This seminar examines the era of the American Civil War, with emphasis on its origins, scope, and consequences. Through lectures, class discussion, examination of historical texts, and visits to historic sites, the instructors and participants will examine the central role of slavery, the ways in which military and civilian affairs intersected and influenced one another, the question of what the war left unresolved, and how Americans have remembered the conflict. In many ways, the issues that divided the nation during the Civil War era continue to resonate today. This seminar will seek to make those issues clear, while at the same time providing a sense of the drama and tragedy of this tumultuous period.

Using ESSEX History is pleased to welcome back Dr. Cynthia Lyerly (Boston College) to lead a discussion of the culture of Jim Crow. This seminar will provide nuance for discussions of segregation by taking educators out of the courtrooms and voting booths to examine how the Jim Crow system affected everyday life and how depictions of race in popular culture complemented and supported both legal and de facto segregation. Readings for this seminar will focus on the turn of the 20th century and will bring together a diverse amount of scholarship including: Dr. Lyerly's own work on The Clansman author Thomas Dixon, Jr.'s studies on the segregation of consumption and public spaces, and investigations into popular cultural icons such as Shirley Temple and Scarlett O'Hara. This seminar will take place at the NARA facilities in Waltham and will include screenings of portions of several films including Gone With the Wind, The Littlest Rebel, and Within Our Gates, as well as investigations into NARA's archives.The primary sources for the day reveal surprising ways in which the culture of segregation affected life here in New England.

A hundred years ago, in communities across the U.S., white residents forced thousands of black families to flee their homes. Even a century later, these towns remain almost entirely white. Banished tells the story of three of these communities and their black descendants, who return to learn their shocking histories. This event presents a screening of the film, followed by a conversation with director Marco Williams. Williams, a member of the faculty at NYU, is a documentary and fiction film director. His films have been broadcast on cable and public television, including Showtime and Frontline, and have been screened at film festivals throughout the world.

Divided We Fall is the first feature-length independent documentary about hate violence in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Filmmaker Valarie Kaur documented stories in the Sikh, Muslim, and Arab American communities. Over the next five years, Kaur's journey unfolded into a larger exploration of "who counts as American." In 2005, Sharat Raju and his film crew joined Valarie as she retraced her steps across the country, revisiting her original interviewees and other scholars, lawyers, and legislators about race, religion, and security in post-9/11 America. The screening is free and open to the public. It will include a showing of the film and comments by Dr. Jaideep Singh, co-founder of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Assistant Professor in Department of Ethnic Studies, CSUEB, and Ranjit Singh Sabharwal Chair in Sikh and Punjabi Studies and by Neha Singh, Western Region Director of the Sikh Coalition, Fremont. A question-answer period with panelists will end the program

This two-day workshop will explore how beliefs about race have shaped—and challenged—American's identity as a land of "freedom and opportunity." It will look at significant events and movements in American history—slavery, immigration, the eugenics movement, the Civil Rights Movement—and will consider legacies of each in American society today. Ultimately, this journey will bring participants back to the present. Examining American history through the lens of race and membership empowers teachers and their students to value how their choices shape contemporary America. Participants will receive a resource book and membership in the Facing History and Ourselves Teacher Network.

Highlighting two resources from Facing History's "Making History" series, this workshop will reflect on Raphael Lemkin's tireless efforts to, in response to the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, define and outlaw genocide. They will also examine the story of a group of women in Chile whose brightly colored tapestries, or arpilleras, played a leading role in the nonviolent movement for human rights during Pinochet's rule from 1973–1990.

This year sees the publication of a wealth of important new literature on America in the 19th century. This abundance of excellent new contributions to the scholarship on these important years is an exciting opportunity to revisit what we all think we know about America in the 19th century, and to rethink what our students need to know. This event will focus on teaching topics with the Civil War as the chronological fulcrum.

Topics include The Technological Revolution, Teaching about Abraham Lincoln, Women in the Civil War, Teaching Military History, and Postwar Reconstruction.

Applications are welcome from social studies and history teachers, curriculum supervisors and junior college faculty. Free room and board and selected stipends are offered.

"This seminar explores how an economically and politically powerless racial minority wrested dramatic change from a determined and entrenched white majority in the American South. It will examine the changing nature of protest from the 1940s to the 1950s; the roles of Martin Luther King, Jr., local movements, and women; and the relative importance of violence and non-violence. Participants will discuss how they can use the experiences of schoolchildren, teachers, and students in the crises of the 1950s and 1960s to bring home the realities of the civil rights movement in the classroom. Topics include the Little Rock 9 and their teachers in 1957, students and sit-ins, and the use of schoolchildren in the 1963 Birmingham demonstrations."