OHIO SOCIAL STUDIES REVIEW

Volume 57 – Number 1

Table of Contents

Personnel

Advisory Council 3

Peer Reviewers 3

Editors’ Comments 4

Issue Articles

Mark Pearcy 5 There is No End to Remembering: Teaching About Memorials Through Truth and Reconciliation

Jeremiah Clabough 21 Using the C3 Framework to Analyze Political Parties

Lisa K. Pennington and Mary E. Tackett 30 Using Text Sets to Teach About Japanese-American Incarceration

Ronald V. Morris The Underground Railroad and Madison’s Georgetown District 44

Esther June Kim From Free White Persons to ‘Illegal Immigration’: Dilemmas of Teaching U.S. Immigration History 51

Author Biographies 61

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OHIO SOCIAL STUDIES REVIEW PERSONNEL

Editors

Executive Editor David Wolfford Mariemont High School, Cincinnati Peer Reviewers Associate Editor Sarah Kaka David Childs, Northern Kentucky University Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware ​ Beth Corrigan, University of Toledo ​ Darrell DeTample, Rutgers University ​ Kate Fleming, Maumee Valley Country Day School Advisory Council ​ Tina Ellsworth, Olathe Public Schools ​ Northeast Representatives Dan Langen, McGraw-Hill ​ Sara Leffler - Kenmore-Garfield High, Akron Kristy Brugar, University of Oklahoma ​ Matthew Hollstein - Kent State at Stark, Canton Linda McKean, Ohio Department of Education ​ Timothy Murray, Olathe Schools Northwestern Representative ​ Carly Muetterties, University of Kentucky Jennifer Lawless - Toledo Public Schools ​ Nancy Patterson, Bowling Green State University ​ Central Representative Luke Sunderman, Marysville High School ​ Johnny Merry – Fort Hayes High, Columbus Heidi Torres, University of Oklahoma ​ Chris Prokes, Sinclair College Central Representative ​ Linda Carmichael, Upper Arlington School Steve Shapiro – Bexley City Schools ​ Chara Haeussler Bohan, Georgia State University ​ Southeast Representatives Jennifer Hinkle – Ohio University, Athens Aaron Bruewer - Shawnee State University

Southwest Representative Lauren Colley - University of Cincinnati Kwabena Ofori-Attah - Central State University

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Editors’ Comments

Ohio Social Studies Review hopes you enjoy the articles in this issue. They look at contemporary issues ​ ripe for the social studies classroom, address underrepresented groups, and offer real-world connections.

Mark Pearcy of Rider University has researched and written “There Is No End to Remembering.” Mr. Pearcy’s fine article examines the current controversy surrounding monuments and memorials attached to dubious historical figures and by-gone eras that many want to forget. He looks at several Confederate monuments dedicated decades, sometimes generations, after the Civil War and how citizens, society, and sanctioned commissions are re-considering these. His model allows students, from the perspective of such commissions, to reconsider, evaluate, and determine the propriety of controversial monuments in the public square.

Jeremiah Clabough of the University of Alabama at Birmingham explains the different factions that emerged in the 1948 Democrat party over race relations and civil rights and provides a lesson to help high school students understand such intra-party realities. As the Republican party is divided on support for Trump, impeachment, and a civil tone, a teaching strategy that examines intra-party divisions is thoroughly welcomed. The article provides for student reading and analysis of primary documents--Hubert Humphrey’s 1948 speech, the Dixiecrat platform, and President Truman’s statement to the NAACP.

Lisa K. Pennington of Governors State University and Mary E. Tackett of Longwood University explain how to properly gather and establish text sets for elementary learners. In this example, they present and summarize ten titles covering Japanese-American incarceration (what the U.S. government labeled “internment” or “relocation”). With each title, they present a suggested reader response--making connections, poetry, and opinionnaire among them.

Ron Morris of Ball State University, in “The Underground Railroad and Madison’s Georgetown District,” recaps and examines a program involving middle school students in Madison, Indiana. A local history project in an historically Black community on the Ohio River at the edge of freedom, allowed students to not only explore history, but to also formally present their findings to enhance local historical awareness.

Esther June Kim of William and Mary offers a critique of teaching immigration history and examines the dilemma of such a controversial topic today. As Kim tells, immigration can be challenging in the classroom because it is a highly complex and politically charged topic. But as she authoritatively proves, there’s never been a more important time to address immigration with today’s social studies learners.

--David Wolfford

--Sarah Kaka

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There is No End to Remembering: Teaching About Memorials through Truth and Reconciliation

Mark Pearcy, Rider University ​ ​ ​

Abstract The debate over Confederate memorials and their role in public spaces has become a nationwide issue. While the issue is contentious, social studies teachers have a rare opportunity to engage students in a discussion over the process of memorialization, the nature of historical memory, and the narratives that we build around our national identity. This article describes using a “truth and reconciliation” process to determine the nature and potential fate of Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States.

Introduction

Over the first half of 2020, there has been a massive shift in public opinion regarding systemic racism and discrimination in the United States. Concurrently, an explosion of commentary, critique, and action about American public spaces—specifically, memorials and monuments commemorating the Confederate States of America has surfaced. After the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020, this movement to remove “perceived symbols of racism and oppression” across the country (Mervosh, Romero, & Tompkins, 2020) has resulted in the removal or destruction of over 40 monuments nationwide (“Recent Confederate Monument Removals,” 2020). These include statutes of Confederate figures like Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee (Ortiz, 2020, A17), as well as less notorious figures like John Sutter in California and the Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate in New Mexico (Mervosh, Romero, & Tompkins, 2020). In New York City, the Museum of Natural History announced that it would remove the “equestrian statue” of Theodore Roosevelt, dedicated in 1940 (New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, n.d.), which depicts the former president on horseback, flanked by a Native American and a Black man, apparently an African (Pogrebin, 2020). Museum officials conceded that the portrayal of Roosevelt on horseback while flanked by two seemingly subservient figures is problematic under the best of conditions. The statue’s “hierarchical compositions” were the official reason given for its removal, but it would be hard to divorce that action from the current and ongoing national dialogue over racism, oppression, and what we choose to honor in our public spaces (Cotter, 2020).

For teachers, this dialogue represents an opportunity to engage students in a vibrant, critical debate over the process of memorialization and how we, as a society, embed a national narrative through monuments. This narrative should be the subject of continual reflection, as opposed to viewing memorials as “settled” history, beyond question or critique. The social studies classroom is uniquely situated for such a process—but teachers need effective pedagogical strategies to promote a positive learning experience for students, without the often toxic invective that has plagued our public discourse in recent years. This article describes a variety of methods for reimaging and repurposing Confederate monuments, primarily focusing on a “Truth and Reconciliation”

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simulation process that empowers students to decide the conditions under which these markers should (or should not) be present in our public lives.

Confederate Memorials in the United States

It is jarring that Americans aren’t more bothered by the ubiquity of Confederate memorials and monuments in the United States. After all, the Confederacy wasn’t just a nation conceived as an institutional ​ ​ defense of slavery in America; it was also a government that waged war against the democratically elected government of the United States over four years, causing the most destructive war in American history which cost over six hundred thousand lives. The presence of these memorials indicates, on a national scale, that we have at least implicitly accepted the legitimacy of the Confederacy, politically and culturally. They are living confirmations of what Frederick Douglass described in 1871: “We are sometimes asked in the name of patriotism to forget the merits of this fearful struggle, and to remember with equal admiration those who struck at the nation’s life, and those who struck to save it—those who fought for slavery and those who fought for liberty and justice” (Blight, 2018, p. 521).

The presence of these memorials is due, in large part, to the efforts of the United Daughters of the th Confederacy, an advocacy organization that, during the early part of the 20 ​ century, spearheaded an effort to ​ reshape the history of the Civil War. The UDC’s commitment to the “Lost Cause” view of the Confederacy meant defending the Ku Klux Klan as the heirs to, and defenders of “Old South” chivalry; romanticizing slavery as an essentially benevolent enterprise; and recasting the war itself as the South’s defense of its way of life from northern aggression (Blight, 2018; Staples, 2017). Between 1900 and 1920, over 400 monuments were built, primarily in the South, as part of this effort. A second wave of monument-building occurred between 1920 and 1940, as the UDC and its allies resisted Black Americans’ call for civil rights—a significant number of the monuments were erected on courthouse property, a not-so-subtle reminder to Black Americans of their second-class status in the “Jim Crow” South (Judt, 2019, para. 1; Woodley, 2019; Best, 2020; Cox, 2020). The UDC’s impact stretched from local municipalities to U.S. military bases, ten of which are named for Confederate officers (Thompson, 2015; Petraeus, 2020), and even reached the nation’s capital—the stained-glass windows of the National Cathedral, erected in 1963, included portrayals of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and the Confederate flag (Staples, 2017). The Southern Poverty Law Center, as of 2019, determined that there were almost 800 Confederate monuments in the U.S. (with more than 300 in just three states—Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina), as well as over 100 public K-12 schools named for Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, or other Confederate icons (SPLC, 2019). Given the history of such monuments, alongside their ubiquity, it’s impossible to deny that they served as tools of White supremacy (Wallace-Wells, 2017).

What are memorials for?

Since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the effort to remove these memorials has accelerated, and Americans are confronting the importance of these public markers in our civic life. Hite (2011) describes the concept of “historical (or ‘collective’) memory,” the ways in which “groups, collectivities, and nations construct and identify with particular narratives about historical periods or events” (para. 1). Historical memory is distinctively political—nations use the overt demonstration or display of monuments to “[develop] a national memory that exudes unity, continuity, stability, and purpose” (Hite, 2011, para. 4). In the U.S., museums, memorials, and monuments are all what Sodaro (2018) refers to as “mechanisms of political legitimation” which “[instill] in their visitors and societies democratic values by demonstrating the violence that results from the lack of these values” (p. 4). Of course, this doesn’t mean that the manner in which a monument is perceived by the general population can’t ever change; in fact, any attempt to consider the monuments immutable risks “losing their significance for the future” (Gessner, 2015, p. 7).

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The terms “monument” and “memorial” may seem interchangeable. Savage (2007) considers both the result of the practice of commemoration, the marking of “an event or a person or a group by a ceremony or an observance or a monument of some kind” (p. 2). More prosaically, the Southern Poverty Law Center characterizes a “monument” as a “stone object that cannot be easily removed” (SPLC, 2019). Johnson (2001) distinguishes between the two terms by comparing and contrasting the Washington Monument in the U.S. capital with the Lincoln Memorial. The former he describes as “[aspiring] to the eternal and unchanging it stands for that which … made all things possible, it thus ought to be imposing and god-like”; while the Lincoln Memorial is a depiction of “the martyr who saved the union,” one which “inspires awe if the Washington is about birth and life, the Lincoln, … despite its palpable aura of death, signifies rebirth and the hope of new life, a second Founding” (Johnston, 2001, p. 4).

For teachers, lessons about monuments can create student engagement “[that is] not easily duplicated in the classroom” (Marcus & Levine, 2010, p. 131). Monuments are widespread, easily accessible, and generally free to visit—and such visits are innately interdisciplinary, as students interact with both a historical and artistic depiction of a given event, person, or idea (Uhrmacher & Tinkler, 2007, para. 2). In the current era of pandemic-related closures, visiting a monument may be out of the question for some teachers; but given the current speed with which memorials are being reconsidered or removed, monuments still present a rich teaching opportunity.

Teachers should be part of an important national conversation—what should be done with Confederate monuments? American monuments, in particular, can create a sense of passivity about potential removal or alteration—as Savage (1999) describes it, the very presence of a monument infers, for its viewers, a settled narrative of progress, closure, or reconciliation:

Public monuments instill a sense of historical closure. Memorials to heroes and events were not meant … to revive old struggles and debates but to put them to rest—to show how great men and their deeds had made the nation better and stronger. Commemoration was a process of condensing the moral lessons of history and fixing them in place for all time; this required that the object of commemoration be understood as a completed stage of history, safely nestled in a sealed-off past. (p. 1)

Teaching with memorials

Teachers can employ the following questions as a scaffold for student analysis of a given monument:

● Whose stories are being told? ● Whose stories are privileged (i.e., which social group’s power is justified by that story)? ● Whose are minimized? ● To what purpose? ● How does the memorialization process, for a given monument, reflect society’s view of itself?

The first four questions are generally self-explanatory; the final question, about the “process of memorialization,” refers to the story of how a memorial came into existence. Students should consider, in how the nation accounts for public spaces, what Marcus and Levine (2010) pose as central questions for such an inquiry: “who are we as Americans? What aspects of our heritage are important to remember, celebrate, and memorialize?” (p. 131)

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Teachers need to help students understand the motives of those who built the monuments—what purpose were they meant to serve, and for which audience? For instance, below is a statue in Fredericksburg, Virginia, commemorating a soldier named Richard Rowland Kirkland, who was mythologized as the “Angel of Marye’s Heights.”

The Richard Rowland Kirkland Monument. National Park Service. ​ ​

th This monument was built in 1963—well after the wave of memorials in the early 20 ​ century, which were ​ largely dedicated to perpetuating the UDC’s “Lost Cause” mythology. The Confederate soldier Kirkland allegedly leaped over a stone wall to bring water to wounded Union enemies. There is no evidence this ever happened (Danchik, 2017), but the sponsor of the statue, U.S. Representative Robert W. Hemphill, argued that the memorial was necessary because it would serve to inspire the youth of America:

our youth of today badly need heroes to emulate—daily headlines are not conducive to inspire them … with the patriotism of George Washington, Patrick Henry, or Robert E. Lee. They read of corruption in places, politicians whose corrupt practices fill them with disgust, clergymen who have disavowed the old principles of their faith and by their irreverent conduct have given aid and comfort to the Communists who are hopeful that the anti-Christ doctrine which they so fervently espouse is making progress—is it any wonder that youth is confused?...this is the kind of commemoration of such acts of valor that will bring our nation together (U.S. Congress, 1963, p. A22).

Clearly, the intent of the Kirkland monument was not to represent a historically verified event, or even to necessarily promote a revisionist view of the Southern cause. Students can examine and consider a sponsor or designer’s motive or influence in determining that marker’s contemporary fate. What we should aim to do with these memorials involves “[telling] a story that moves beyond the lionization of these figures” (Siegal, 2020).

For instance, students can consider the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee state capitol building in Nashville. The Sons of Confederate Veterans raised funds and commissioned a member’s wife to

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create the sculpture (along with the Joseph Johnston Camp of Nashville). The bust was formally installed in 1978 (Ebert, 2017). Despite having limited impact in the actual course or outcome of the Civil War—one historian characterizes him as “a minor player in some major battles and a major player in minor battles” (Royster, 1993, p. 126) –Nathan Bedford Forrest became a favorite mythic figure in the postwar era, attaining a reputation as a brilliant soldier and Southern loyalist. He was, in addition, a notorious slave trader, an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and was responsible for one of the most brutal acts of the war—the massacre of Black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, in 1864 (Carney, 2001, p. 601). In the civil rights era, Forrest was often held up by “Lost Cause” supporters for his “cut-throat daring” and rags-to-riches biography; Forrest had been born into poverty but attained massive wealth in adulthood, in part through slavetrading (Carney, 2001, p. 610).

At the installment of the Forrest bust in the state capitol in 1978, the statue’s sponsor, U.S. Sen. Douglas Henry, asserted that the work shouldn’t be insulting to anyone, even though the bust’s unveiling was met by outrage by members of Nashville’s Black community. “I don’t think it’s an insult to anyone who recognizes a man who had commendable qualities,” Henry said. “In his time and place, Forrest was a man of compassion and humanity. Although times and circumstances change, the point I would like to emphasize is that the essential qualities of a good character do not change” (Ebert, 2017). Two years after it was installed, the Tennessee chapter of the Ku Klux Klan held a press conference to talk about their preparations for the upcoming “race war,” directly in front of the bust (Allison, 2020).

Students can determine the answers to the first four questions of the scaffold above, in considering the presence of the Forrest bust in the state capitol building. The final question—How does the process of ​ memorialization, in this case, reflect society’s view of itself?—allows students to analyze what Tennesseans want ​ this monument to represent, and to whom, and for what purpose. Is Nathan Bedford Forrest to be considered “heroic?” If so, why? Teachers can also present students with then-Governor Lamar Alexander’s 1979 quotation when asked about potentially removing the bust: “There are a lot of things that we don’t like in our past but that’s not a good reason to remove the bust” (Ebert, 2017). What reasons, then, would suffice to remove the bust?

