“This is a story of who America is”: Cultural memories and black civic identity

Abstract

In this study the author explores how an African American woman and elementary teacher utilized her family’s history and cultural memories during the Great Migration to reconsider how we (re)member the past and understand what it means to be a citizen. The researcher found that the participant viewed migration as a central theme in understanding Black civitas and used her family’s stories as a way to reinsert diverse bodies into the U.S. civic curriculum. Moreover, the participant was able to understand teachers can use their experiences to create a curriculum filled with lived experiences as a healing space. Implications from this study demonstrates the necessity of teaching difficult histories as well as decentering whiteness, in terms of teaching and research, in order to embrace endarkened and Black feminist ways of knowing.

Keywords:

• Social studies education
• African American teachers
• citizenship

Contributor

Amanda E. Vickery is an Assistant Professor of Social Studies/Race in Education at the University of North Texas. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in elementary social studies methods. Her research focuses on how Black women teachers utilize experiential and community knowledge to reconceptualize the construct of citizenship. Additionally, she explores Black women as critical citizens within the U.S. civic narrative. Dr. Vickery is a former middle school social studies teacher.

Notes

1 Dillard, (2012) argues that praisesongs are traditional types of poems sung in various locations across Africa. She argues that praisesongs can be used to “…celebrate or affirm triumph over adversity, bravery and courage both in life and death. They can also mark social transition and upward movement culturally, socially, or spiritually” (pg. 7).

2 Patricia Hill Collins, (2009) defined safe space as a setting/space in which Black women are allowed to engage freely in critical discourse around important issues (p. 110). It is within these spaces that Black women’s self-defined group standpoint emerges.

3 I intentionally capitalize the terms “Teachers of Color”, “Students of Color”, and “Communities of Color” to use capitalization as a grammatical strategy to (re)claim power typically removed to describe historically marginalized individuals and communities.

4 Adobe sparks is an online website that allows individuals to create stunning graphics, videos, or web pages.

5 Peardeck is a digital tool used in classrooms that allows teachers to create interactive slideshows to use with students.

6 I initially approached both African American women to participate in the study, but one declined to participate due to her busy schedule and personal commitments.

7 The term African American and Black were used interchangeably depending upon how the teacher self-identified. Self-identity is very personal, so it is important to ask how a person identifies themselves and not make assumptions.

8 Pseudonyms have been used for the participant’s name, research sites, communities/cities, schools, and other identifying information in this article.

9 The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West during the 20th century.

10 Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Here is quoted in the documentary 13th Directed by Ava DuVernay, Forward Movement, 2016. Netflix. www.netflix.com/title/80091741

11 See Milestone Documents. "Ida B. Wells: “Lynch Law in America”." Accessed January 21, 2019. https://www.milestonedocuments.com/documents/view/ida-b-wells-barnetts-lynch-law-in-america/text

12 Fannie Barrier Williams gave a speech in 1894 at the World’s Fair speech that illustrated the ways in which Black women inserted themselves as citizens within the public sphere. Williams told a crowd of White women of the “… bitterness of our experience as citizen-women”.

13 Baldwin, J. (1963). A talk to teachers. Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 107(2), 15-20.