From changing curricula to even a new textbook titled Black Lives Matter to finding their places in protests with the students, the #BlackLivesMatter Movement is finding a place in not just higher ed but K-12 discussions as well.
Macalester College professor of American Studies Dr. Duchess Harris said that, at the beginning of the fall 2014 semester, she found herself incorporating news clippings and materials about Mike Brown and some of the others slain by police around the country.
Because the semester started just a few weeks after the events in Ferguson burst into the nation’s consciousness, Harris said she knew her students would be looking for an outlet to discuss those things and would be looking to make historical connections.
“A lot of people want to talk about it; it’s just a lot of people don’t know how to talk about it, and a lot of people don’t have the tools to talk about it,” she said.
So when she was approached by Abdo Press to help author a textbook to provide such a tool, Harris said she was happy to do so.
The book, which covers a three-year history from Trayvon Martin to Freddie Gray, is primarily geared toward sixth-graders, though Harris said she believes “this is a useful tool for many age groups, and I think it’s an important way to open up dialogue.”
