’s establishment of Negro History Week (the precursor to Black History Month) and his seminal book The Mis-Education of the Negro exemplify how education was used as a form of resistance. Black educators during this time not only preserved cultural heritage but also inspired future generations to challenge systemic inequality. By understanding this history, educators can illuminate the transformative power of education and its role as a tool for social justice. This lesson connects these historical acts of resistance to modern efforts to achieve educational equity and empowerment.

Objective

• Students will be able to analyze primary sources to identify challenges faced by Black educators during the Jim Crow era.
• Students will be able to investigate the concept of “fugitive pedagogy” and its impact on Black communities.
• Students will be able to reflect on the role of education as a form of resistance and empowerment.

Lesson Structure

1. Warm-Up: The Power of Education
   1. Discussion Prompt: Why is education important for achieving fairness and equality?
   2. Briefly explore the role of education in advancing justice.
   3. How did Black educators use education to resist inequality during the Jim Crow era?
2. Contextualizing the Five Pillars of Jim Crow
   1. Students will read this article discussing the five components that informed the implementation of Jim Crow laws.
   2. After reading the article, students will work in pairs to answer the following guiding questions:
      1. What was the primary goal of the Jim Crow system as described in the text? Discuss how this goal was reflected in the economic and political oppression of Black citizens.
      2. In what ways did legal oppression contribute to the disenfranchisement of Black individuals? Provide specific examples from the text to support your answer.
      3. Analyze the impact of social oppression on the daily lives of Black citizens during the Jim Crow era. How did segregation manifest in public accommodations according to the text?
   3. Following the guiding questions, student pairs will combine with another pair to make small groups of four to discuss responses.
3. Document Inquiry: Analyzing Primary Sources
   1. Group Activity:
      1. Divide students into small groups (keep groups of 4 from the pairing of pairs from the previous step of the lesson) and assign each group a different primary source.
         1. Excerpts from The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson
         2. Photos of segregated schools (Links: 1 2 3 4 5 6)
         3. Primary Source: Educational Aims by Anna Julia Cooper
         4. Refining the Talented Tenth Theory
      2. Provide each group with the Educational Resistance Evidence Tracker.
      3. Groups analyze their source, answering guided questions:
         1. What challenges does this source highlight?
         2. What strategies for resistance are evident?
         3. How does this source connect to the concept of fugitive pedagogy?
         4. What is a key quotation or piece of evidence from the source?
   2. Collaborative Share-Out:
      1. Each group presents one takeaway from their analysis to the class.
4. Reflect and Exit Ticket
   1. Exit Ticket:
      1. What do these sources teach us about Black educational resistance?
      2. How do these strategies connect to modern efforts for educational equity?