Embedded Files
HighwayMarker.pptxLesson plan - Lynching in America - Equal Justice Initiative
The history of lynching in the United States remains with us all, even as it goes largely unspoken and unacknowledged. The history of lynching in America is undeniably brutal and disturbing; yet avoiding this brutality disallows meaningful understanding of U.S. history. The ongoing challenge for teachers will be finding a balance between engaging and confronting the reality in its difficulty, while also supporting the emotional experience of students. Constructive approaches to this challenge will be largely dependent on the students and the context in which teachers are working. Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom (2011), by Bill and Rick Ayers, takes up the concerns that many teachers might have about teaching difficult topics in the classroom.
Lynching, the unlawful killing of a person by a mob and one of the most extreme forms of community sanction, has occurred in North Carolina on numerous occasions throughout its history. The term originally referred to whipping, but by the beginning of post-Civil War Reconstruction it had come to mean killing almost exclusively. Although lynchings were carried out by a variety of means, hanging, followed by shooting, was the most common method in North Carolina; unlike in parts of the Deep South, it appears that no one in the state was burned to death. A few white Republicans were killed by mobs, but the overwhelming majority of victims in North Carolina were black.
The United States reveres its symbols. The red, white and blue flag and the bald eagle are two of the most iconic symbols of American patriotism. They hold meaning for us, and cultural norms ask us to be very intentional about how we use and display them.
Then, there are symbols—also unique to the United States—that represent a very specific brand of nationalism, one rooted in hate and white supremacy. One of the most recognizable symbols of this ideology is the noose. It became a powerful symbol during the decades-long period encompassing Reconstruction and the years following, when Jim Crow laws dictated racial hierarchy in the South.
Teaching Tolerance’s new classroom film, An Outrage, offers a glimpse into this period of racial terror and unpacks the symbolic power of the noose.
Without Due Process Lesson Plan.pdfLesson Plan: “Without Due Process: The Execution of Estes Hairston and Ed Lindsay and Our Need to Memorialize Their Witness to History.
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