In July 2020, the Tennessee State Capitol Commission voted to remove the Forrest sculpture, and to relocate it to the Tennessee State Museum. Though the commission had originally intended only to vote on the one depiction, it also decided to remove two other busts—Adm. David Farragut, a Union Navy officer during the Civil War, and Adm. Albert Greaves, a figure from the Spanish-American War and World War I. All three busts will be featured in an exhibit, at the state museum, “honoring Tennessee military heroes” (Allison, 2020). Students can address the possibility that the state of Tennessee may be drawing an equivalence between these three figures. What is the best option—removal, relocation, or retention? Or something else?

Truth and Reconciliation

The process that teachers can use with students, to address these questions, is modeled after the truth and reconciliation approach used by nations in the wake of social change or upheaval. The first truth commission was formed in Uganda in 1974, and more than thirty other nations have utilized similar models; the most famous is the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated human rights abuses and violations under the apartheid government from 1960-1994 (Asghar, et al., 2013). ommissions are tasked with the job of “[rewriting] a nation’s history to provide a history of events that honors and respects survivors and provides citizens an understanding of how violence took place and who was responsible for human rights violations” (Inwood, 2017). They are mechanisms of transitional justice, which include all judicial and non-judicial measures ​ ​ to redress the legacy of human rights abuses (Asghar, et al., 2013). Khazei and Brooks (2020) have argued for such a national commission in the U.S. to expose racist structures and their impacts, as well as creating solutions, because ultimately, “talk is not enough” (p. 1). After the killing of George Floyd, U.S. Rep Barbara Lee of California proposed a commission which would “examine the effects of slavery, institutional racism, and discrimination against people of color, and how our history impacts laws and policies today” (Lee, 2020).

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These commissions rely largely on open testimony from those who have been wronged and those who have wronged them—for instance, in South Africa, where state agents who sought forgiveness had to “give a full account of the crimes they committed and identify their victims’ names, educating the population about how low … their society had sunk while apartheid lasted” (Táíwò, 2020). Reconciliation on a national scale requires “acknowledging and atoning for the wrong done — asking for their victims’ forgiveness while resolving never to repeat the wrongs and working to restore their victims to full humanity as fellow citizens” (Táíwò, 2020). This process has been used in the U.S., as well, at a local level. In 2004 in Greensboro, North Carolina, for instance, to deal with a 1979 event known as the “Greensboro Massacre,” in which demonstrators marching for economic and racial justice were murdered by local members of the Ku Klux Klan (Hollyday, 2004, p. 20).

Monuments, of course, cannot speak or ask for forgiveness; but through careful critical analysis, students can uncover why they were built, for what purpose, and how they might be reimagined to provide redress for those who have been injured, marginalized, or erased by their construction. The aim of the process is to come to a “consensual agreement on which reconciliation process would work best for the specific situation” (Asghar, et al., 2013, p. 4).

The Process

In the truth and reconciliation process, students will play one of two roles:

● The advocate, who speaks for or against the available options for each monument ​ ​ ● The moderator, who controls the agenda and makes decisions based on the advocates’ arguments ​ ​ Teachers are facilitators in this simulation; they introduce the topic, control the flow of the process, and lead the debriefing that follows (Asghar, et al., 2013, p. 4). Prior to the simulation, students will conduct research on the monuments under discussion, aiming to answer the central questions of monument analysis, described in the bullet points above: Whose stories are being told; whose stories are privileged (i.e., which social group’s power is justified by that story); whose are minimized; to what purpose; and how does the process of memorialization, in this case, reflect society’s view of itself? The goal of the simulation is to develop a set of guidelines, which will determine the final status of a monument. There are four possible outcomes.

Reconciliation simulation outcomes

Removal The memorial is permanently removed from public view (either to storage or disassembly)

Retention The memorial remains where it is, in its current state

Relocation The memorial is moved to a different location (e.g., a non-public space or a museum)

Reformulation The memorial is changed, altered, or reconceptualized, to present a new or different perspective

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At each step of this simulation, students will have to make critical decisions about a monument’s origins, its designer’s intentions, aesthetic implications, and which outcome best reflects the community’s desires and values. Most importantly, students must try to settle on an outcome that promotes racial unity, healing, and reconciliation.

For many Confederate memorials, students may instinctively opt for the most permanent option—removal, especially in those cases, like the Robert E. Lee statue in New Orleans (removed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu in 2017), where the monument had no special significance to its location or residents. After all, as Mayor Landrieu pointed out, Lee was not from New Orleans, had never visited the city, and—other than his outsized role in “Lost Cause” mythology—had nothing to do with the community, either in the past or the present (Landrieu, 2017). Students may choose to relocate a monument, as the government of Tennessee did with the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest; though this option does have its own problematic elements, as housing a monument can put a strain on existing museums or historical organizations, forcing them to choose between preexisting displays to make room for relocated memorials.

Other challenging examples exist, for the purposes of classroom inquiry. Students may be asked to consider the Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Freedman’s Memorial, in Washington, D.C.

The Emancipation or Freedman’s Memorial, Washington, D.C. National Park Service

In 1876, designer Thomas Ball used photographs of an escaped slave, Archer Alexander, while depicting Abraham Lincoln bestowing the gift of freedom upon a Black figure who was breaking the chains of servility. Though the monument was commissioned and paid for by prominent African-Americans after the Civil War, and its intention was to celebrate the abolition of slavery, it has been criticized in the current era as depicting Black people as passive recipients of freedom, rather than active agents of their own emancipation (Kole, 2020). Historian Arica L. Coleman critiqued the historical accuracy of the monument, stating “It gives the impression that we were just sitting around waiting for Lincoln to free us. That is not true. From the beginning of the war Black … people were like, ‘I’m not sitting here waiting to be freed.’” (Brown, 2020).

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What should be done with this monument? Students are likely to support the memorial’s intent, and possibly even elements of its design—but does the monument err in depicting Lincoln as the figure that emancipated the slaves? This is an especially intriguing angle for students to consider, in light of the fact that abolitionists of the era (like Frederick Douglass) criticized the president relentlessly in his own time for dithering on the abolition issue (Bright, 2018). Shortly after the unveiling of the Freedman’s Memorial, Douglass wrote a letter to a local paper criticizing it: “What I want to see before I die is a monument representing the Negro, not couchant [submissive on the ground] on his knees like a 4-footed animal, but erect on his feet like a man” (White & Sandage, 2020).

Another example can be found at the University of Kentucky, where a mural illustrating the state’s history has come under fire for allegedly whitewashing Kentucky’s racial record. The mural is located in the university’s Memorial Hall and is a wall-sized fresco, made by Ann Rice O’Hanlon in 1934. This project was created under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, a New Deal initiative that employed local artists to create works for public buildings. The mural employs a series of vignettes, with white settlers progressing from building cabins to attending theatres—but at several spots in the mural, Black people are featured, segregated away from white Kentuckians, entertaining them with music and tending to tobacco crops. A Native American figure is also depicted from behind a tree, holding a tomahawk, seemingly threatening a white woman. Black students complained to the university’s president in 2015, calling the work a painful reminder of slavery and racism. The university tried to reckon with the mural’s depictions of minorities again in 2018. The administration commissioned an artist named Karyn Oliver to create a response to O’Hanlon’s mural. Called “Witness,” the work “reproduces the likenesses of the Black and Native American people in the mural and positions them on a dome covered with gold leaf so they appear to be floating like celestial beings” (Jacobs, 2020). Oliver has stated that her piece is directly dependent on the presence of the mural, and that removing it would be tantamount to neutering her work.

In addressing this memorial, sorting through the options will require students to employ thoughtfulness and creativity. The removal of the O’Hanlon mural—which itself is hardly on a par with Confederate statues, though it could certainly be traumatizing to a student today—would in effect negate the impact of the Oliver painting (at least, in the artist’s own view). Students may opt to try and “reformulate” the original work of art; but the university tried this with Oliver’s installation, and Black students at the University still objected. What further contextualization might be effective in mitigating the offensive elements of the O’Hanlon mural without its outright removal? Or should it be removed at all?

Social studies students may also be asked to consider how reconciliation can produce its own process of memorialization. A good example can be found in Duluth, Minnesota, where in June 1920, three Black circus workers were falsely accused of sexual assault and lynched by a white mob (Doss, 2014, p. 40). In recent years, the Duluth community began a long-delayed process of reckoning with the city’s role in these men’s death, beginning with the founding of an organization called Fostering Racial Justice through Healing and Reconciliation, the mission of which was to “to infuse the 1920 deaths into the consciousness of the community,” in order to “promote healing and reconciliation” (Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, 2018; Fedo, 2018, p. 4). The process of reconciliation, and the open dialogue over injury, blame, and guilt that accompanies it, ultimately led Duluth residents to create their own monument to the three murdered men, Elmer Jackson, Elias Clayton, and Isaac McGhie. The memorial’s developers and designers worked to “to infuse the 1920 deaths into the consciousness of the community,” (Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, 2018), to make prominent use of a quotation from Edmund Burke: “an event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak and impossible to remain silent” (Fedo, 2018, p. 3). The express purpose of reconciliation—to reach “consensual agreement on which reconciliation process would work best for the specific situation” (Asghar, et al., 2013, p. 4)—led the citizens of Duluth to a specific act of memorialization.

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Through a truth and reconciliation process, students can, even hypothetically, advance the cause of “restorative justice,” which is distinct from our society’s historical emphasis on adversarial or retributive justice. The process, as described by the 2004 Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, seeks to “heal relations between opposing sides by uncovering all pertinent facts, distinguishing truth from lies, and allowing for acknowledgement, appropriate public mourning, forgiveness and healing” (Asghar, et al., 2013, p. 11).

Perhaps the real value in a truth and reconciliation approach is in its potential to defuse what is often the primary stumbling block in such discussions, namely, defensiveness among White Americans who have either tied their own personal identity to such symbols, through community tradition or their personal heritage, or who feel unfairly blamed for the presence of these monuments in public spaces. Searles and Kalmoe (2020) conducted a survey in which they explored the attitudes of White southerners toward Confederate monuments and memorials. They wanted to see which argument for removal would resonate the most: a conventional argument against the monuments, focusing on how Black citizens saw them as symbolic of past injustices; or a similar message which included an overt comparison of Confederate and Nazi symbols, representing them as analogous. The authors found that White southerners (particularly women) were receptive to the first message but not the second, echoing similar studies’ findings (Hutchings, Walton, & Benjamin, 2010). Put another way, minds can be changed on this issue, but through historical empathy, creativity, and a diversity of possible solutions.

“Erasing” history?

Though the removal of monuments in 2020 has been a massive, nationwide affair, there are critics who argue that such actions are tantamount to an “erasure” of history. Defenders of (or, minimally, apologists for) Confederate monuments assert that, without such markers, we risk losing our sense of both national identity and historical memory. As one state official argued, “I don’t agree with all that history, of course, but it is what it is—it’s history” (Mervosh, Romero, & Tompkins, 2020). In reference to removing the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee capitol building, an advocate of relocating the work was a decision that "will not delete or erase history" (Allison, 2020). One historian worried about an effort to “sanitize our history,” in which case Americans might “run the risk of forgetting how we’ve progressed and changed over time Those who come … after us must understand that America was conceived in white supremacy and continues to suffer the consequences” (Morris, 2020). Others assert that keeping Confederate memorials intact doesn’t necessarily honor those who fought for or believed in the Southern cause; instead, they can serve as a reminder of their motives and how misplaced they are in today’s world (Smith, 2017; Timmerman, 2020).

There is no significant evidence or research supporting the claim that removing monuments causes a mass deterioration of historical memory. Indeed, characterizing the removal of a Confederate monument as “erasing” history, rather than “making” history (by correcting a warped historical narrative) requires more than a little philosophical sleight-of-hand (Perry, 2017). But the argument against a strictly binary solution to Confederate memorials—either retention or removal, no other options considered—is worth addressing. What we may need—and what teachers can provide—is an opportunity to reimagine what a particular memorial can be, or can become.

Julian Hayter, a history professor at the University of Richmond, argues that the current era is showcasing a sort of democratization of public historical memory—“ there are a lot of people now who are invested in telling … the story that historians have been laying down for decades” (Mervosh, Romero, & Tompkins, 2020). The telling of that story allows us to consider whether or not monuments can be remade into something valuable for our current society (Siegal, 2020).

This can be difficult for students, who may default to the most direct and expedient option—just get rid of it. But teachers can help students engage in creative, dynamic solutions for reimagining a monument that allows a community to show how it has changed over time, along with its shared values and beliefs. Consider, for example,

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this image of the Robert E. Lee statue, on Monument Avenue in downtown Richmond, Virginia. The statue was covered with graffiti by protesters supporting the Black Lives Matter movement in the spring and summer of 2020.

Legal efforts to remove the Lee statue have bogged down, but in the meantime, protestors have repurposed the monument in creative ways. Two Richmond-based artists, Dustin Klein and Alex Criqui used a projector and a laptop with mapping software to project an image of George Floyd and the banners “Black Lives Matter” and “BLM” on the statue itself (Moreno, 2020; Weinstein, 2020). Several images available on the internet capture the repurposed monument, which are useful for presentation or student analysis. Since then, other images have been projected on the statue, including Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Trayvon Martin, a Florida teenager who was shot to death by a White man in 2012. This series of projections shows how memorials can be recontextualized or reimagined, rather than being uprooted. Writing in the Washington Post, Melody Barnes (2020) a longtime resident of Richmond, wrote recently how these tributes ​ create a meaningful option away from criticism of “erasing history”:

The last thing I want is history erased. Our history must be studied, absorbed and addressed if reconciliation and progress are in our future. That’s a far cry from a public celebration of a mythical past that imagines White Americans as the protagonists of the entire American story (Barnes, 2020).

Teachers can help students reimagine Confederate monuments by considering how artists can alter or reconfigure them. For instance, over the last several decades, a Polish artist named Krzysztof Wodiczko has been projecting videos onto statuary around the world, representing the perspectives of marginalized populations like veterans, survivors of the Hiroshima atomic blast, mothers of murdered children, and abused female workers. In 1998, for instance, Wodiczko took the videotaped narratives of bereaved mothers from Charlestown, Massachusetts, who had lost children to violent crime, and projected them for three consecutive nights on the Bunker Hill monument (Shulman, 1998, p. 14). Wodiczko claims that “monuments can be useful for the living sometimes it’s safer and easier for people to tell the truth in public” (Sheets, 2020, p. C15). In January 2020, … Wodiczko unveiled a project called Monument, in which he used video images of the faces and hands of 12 ​ ​ resettled refugees from war-torn nations like Syria, Guatemala, and Mozambique. These images were projected onto a statue of Admiral David Farragut, built in 1881 to commemorate the Civil War hero—the animated faces and recorded audio narratives tell the refugees’ personal stories of how they came to the United States (Sheets, 2020, C15). Wodiczko’s goal in creating installations like this is to “activate architecture, monuments and public space, calling into question our assumptions of their role in society and creating forums for challenging discussions [which] build upon controversies regarding the role of monuments and whose histories they can … and should commemorate” (“Krzysztof Wodiczko Opening January 2020,” 2020). In 2019, Wodiczko unveiled a project called A House Divided, in which he used the videotaped narratives of residents of Staten Island, New ​ ​ York, expressing deeply-held political convictions. These images were then projected onto two large statues of Abraham Lincoln, arranged to face each other “as if in conversation,” allowing a “frank exchange” about “the divergent political views among members of a singular community and, in some cases, from within the same family” (“Krzysztof Wodiczko: A House Divided ,” 2019). … This willingness to subvert a monument’s original purpose, and even its design, is a feature of what contemporary artists like Hew Locke and B.D. White call “playful vandalism” (Wood, 2006; Hoffman, 2017; “An Interview with B.D. White,” 2020). This involves intentional alteration or defacement of a public marker, but with the goal of “contributing something that is additive” (Healis, 2019). For instance, Locke’s project, “Natives and Colonials,” involves painting photographs of statues, to both add an aesthetic element that is often missing from traditional statuary, and to intentionally reconsider what role that monuments may play in a public space. Locke points out that most traditional statues and monuments are patterned after what is thought to be a classic “Greek” style, in white or unburnished marble; this is so, Locke explains, only because the paint used by the original sculptors faded over time. We have been left with a narrow definition of what a “monument” should look

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like, and Locke’s intention is to reinvent, in public spaces, what “purity” and “elegance” should mean in memorializing our history (Wood, 2006). Locke’s method of painting photographs is one that can be easily replicated in the classroom; and while the truth and reconciliation process can help us critically evaluate what a historical remembrance should involve, the idea of “playful vandalism” and reimagining a memorial can help students create new meaning from old monuments.

