Online Seminar: Choices in Little Rock

Description

This seminar explores the Facing History and Ourselves resource book, Choices in Little Rock—a collection of teaching suggestions, activities, and primary sources that focus on the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. These efforts led to a crisis that historian Taylor Branch once described as "the most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War." These resources explore a range of civic choices—the decisions people make as citizens in a democracy. Those decisions, both then and now, reveal that democracy is not a product but a work in progress, a work that is shaped in every generation by the choices that people make about themselves and others. This workshop will consider ways to engage students in the issues raised by this history and its civic implications for their lives today. Choices in Little Rock can be used not only to teach history but also to deepen and enrich a study of civics, government, and literature.

Sponsoring Organization
Facing History and Ourselves
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Cost
$325
Duration
Seven weeks
End Date

Parkin Archaeological State Park Teacher Workshop

Description

Parkin State Park interpreters are continually developing new and exciting educational programs for groups who visit Parkin Archeological State Park and nearby Village Creek State Park. Teachers spend the day exploring these two sites by participating in educational programs and activities and earn 6 in-service credit hours. Each teacher will receive information packets on the resources available for teacher and classrooms.

Contact email
Sponsoring Organization
Parkin Archaeological State Park
Phone number
1 870-755-2500
Target Audience
PK-12
Start Date
Cost
TBA
Course Credit
Participants earn 6 in-service credit hours.
Duration
One day

Louisiana Purchase State Park [AR]

Description

This National Historic Landmark at the junction of Lee, Monroe and Phillips counties preserves the initial point from which all surveys of the property acquired through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 initiated. That year, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the vast territory of Louisiana from France for $15 million. The unmapped wilderness of approximately 900,000 square miles doubled the size of the fledgling nation and helped shape the destiny of the United States.

The site is open to the public.

Website does not specify any interpretive services available at the site.

Conway Cemetery State Park [AR]

Description

On June 15, 1836, James Sevier Conway (1796–1855), surveyor, planter, and prominent citizen of territorial Arkansas, took office as the state's first governor. The park's major feature is Governor Conway's final resting place in the family cemetery, on the Conway family's former home and cotton plantation called "Walnut Hill."

The site is open to the public.

Website does not specify any interpretive services offered at this site, beyond signage.

Central High School Museum [AR]

Description

In the summer of 1957, the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, decided to desegregate it schools, setting in motion the turn of events that defined the Little Rock Nine, and included protests, marches, riots, and threats of violence. The Central High School Museum chronicles the history of the 1957, the year of desegregation.

The museum offers visitors copies of the 1957 student newspaper, a variety of exhibits showcasing life inside Central High during 1957, and offers videos and other primary sources from the 1957 school year. The website offers a history of desegregation in Little Rock, as well as an events calendar, a timeline of events in 1957, and visitor information.

It looks like this site no longer exists as a visitor's center and is being renovated. Check back on this one.

Herman Davis State Park [AR]

Description

This one-acre park in Manila surrounds the gravesite of and monument to Private Herman Davis, Arkansas farm boy and war hero. Fourth on General John J. Pershing's list of World War I's 100 greatest heroes, Private Davis received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guere, and the Medaulle Militaire awards from the American and French governments.

The site is open to the public.

Website does not specify any interpretive services available at the site.

Landreth-Blair Grant

Description

Each year the Arkansas Council for the Social Studies offers a small grant to underwrite teacher expenses for classroom and academic use. This grant is to be used to purchase materials or to underwrite activities which promote social studies education.

Sponsoring Organization
Arkansas Council for the Social Studies
Eligibility Requirements

Teacher members of ACSS are eligible to submit applications for projects relating to the goals of the organization.

Application Deadline
Award Amount
$500
Location
AR

Land of (Unequal) Opportunity

Image
Annotation

While many are familiar with the 1957 Little Rock High School integration crisis, far fewer students of U.S. civil rights history may be aware of the longer history of that struggle in Arkansas. This website includes more than 460 documents and images, including cartoons, court decisions, photographs, newspaper articles, letters, and essays related to that history. For example, an essay on the meaning of relocation written by a high school student at Arkansas's Jerome Relocation Center in 1943 brings a more personal perspective to the story of internment, as the student describes the ways in which members of her community have struggled between the "fighting spirit" and the "giving up spirit." Users new to civil rights history in Arkansas may want to begin with the extensive timeline that describes events from the arrival of slaves in Arkansas in the 1720s to a 2006 State Supreme Court ruling that struck down a ban on gays serving as foster parents. The website also includes 10 lesson plans geared for middle school students that make use of the website's resources—such as a speech given by Governor Oral Fabus in 1958. An extensive bibliography of secondary sources related to many aspects of civil rights, including African American, gay and lesbian, and women's issues, Japanese relocation, religious intolerance, political rights, and anti-civil liberties groups and issues, is also available.