Black History Month: Resources and Expert Voices

A team of faculty and students from the UVA School of Education and Human Development, led by Research Assistant Professor Johari Harris alongside practicing educators, recently collaborated to launch a new online resource hub. Educating for Democracy offers a range of free teaching tools, including developmentally appropriate lessons that interrogate issues of race, justice and human welfare in the U.S. by connecting the full story of the past with current events.

Teachers in the Movement, an oral history research project housed in the UVA School of Education and Human Development, explores how educators participated in the U.S. civil rights movement between 1950 and 1980, primarily by conducting and archiving interviews with former teachers. In 2020, project researchers have forged new virtual connections that bring lessons from civil-rights-era teachers to present-day educators. 

In 2019, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam created a commission to review the standards, instructional practices, content, and resources used to teach African American history in the Commonwealth, and to provide recommendations on the professional development supports needed to equip all teachers for culturally competent instruction. Professor Derrick P. Alridge co-chaired the commission, which released its final report in August 2020.

In this Race & Education talk from the Center for Race and Public Education in the South (CRPES), Assistant Professor Juan C. Garibay presents findings and answers questions about his recently published study, "Results from a Preliminary Study on Black Student Responses to a University's Enslavement History."

Virginia native Carter G. Woodson, a distinguished Black author, editor, publisher, and historian (1875 - 1950), is known as the "Father of Black History." UVA EHD's Center for Race & Public Education in the South (CRPES) and the National Park Service are collaborating on a study to understand, advance knowledge of, and protect the integrity of the Carter G. Woodson Home, located in D.C.’s historic Shaw neighborhood.