Conclusion: “We’re fighting ghosts”

The fate of Confederate memorials is not a new debate in the U.S., and its lingering state points to how difficult the issue has been. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, the former Virginia governor, describes it as an ongoing, painful argument: “we’re fighting ghosts. There’s a lot of blood in the soil. There has been no resolution; we are still restless and torn” (Morris, 2020). A truth and reconciliation approach to analyzing monuments can offer a path, for teachers and students, to seek resolutions which can prove durable. In this new era of protest, activism, and sweeping change, this can allow us to engage in contentious discussions we, as a community, have long avoided. As the artist Nick Cave pointed out, “if you want to march about it, you have to talk about it” (O’Grady, 2020).

The provocative nature of this issue may cause social studies teachers across the country to hesitate before taking it on, despite its timeliness. But social studies classrooms are unique venues, in which public policy can be debated and analyzed in real time—and for many Americans, that venue represents the last sustained and directed exposure to social studies-based inquiry in their lives. It would be a disservice to our discipline, and more importantly, to our students, to steer away from issues that may prove divisive; in fact, it is effectively professional malpractice. “A ship in harbor is safe,” John Shedd famously said, “but that’s not what ships are built for” (Shedd, 1928, p. 63).

In the end, Americans may be less divided on this issue than may presently seem. The U.S. Army Memorial Program (2018), which is the official military guide for the memorial process, states that “memorializations will honor deceased heroes and other deceased distinguished individuals of all races in our society, and will present them as inspirations to their fellow Soldiers, employees, and other citizens” (p. 4). If a monument doesn’t inspire other citizens—if, instead, it makes them feel as if their nation rejects their presence, or minimizes their humanity—the answer about such a marker’s fate seems self-evident. Our urge to come to terms with our history shouldn’t be seen as a deficiency, or as a national flaw in our character; indeed, it is a shared American virtue.

th On the 75 a​ nniversary of the end of World War II, leaders from the once-warring nations gathered in ​ Berlin to commemorate the event. In the midst of multiple promises to “never forget” the violence, destruction, and death, the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, made a statement in which he uncovered the theme that powers a nation’s ability to reconceptualize its own historical memory. “There is no end to remembering,” he said—“There is no redemption from our history” (Tharoor, 2020). For our own memorials, teachers can help students see them as an ongoing debate in and about our public spaces—a process which can, hopefully, bring redemption.

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Using the C3 Framework in Analyzing Political Parties

Jeremiah Clabough, University of Alabama at Birmingham ​

Abstract

This article explores the divisions within the Democratic Party during the 1948 presidential election—an election that allows students to see how issues of race divided factions within the party. The article also provides a vision for the type of high school civics instruction advocated for in the C3 Framework. There are discussions of the importance of teaching public policies and of an activity for high school students to examine different factions within the Democratic Party. The steps and resources needed to implement this activity are also provided.

Introduction

American political parties are rarely as unified as they may appear. Divisions with U.S. political parties exist based on economic, political, and regional factors. For example, candidate Mitt Romney struggled to capture the nomination in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries because members of the Tea Party had moved the party several steps to the political right (Halperin & Heilemann, 2013). Factions within a political party are always in competition with each other. One example of this can be seen with the Democratic Party during the 1948 presidential election.

This article explores the divisions within the Democratic Party during the 1948 presidential election and how these differences would ultimately lead in the 1960s to destruction of the New Deal coalition of northern liberals, African Americans, labor unions, and southern segregationists (Carter, 2000; Pietrusza, 2011). First, a discussion is provided for the type of civic instruction advocated for in the C3 Framework. Then, a discussion of the importance of teaching public policies in the high school civics classroom is given. Finally, an activity is provided for students to examine differences among factions within the Democratic Party during the 1948 presidential election.

Civic Education in the Era of the C3 Framework

Civic education needs to be about more than simply memorizing amendments to the U.S. Constitution. High school students need to be able to analyze public policies (Nokes, 2019; Oliver & Shaver, 1966). The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) lays out a vision for civic education in its C3 Framework that disrupts traditional didactic methods of classroom instruction. In its C3 Framework, NCSS (2013a) argues that high school social studies teachers need to strengthen their students’ disciplinary thinking, literacy, and argumentation skills through student-centered activities. This type of social studies instruction is accomplished through the Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework. In its Inquiry Arc, NCSS argues that social studies teachers should construct compelling questions that students answer through research from examining primary and secondary sources. Students use their research findings to take civic action (Lee & Swan, 2013; Levinson & Levine, 2013; NCSS, 2013a).

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It is important to note that civic thinking skills and historical thinking skills are not the same because political scientists ask different questions than historians to examine issues and events (Clabough, 2018; Journell, 2017; Journell, Beeson, & Ayers, 2015). Scholars will differ on their definition of civic thinking, but for the purposes of this article, civic thinking is providing students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to function as future democratic citizens to analyze public policies that impact their local community, state, nation, and world (Clabough, 2018; Journell, 2017; Journell et al., 2015; NCSS, 2013a). There are many components that go into building high school students’ civic thinking skills. Some components are provided in the following list.

● The ability to analyze how politicians’ public policies will impact you and members of your community. ● The ability to decode subtle racist rhetoric being employed by a politician. ● The ability to research a politician’s statements in order to check the validity of his or her arguments. ● The ability to see how certain public policies will have ripple effects with environmental issues.

The list above is far from exhaustive, but is indicative with the ways that civic education should be taught based on the C3 Framework (Lee & Swan, 2013; Levinson & Levine, 2013; NCSS, 2013a). One essential component of strengthening high school students’ civic thinking skills is teaching about public policies argued for by politicians and special interest groups.

Teaching Public Policies

Democratic citizens are inundated with public policy recommendations from their elected officials and special interest groups on a daily basis. These public policies range from local issues such as building a new courthouse to national issues such as reshaping the U.S. healthcare system. Regardless of the issue in question, public policies impact democratic citizens’ daily lives. Therefore, high school civics teachers need to prepare students to analyze policy recommendations and weigh the merits of competing arguments (Engle & Ochoa, 1988; Ochoa-Becker, 1996; Oliver & Shaver, 1966). The inflamed political hyperpartisanship of the last 50 years has made it more difficult to discern the merits of policy recommendations. U.S. politicians on both sides of the aisle attempt to demonize the other side’s policies (Journell, 2016). These political realities make the high school civics teacher’s job more difficult. However, civics teachers must work to overcome these challenges to prepare students to be future democratic citizens (NCSS, 2013b).

It is important for students to realize how much special interests groups shape and impact the law. Democratic citizens must hold their elected officials accountable for public policies that address the needs of all citizens (Parker, 2015). To accomplish this goal, high school civics teachers need to design classroom activities for their students to analyze and deconstruct the policy recommendations of not only competing parties but also for members of the same political party (Clabough, 2017). The latter element is often overlooked. Within political parties, there are more conservative, moderate, and liberal forces at work. The high school civics teacher should design classroom activities that allow students to research these differences within a political party. To open a dialogue into these controversial topics, it is easier to use examples of division within a political party from the past (Nokes, 2019). One ideal example that can be used is the division within the Democratic Party during the 1948 presidential election.

Brief Overview of the Democratic Party in the 1948 Presidential Election

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the anchor of the Democratic Party from his election in 1932 until his death in ​ 1945. He held together groups within the party that had competing goals and interests. In the wake of FDR’s death, Harry Truman had the unenviable task of trying to hold together factions within the Democratic Party. ​ ​ Northern liberals and civil rights activists were bound to be at odds with southern segregationists within the Democratic Party because these groups had a different vision for the party. Truman proved less than successful

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managing these factions. Policies in support for one faction often angered the other factions. Civil rights was the one issue that split the Democratic Party like no other (Mann, 1996; McCullough, 1992; Pietrusza, 2011).

The hypocrisy of the U.S. fighting for freedom abroad while de facto and de jure segregation existed on ​ ​ ​ ​ the homefront became impossible to ignore in the wake of World War II. Both Republicans and Democrats had to take steps to address civil rights issues because of the crucial Black vote in the North that could swing the balance of victory in presidential elections (Caro, 2002; Pietrusza, 2011). Due to the potential repercussions of ignoring this voting bloc and his basic sense of fairness, Harry Truman tried to position the Democratic Party as the political entity to address civil rights issues by desegregating the armed forces by executive order and trying to pass comprehensive federal legislation to try and end the poll tax (McCullough, 1992). Truman’s efforts caused discord within his political house. This discord within the Democratic Party was exasperated by Hubert Humphrey’s famous speech advocating for the Democratic Party to adopt a civil rights plank on its 1948 party platform (Caro, 2002; Solberg, 1984). The adoption of a civil rights plank for the 1948 Democratic Party Platform caused some southerners to bolt the party to create a new one.

For southern Democrats, the issue that drove their political careers was maintaining the Jim Crow segregation laws that kept African Americans as second-class citizens (Feldman, 2015; Frederickson, 2001). The adoption of the civil rights plank based on Humphrey’s speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention led to many Southern Democrats walking out of the gathering in Philadelphia and to the formation of the States Rights Democratic Party, commonly called the Dixiecrats. Dixiecrats were focused on states rights issues and opposed to what its members saw as the encroachment by the federal government on local and state policies connected to civil rights issues.

Shortly after the Democrat convention, the Dixiecrats met in Birmingham and nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond to be their presidential candidate, in large part based on his speech at the new party’s convention in Birmingham (Pietrusza, 2011). Southern segregationists had long defended their actions and public policies based on the ability of politicians to determine laws on the local and state levels. Civil rights issues laid bare the divisions within the Democratic Party. The Dixiecrats ended up carrying Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, and Louisiana (Pietrusza, 2011). The fact that the Dixiecrats were this successful was a harbinger for things to come. In the next sections, a student activity helps high school students analyze these 1948 party divisions using the Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework.

Analyzing Democratic Factions’ Public Policies on Civil Rights Issues

“Developing questions and planning inquiries” with students (Dimension 1 of the Inquiry Arc) give focus for reading primary sources. There are multiple primary source excerpts that high school civics teachers can utilize for their students to research these factions within the 1948 Democratic Party regarding civil rights issues. The following compelling question can drive student research. How did civil rights issues divide the Democratic Party during the 1948 presidential election? This compelling question enables students to examine people’s competing views on public policies (Mueller, 2013).

Students need to research why there are conflicting policy ideas about civil rights issues within the Democratic Party. This allows students to “Apply Disciplinary Concepts and Tools” thus meeting Dimension 2 of the Inquiry Arc. The teacher starts by splitting students into pairs to listen to Minneapolis mayor and U.S. Senate candidate Hubert Humphrey’s 1948 Democratic National Convention Address. In this speech, Humphrey delivers an eloquent speech urging the Democratic Party to adopt a civil rights plank in the party’s platform (Caro, 2002; Mann, 1996; Solberg, 1984). Humphrey’s speech can be accessed on American Rhetoric, https://www. ​ americanrhetoric.com/speeches/huberthumphey1948dnc.html. Pairs listen to the audio of Humphrey’s speech ​ and complete the following graphic organizer.

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Graphic Organizer for Analyzing Humphrey’s 1948 DNC Speech

According to Humphrey, why does supporting What does Humphrey mean by the following civil rights issues connect to the identity of the statement? “The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party? Use evidence from Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' Humphrey’s speech to support your arguments. rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.” Use evidence from Humphrey’s speech to support your arguments.

These analysis prompts help students deconstruct Humphrey’s arguments about the need for the Democratic Party to support public policies in favor of civil rights issues. As the pairs answer these analysis prompts, the teacher walks around the classroom to help students.

After students finish answering these analysis prompts, the teacher brings the class back together for a class discussion. Students add onto their answers based on peers’ comments. The teacher asks the following extension question. According to Humphrey, how do public policies supporting civil rights issues connect to democratic traditions of the United States? This extension question helps students summarize Humphrey’s logic and reasons for arguing that the Democratic Party needs to adopt a civil rights plank in the party’s platform.

Humphrey’s speech propelled him from a Senate candidate into a national figure. This speech also inflamed the divisions within the Democratic Party. After students listen to Humphrey’s speech and complete the graphic organizer, they examine the ripple effects of this policy decision by the exodus from the party by some southern Democrats to create the Dixiecrats in response to the adoption of this civil rights plank. The Dixiecrats were opposed to the U.S. government taking action to eliminate de facto and de jure segregation within the ​ ​ ​ ​ country (Feldman, 2015; Frederickson, 2001). High school students can read the Dixiecrats’ platform to see the party’s stances on civil rights issues. The party platform of the Dixiecrats can be accessed on the American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/platform-the-states-rights-democratic-party. ​ ​ Students in the same pairs as earlier read this party platform and complete the following graphic organizer.

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Graphic Organizer for Analyzing the Dixiecrat’s Party Platform

How do the Dixiecrats attempt to argue that How do the Dixiecrats frame their arguments in segregation laws are connected to and protected opposition to the Democratic Party’s civil rights by the U.S. Constitution? Use evidence from the plank? Use evidence from the source to support source to support your arguments. your arguments.

By reading the Dixiecrats’ platform and completing the graphic organizer, students are able to articulate the reasons for the Dixiecrats’ Party’s opposition to the civil rights plank.

After students read the Dixiecrats’ party platform and complete the graphic organizer, there is another class discussion. Students add onto their responses based on peers’ comments. The teacher asks the following extension question to help students see how the Dixiecrats tried to position themselves within the American political system. How do the Dixiecrats subtly argue that they best represent political freedoms and traditions espoused by the Democratic Party? This extension question helps students articulate the distinct Southern identity to a wing of the Democratic Party based on opposition to civil rights issues.

Next, students examine Harry Truman’s position on civil rights issues. Truman tried to pass legislation based on his personal beliefs and desire to gain the support from northern liberals, civil rights activists, and Black voters in the North (Caro, 2002; Mann, 1996; McCullough, 1992). Students analyze Truman’s stances going into the 1948 presidential election by examining some of his arguments about civil rights issues to the NAACP. These excerpts of Truman’s statements to the NAACP can be accessed at the following website, https://www.politico. ​ com/story/2018/06/29/truman-addresses-the-naacp-june-29-1947-667457. After students in pairs read these ​ excerpts, they complete the following graphic organizer.

Graphic Organizer to Analyze Truman’s Statements to the NAACP

According to Truman, why should the Democratic According to Truman, how should the Democratic Party support policies to protect African Americans’ Party use public policies to address civil rights civil rights? Use arguments from Truman’s speech issues in the United States? Use arguments from to support your arguments. Truman’s speech to support your arguments.

These excerpts of Truman’s speech capture his beliefs about civil rights issues.

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After students read excerpts from Truman’s speech and answer the analysis prompts, there is another class discussion. The purpose of this class discussion is for students to articulate Truman’s perspective about the need for civil rights policies. The teacher asks the following extension question. How does having the leader of the Democratic Party advocating for civil rights issues highlight the topic and put pressure on the party to design comprehensive legislation to address these social injustices? The discussion of this question helps students grasp how the emphasis on civil rights issues by Democratic presidents kept the party in the public spotlight when it came to crafting policy solutions to civil rights issues (Caro, 2002).

The primary sources examined and analysis prompts answered help students articulate the different perspectives of factions within the Democratic Party about civil rights issues in the 1948 presidential election. Next, the students complete the following graphic organizer to distinguish among the Dixiecrats, Truman, and Humphrey’s public policies connected to civil rights issues. They use evidence from sources already examined to complete this graphic organizer in pairs.

Public Policy Comparison Graphic Organizer

What are Humphrey’s public policies What are Truman’s public What are the Dixiecrats’ public about civil rights issues? How do policies about civil rights policies about civil rights issues? Humphrey’s public policies on civil issues? How do Truman’s How do the Dixiecrats’ public rights issues differ from those of the public policies on civil rights policies on civil rights issues differ Dixiecrats and Truman? Use evidence issues differ from those of the from those of Truman and from sources examined to support Dixiecrats and Humphrey? Use Humphrey? Use evidence from your arguments. evidence from sources sources examined to support your examined to support your arguments. arguments.

The teacher should emphasize that students use evidence from sources examined to complete this graphic organizer. The use of evidence to support arguments meets the expectations of Dimension 3 of the C3 Framework, “evaluating sources and using evidence.”

After pairs complete this graphic organizer, there is another class discussion. The purpose of this class discussion is for students to articulate the differences in arguments about civil rights issues made by the Dixiecrats, Harry Truman, and Hubert Humphrey. The students should not have a problem differentiating how the Dixiecrats approached civil rights issues compared to Truman and Humphrey. The challenge lies in helping students differentiate the policies of Truman and Humphrey. To address this challenge, the teacher should ask the following supporting question. Why would Truman’s position in the Democratic Party in 1948 cause him to

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moderate his arguments compared to Humphrey? This supporting question helps students articulate how th Democrat presidents in the first half of the 20 ​ century had to balance the competing interests of factions within ​ the New Deal coalition when crafting public policies.

