"Stony the Road We Trod...": Alabama's Role in the Modern Civil Rights Movement

FAIN: BH-231421-15

Alabama Humanities Foundation (Birmingham, AL 35205-7011)
Martha V. Bouyer (Project Director: March 2015 to May 2017)

Two one-week Landmarks workshops for seventy-two school teachers on the history and legacy of the civil rights movement in Alabama.

"Stony the Road" is a comprehensive, interactive teacher workshop that includes lectures by renowned scholars, an opportunity to enter into discourse with movement participants, development of instructional units, and travel to key sites of memory dedicated to the Modern Civil Rights Movement. Each week of Stony the Road We Trod (Stony), teachers will participate in a comprehensive study of the Modern Civil Rights Movement and the role that Alabama played in thrusting the struggle for civil rights to the forefront of every media outlet in the world. Teachers, by participating in interactive lectures and discourse with noted scholars and historians, will come to understand the true impact of the movement and how the events in Alabama were central to the movement. The two week-long sessions will take run June 26-July 2 and July 10-16, 2016.

Media Coverage

'Stony the Road We Trod': Teaching teachers about civil rights movement (Media Coverage)
Publication: Montgomery Advertiser
Date: 7/1/2016
Abstract: Article on the first of two 2016 Landmarks workshops. Initial introductory paragraphs: "36 teachers toured Montgomery Thursday in order to learn about the civil rights movement and bring these lessons back to their classrooms nationwide. The workshop, which is a weeklong tour of the state, was funded through a $179,340 grant given by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to its state affiliate, the Alabama Humanities Foundation (AHF)." article continues with sections on: - "How the project grew" - "Selecting teachers to participate" - "Why they found this important" - "The tour"
URL: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2016/07/01/stony-road-we-trod-teaching-teachers-civil-rights-movement/86597288/

“The real story gets told”: educators from across the country tread the stony road of Alabama’s civil rights history to learn how to teach it to the next generation (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Jamie McClintock
Publication: Weld
Date: 7/2/2016
Abstract: Article on the 2016 Landmarks workshops, including photos + comments from participants, project staff, and civil rights footsoldiers. Intro: "Thirty-six teachers from 22 states are spending a week traveling to different Civil Rights memorials in the state, including here in Birmingham, meeting individuals who experienced the movement firsthand. In 2002 Dr. Martha Bouyer, a former educator who now serves on the Jefferson County Board of Education, founded the project Stony the Road We Trod: Alabama’s Role in the Modern Civil Rights Movement in order to help local Birmingham educators teach the Civil Rights Movement to their students. Bouyer took teachers to historical Civil Rights sites throughout Alabama and introduced them to foot soldiers who participated in the Civil Rights Movement."
URL: http://weldbham.com/blog/2016/07/02/the-real-story-gets-told-educators-civil-rights/#

"Around the Nation": A Roundup of Activities Sponsored by the State Humanities Councils (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Laura Wolff Scanlan
Publication: Humanities Magazine
Date: 6/30/2016
Abstract: Project listing under Alabama in "Around the Nation" roundup of state humanities council activities
URL: https://issuu.com/humanitiesmagazine/docs/24767_humanities_magazine_summer_20/38

‘Stony the Road’ Traveling Institute: Inspired, enlightened like no other (Media Coverage)
Author(s): T.C. McLemore
Publication: Mosaic Magazine (Alabama Humanities Foundation)
Date: 9/1/2016
Abstract: Article by Alabama Humanities Foundation's programs director about the workshops. Intro: "In my first month as AHF’s new programs director, I joined 72 educators from 30 states as they convened in Birmingham to embark on a near 500-mile journey through cities, cotton fields, pine forests, and over rivers to learn in the places where Alabamians changed the world. This summer’s NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop: Stony the Road We Trod: Alabama’s Role in the Modern Civil Rights Movement set my expectations early and set them high for the quality of programming a humanities council is uniquely suited to deliver to teachers. Adequately capturing and summarizing such a profound experience has proven difficult. Fortunately, our guest teachers’ reflections offer a collective description of the workshop’s influence on their lives and careers. Their comments are featured below in italics." ...
URL: http://www.alabamahumanities.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Mosaic-Fall-2016-Web-hyperlinks.pdf

Stony The Road opens eyes and minds to Civil Rights Movement (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Graham Hadley
Publication: Mosaic Magazine (Alabama Humanities Foundation)
Date: 9/1/2016
Abstract: Article on the 2016 workshops: "There is a difference between reading about history and living it. For teachers trying to reach out to young minds today, particularly when it comes to the Civil Rights Movement, that can be a difficult bridge to cross. But thanks to the foresight, dedication and hard work of a group of educators, with backing from The Alabama Humanities Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, those teachers are getting the tools they need to do just that." Article includes sections on "Big things from small beginnings" and "An essential program."
URL: http://www.alabamahumanities.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Mosaic-Fall-2016-Web-hyperlinks.pdf