Black History Nerds Saturday School

As a component of the Histematics teaching framework, I will use the details of multiple slave rebellions led by African people as a backdrop to illustrate how certain math concepts can be taught in the context of Black History. The quantitative analysis provided by the math questions posed while reviewing these various slave rebellions will serve to provide a deeper understanding of the rebellions and their relevance in contemporary times. We will discuss the Cristiana Resistance, The Baptist War, and the German Coast Rebellion.

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George Washington Lee was a lifelong member of the Republican Party in Memphis, Tennessee. As one of the party's leaders in the early 1920s, he worked with Robert Church, a prominent, nationally regarded African American businessman and activist, to build a Black-led party infrastructure. Through the first half of the 20^th century, this "Old Guard" wing of the GOP was in the vanguard of civil rights activity in Memphis. However, by the 1950s, this Black-led political contingent faced two increasing threats: the rising power and influence of conservative White Republicans determined to take control of the party, and the steady migration of Black voters to the ranks of the Democratic Party. Lee, who ran the party in Memphis, lost his seat in statewide party leadership in 1964, signaling an end to Republican-led efforts to affirm the rights of Black folks in the city and state. Lee's rise and fall is a compelling window through which to explore this volatile time in the region and nation's history.  

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While many Americans know the name Frederick Douglass and know he was important in the nineteenth century, most have trouble naming Black women of that era. In some cases, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth might come to mind. Like Douglass, they were powerful abolitionist orators. Unlike him, they produced as-told-to narratives of their extraordinary lives rather than writing their autobiographies. In 1861, Harriet Jacobs used the pseudonym Linda Brent and became the first formerly enslaved African American woman to publish a book-length account of her life. Now known as Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, it is read all over the world, taught in a variety of educational settings, and studied by scholars in countless disciplines. Several English-language editions remain in print, but Koritha Mitchell's edition stands out. Besides faithfully reproducing Jacobs’s narrative, it adds extensive explanatory footnotes and a thorough introduction. The volume also offers 6 appendices with historical and cultural documents that help readers appreciate the immensity of Jacobs’s achievement. In this presentation, Mitchell will share what she learned from editing this extraordinary work. 

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SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, pronounced Snick) was founded by African-American college students in April 1960, when Ella Baker brought sit-in leaders together to learn from each other and figure out what to do next. By summer 1961, SNCC staff were moving into rural southern communities, living and working with local people and organizing around voter registration. SNCC followed Ms. Baker's lead and incorporated teaching and leadership development in all of their work, exposing people to new ideas and helping them prepare for the challenging voter registration tests. As part of the 1964 Freedom Summer project, SNCC also organized Freedom Schools that have become an enduring model for student-centered education.

 This session will introduce participants to a "SNCC and Freedom Teaching" toolkit, which combines historical context with photographs and engaging exercises. This toolkit is one of set of materials that combine SNCC's history with documents, questions, and exercises. The materials include an overview (Interpretive Booklet), as well as specific toolkits on Voting Rights, the Organizing Tradition, Black Power, Art & Culture, Freedom Teaching, Women & Gender, and Direct Action. 

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This powerful and timely lecture addresses the challenges and opportunities of teaching Black history in today’s polarized educational environment. As an acclaimed historian and educator, Dr. Williams brings a wealth of expertise to this conversation, drawing from his groundbreaking scholarship and extensive authorship, including Teaching U.S. History Beyond the Textbook, Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement, and The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution.

Through this presentation, Dr. Williams will explore innovative strategies for teaching Black history with authenticity, depth, and relevance while addressing the political and cultural resistance educators often face. He will offer actionable tools to help educators foster critical thinking, develop inclusive curricula, and empower students to deeply engage with the complexities of history.

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As classrooms become more diverse in the United States, it is important that teachers are equipped with effective culturally responsive strategies to impact achievement for ethnically diverse students. According to Gay (2018) teacher attitudes and dispositions strongly impact instructional behaviors. When teachers have low expectations for ethnically diverse students, they begin to act in ways to approbate their expectations. This presentation is based on the findings of my original research which examined the experiences of elementary school teachers’ implementation of culturally responsive teaching (CRT). Research has indicated that many educators do not have strong knowledge of CRT, need more understanding of CRT, and need increased self-efficacy when implementing CRT (Pei Jia & Nasri, 2019). Furthermore, Gay, (2018) contended that several educators have inquired about how to implement CRT. Thus, the purpose of my research was to discover an entry point for teachers to begin implementation of CRT.

A combination of purposive, snowball, and criterion sampling were used to select seven participants to explore their experiences implementing CRT.  Data triangulation consisted of 3 data sets to identify patterns in CRT implementation. I employed 2 levels of general coding which led to the discovery of 6 mindsets that cultivate a culturally responsive paradigm which are: (a) adapting to students’ cultural needs, (b) building relationships for community, (c) empowering and affirming students, (d) positive mindsets for success, (e) anticipating challenges while implementing CRT and, (f) utilizing advantageous support beyond the classroom. The results from this study provide K-12 teachers with an entry point for implementing CRT.

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In this Nerds session, Dawnavyn James will present her research component, a milestone towards her doctorate degree. Her presentation will focus on how she utilized Black ancestral text analysis (Teague & Nagbe, 2024) and the history of African American picture books to read and identify Black nonfiction picture books as sites of Black historical knowledge. Bringing it back to the early childhood and elementary classroom, she will outline the importance of this research for educators.

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