Finally, students use their graphic organizers to independently complete one of the following analysis prompts.

1. Assume the role of a speechwriter for President Truman. Write a speech for Truman to deliver in the South about civil rights issues. The speech should connect to Truman’s arguments made to the NAACP. You should make persuasive arguments to explain why Truman’s public policies on civil rights issues help the United States.

2. Assume the role of Hubert Humphrey. Write a letter to President Truman on why his public policies on civil rights issues do not go far enough. Based on Humphrey’s 1948 Democratic National Convention Address, provide some policy recommendations on how Truman can address racial discrimination in the United States.

The length of the writing prompt can be adjusted based on students’ writing skills. Regardless of the writing prompt selected, students are articulating a perspective from either Truman or Humphrey on public policies to address racial discrimination. The perspective writing elements of this activity help students capture and convey historical figures’ voices on an issue (Parker & Lo, 2019). Students also gain experience realizing how public policies can be utilized to address social injustices (Agarwal-Rangnath, 2013; Teitelbaum, 2011).

Afterthoughts

The steps of the activity help students see the divisions within the Democratic Party during the 1948 presidential election. Students analyze three perspectives within members of the same political party connected to civil rights issues. The examination of these historical divisions was a preview of things to come. The issue of civil rights would play a pivotal role in the political realignment of the 1960s that transformed the South into a political stronghold for the Republican Party (Kornacki, 2018; Perlstein, 2008). The 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act removed Jim Crow segregation laws and cleared many hurdles for African Americans to vote. Southern senators attempted to filibuster these public policies but were not successful because of Senator Humphrey’s floor leadership (Mann, 1996). Many southerners felt the Democratic Party no longer reflected their beliefs due to civil rights and the party’s 1960s leftward movement connected to the counterculture and anti-war movements (Perlstein, 2008). Republicans took advantage of this situation to flip the South into a modern-day Republican stronghold.

The same approaches employed with this activity can be adapted and applied to examine competing factions within a political party during other time periods. Some ideal examples might include the division between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders during the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries and between candidates George W. Bush and John McCain during the 2000 Republican quest for the nomination. Regardless of the example selected, students gain the opportunity to contextualize issues that divide members of a political party.

Our high school students need to possess the analysis skills to research the public policies of different factions within a political party. The ability to decode these policy differences helps students to make informed decisions on candidates in local, state, and national elections (Engle & Ochoa, 1988). After all, public policies impact democratic citizens on a daily basis.

Contemporary Republican and Democratic parties are split. Moderate and liberal Democratic forces supporting candidates from Joe Biden to Bernie Sanders sought to influence the Democratic nomination to challenge Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Presidential politics over the last 50 years has been driven by more conservative and liberal forces vying for control of their political parties (Kornacki, 2018). All signs

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point to these forces continuing to battle for control of their respective political parties. Therefore, high school civics teachers need to equip students with the analysis skills to see how politicians’ differing public policies will impact their daily lives, the political party, and the nation. This helps students as future democratic citizens to impact the direction for U.S. political parties.

References

Agarwal-Rangnath, R. (2013). Social studies, literacy, and social justice in the Common Core classroom: A guide for ​ teachers. Teachers College Press. ​

Caro, R. (2002). Master of the Senate. Vintage Books. ​ ​

Carter, D. (2000). The politics of rage: George Wallace, the origins of the new conservatism, and the ​ transformation of American politics (2nd ed.). Louisiana State University Press. ​

Clabough, J. (2017). Helping develop students’ civic identities through exploring public issues. The Councilor: A ​ Journal of the Social Studies, 78(2), 1-9. ​ ​ ​

Clabough, J. (2018). Analyzing Richard Nixon’s “political death and resurrection” to strengthen students’ civic thinking skills. The Social Studies, 109(4), 177-185. ​ ​

Engle, S. & Ochoa, A. (1988). Education for democratic citizenship: Decision making in the social studies. Teachers ​ ​ College Press.

Feldman, G. (2015). The great melding: War, the Dixiecrat rebellion, and the Southern model for America’s new ​ conservatism. The University of Alabama Press. ​

Frederickson, K. (2001). The Dixiecrat revolt and the end of the Solid South, 1932-1968. The University of North ​ ​ Carolina Press.

Halperin, M. & Heilemann, J. (2013). Double down: Game change 2012. The Penguin Press. ​ ​

Journell, W. (2016). Introduction: Teaching social issues in the social studies classroom. In W. Journell (Ed.), Teaching social studies in an era of divisiveness: The challenges of discussing social issues in a non-partisan way (pp. 1-12). Rowman & Littlefield. ​

Journell, W. (2017). Teaching politics in secondary education: Engaging with contentious issues. State University of ​ ​ New York Press.

Journell, W., Beeson, M., & Ayers, C. (2015). Learning to think politically: Toward more complete disciplinary knowledge in civics and government courses. Theory and Research in Social Education, 43(1), 28–67. ​ ​ ​ ​

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Kornacki, S. (2018). The red and the blue: The 1990s and the birth of political tribalism. Harper-Collins. ​ ​

Lee, J. & Swan, K. (2013). Is the Common Core good for social studies? Yes, but Social Education, 77(6), 327-330. … ​ ​ ​ ​

Levinson, M. & Levine, P. (2013). Taking informed action to engage students in civic life. Social Education, 77(6), ​ ​ ​ ​ 339-341.

Mann, R. (1996). The walls of Jericho: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell, and the struggle for ​ civil rights. Harcourt Brace & Company. ​

McCullough, D. (1992). Truman. Simon & Schuster. ​ ​

Mueller, R. (2013). Calibrating your “compelling compass”: Teacher-constructed prompts to assist question development. Social Education, 81(6), 343-345. ​ ​ ​ ​

NCSS. (2013a). The college, career, and civic life framework for social studies state standards: Guidance for ​ enhancing the rigor of K-12 civics, economics, geography, and history. Author. ​

NCSS. (2013b). Revitalizing civic learning in our schools. A Position Statement of the National Council for the Social ​ ​ Studies. http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/revitalizing_civic_learning ​

Nokes, J. (2019). Teaching, history, learning citizenship: Tools for civic engagement. Teachers College Press. ​ ​

Ochoa-Becker, A. (1996). Building a rationale for issues-centered education. In R. Evans & D.W. Saxe (Eds.), Handbook on teaching social issues (pp. 6-13). The National Council for the Social Studies. ​

Oliver, D. & Shaver, J. (1966). Teaching public issues in the high school. Houghton Mifflin. ​ ​

Parker, W. (2015). Social studies education ec21. In W. Parker (Ed.), Social studies today: Research and practice ​ (pp. 3-13). Routledge.

Parker, W. & Lo, J. (2019). From design to deed: A guide to stimulating government and politics on the AP platform. C. Wright-Maley (Ed.), More like life itself: Simulations as powerful and purposeful social studies ​ (pp. 167-186). Information Age Publishing.

Perlstein, R. (2008). Nixonland: The rise of a president and the fracturing of America. Simon & Schuster. ​ ​

Pietrusza, D. (2011). 1948. Harry Truman’s improbable victory and the year that transformed America’s role in the ​ world. Diversion Books. ​

Solberg, C. (1984). Hubert Humphrey: A biography. W.W. Norton & Company. ​ ​

Teitelbaum, K. (2011). Critical civic literacy in schools: Adolescents seeking to understand and improve the(ir) world. In J. DeVitis (Ed.), Critical civic literacy: A reader (pp. 11-26). Peter Lang. ​ ​

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Using Text Sets to Teach Elementary Learners about Japanese- American Incarceration

Lisa K. Pennington, Governors State University ​ Mary E. Tackett, Longwood University ​

Abstract

While many textbooks misrepresent historic events and disregard diverse experiences, text sets allow educators to explore history through a comprehensive sample of text genres, perspectives, marginalized voices, and authentic lived experiences. Building from a two-year content analysis that reviewed 41 texts, this article examines a text set of 10 resources for teaching lower (K-3) and upper (4-6) elementary learners about Japanese-American incarceration (sometimes referred to as Japanese-American internment). A brief synopsis of each text is accompanied by reading and writing response recommendations aimed at encouraging students to make critical and creative cross-curricular connections while applying historical content knowledge.

Introduction

Children’s books promote cross-curricular connections between social studies and language arts by providing “windows” and “mirrors” (Bishop, 1990) that advance multiple perspectives often lacking in traditional resources. Exploring multiple perspectives allows students to develop empathy and recognize and respect diversity (Feeney & Moravcik, 2005) while practicing both general literacy and disciplinary skills such as corroboration and sourcing (Sell & Griffin, 2017). However, teachers must avoid superficial integration, where social studies content (such as informational passages) is used to solely teach reading skills while ignoring disciplinary literacy (Hinde, 2015; McGuire, 2007). With purposeful planning, cross-curricular connections offer multiple benefits, particularly for elementary students.

Issues with Textbooks

While textbooks offer one connection between social studies and literacy, they are often outdated, expensive, and unappealing. Additionally, variance in reading levels may make them inaccessible for some students. Even more problematically, textbooks may omit or distort history to present palatable versions of events that gloss over racism and oppression of people of color, particularly in relation to slavery (Greenlee, 2019; Wong, 2015). Myriad textbooks have been criticized for presenting inaccurate information, such as describing enslaved persons as “immigrants,” and the work of enslaved persons as “chores” (Atwell, 2020). Similarly, in a 2018 interview, James Loewen described how textbooks weaponize history against students of color, encourage passivity, and inaccurately present American history (Kamenezt, 2018). In other instances, history is simply omitted, particularly in relation to topics concerning oppression and systemic racism (Silva, 2020). These omissions bring to mind Eisner’s (1979) idea of null curriculum which states “what schools do not teach may be as important as what they do teach” (p. 83). Therefore, educators have a responsibility to critically examine

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textbooks and present accurate and complete history to students in ways that showcase contributions by people of color and explain how racism and oppression played a key role in our history.

Creating Effective Text Sets

As an alternative to textbooks, text sets supplement curriculum by providing multiple viewpoints to authenticate the historic experience while elevating the voices of marginalized populations. When creating a text set, “text” is broadly defined as a collection of resources of different genres, possibly including graphic novels, primary sources, poetry, and multimedia. Text sets can be organized by themes, anchor texts, perspectives, or complexity levels (Garrison, 2016). Research indicates when students work with conceptually related text sets, they demonstrate better recall and understanding of the topic, and more strongly grasp content related vocabulary (Cervetti, Wright, & Hwang, 2016). Most importantly, text sets can supplement or replace inaccurate or incomplete textbooks by providing background knowledge to help students better understand informational readings (Zimmerman, 2019). This allows educators to more comprehensively teach content while showcasing the contributions of people of color throughout history. Though there are multiple ways to develop text sets, the Iowa Reading Research Center suggests a backward design approach as detailed by Wiggins and McTighe (2005). In this approach, standards are identified, desired learning objectives, knowledge, and skills are developed, and summative assessments are created prior to text selection (Zimmerman, 2019). In choosing texts, educators consider a variety of factors such as content, complexity, and vocabulary (Garrison, 2016) as well as genre and reading level (Zimmerman, 2019). Additionally, we suggest considering which perspectives and experiences are included within a text set to ensure students are exposed to multiple voices and viewpoints.

Employing Critical Literacy

In tandem with carefully designed text sets, educators can use a critical literacy lens to amplify authentic voices, which serve as “windows” and “mirrors” (Bishop, 1990) for learning about the experiences of others. The four dimensions of critical literacy (disrupting the commonplace, interrogating multiple perspectives, focusing on ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ the sociopolitical, and taking action for social justice) described by Lewison, Leland, and Harste (2015) allow ​ ​ ​ students to engage with texts in reflective and meaningful ways. The fourth dimension of critical literacy (taking ​ action) also aligns with the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework (NCSS, 2013) and offers common ground ​ for designing cross-curricular lessons. A critical literacy framework encourages students to connect the texts to their lives, draw on cultural knowledge, identify different perspectives, and reflect on personal perspectives and biases (Vasquez, Janks, Comber, 2019). Merging critical literacy skills with cross-curricular connections allows students to thoughtfully question and meaningfully engage with a wide variety of diverse texts, offering more authentic views of history.

Content Analysis

Building on cross-curricular connections, critical literacy, and diverse texts, we sought to assemble an effective text set to teach elementary learners about Japanese-American incarceration. A contemporary effort to more accurately describe U.S. policy toward Japanese Americans during World War II, has replaced the war-era government terms of “internment” or “relocation” with “incarceration.” While textbooks have improved their presentation of this topic, they still do not clearly address integral issues of discrimination (Hawkins & Buckendorf, 2010). To address this disparity, we conducted a two-year content analysis of 41 children’s books about Japanese-American incarceration which yielded four overarching themes: children's books about incarceration (a) provide historic descriptions of events, (b) amplify feelings of hope, (c) acknowledge injustice, and (d) explore lasting implications. We used these research findings to provide preliminary advice for educators to consider when addressing incarceration (Tackett & Pennington, 2020), and assembled this text set to provide more focused, practical opportunities and examples for classroom application.

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Exemplar Selection

While children’s books provide descriptive, historical accounts of Japanese-American incarceration, information ranges in scope and depth. Additionally, informational texts often present a detached account of events, while narratives provide emotional experiences for the reader (Tackett & Pennington, 2020). While our overall sample contained many high quality books, we selected ten exemplar texts we felt best addressed important historical aspects, recurring themes, and insider perspectives necessary for a comprehensive overview of incarceration. Exemplars included five texts suggested for lower elementary (K-3) and five for upper elementary (4-6) learners (See Table 1). When possible, we selected texts representing multiple genres (e.g., picture books, novels, and poetry) and perspectives, that provided authentic first or second hand accounts of incarceration. However, many of the texts were written by authors with no known personal or family experience with incarceration, supporting the ongoing need for more diverse authors and voices. Here, we provide a brief synopsis of each text, learning focuses and themes, and suggested responses aimed at promoting engagement, understanding, and discussion.

Suggested Children’s Books and Activities for Lower Elementary (K-3) Learners

Suggested Reading 1: A Place Where Sunflowers Grow ​ Lee-Tai’s (2006) A place where sunflowers grow is a historical fiction picture book. The narrative is authentically ​ ​ informed by the experiences of Lee-Tai’s mother and grandparents who were imprisoned at Camp Topaz in Utah. The story provides an easily relatable, non-threatening resource for introducing Japanese-American incarceration to young learners. The difficult conditions of incarceration, such as living in a dirty horse stall, tar paper shacks, and the danger of dust storms are subtly addressed through age appropriate images and narrative. The text offers an overall hopeful tone, and the illustrations have a cheery yellow pallor. The protagonist, Mari, uses art to adjust to camp life and grapple with feelings of despair associated with leaving her home. Her family plants sunflowers, which grow in tandem with her more hopeful outlook as the story progresses. The familiar picture book format and universal motifs of using art to express oneself and plants as a symbol for rebirth provide a safe starting point for introducing and fostering empathetic discussion while helping young learners make connections to new content.

Suggested Reader Response: Making Connections

Effective readers make connections as they read, including “text-to-self” (between the text and the reader’s life experiences), “text-to-text” (between the text and another familiar text), and “text-to-world” (between the text and current or historic events) connections (Keene & Zimmerman, 2007). During a shared reading, students use meaningful connections to emotionally engage with the characters and better understand the text. Educators can guide students beyond surface level connections such as planting sunflowers like Mari (text-to-self), to making more complex connections, like comparing Mari’s incarceration to current events, such as the treatment of refugee children detained at the border (text-to-world) (Bixby, 2019; Chen, 2019; Flynn, 2019). After reading, students can create their own art to demonstrate their emotional or aesthetic response to the text (Rosenblatt, 1978). However, educators should be prepared for a wide range of student emotions and connections, as the texts may simultaneously provide a “mirror” that triggers painful personal experiences to prejudice, discrimination, and injustice for some students, while others may be privileged enough to view these emotions only through the secondhand “window” (Bishop, 1990) of Mari’s experience.

