My 11th-grade U.S. history student Tashia talks about how statistics were used historically to make African Americans appear criminal and how many students of color today feel as if there’s no way around the statistics. My head of school talks about how, during the backlash to Reconstruction, the dominant culture created a criminal justice system that disproportionately targeted African Americans—and how we see its effects today. Jeff, the father of one of my 10th-grade students, shares his own experience with union organizing and talks about the economic implications of mass incarceration.
It’s a Tuesday night, and I’m sitting in a room at my school, listening to a diverse audience discussing race and justice in the United States following a screening of Slavery by Another Name. And I’m thinking, This is community.
This discussion occurred during a civil rights history film series co-sponsored by my school and Teaching for Change, a local non-profit organization that received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Teaching for Change helped advertise our film series, but we mainly used social media and email to invite the public. I offered extra credit to my students for attending and invited all of their parents to come as well.
The series created a space in which individuals from throughout our community—students, teachers, neighbors, administrators, parents and other partners—could come together and explore complex ideas about race, equity and justice through films.
The other organizers and I invited local scholars and activists to provide historical context for each film. (Never underestimate the power of film credits and the Internet to learn that well-known scholars may live in your neighborhood!) They answered audience members’ questions and contributed to the sense of community and shared learning throughout the series.
After the expert or activist introduced each screening, we showed about an hour’s worth of clips. Following the screening, everyone separated into discussion groups mixed across, age, race and school role. (I always knew that the discussion had been a success when I watched the attendees walk out with different people than they had walked in with!). We established these discussion guidelines:
- Speak your truth and honor others’ perspectives.
- Speak from the “I” and reference the film when possible.
- Share air time with all participants.
- Listen to other participants and seek to understand.
- Be active, present and prepared to share with the large group!
We provided some discussion questions such as, “What connections do you see between the ideas, laws and systems in [Slavery by Another Name] to ideas, laws and systems that uphold racism today?” and “What did you learn from [The Loving Story] that you can apply to current debates over same-sex marriage?” We then spent some time as a large group sharing big insights from the small groups and extending conversations.
During the series, I was moved by the power of bringing people together to engage in challenging conversations. We had special moments, like meeting with Joan Mulholland, a former Freedom Rider, while screening clips from Freedom Riders and hearing parents and students alike ask her questions. They wanted to know what had motivated her to take action, whether she felt it was worth it and whether she would do it again. In their questions, the participants shared pieces of themselves, whether it was a student talking about the challenge of being nonviolent or a parent talking about his own experience at Tuskegee University.
I remember watching one of my students talking about the impact of gentrification on her community with a law school student who had formerly taught and served as one of my experts, and I knew that something had happened. Young people—who are often made to feel as if their voices don’t matter—were being heard by adults. Parents whose primary interaction with our high school had been around their students’ grades and behavior were talking to other young people about important issues in society and building their own understanding of important historical topics. The feedback forms collected after every screening asked for more discussion time.
This series helped bring us together, breaking down barriers that exist within and beyond the high school community. We had parents and their children, teachers and their supervisors, students and their teachers participating equitably, pushing each other’s thinking and reaffirming a commitment to fight for a better future together.
This is community.
Moorman is a high school history teacher at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. She is also a recipient of the 2014 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Teaching.
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