Printer-friendly versionTeaching Tolerance offers activities and resources about the winding road toward, and away from, integrated schooling in the United States
:: Paying Our Respects to Brown (Grades 5-12) In his essay, Julian Bond says the Supreme Court's ruling this summer "is likely to be remembered as Brown's final epitaph." An epitaph is short text honoring a decedent, most commonly inscribed on a tombstone. Many interesting epitaphs "speak" to the reader and issue a warning to him or her. Ask students to write epitaphs for Brown that include a warning about the demise of school integration. Some examples to get students started:
Here lies Brown.
Missed by
Students at our school
***
Here lies Brown.
Born, 1954; murdered in 2007.
The Court will reckon
with the Maker in heaven.
***
Here lies Brown.
Jim Crow rises again.
***
My name was Brown,
The promise of an imperfect nation
Left unfulfilled.
My children
Will hold you accountable.
Using poster board or heavy stock paper, cut out a "tombstone" for each student (or ask them to do it themselves), and ask students to write their epitaphs on them. Affix the tombstones to wooden sticks and plant them together on school grounds as a protest against the Supreme Court's recent ruling.
:: Mix It Up (All Grades) Even in heterogeneous schools, segregation persists. Sometimes, school policies like tracking keep students segregated. Other times, students choose to associate primarily with people who are most like them. Help break down such divisions in your school by organizing Mix It Up at Lunch Day. Use our Boundary Crossing activity to introduce students to key concepts and lay the groundwork for participating in the national event.
:: Visions of Schooling (Grades 10-12) Julian Bond describes two visions of American schooling - one as an equalizer "to righting the wrongs of societal racism" and another "as an instrument for reproducing the class and race privilege of the larger society." On a large sheet paper and using information from "Where Are We Now?" and "Then and Now," construct a chart showing how school segregation/integration reflects these opposing visions.