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Suggested Reading 2: Children of the Relocation Camps ​ After using A place where sunflowers grow (Lee-Tai, 2006) to introduce incarceration, Welch’s (2000) ​ ​ ​ ​ Children of the relocation camps is useful for providing real-world, historical context necessary to ground the ​ narratives. While Welch does not have personal experience with incarceration, she purposefully wrote the text because she did not recall learning about Japanese-American incarceration in school (Welch, 2000). The text begins with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and concludes with the release of prisoners, providing a holistic overview of events rather than focusing solely on a single camp experience as many of the narratives do. The informational text provides a comprehensive, factual, age-appropriate overview of the history. It includes maps of the camps, primary source photos, and a timeline, while also providing opportunities for readers to examine expository text features like captions, headings, indexes, glossaries, and table of contents.

Suggested Reader Response: Visualizing

While it is vital for educators to provide a selection of both historical accounts and emotional narratives when exploring Japanese-American incarceration (Tackett & Pennington, 2020), young learners may need extra support to comprehend expository texts that are often underutilized in elementary classrooms (Williams, Hall, & ​ Lauer, 2004). Visualizing is a comprehension strategy that enables the reader to form mental images while ​ reading (Keene & Zimmerman, 2007). Since beginning readers rely heavily on illustrations, as they often tell the story in tandem with the text, it is a particularly appealing strategy for younger grades.

When visualizing, students may fold a piece of paper into equal cells before engaging in a shared reading in which the text is “chunked” into meaningful sections. After reading each section, students pause, close their eyes to visualize, and then illustrate their understanding of that text section in each cell space. For example, based on the description of the camps, a student may draw a smelly horse stall with a single light bulb, or a dusty field surrounded by barbed wire and flanked with security towers. As an extra challenge, educators may choose to cover the illustrations or pictures in the texts to prevent students from passively replicating the ideas of the illustrator. After students complete their illustrations, educators facilitate whole class discussion for each text section and then reveal the real photos for comparison. Additionally, students can write a caption for each cell, then combine the captions into a full summary of the text. This strategy aids comprehension while also enabling students to make meaning of new ideas and content.

Suggested Reading 3: Baseball Saved Us ​ Baseball is a frequently occurring motif in books about Japanese-American incarceration. Building the fields provided opportunities for collaboration, autonomy, and distraction, while the sport itself allowed enjoyment and escape. Baseball saved us (Mochizuki, 1993) is a historical fiction picture book, and Mochizuki ​ ​ draws from the experiences of his incarcerated parents to describe the abrupt move to camp, daily life, and struggles upon release. The unpleasantness of camp is starkly described, but also juxtaposed against the resilient voice of the narrator, Shorty, who loves the sense of freedom baseball provides. After his release, baseball continues to be a constant in Shorty’s life, but when spectators taunt him with the derogatory term “Jap” during a game, he discovers that although he is free, he is still imprisoned by prejudice. This text provides an excellent opportunity for discussing the power of language and how derogatory terms disparage individuals (Tackett & Pennington, 2020).

Suggested Reader Response: Extended Metaphor Poem

While a metaphor is a type of figurative language that abstractly compares two dissimilar things, an extended metaphor poem is a literary device that can be used to explore an item or event from a new angle, by explaining it through a familiar lens. When crafting an extended metaphor poem, students can use baseball, barbed wire, sunflowers, or another self-selected symbol to creatively demonstrate their understanding of

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incarceration. Extended metaphor poems can be challenging, as they require deep critical understanding of content, but educators can easily scaffold strategy use. First, educators can help students identify a concrete object, such as the commonly recurring motif of baseball, and then help students unpack how that object is similar to incarceration. During whole-class discussion, educators may create a web by writing the word “baseball” in the center of an anchor chart and use the remaining space to brainstorm and then record concrete characteristics of the sport. Students then self-select one of the suggested characteristics on the web as a focal point for symbolizing incarceration. For example, if students noted that baseball is a “great American pastime,” their poem could explore how Japanese-Americans felt the need to prove that they were “good Americans” who posed no threat to the United States. If students focused on the joy of the sport, they could explore how the game was used to help prisoners forget about their plight in the camps. Finally, if students discussed the logistics of the game and hitting the ball into the field, baseball could be used as a metaphor for freedom, as the ball flies freely above the barbed wire of the camps, just like the prisoners hoped to be free one day. Examining and extending these self-selected metaphors can help students navigate difficult content and topics like incarceration through familiar and nonthreatening avenues and objects.

Suggested Reading 4: Life as a Child in a Japanese Internment Camp ​ Similar to the aforementioned Children of the relocation camps (Welch, 2000), Life as a child in a Japanese ​ ​ ​ Internment Camp (Sullivan, 2017) is an informational text that provides a brief and simplistic history of ​ Japanese-American incarceration. While Sullivan has no known personal or family experience with incarceration, the text is written with the perspective of a child in mind, and includes primary sources, photos, and vocabulary useful to help students grasp the basic concepts of the incarceration experience. Though the text does not describe the difficult situations in which prisoners found themselves after release, it does mention the apology made by the United States thirty years later, setting up opportunities to discuss life after incarceration.

Suggestions for Reader Response: Primary Source Photo Analysis

Analyzing a set of photos related to Japanese-American incarceration allows students to use observations and text evidence to draw conclusions about camp life. A primary source photo analysis provides opportunities for students to critically examine historical information (Barton, 2001), and can be scaffolded through teacher modeling and graphic organizers that outline the process. Additionally, the activity lends itself well to partner or group collaboration, as students use historical analysis to compare their findings (Barton, 2001). First, students list what they expect to be included in the photos, then upon examination of the photos, identify similarities and differences across the set. After that, students use evidence from the photos to explain what they think is happening, before finally sharing general conclusions (Barton, 2001). Analyzing primary sources reminds students of the real-world implications and gravity of incarceration.

Suggested Reading 5: So Far from the Sea ​ Finally, Bunting’s (1998) picture book So far from the sea follows Laura’s family, who travels to visit the ​ ​ grave of her grandfather buried at Manzanar before a cross-country move. Like the author, Laura has no personal experience with incarceration, and the text references the fictional experiences of her grandfather, such as how he dressed in his boy scout uniform to show he was a “good American” after Executive Order 9066. Since the focus is on the present-day family, historical description of incarceration is limited. However, the text offers an often overlooked focus on the lingering, generational effects of incarceration, and questions how history is presented and remembered. Additionally, because Laura is thirty years removed from the events, she provides a visceral reaction to the injustice of incarceration, which may mirror that of students also viewing these events with historical hindsight.

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Suggested Reading Response: Memorializing the Past

The setting of the abandoned camp in So far from the sea (Eve Bunting, 1998) illuminates questions on ​ ​ what should be done with camp remains. Should they be allowed to deteriorate, or turned into museums and memorials? The focus on the aftermath and long-lasting effects of incarceration provide an opportunity to deliberate how history should be memorialized and remembered (Facing History and Ourselves, n.d.). First, students can analyze photos of memorials that currently honor those imprisoned under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. Then, they can compare the intent and purpose of these erected memorials to others, such as Confederate statues or the memorials along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. After discussion, students can design their own memorial commemorating incarceration (Facing History and Ourselves, n.d.), and engage in a gallery walk to share and explain their work with others.

Suggested Children’s Books and Activities for Upper Elementary (4-6) Learners

Suggested Reading 1: Our Shared History: The Internment of Japanese Americans ​ Our shared history: The internment of Japanese Americans (Taylor & Kent, 2016) provides a thorough and ​ detailed account of the history of incarceration. While the authors do not have personal connections to incarceration, they provide a plethora of background context to explain racism and prejudice against Japanese and Japanese-Americans in the U.S., and the role of wartime hysteria. While recognizing that incarceration was wrong, other texts tended to give a perfunctory view of government culpability and avoided laying blame. Our ​ shared history (Taylor & Kent, 2016) confronts President Roosevelt’s decision to ignore reports that explicitly ​ stated Japanese-Americans were not a threat to the United States. Additionally, the book discusses difficulties prisoners faced as they worked to rebuild their lives after incarceration, and the actions of the United States in recognizing its mistake. With its timeline, photos, quotes from prisoners, and snapshots to focus on different topics, this text provides an extensive account of incarceration and its aftermath.

Suggested Reader Response: Opinionnaire

Educators can use an Opinionnaire, or set of questions, to introduce incarceration and determine students’ preconceived ideas, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs about the topic prior to teaching (Fisher, Brozo, Frey, & Ivey, 2015). To create an Opinionnaire, first select a general quote or write several broad statements that loosely relate to the topic, and are open to multiple interpretations, but not to neutrality. Ask students to respond by jotting down their thoughts or noting whether they agree or disagree with each statement (Fisher, et al., 2015). For example, George Santayana once said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (Santayana, 1905, p. 284). Educators could use this quote to encourage students to consider how past events have been or continue to be replicated in the present. After students discuss and rationalize their responses, they should read the text before revisiting their initial responses a final time to determine if their perspectives have changed and why (Fisher, et al., 2015). An Opinionnaire provides a safe space for students to grapple with how lived experiences shape personal beliefs and biases, and how thinking can be transformed and beliefs revised when new information is presented that challenges those views. However, educators should be careful not to impose their own convictions, but allow the texts and discussions to serve as the catalyst for any transformation of thought students may experience (Tackett & Pennington, 2020).

Suggested Reading 2: Dust of Eden ​ While many books allude to the variety of emotions prisoners felt in the camps, Dust of Eden (Nagai, ​ ​ 2014), allows its protagonist, Mina, to fully embrace and explore raw feelings of frustration and grief without repercussion. This collection of short and descriptive poems is told chronologically, positioning it well for whole class shared or oral reading experiences epitomizing the plight of prisoners. The imagery and emotion in this text is particularly powerful when students recreate and voice the emotion of the author using appropriate prosody,

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tone, and expression. Therefore, we suggest reading this text aloud to students or engaging in a Reader’s Theater (Weisenburger, 2009) in which students choose a passage or poem to perform aloud to the class. While Nagai has no known experience with incarceration, the narrative presents an important, underrepresented view of the emotional struggles prisoners experienced. However, educators can use this text to discuss authorship and the importance of elevating minority authors and their lived experiences as authentic sources for information, rather than relying on others’ elucidations of those events.

Suggested Reader Response: Double-Voiced Poem

After reading, students can craft a double-voiced poem to leverage two dissenting viewpoints or perspectives. To begin, students fold a paper in half vertically, with each column representing a different voice, labeled at the top of each side. Then, each side takes turns speaking on alternating lines. One of the most powerful aspects of this literary device includes at least one instance in which both voices say the exact same phrase or word at the same time, denoted by the speakers’ words being placed on the same line. However, while the words are the same, the meaning differs; illustrating how words can have great power and can be interpreted differently when used by different speakers. Once students have crafted their poem, two students can read the poem in a call and response format, speaking in unison during shared lines to emphasize their power.

We caution against adopting inauthentic voices and viewpoints, as they may distract from authentic, marginalized voices presented in the text (Tackett & Pennington, 2020). For example, we ask students to refrain from narrating the dichotomous inner struggle prisoners faced between their desire to “make the best” of camp life while also acknowledging and validating their emotional reactions to the injustice of the situation. Instead, we encourage students to identify ways to empower and validate the voices of the marginalized. They can do so by elevating and citing the author or character’s own words from the text, or by presenting their own inner thoughts as they grapple with their new learnings and feelings about the injustice of incarceration. These responses can emphasize similar, shared experiences and emotions rather than projecting a superficial interpretation of other’s personal lived experiences.

Suggested Reading 3: The No-No Boys: Home Front Heroes ​ While the author of The no-no boys: Home front heroes (Funke, 2008) has no known personal or family ​ ​ experience with incarceration, the text is based on true stories of children imprisoned at Tule Lake. The text provides an insider’s perspective into the struggle prisoners faced in 1943, when the government required them to complete a questionnaire to determine loyalty to the United States. Conflict between prisoners and their families arose when two questions asked if they would serve in combat for the United States and retract loyalty to the Japanese emperor. While the questionnaire and the tension it caused is addressed in many of the books, The ​ no-no boys presents the internal struggle the sons faced as their families pressured them to answer “yes-yes” to ​ prove they were “good Americans,” while the sons wanted to answer “no-no” to object to their treatment in the camps.

Suggested Reader Response: Debate

We encourage educators to conduct a primary source analysis in which students examine the actual questionnaire, as viewing the original document can add to the authenticity and gravity of the text (Tackett & Pennington, 2020). Then, educators can facilitate a whole class debate in which students are equally divided and randomly assigned to argue one side, collaboratively exploring pros, cons, and possible repercussions for each stance before presenting a case for answering “no-no” or “yes-yes.” Approximately 33,000 Japanese American soldiers served the United States in Europe and the Pacific during World War II (National WWII Museum, n.d.). While researching and gathering information to support their arguments, students can listen to oral histories from Japanese-American veterans (Hanashi Oral History Archives, n.d.) and complete an Observe, Reflect,

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Question activity based on the history (Library of Congress, n.d.). Additionally, they can read how the involvement of these soldiers aided the war effort (Lange, 2016) and discuss whether those contributions influenced public opinion of Japanese-Americans after the war.

Suggested Reading 4: My name is America: The journal of Ben Uchida, Citizen 13559, Mirror Lake ​ Internment Camp, CA 1942

Similar to Dust of Eden (Nagai, 2014), My name is America: The journal of Ben Uchida, Citizen 13559, ​ ​ ​ Mirror Lake Internment Camp, CA 1942 (Denenberg, 1999) is notable because it explores the strong reactions of ​ the main character, which are often externalized as anger or sarcasm, whereas other texts avoid a close examination of these feelings. The author has no known personal or family experience with incarceration, and the text consists of a series of short diary entries, allowing excerpts to be seamlessly woven into lesson plans and activities about incarceration without a large time investment. While the story revisits many themes from the other texts such as missing pets that had to be left behind, the importance of baseball, and attending school in the camps, the text also discusses lesser-known and heavier events that transpired, such as camp riots, and even an instance of a guard killing a prisoner.

Suggested Reader Response: Found Poem

Educators can use a Found Poem (Hobgood, 1998) to inspire close reading and identify the main idea or spirit of the passage by thoughtfully focusing on author word choice. Found Poems capture the heart of a passage while amplifying the author’s purpose and voice. To begin, ask students to identify a poignant short passage or excerpt from the text. Then, have them circle or highlight all the particularly powerful or vivid adjectives, phrases, or images (Fisher, et al., 2015). These words are then “lovingly borrowed” and sequentially rewritten in stanza form on a separate sheet of paper. Students use their own discretion to omit superfluous words, and stanzas can be written to consist of a single poignant word or phrase that best captures the broad range of human emotions used to describe camp life. Finally, students cite the original work, elevating the voices and experiences of others, rather than erasing or rewriting them through an inauthentic lens.

Suggested Reading 5: Farewell to Manzanar ​ Farewell to Manzanar (Houston & Houston, 1995) is a memoir that details the personal experiences of the ​ author and her family before, during, and after incarceration. Houston was seven when her family was imprisoned, so the story begins with her viewpoint at that age, then documents her struggles as she progresses through middle and high school. Many texts included only a perfunctory discussion of the aftermath of incarceration and the difficulties families faced as they rebuilt their lives. In contrast, Manzanar (1995) provides ​ ​ context for the lasting effects imprisonment had on the family, exploring financial and economic effects, while also illuminating the lesser known emotional and psychological implications. History of the camps and incarceration is also included in the text, but Manzanar (1995) delves much more deeply into how the experience ​ ​ affected and changed those involved, and its compelling and authentic voice distinguishes it from other narratives.

Suggested Reader Response: Questioning the Author

Because this narrative provides a firsthand, personal account of incarceration, Questioning the Author (Beck & McKeown, 2002) is a natural response strategy. When students Question the Author, they use knowledge of the author’s background and evidence from the text to actively anticipate and explore the author’s implicit or explicit purpose for writing (Beck & McKeown, 2002). While reading, students attend to tone, bias, and word choice, and jot down questions to help clarify or expand on ideas and events in greater depth and detail (Fisher, et al., 2015). This strategy can be paired with an Author Study where students are encouraged to research the life

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and background of the author to more deeply understand their position and life experiences. Further, students can read additional texts written by the author and compare writing craft and recurring themes.

Conclusion

Educators have a responsibility to teach historical content, regardless of how unappealing or uncomfortable it may be. Textbooks do not always provide an accurate, appealing, or comprehensive retelling of historic events, and some even seek to whitewash or reimagine unjust events in order to portray them more positively (Greenlee, 2019; Wong, 2015). A deep understanding of Japanese-American incarceration is vital not only to help students understand America’s past, but also to prepare them to critically interpret and anticipate the future (Tackett & Pennington, 2020). Text sets composed of high quality children’s books can serve as a starting point for these educational experiences by effectively supplementing a curriculum or replacing a textbook. These text sets provide informational and emotional narratives to elevate different perspectives and lived experiences by privileging marginalized voices. When combining a variety of high quality, diverse children’s books with thoughtful reading response activities that encourage critical thinking and creativity, students are better able to actively engage with the curriculum and authentically apply their understanding of the content.

