Articles

This fall, Humanities Texas will hold free professional development webinars for secondary-level social studies teachers focused on helping students better understand African American history.

Like all Humanities Texas teacher programs, these webinars will be content-based and teacher-centered, with an emphasis on teaching with primary sources and developing effective pedagogical strategies. All webinars will align with the TEKS for U.S. history, and participants will receive CPE credit.

Citizenship, Slavery, and the U.S. Constitution

Monday, October 26, 2020
5:00–6:15 p.m. CT

The historian James Oliver Horton writes that to understand the nation's formation, it is essential to address "the contradiction of a freedom-loving people tolerating and profiting from depriving their fellow human beings of freedom." How did the founders understand race and citizenship? How did debates over slavery shape the development of the U.S. Constitution? How do those debates help students better understand the founding period?

Faculty for this session includes Daina Ramey Berry, professor and chair of the UT Austin Department of History, and Keffrelyn D. Brown and Anthony L. Brown, professors in the UT Austin Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Register»

Race and Reform in the 1920s

Monday, November 2, 2020
5:00–6:15 p.m. CT

How did American conceptions of race change in the 1920s? How did race figure in discussions over eugenics, nativism, immigration, and social change?

Faculty for this session includes Daina Ramey Berry, professor and chair of the UT Austin Department of History, and Keffrelyn D. Brown and Anthony L. Brown, professors in the UT Austin Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Register»

Teaching Slavery in the Early Republic

Monday, November 30, 2020
5:00–6:15 p.m. CT

It is difficult for students and teachers to discuss even the most basic facts about slavery in early American history. This webinar will cover the history of slavery in the Early Republic and provide teachers with strategies and resources for teaching this profoundly challenging subject.

Faculty for this session includes Daina Ramey Berry, professor and chair of the UT Austin Department of History, and Keffrelyn D. Brown and Anthony L. Brown, professors in the UT Austin Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Register»

The Difference Black History Knowledge Can Make

Thursday, December 3, 2020
5:00–6:30 p.m. CT

This presentation will define essential components of Black history knowledge and the psychological impact of teaching this information to students, particularly those who identify as Black/African American. Particular attention will be given to psychosocial development and how Black history knowledge can positively impact it. Teachers will have an opportunity to receive and discuss TEKS-aligned strategies for effectively implementing such knowledge into their curriculum (with attention given to contemporary issues of racial injustice) as well as potentially helpful and developmentally appropriate ways to facilitate productive classroom discussions based on these topics.

Faculty for this session includes Andrea C. Holman, associate professor of psychology at Huston-Tillotson University. Register»

African Americans and World War II

Monday, December 7, 2020
5:00–6:15 p.m. CT

What were African Americans' experiences in World War II, both in combat and on the home front? How did their experiences set the stage for the postwar period?

Faculty for this session includes Daina Ramey Berry, professor and chair of the UT Austin Department of History, and Keffrelyn D. Brown and Anthony L. Brown, professors in the UT Austin Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Register»

More information about each program is available on our website. Teachers interested in attending should complete the online application form as soon as possible.

Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group, United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), attend a briefing in Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945. Toni Frissell Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) parade in Harlem, 1920. New York Public Library.
Runaway advertisement for Oney Judge, enslaved servant in George Washington's presidential household. The Pennsylvania Gazette, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 24, 1796.
Cover of the October 1928 issue of The Negro American with photograph of Miss Erma Sweatt, sister of civil-rights activist Heman Sweatt. The Negro American was a Harlem Renaissance era magazine published in San Antonio, Texas, that declared itself to be "the only magazine in the South devoted to Negro life and culture." Courtesy of Michael L. Gillette.