This Institute will explore segregated education in Virginia and trace the efforts of African Americans who fought for quality schools in the years before Brown v. Board of Education. It will examine Brown and both efforts to implement and resist the decision in Virginia. Finally, it will look at the legacy of Brown. Participants will interact with historians and educators and will take part in lectures, discussions, and workshops and go on field trips to Farmville and the state capitol. They will work with Virginia Historical Society staff to explore teaching strategies and the Society's resources.

What do an English historian, an Italian wine merchant, an anti-slavery advocate, and the Father of the Constitution have in common? Each of these individuals—Catherine Sawbridge Macaulay Graham, Philip Mazzei, Francis Asbury, and James Madison—paid one or more visits during the years 1783–1789 to the retired leader of the American Revolutionary forces, George Washington, at his Virginia waterfront plantation, Mount Vernon. Perhaps these guests marveled at the brilliant colors of the mansion's main dining room. They might have strolled around the grounds and seen the slaves performing the multitude of tasks necessary to make the plantation flourish. It's likely that the visitors sat on the east-facing piazza and watched the ships sail up and down the Potomac River. Finally, and most significantly, these visitors—and others like them—participated in dialogues and discussions at Mount Vernon which resulted in the creation of the American constitutional system. The Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop, "Shaping the Constitution: A View from Mount Vernon 1783–89," funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities We the People initiative, is an opportunity for educators (and ultimately their students) to gain a better understanding of Mount Vernon as a crossroads for the discussion of ideas that led to the Constitution. In brief, the workshop offers academic content about Mount Vernon, George Washington, and the Constitution; the opportunity to engage in scholarly discourse with leading academics; a stipend to help cover housing and meal costs; a transportation allowance; networking with other social studies teachers from around the nation; and ongoing professional development opportunities and the opportunity to earn graduate credit.

Participants in this course will discover American Indian history in the United States from the earliest evidence of human habitation through first contact with Europeans, conflicts in the West, World War II and other key events in 20th-century U.S. history, the American Indian rights movement, and into the present day.

Archaeological finds, traditional stories, the writings of early European explorers, government documents and treaties, oral histories, photographs, the arts, newspaper articles, and more will enrich exploration of key issues in Native American history nationwide.

The course will proceed chronologically. Within each topical module participants will have the opportunity to choose from several different geographically grouped assignments, allowing them to customize their own learning experience based on their interests, the demands of the curriculum, and their own priorities for teaching American Indian history.

For example, in any given unit, they may choose to focus on the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains, the Northeast, or the Southeast. They may either follow one geographical track throughout the course or mix up their selections to allow for a broader view of American Indian history.

Too often, students view Civil Rights in isolation—they do not understand the rich historical background of African American history or the legacies of the movement in the more recent past. They often know some of the major civil rights figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rosa Parks, but they do not grasp the complexities of civil rights leadership, or the experience of the movement's foot soldiers—the students in SNCC, the freedom riders, or the everyday people who marched, boycotted, protested, and volunteered to make the movement happen. This course will try to explore the movement from all of these perspectives using, where possible, firsthand accounts from the people who lived this important history.

The instructor will assume that the main historical outlines of the movement are familiar to K–12 teachers—instead of recounting that basic history, participants will spend much of the time delving into lesser-studied events of the movement and the primary sources that will allow them to explore their own ideas about the movement and its meanings in detail.

This course will allow for the opportunity for deep historical analysis and interpretation using primary sources. The best way to learn history is by doing history. Participants will tackle documents, images, newspaper accounts, artistic expressions, film, and other sources. By doing so, they will develop their own arguments and ideas about the movement, and help future students do the same. Many of the resources participants will use have been recently added to the internet and they should be exciting additions to the course, and to historical scholarship more broadly. As participants mine these sources, they will hopefully enjoy the historical process and also get some great ideas for classroom activities for their students.

The instructor has selected websites and multimedia resources that will give participating teachers access to literally thousands of documents including newspaper accounts, oral history interviews, government documents, photographs, works of art, film clips, and more. Participants will have the opportunity to analyze these sources through engaging activities to create a lesson plan for classroom use; to receive individualized, constructive feedback and answers to content-oriented questions from a well-versed instructor; and to join other teachers from across the state in lively online discussions throughout the course.

Participants in this course will examine African American history in the contexts of United States, North Carolina, and world history. They will begin by connecting the experiences of African Americans in early U.S. history to the histories and cultures of the African communities of their ancestors and will follow those cultural connections between Africa and the United States throughout the course.

Course topics include African Americans in the colonies and the early Republic, the Middle Passage, American slavery and the experiences of free African Americans in the antebellum period, the abolition movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and the experiences of African Americans during World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. Throughout the course, participants will discuss African American activism through churches, political organizations, and communities and discover African American culture through art, music, and other cultural forms.

No specifics available.