*The authors would like to thank Sweet Briar College for the grant to purchase this text set.

References

Atwell, A. (2020, February 25). Investigation finds several history textbooks are spreading inaccurate information about Black history to millions of schoolchildren. Atlanta Black Star. https://atlantablackstar.com/ ​ ​ ​ 2020/02/25/investigation-finds-several-history-textbooks-are-spreading-inaccurate-information-about-bla ck-history-to-millions-of-schoolchildren/

Barton, K. (2001). A picture’s worth: Analyzing historical photographs in elementary grades. Social Education, ​ 65(5), 278-283. ​

Beck, I. L., & McKeown, M. G. (2002). Questioning the author: Making sense of social studies. Educational ​ Leadership, 60(3), 44-47. ​

Bishop, R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives 6(3), ix-xi. ​ ​

Bixby, S. (2019). Japanese-American groups call plan to detain migrants at ex-internment site a “gut punch.” The ​ Daily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/japanese-american-groups-call-plan-to-detain-migrants-at-ex- ​ ​ internment-site-a-gut-punch

Cervetti, G. N., Wright, T. S., & Hwang, H. (2016). Conceptual coherence, comprehension, and vocabulary acquisition: A knowledge effect? Reading and Writing 29, 761-779. ​ ​

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Chen, S. (2019). Coalition of WWII Japanese-American internment camp survivors stage peaceful protest at immigrant detention facility on Texas border. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/coalition-wwii- ​ ​ ​ japanese-american-internment-camp-survivors-stage/story?id=62039367

Eisner, E. (1979). The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of school programs. Macmillan ​ ​ Publishing Company, Inc.

Facing History and Ourselves. (n.d.). Analyzing and creating memorials. https://www.facinghistory.org/ ​ holocaust-and-human-behavior/analyzing-and-creating-memorials

Facing History and Ourselves. (n.d.). Visual essay: Holocaust memorials and monuments. https://www. ​ facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-11/visual-essay-holocaust-memori als-and-monuments

Feeney, S., & Moravcik, E. (2005). Children’s literature: A window to understanding self and others. YC Young ​ Children 60(5), 20-24, 26-28. ​

Fisher, D., Brozo, W. G., Frey, N., & Ivey, G. (2015). 50 instructional routines to develop content literacy. 3rd ​ ​ Edition. Pearson Higher Ed.

Flynn, M. (2019). For Japanese-Americans, the debate over what counts as a “concentration camp” is familiar. The ​ Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/20/concentration-camps-alexandria- ​ ​ ocasio-cortez-japanese-americans/

Garrison, S. (2016, September 23). What are “text sets” and why use them in the classroom? Thomas B. Fordham ​ Institute. https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/what-are-text-sets-and-why-use- ​ ​ them-classroom

Greenlee, C. (2019, August 26). How history textbooks reflect America’s refusal to reckon with slavery. Vox. ​ ​ https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/26/20829771/slavery-textbooks-history

Hanashi Oral History Archives. (n.d.). Go for broke national education center. http://www.goforbroke.org/ ​ learn/archives/index.php

Hawkins, J. M., & Buckendorf, M. (2010). A current analysis of the treatment of Japanese Americans and internment in United States history textbooks. Journal of International Social Studies 1(1), 35-42. ​ ​

Hinde, E. R. (2015). The theoretical foundations of curriculum integration and its application in social studies curriculum. In L. Bennet and E. R. Hinde (Eds.), Becoming integrated thinkers: Case studies in elementary ​ social studies (pps. 21-29). National Council for the Social Studies. ​

Hobgood, J. M. (1998). Found poetry. Voices from the middle, 5(2), 30. ​ ​

Kamenetz, A. (2018, August 9). ‘Lies my teacher told me’ and how American history can be used as a weapon. NPR. ​ ​ https://www.npr.org/2018/08/09/634991713/lies-my-teacher-told-me-and-how-american-history-can- be-used-as-a-weapon

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Keene, E. O., & Zimmerman, S. (2007). Mosaic of thought. Heinemann. Lange, K. (2016). Japanese Americans were ​ ​ vital to the WWII war effort. DODLive. https://www.dodlive.mil/2016/12/04/japanese-americans- ​ were-vital-to-the-wwii-war-effort/

Lewison, M., Leland, C., & Harste, J. C. (2015). Creating critical classrooms: Reading and writing with an edge. ​ ​ Routledge.

Library of Congress. (n.d.). Teacher's guide to analyzing oral histories. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/ ​ usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Oral_Histories.pdf

McGuire, M. E. (2007). What happened to social studies? The disappearing curriculum. Pi Delta Kappan, 88(8), ​ ​ 620-624.

Naseem-Rodriguez, N. (2017). “But they didn’t do nothing wrong!” Teaching about Japanese-American incarceration. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 30(2), 17-23. ​ ​

National Council for the Social Studies (2013). The college, career, and civic life (C3) framework for social studies ​ state standards: Guidance for enhancing the rigor of K-12 civics, economics, geography, and history. NCSS. ​

National WWII Museum. (n.d.). Research starters: US military by the numbers. https://www.nationalww2museum. ​ org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-us-military-numbers

Santayana, G. (1905). Life of reason: Reason in common sense. Scribner’s. ​ ​

Sell, C. R., & Griffin, K. (2017). Powerful social studies teaching with poetry and primary sources. The Social ​ Studies, 108(1), 1-9. ​

Silva, D. (2020, June 18). From Juneteenth to Tulsa: What isn’t taught in classrooms has a profound impact. CBS ​ News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/juneteenth-tulsa-massacre-what-isn-t- ​ ​ taught-classrooms-has-profound-n1231442

Tackett, M. E., & Pennington, L. K. (2020). Using children’s books about Japanese-American incarceration to learn from the past and frame the future. The Iowa Journal for the Social Studies, 28(2), 88-106. ​ ​ ​ ​

Vasquez, V. M., Janks, H., & Comber, B. (2019, May). Critical literacy as a way of being and doing. Language Arts. ​

Weisenburger, S. (2009). Using reader’s theater with multicultural literature. The Education Digest, 74(5), 55-57. ​ ​

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Association for Supervision and Curriculum ​ ​ Development.

Williams, J. P., Hall, K. M., & Lauer, K. D. (2004). Teaching expository text structure to young at-risk learners: Building the basics of comprehension instruction. Exceptionality, 12, 129–144. ​ ​ ​ ​

Wong, A. (2015, October 21). History class and the fictions about race in America. The Atlantic. ​ https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-history-class-dilemma/411601

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Zimmerman, L. (2019, May 7). Filling the gaps: Text sets build background knowledge and improve comprehension of informational texts. Iowa Reading Research Center. https://iowareadingresearch.org/blog/text-sets- ​ ​ ​ background-knowledge. ​

Literature Cited

Bunting, E. (1998). So far from the sea. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ​ ​

Denenberg, B. (1999). My name is America: The journal of Ben Uchida, citizen 13559, Mirror Lake internment ​ camp, CA 1942. Scholastic, Inc. ​

Funke, T. (2008). The no-no boys: Home front heroes. Victory House Press. ​ ​

Houston, J., & Houston, J. (1995). Farewell to Manzanar. Houghton Mifflin. ​ ​

Lee-Tai, A. (2006). A place where sunflowers grow. Children’s Book Press. ​ ​

Mochizuki, K. (1993). Baseball saved us. Lee & Low Books, Inc. ​ ​

Nagai, M. (2014). Dust of Eden. Scholastic, Inc. ​ ​

Sullivan, L. (2017). Life as a child in a Japanese internment camp. Cavendish Square. Taylor, C., & Kent, D. (2016). ​ ​ Our shared history: The internment of Japanese-Americans. Enslow Publishing. ​

Welch, C. (2000). Children of the relocation camps. Carolrhoda Books. ​ ​

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Table 1: Text Sets in Order of Discussion

Suggested Reading Genre Author Perspective Suggested Reader Important Themes and Response Teaching Focuses

Text set for Lower Level Elementary Learners (K-3)

A place where Picture book Story informed by Making ● Description of camp life ​ ​ sunflowers grow (historical fiction) experiences of Connections ● Feelings of hope ​ ​ (Lee-Tai, 2006) incarcerated mother ● “It Can’t Be Helped” ​ ​ and grandparents at Topaz

Children of the Informational text No personal Visualizing ● Hardships of leaving home ​ ​ relocation camps (nonfiction) experience with and descriptions of camp life (Welch, 2000) incarceration; ●Informational account of ​ acknowledges not events learning about the topic in school.

Baseball saved us Picture book Story informed by Extended Metaphor ●Baseball ​ (Mochizuki, 1993) (historical fiction) experiences of Poem ●Feelings of hope ​ ​ incarcerated ● Derogatory language and ​ ​ grandparents at labels Manzanar. ● Life and hardships after ​ ​ incarceration

Life as a child in a Informational text No known personal Primary Source ● Hardships of leaving home ​ ​ Japanese internment (nonfiction) or family experience Photo Analysis and descriptions of camp life camp (Sullivan, 2017) with incarceration. ● Informational account of ​ ​ events

So far from the sea Picture book No known personal Memorializing the ●“Good Americans” ​ (Bunting, 1998) (historical fiction) or family experience Past ●“It Can’t Be Helped” ​ with incarceration. ● Emotional response to ​ ​ injustice ●Memorializing the past ​

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Text Set for Upper Level Elementary Learners (4-6)

Our shared history: The Informational text No known personal Opinionnaire ● Feelings of prejudice ​ ​ internment of (nonfiction) or family experience leading to camps Japanese-Americans with incarceration. ● Hardships of leaving home ​ ​ (Taylor & Kent, 2016) and descriptions of camp life ​ ● Informational account of ​ ​ events ● National apology and ​ ​ reparations

Dust of Eden (Nagai, Poetry No known personal Double-Voiced ● Emotional response to ​ ​ ​ 2014) (historical fiction) or family experience Poem injustice with incarceration. ● Hardships of leaving home ​ ​ and descriptions of camp life

The no-no boys: Home Chapter book Story informed by Debate ● Loyalty Questionnaire ​ ​ front heroes (Funke, (historical fiction) experiences of ● Erosion of family structure ​ ​ ​ 2008) incarcerated ● “Good Americans” vs. ​ ​ prisoners at Tule Japanese identity and culture Lake.

My name is America: Diary No known personal Found Poem ● Emotional response to ​ ​ The journal of Ben (historical fiction) or family experience injustice Uchida, citizen 13559, with incarceration. ● Hardships of leaving home ​ ​ Mirror Lake internment and descriptions of camp life camp, CA 1942 ● Violence and danger in ​ ​ (Denenberg, 2014) camps

Farewell to Manzanar Memoir Story informed by Questioning the ● Hardships of leaving home ​ ​ (Houston & Houston, (nonfiction) experiences of Author and descriptions of camp life 1995) author and family ● Life and hardships after ​ ​ incarcerated at incarceration Manzanar. ●Emotional and ​ psychological implications of incarceration

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The Underground Railroad and Madison’s Georgetown District

Ronald V. Morris, Ball State University ​

Abstract

Middle school students in this Madison, Indiana, researched local history on the Underground Railroad in their community. They communicated their conclusions and took informed action to share their results with the community in a public form. Authentic student enrichment projects and presentations creatively utilized a wide variety of media to raise historical awareness in the community. The students desired to encourage historic preservation of the built environment in a residential district located in their community. This project grew from a relationship between the local schools and a historic preservation group.

Introduction

In the pre-Civil War African American neighborhood known as Georgetown in Madison, Indiana, on the Ohio River, a free Black community thrived at the border between free soil and slavery. Madison was directly across the Ohio River from the slave state of Kentucky. Madison was a successful river town in the years prior to the Civil War with a variety of views on slavery, from slave catchers to Underground Railroad conductors moving in the shadows to help people escape to freedom. When the town was bypassed by the railroad Madison became a backwater. Poverty saved the historic architecture of this community, and it was recognized as a National Landmark by the US Department of the Interior with one of the larger districts on the National Register of Historic Places.

Rhonda of Historic Madison, Inc., an esteemed city preservation group, and eighth grade teacher Katie from Southwestern Junior High School worked with one hundred, eighth-grade students on a local history project. The students learned about the Georgetown neighborhood. This paper explains how students created community enrichment projects to raise neighborhood awareness of its history. It was also a unique historic preservation and school partnership. Historic Madison, Inc. provided community building, invited the teacher to participate, and the students presented a showcase of their historic preservation projects on a Sunday afternoon.

Students used local history to accentuate their connection to their eighth grade US history curriculum that focused on the events between 1800 and 1900. The students found national history along the streets and alleys of their community. The issues of American history occurred in their neighborhoods, along the streets they walked to go to school, and in their homes. Students found places that mattered as they connected with issues from their curriculum in the location they call home.

Literature Review

Marino and Crocco (2012) explored the history of a local town in the context of American history themes and how to teach the ideas and concepts that emerged from that investigation. They connected local history to

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larger themes of investigation. Instructional strategies that focused on migration looked at trends, global patterns, and family stories to explore the community. Using a unit on western migration, Ernst-Slavit and Morrison (2018) taught their low-income English language learners that American history was still being written. Regional narratives expanded on the knowledge and content found in linguistically and ethnically diverse populations. Local history was relevant when it compared the racial context of national events to the past of the community. Cavallaro, Semibiante, Kervin, and Baxley (2019) describe the work that three local teachers and activists during the Civil Rights Movement did. Culturally relevant topics included racial inequity in national policies and how activists influenced the local community. Students read multiple historical texts to evaluate current events for Kucan, Rainey, and Cho (2019). Students developed deep understandings about cultural connections to historical events. Local history and places all contributed to student understanding of events.

Local History

Using local history students created products to provide interpretation for the community, and they displayed it as a form of accountability. Students created interpretive resources they shared with others to illustrate their collaboratively constructed knowledge. Scheuerell (2010) believes that students needed to actively collaborate in the construction of history web pages to display their findings. Students explored topics while working with fellow learners to construct individual participation amongst the members. Students created and presented video histories exploring community people and institutions. Morris (2018) reported inquiry using interviews and primary sources to present findings about people in the community. Student documentaries examined sources that illustrated local perspective and authentic connections. They used a variety of media to share information with the local community. Students documented change across time by comparing and superimposing digital historic and contemporary images (Berson & Berson, 2016). Members connected with the past through positive interactions with a secondary process of superimposing a historic and contemporary image. Working in groups of equals, students found memories recorded through images. Students found geographic locations significant enough to engage them in the local community through their products.

Drawing Conclusions

Students worked to communicate conclusions and found social studies relevant when dealing with historical issues. Curious students found purpose when they engaged in analysis of citizen’s choices. Students came to school with historical questions they used to learn how the past has meaning today (Middleton, 2016). Students examined crucial historical events to determine the actions and purposes of figures from the past and present. Effective citizens connected current events to draw informed conclusions they communicated with others. Once students communicated their conclusions, then they took informed actions.

Taking Action

Students started by planning inquiry, transferred their understandings to new situations, and empowered into action informed leadership in the community. Students used an inquiry arc to raise questions, examine disciplinary knowledge, evaluate evidence, and take informed actions (Knapp & Hopkins, 2018, Austin & Thompson, 2014, Levinson, 2014). Motivated students developed civics questions, based on concepts, and after evaluating sources they communicated their conclusions. Students found agency when they produced knowledge, and they found evidence of authentic civil practice and engagement. A democracy requires that students work in partnership with institutions to improve their community. Daneels (2016) and Mezsaros and Suiter (2014) each worked with the idea of human capital which included characteristics, dispositions, experience, knowledge, and skills. An inquiry cycle required the support of both the school administration and community as it consolidated and enhanced the process of learning. Students that engaged in reflection understood and interpreted evidence about the past that they used when they implemented their aptitudes in society.

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Students took action in their community through historic preservation projects. Students interpreted the built environment as a primary source through inquiry projects. Historic preservation projects existed on a continuum, elementary students made important community contributions, and students got a start by influencing their environment through extracurricular experiences (Morris, 2017, 2016, Morris & Stanis, 2017, McClure, 2010). Students used architecture investigations to develop stewardship and responsibility for their heritage. The constructivist process of building knowledge by selecting and creating knowledge helped students to understand the value of place. The process of understanding context while examining the community helped students interpret and think about their responsibilities as citizens.

Procedures

This project represented the continuing effort of Historic Madison, Inc., and ideally HMI had a different local history community project each year. To start a project like this the teacher needed to contact the local historical organization with plenty of time to plan what they might be able to accomplish together. They determined what sources and themes to explore and where students found information beyond the internet. The school and the institution needed to think about their needs, whether they showcased the student projects temporarily or as a long-term interpretation of the institution. The teacher considered what kinds of projects were acceptable and gave the students a list of sample options along with the assessment criteria. Since teachers usually worked by themselves in the classroom, the opportunity to work with an outside content expert was both daunting and exciting. Both the teacher and the institution partner learned a lot about the relationship.

Eighth-grade social studies teacher Katie teaches in Jefferson County, where she also did a college internship with Historic Madison, Inc. She researched Walnut Street, a principal street in the pre-Civil War African American neighborhood of Georgetown within the town of Madison on the Ohio River. At the time the only interpretation provided by Historic Madison, Inc. was a self-guided walking tour. Katie’s goal was to create instructional media that helped with interpretation. While there was community interest in Jefferson County’s Underground Railroad, documented resources for the area were more difficult to locate. Shortly after completing her internship she accepted a position in one of the local schools as a teacher.

Katie wanted her students to research Georgetown and develop a walking tour from the students’ point of view. She worked with Rhonda of Historic Madison, Inc. on a project that started in October, lasted until February, and included the contributions of one hundred students. The students worked one day a week on the project. All the students took a walking tour of Georgetown and then in every class the students formed groups. These groups either worked on creating educational products to market the district to visitors or developed products to interpret the history of the district.

Katie’s students used the C3 NCSS Curriculum standards (2013) including four domains: questioning, disciplinary connections, evaluating evidence, and communicating conclusions and taking action. Students started with creating a question to investigate. By using these standards, students constructed their own investigations such as, “Who was Elijah Anderson?” The students placed that question in the context of a social science discipline and used sources to provide evidence to shape their understandings. Finally, based on what the students learned they took action and communicated their findings.

Darrell and Brendan built a model of the Elijah Anderson house in Georgetown. Elijah was a conductor and organizer of the Underground Railroad activity in Madison prior to the Civil War. Through their model they interpreted the role of both conductors and stations on the Underground Railroad. Kasey, Andrew, and Kenzie created a documentary with interviews of Patsy Harris and Sheriff Wright Rea. Patsy, a White woman, was active as a conductor in the area while Sheriff Wright Rea was an enthusiastic hunter of escaped slaves. Having these characters explain their contrasting positions on the issue of slavery illustrated the varying perspectives of the time. 1 Ohio Social Studies Review, ​ Volume 57, Issue ​ 46

Assessment

The students held a showcase at a Historic Madison, Inc. property. For four hours on a Sunday afternoon 400 people came to the event, and every student attended to talk about their project. The students stationed themselves around the community hall and each teen demonstrated what they created and learned from the project. Students created board games, brochures, documentaries, exhibit boards, game shows, movies, murals, posters about notable figures, skits, soap operas, speeches, or three-dimensional architectural models. Visitors strolled through the property viewing the student work. Once of the many successful projects was completed by Elijah, Caleb, and Xavier a group of students who created an original song about the Underground Railroad, borrowed a sound system, brought in their instruments to perform, and got their friends together to form a band to perform and sing it. This was a good example of how students brought their interest to this project and customized their thoughts to express what they learned about their community. Katie’s students had rubrics for their small group projects. She also assessed the students on what they thought they had accomplished. Finally, the teacher assessed the amount of effort they put into the project.

Limitations

For Katie, the pitfall was determining how to administer the project. At first, she made the project too open, so it was difficult for the students to determine what they needed to do. Katie helped the students choose small groups and select projects; she learned through the process to break the jobs into smaller pieces and gave the students more guidelines. The student project results varied with some being great and some just acceptable.

Findings and Discussion

Katie had a lot of support from the community. She had guest speakers who came to the classroom and a first-person presenter who came to the classroom. Katie got to work with volunteers. The school released the students from class to have them explore the Georgetown neighborhood, and the students got a walking tour of downtown. The rest of the activities were done in the classroom. The principal supported Samara, Kiah, and Kassey who were painting in the hall as they worked on their projects to make floor cloth paintings of North Star and Ohio River.

Students had the support of the school community to create their projects. Other students worked on a play they filmed after school at the Shrewsbury House -- a grand antebellum home owned by Historic Madison, Inc. Students had access to Historic Madison, Inc. properties to create their projects. Having access to a preservation society helped to professionalize the student projects.

The students found the project important because it helped them learn and highlight part of their rich local history. The students did not know about this neighborhood that was part of the Underground Railroad. But they soon informed other unaware members of the community. There was little information about the buildings or people in the area even though a Historic Madison intern researched the area. Once the students learned what occurred in the neighborhood they were astonished by all of the important things that happened in the district, such as the mob violence aimed at the free Black population to drive Underground Railroad activity from the town. Kalie said, “I did not know how dangerous it was to be Black in my town.”

The students learned about the local area, but they also dispelled local myths and the Underground Railroad. One of the myths was that only White people, like Quakers, helped on the Underground Railroad when in fact multiple White and Black people from a variety of religions participated. Another myth was that the Underground Railroad was straight North to Canada when in fact people traveled any direction to evade slave catchers. Yet another myth was that the Underground Railroad had fixed defined stops when in fact people and

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locations were active for a while and stopped when people could no longer do the work. The students thought about what they could exhibit that would interpret the history of the neighborhood. The students had to think about what a museum considered before it designed an exhibit for people to come and visit. Finally, the students had to consider how they contributed to their community.

Katie and Rhonda had evidence that the students learned from this experience, and they saw the students worked independently. The students also finished tasks in a timely manner. The students created and worked in small groups as they incorporated their different strengths in the history classroom.

As seen in Figure #1 students started with their community when their teacher enticed them to look at local history. Rhonda helped the students to make the connection to the local Underground Railroad connection. Moreover, she helped the students use a Historic Madison, Inc. structure to share the results of their learning with the local community.

Conclusions

Students interpreted stories about the Underground Railroad in their Madison, Indiana, community. They laboriously dispelled myth and misconception connected to the Underground Railroad. Learning about the The topic was difficult due to the legends associated with it in popular culture, but students communicated what they learned and presented their work to the community for review. The community members learned that history was not something that happened long ago and far away, but occurred in their living rooms, streets, and neighborhoods. Local history was their history.

Students worked with concepts and ideas that connected local history to national trends. They worked with ideas from their neighborhood, content and stories of people who lived on the same street. Students communicated these ideas of local history people, places, and events to their community and as the content of their research projects. Students selected and created a variety of projects using multiple media to interpret their topic to their audience. The students’ demonstrations of their learning were both authentic and creative.

Students looked at local connections to understand the interwoven stories of multiple people. The students communicated their conclusion to a real audience in a public form to present information the community could not easily access. The process of students doing community education illustrated the results of their research. The fact that the students presented in a historic structure owned by Historic Madison, Inc. that was located in the community rather than in the school, showed how they were interested in going into the field to meet the people. Local organizations played a role in the life of the community in partnership with the school in providing education for multiple generations.

Students took informed action to help others understand the implications and effect of their research on their community. The students made their research public. Fears (2017) called upon moral authority to defeat racism, and students seek justice by making the subject matter available to the local community. Students made local stories of individuals on the Underground Railroad directly accessible to the members of the community. Furthermore, students saw human rights as a path to continue to elevate the human condition both domestically and abroad. Students showed people how local individuals helped their neighbors achieve human rights. Students engaged in historic preservation by using community structures for their presentations. Students also gave examples of local places that merited historic preservation. Finally, students made the community aware of important stories and the context of the built environment. Every day the students attended school, lived, shopped, and played in the built environment, but they needed interpretive help to understand more about their community. Saving important places from the past provided locations to interpret stories for the community.

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References

Austin, H. M. & Thompson, K. (2014). Historical thinking: Examining a photo of newsboys in summer, 1908. Social ​ Studies and the Young Learner, 27(2), 29-33. ​

Berson, I. R. & Berson, M. J. (2016). A slippage of time: Using rephotography to promote community-based historical inquiry. Social Education, 80(2), 113-117. ​ ​

Cavallaro, C. J., Sembiante, S. F., Kervin, C., & Baxley, T. P. (2019). Combating racial inequity through local historical analysis: A community-informed social studies unit. Social Studies, 110(1), 17-32. ​ ​

Daneels, M. E. (2016). Thermometer to thermostats: Designing and assessing informed action. Social Education, ​ 80(6), 370-374. ​

Ernst-Slavit, G. & Morrison, S. J. (2018). “Unless you were Native American . . . . everybody came from another country:” Language and content learning in a grade 4 diverse classroom. Social Studies, 109(6), 309-323. ​ ​

Fears, B. A. (2017). Freedom train: The Underground Railroad as a model of Christian education, antiracism, and human rights advocacy. Religious Education, 112(1), 19-32. ​ ​

Knapp, K. A. & Hopkins. A. (2018). What’s the buzz? A k-5 school uses the C3 Framework. Social Studies and the ​ Young Learner, 30(3), 9-18. ​

Kucan, L., Rainey, E., & Cho, B.-Y. (2019). Engaging middle school students in disciplinary literacy through culturally relevant historical inquiry. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 63(1), 15-27. ​ ​

Levinson, M. (2014). Action civics in the classroom. Social Education, 78(2), 68-72. ​ ​

Marino, M. P. & Crocco, M. S. (2012). Doing local history: A case study of New Brunswick, New Jersey. Social ​ Studies, 103(6), 233-240. ​

McClure, C. (2010). Our town. SchoolArts: The Art Education Magazine for Teachers, 109(5), 36-37. ​ ​

Meszaros, B. T. & Suiter, M. C. (2014). Exploring human capital with primary children: What we learn in school “does” matter. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 27(1), 30-33. ​ ​

Middleton, T. (2016). From past to present: Taking informed action. Social Education, 80(6), 362-364. ​ ​

Morris, R. V. (2018). Student research: Documentaries made in the community. Social Studies, 109(1), 34-44. ​ ​

Morris, R. V. (2017). Preservation education for the next generation. Social Studies, 108(4), 152-162. ​ ​

Morris, R. V. (2016). Historic preservation and elementary student extracurricular community services. Social ​ Studies, 107(6), 181-185. ​

Morris, R. V. & Stanis, S. R. (2017). ArchiCamps: Exploring architecture and a sense of place. Childhood Education, ​ 93(4), 327-332. ​

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National Council for the Social Studies. (2013). The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social ​ Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History. NCSS. ​

Scheuerell, S. (2010). Virtual Warrensburg: Using cooperative learning and the Internet in the social studies classroom. Social Studies, 101(5), 194-199. ​ ​

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From Free White Persons to ‘Illegal Imigration’:

Dilemmas of Teaching U.S. Immigration History

Esther June Kim, William and Mary ​

Abstract

This paper examines the process of researching and building classroom resources on U.S. immigration history. Three dilemmas emerged for the author that would closely parallel the challenges elementary and secondary educators would face: 1) deconstructing politicized misperceptions on immigration, 2) navigating a highly politicized topic, and 3) grappling with a system in need of reform, where no clear answer is available. The paper concludes with an example of how teachers and teacher educators might handle immigration history in the classroom.

Introduction

During a lecture in 2018, historian Madeline Hsu asked teachers to consider the following: in a democratic ​ ​ nation such as the U.S., where the government is supposed to be “by the people,” who is allowed to become a ​ ​ voting citizen is perceived as enormously important. Immigration policy, therefore, is not only about what kind of human being is excluded, but what kind of human being is wanted. Many historians have shown that U.S. immigration is bound tightly to global and domestic political, cultural, scientific, and economic history, as well as ideologies of white supremacy, class, and gender (Hsu, 2015; Jacobson, 1998; Madokoro, 2016; Ngai, 2004, Parker, 2015). Yet, the U.S. is commonly positioned as a “nation of immigrants” welcoming “tired poor [and] huddled … … masses,” when history shows a far narrower gateway that in many ways helps us understand what is happening today. Social Studies teachers have a choice, therefore, whether to uphold or disrupt such historical narratives of progress that obscure discriminatory norms of the U.S. both past and present (Epstein, 2009; Loewen, 2007; VanSledright, 2008).

As immigration policies have been used to shape the demographic landscape of the U.S. (i.e. keep the U.S. white, Christian, capitalist, and globally competitive), but often with unintended results (e.g. increased immigration from Asia and Latin America following 1965), every individual in the United States, including students too young to vote, has a stake in the construction of this history as it is the story of every individual and community who calls the U.S. home. The rising visibility of injustice in current immigration policies and enforcement make it more difficult to ignore its relevance to students and teachers, especially those who are themselves, or have loved ones who are immigrants. And immigration policy in the U.S. has grown increasingly complex in the last century especially legally and institutionally (Hester, 2017; Kang, 2017). Teachers may also find themselves negotiating personal and/or student trauma (Cornell, 2010; Naseem Rodríguez & Salinas, 2019), as ​ ​ well as parent, administration, and student political leanings which often uphold the status quo, perpetuating oppressive systems.

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Teachers have much to consider and to juggle when teaching U.S. immigration history especially when current issues affect and endanger the students in our classrooms. How do educators grapple with such a long and multi-faceted history that has set up the present reality? What resources are necessary and available to educators? What are the challenges they face when they attempt to learn and teach a relevant U.S. immigration history?

What Research Shows

Despite the prevalence of immigration issues in the national conversation and its personal significance to many students and teachers, the history of immigration is severely limited in many social studies classrooms (Naseem Rodríguez & Salinas, 2019). For example, state standards in Texas, a border state, not only ​ ​ compartmentalize the history of immigration into specific moments in U.S. history (e.g. Chinese Exclusion in 1882 and European immigration in the 1920s), but also limit most narratives to those of “cause and effect” and “demographic patterns” (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills). Journell’s (2009) examination of nine state standards also reveals a focus on European immigration with little or no portrayal of current issues and discrimination. Additionally, even a cursory exploration of resources such as Scholastic’s Ellis Island (where most European immigrants were processed) and Angel Island (where most Asian immigrants were processed) websites show an emphasis on historical immigration processes that highlight the European experience (Naseem Rodríguez, 2015). In comparing the two sites, the depth of content, the complexity of the narrative, and the use of technology for Ellis Island far surpasses that of Angel Island. Narrowing content and separating immigration policies by historical era may condense immigration history into manageable units for teachers; however, doing so can create a disjointed story that stereotypes and marginalizes the history of Asian Americans and Latinx in particular, and de-historicizes current immigration policies, obscuring the racism, classism, and overall discrimination that has permeated immigration policy (Hilburn, Journell, & Buchannan 2016).

Research on the teaching of U.S. immigration history in PK-12 classrooms and curriculum is also limited. Early analysis of textbooks offers a de-contextual celebration of maintaining ethnic identity and enclaves as evidence of cultural diversity and not necessarily the role of enforced segregation or racism (Smith, 1987). More recent analyses show a continued celebratory narrative that misrepresents immigrant experiences, focusing largely on their economic contributions to the U.S. and the past-tense overcoming of challenges (Hilburn and Fitchett, 2012; Suh, An, & Forest, 2014). A number of articles that explore the teaching of immigration history emphasizes personal histories through family interviews, primary source analysis, or the use of picture books (e.g. Avery, Carmichael-Tanaka, Kunze, & Kouneski, 2000; Bersh, 2013; Bousalias, 2016; Ciardiello, 2012; Potter, & Schamel, 1998; Simmons, 1986). Few, especially in more recent research, explore the practical dilemmas that many educators face when learning and teaching immigration history that reveals how the immigration system was built to become what it is today. This paper seeks to answer the question: what challenges do educators face when learning and teaching about immigration in the United States? Additionally, I offer an activity to introduce the topic of U.S. immigration history in upper elementary through secondary classrooms as well as in teacher education.

Principles to Shape How We Teach Immigration History

I draw from three related concepts when considering the teaching of U.S. immigration history. Freire’s (2015) conscientização “refers to learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take ​ ​ action against oppressive elements of reality” (p. 35). Accordingly, education as an institution can both reproduce oppression and oppressive discourse or it can be a means through which liberation might take place. When teaching a relevant immigration history, two additional concepts may be of significance: Mae Ngai (2004) in her book titled Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America, writes that civic illegality is a ​ ​ constructed human attribute. In How Race is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical power ​

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of Racial Scripts, Natalia Molina (2014) describes racial scripts as an elaboration on how institutions re-calibrate ​ ​ ​ systems of racial and civic oppression across communities and time.

Focusing on a once marginalized period of immigration history, Ngai examines immigration history in the 1 U.S. between 1924 and 1965 (i.e. the Johnson-Reed Act to the Hart Celler Act )​ concluding that U.S. laws created ​ the “impossible subject,” “a social reality and a legal impossibility . . . a person who cannot be and a problem that cannot be solved” (p. 4), essentially an undocumented individual. Historically, the fluctuating boundaries around 2 civic legality (e.g. Ozawa v. US, Thind v. US, 1935 pre-examination program )​ prove that race and power must be ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ considered and that one’s humanity, as opposed to illegality, and vice versa, can easily be the primary consideration if those in power choose to make it so. Yet, Ngai points out that impossible subjects, or individuals deemed “illegal”, are recent designations, though the label is commonly seen as natural and eternal. She explains, th th “there were so few restrictions on immigration in the 19 ​ and early 20 ​ centuries that there was no such thing as ​ ​ ‘illegal immigration’” (Ngai, 2006).

Molina’s “racial scripts” traces how racialized categories are structurally maintained and applied in comparative ways across and within ethnic groups (e.g. barrio, ghetto, “dirty Chinatown”). Even when racialized concepts are debunked or fade away, they appear again as an iteration specific to another context and 3 community (e.g. “diseased” immigrants )​ . Due to the familiarity of the racialized concept, the public is more likely ​ to accept the new application. Given such comparative and relational racializations, Molina urges communities to work in relationship, or solidarity, against white supremacy rather than attempt to move one’s own group closer to whiteness and its privilege.

While Ngai’s impossible subject is present in almost every ethnic group, a creation of immigration policies that distinguish between White and non-White, Molina untangles a broader, relational history that reveals how inequalities are structurally applied and maintained across different ethnic populations. Both reveal strategies such as laws and labels, that are part of a larger toolkit from which institutions, public figures, and the general public can pull for the purpose of continuing oppression and upholding white supremacy. Taken together, the concepts of the “impossible subject” and “racial scripts” are prescriptive because they help identify that systems are constructed and can therefore be deconstructed as we “take action against oppressive elements of reality” (Freire, 2015, p. 35).

Creating a Resource

From 2017 to 2018, I worked with an immigration historian to create a digital resource for teachers (www.immigrationhistory.org), sponsored by the Immigration and Ethnic History Society and the University of ​ ​ Texas at Austin. This resource includes a timeline of immigration laws, policies, and court cases from 1790-2015, analysis of immigration themes written by a historian, additional resources on the topic, and lesson plans. With the help of an in-service teacher and two teacher educators, I created lesson plans for twelve major themes identified by consulting historians. Through the course of this project, several challenges arose. As the only secondary educator involved in the whole project, and the only participant without immigration and ethnic history expertise, my experience most closely paralleled the process of current classroom teachers seeking to teach about immigration history in a way that attends to current political and cultural realities. I took on this work as a former classroom teacher of six years, as a researcher beginning with little to no content knowledge of immigration history, and as a scholar committed to exposing racial, ethnic, and other forms of inequity and injustice.

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Dilemmas of Teaching U.S. Immigration History

This experience has brought to light three dilemmas that educators face when researching and teaching about U.S. immigration history. First, immigration history is complex and rife with Freire’s social, political, and economic contradictions, ones that are often obscured from general view. A study by Harvard economists, highlighted by the The New York Times, shows widespread misperceptions of immigration statistics among the ​ ​ U.S. public—for example the perceived percentages of immigrants who are Muslim, poor, unemployed, etc. are much higher than the actual statistics (Porter & Russell, 2018)—thus, teachers not only must overcome their own biases but they must also guide the deconstruction of firmly held beliefs and notions (such as “illegal” human 4 beings )​ that have no basis in facts, are dehumanizing, and uphold white supremacy. As a researcher, I also ​ struggled at times between choosing anti-racist, critical resources and others that might appeal to a broader audience. Additionally, immigration history, especially modern history, is complex. The facts themselves can be incredibly difficult to find and understand unless one is well-versed in immigration law. Our project required consultation with immigration lawyers and political science scholars, especially as we began covering recent laws and policies.

Second, immigration is a highly charged political issue. In researching state and national organization standards for spaces where teachers could incorporate immigration history, it became clear that depending on state policy, teachers might have great difficulty justifying the teaching of immigration as a social issue through ​ ​ standards. Take for instance two border states: The curriculum framework for Social Studies in California includes several references to immigration history including one where “students may consider the nation’s objectives and attitudes about other nations and diverse people in analyzing its immigration policy, limitations, and scrutiny of those already in the U.S., and exclusion of people considered to have disabilities ” (California State Board of … Education, 2016, p. 389). Texas standards, however, are far less explicit and tend to fit within the promotion of a celebratory narrative of the U.S. and capitalism. For example, in U.S. history standards, students are expected to understand immigration policies in the context of “domestic and foreign issues related to U.S. economic growth from the 1870s to 1920” (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills).

Further, an investigation by The New York Times compared two textbooks supposedly for the same ​ ​ ​ ​ course, by the same publisher, and found that “political divides shape what students learn about the nation’s history” (Goldstein, 2020). With regards to immigration, the textbook in California includes an excerpt from a story about a Dominican-American family. In the same part of the textbook for Texas, Michael Teague, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, is quoted. This comparison also notes that not only is the California textbook more likely to describe key historical figures as immigrants, but that there is more content around the complexity of immigration history in the U.S., such as with the inclusion of the Supreme Court case around birthright citizenship (United States v. ​ Wong Kim Ark). ​ Third, learning a more complex narrative of immigration history will lead some students to grapple with what kind of immigration system they want to support now through “taking informed action,” especially if using the C3 Inquiry Design Model for Social Studies. Whether or not this action is a call for immigration reform through a letter to a representative, or working with a local organization, a question emerges: what kind of transformation is possible when the entire system has largely been premised on settler colonialism as well as racial, class, 5 religious, and ideological exclusion from its inception with the Naturalization Act of 1790? ​ Further, while few ​ people, including activists, immigrants, and scholars advocate for open borders, educators must learn how to approach an obscured and complex history that has led to a modern system that acts as gatekeeper to individuals and communities who are engaging in a human behavior that has been ongoing since before the beginning of recorded history—migration. Essentially, the challenge that educators face in studying and teaching immigration history, is the possibility that even when Molina’s racial scripts inspires solidarity among different groups, there

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may not be a satisfactory answer to the question, “now that we’ve learned about immigration, what should we ​ ​ change and how should it be changed?” ​ ​ Addressing the Dilemmas in the Classroom

Few would disagree that the US immigration system must be transformed. While some in the U.S. have called for the hardening of borders through their chants of “build that wall” (35% of Americans according to the Pew Research Center), others might seek an ideal world without nation-states or borders (Carrans, 1987). Regardless of the range of opinions in the classroom, content knowledge of immigration history among students and many teachers may be limited or severely misinformed by propaganda promoted even by government administrations. Thus, as we seek solutions to a seemingly impossible problem in our current context, unveiling and then unraveling the construction of a system that narrowly defines “human being,” at least legally and civically, is essential to recognizing not only the buildup of challenges we face today, but also the possibilities of what could have been and what still could be. As historians Mai Ngai and Natalia Molina point out, the current immigration system and discourse is a more recent creation that racializes and criminalizes.

Take for instance, the recent Muslim Ban which went into effect in 2017 and prohibited visitors and immigrants from mostly Muslim-majority countries, from entering the United States. As this order took shape on the ground level, students, scholars, refugees, and tourists, were affected as they were all categorized as potential terrorists: "Numerous foreign-born individuals have been convicted or implicated in terrorism-related crimes ​ since Sept. 11, 2001, including foreign nationals who entered the United States after receiving visitor, student or employment visas, or who entered through the United States refugee resettlement program” (Executive Order No. 13769, 2017). Regardless of their occupation, innocence, or reason for traveling to the U.S., travelers from parts of Southwest Asia were denied entrance to the U.S. based on an overgeneralization.

As a teacher educator working within a context rife with the dilemmas outlined above, I seek to denaturalize understandings of immigration policies that value criminality over humanity; however, I face the dilemma of having to teach a complex topic within one or two sessions, and in an environment where students (both preservice teachers and eighth grade students) are often entrenched along ideological lines. I approach such lessons with two goals in mind: first, that students would end the lesson with an open mind, and second, that students would identify at least one theme from U.S. immigration history that they could then use in their own understanding and/or teaching about immigration.

Drawing from a timeline of immigration laws, court cases, and policies, created by immigration and ethnic historians on www.immigrationhistory.org, I adapt the short descriptions of twenty or so immigration laws, ​ ​ policies and court cases, writing each on a notecard with the title and date on the back. Asking pre-service teachers to place these notecards, usually ending with DACA in 2012, into an accurate timeline will require reading through the items and discussion about immigration amongst students. To ensure participation from everyone, each student receives one notecard. As a class, they work together to create a human timeline of U.S. immigration history. For middle and high school students, these same notecards can be given to students who are put into groups. Each group can choose two of the notecards that were most interesting to them and then create a poster conveying the main points of their law, policy or court case, using only images, which they will share with the class. At the end of this and the timeline activity, we compile a list of patterns and themes students observed. Regardless of which policies, laws, and court cases are chosen, there are several themes that will often emerge for students: exclusion (by race, gender, class, political leanings, etc.), the changing nature of race (or “who is White?”), and the economic utility of immigrants. In the case of one teacher education class, some students made a connection to settler colonialism and citizenship and identified a pattern that created foreigners within U.S. borders (i.e. Indigenous peoples) (Lim, 2017; Parker, 2014). These student-generated patterns can then be used to analyze other sources related to immigration in a gallery walk: political cartoons, social media posts, quotes, recent immigration news, and statistical graphs and charts. For example, using the famous cartoon of European

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migrants being literally funneled into the US at 3% (Image One, depicted below), students may identify, as one did in an elementary social studies methods class, that the 3% “was not random.”

Hallahan, “The Only Way to Handle it,” 1921. Library of Congress

Similarly, when students examine a graph of immigration numbers to the U.S. by region over a period of 6 time, ​ they are able to point out that the flows are manufactured by one of the patterns students earlier identified ​ (e.g. economic concerns, racial preferences, etc.), though they may not be able to identify the exact policy behind each trend beyond a national origins quota. These sources for the gallery walk can be either curated by the teacher or researched and compiled by students themselves. Adapted for remote teaching, I asked students to skim through the online timeline on their own from www.immigrationhistory.org, and then on a shared Google ​ ​ doc, add patterns they noticed. On that same Google doc, I included a variety of sources related to U.S. immigration that would normally be a part of the gallery walk. Instead, students went through the Google doc and added comments and replies to the various sources. Whether synchronous, asynchronous, or in class, student generated findings and comments have remained consistent.

As an extension of this lesson, teachers could focus on one theme in immigration history and use primary sources to convey a snapshot of public perceptions in one context, or to construct a narrative of change and continuity over time. For example, teachers could compile political cartoons from the resource The Coming Man: ​ th 19 ​ Century American perceptions of the Chinese (Dong & Choy 1995) related to the Chinese Exclusion Act of ​ ​ 1882 and ask students to discuss what patterns of immigration history emerged in this moment. With regards to change and continuity, primary sources, such as anti-Chinese cartoons from magazine The Wasp in 1882, “The ​ ​ 1 Ohio Social Studies Review, ​ Volume 57, Issue ​ 56

immigrant. Is he an acquisition or a detriment?” (Image 2), “Physicians examining a group of Jewish immigrants’ ​ ​ (Image 3), “Angel Island immigration station: Examinations for trachoma” (Image 4), “The Stranger at Our Gate” ​ ​ ​ ​ 7 (Image 5), and more modern examples, ​ can be analyzed by students as an inquiry that reveals how the label of ​ ​ ​ “diseased” has been applied to many immigrant communities throughout U.S. history.

Conclusion

Despite the many challenges of teaching a complex and politicized topic such as U.S. immigration history, zero-tolerance border policies that separate children from their parents, the abuse that detainees have faced within detention centers, and the terror that many of our students have faced for themselves and their families as ICE agents waited outside schools (Hughes, 2020; Castillo, 2017), require a response in our classrooms. More recently, as a wall lengthens along the U.S.-Mexico border (Main, 2020), and as the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened dangerous conditions in crowded detention centers (Trevizo, 2020) as well as increased attacks on individuals of Asian descent, or “forever foreigners” (Tuan, 1998), it seems that the topic of immigration reveals part of the boundaries we set around humanity, citizenship, and empathy. For some, separating children from parents is the line they draw in terms of moral or ethical acceptability. For others, the detention of migrants, regardless of family situation or age, goes beyond human decency. As students learn their place (or lack thereof) in U.S. democracy, teachers can be well positioned to help them recognize not only the racialized and classed misperceptions of immigration history— “the barriers erected by wealthier nations” (Porter & Russell, 2018) against those deemed unworthy—but also what the determination of who is welcome and who is not reveals about the nation and a citizen’s role in maintaining or transforming their home.

References

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Ciardiello, A. V. (2012). Is Angel Island the Ellis Island of the west? Teaching multiple perspective-taking in American immigration history. Social Studies, 103(4), 171-176. ​ ​ ​ ​

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Cornell, G. (2010). Who can stay here? Documentation and citizenship in children’s literature. Rethinking Schools, 25(1). Available at https://www.rethinkingschools.org/articles/who-can-stay-here- ​ ​ ​ ​ documentation-and-citizenship-in-childrens-literature

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Loewen, J. W. (2007). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong. Touchstone. ​ ​

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Notes

1. The Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act, was the first “comprehensive restriction law” (Ngai, 2004, p. 3) that set up a hierarchy of desirable immigrants based on their country of origin (i.e. race and ethnicity). The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, or the Hart-Celler Act, remains the current policy where national origins quotas were eliminated, but for the first time, capped the number of immigrants from within the Americas. The Hart-Celler Act helped create greater numbers of “undocumented immigrants” by disrupting an historically common practice of constant migration between the U.S. and Mexico border.

2. Ozawa v. US determined that Asians could not naturalize as citizens because they are not “caucasian” and a year later, in Thind v. US, the ​ ​ ​ ​ same Court ruled that South Asians could not naturalize as citizens because although Caucasian, they are not considered “white” in popular understanding. A little over a decade later in 1935, the pre-examination program allowed white undocumented immigrants to naturalize as citizens.

3. See Wu (2020) from the Smithsonian Magazine and Stribley (2019) from Medium for more primary sources and historical content on the history of how immigrants were and are often labeled as diseased.

4.] Teachers should avoid using the term “illegal immigrant.” For a brief. History of the term and reasons to avoid its use, see Garcia (2012).

5. The Naturalization Act of 1790 states that only a “free white person may be admitted to become a citizen ” (Act of March 26, 1790, I Stat. … … 103)

6. See visual at this website: https://insightfulinteraction.com/immigration200years.html ​

7. See references from note 3 for more modern examples.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES

Dr. Mark Pearcy is an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at Rider University in Lawrenceville, New ​ Jersey. He teaches undergraduate methods courses and is a student teacher supervisor. Prior to this, he taught high school social studies classes for 19 years and earned National Board Certification. His research interests include American history education, civic literacy, historical memorialization, and the “just war” doctrine. His email is [email protected]. ​

Dr. Jeremiah Clabough is an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of Alabama at ​ Birmingham. He is a former middle and high school social studies teacher. He is co-author and co-editor of When the Lion Roar: Scary Good Middle School Social Studies and No Reluctant Citizens: Teaching Civics in the K-12 Classrooms. Dr. Clabough can be reached at [email protected]. ​ ​

Dr. Lisa K. Pennington is an Assistant Professor of Education at Governors State University. She teaches social ​ studies methods courses and supervises teacher candidates in the field for the Division of Education. Dr. Pennington’s research interests include social studies teacher education and professional development and using children’s books to teach social studies. She can be reached at [email protected]. ​ ​

Dr. Mary E. Tacket is an Assistant Professor of Education at Longwood University, where she teaches courses ​ related to elementary education, literacy, and human development within the Department of Education and Counseling. Her research interests explore how diverse children’s books can be used to facilitate meaningful conversations in elementary classrooms. She can be reached at [email protected]. ​ ​

Dr. Ronald V. Morris is a professor of history at Ball State University. His research focuses on the creative ​ teaching and learning of elementary social studies. He is the author of History and Imagination: Reenactments for ​ Elementary Social Studies. His email is [email protected]. ​ ​ ​

Dr. Esther June Kim is an Assistant Professor in Curriculum & Instruction at William and Mary. A former high ​ school Humanities and World History teacher, her research interests include how ideological transformation is shaped by race, religion, and counter narratives.

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