The Problem of the Color Line: Atlanta Landmarks and Civil Rights History

FAIN: BH-50204-07

Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc. (Atlanta, GA 30302-3999)
Timothy J. Crimmins (Project Director: March 2007 to July 2009)

Two one-week workshops for 80 school teachers on southern segregation and the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta.

The "Problem of the Color Line" Institute will use Atlanta landmarks to trace the rise and fall of the color line. Sites in Atlanta, the capital of the Civil Rights Movement, are uniquely concentrated to help teachers tell the story of the development of segregation, the establishment of viable black community institutions, and the struggle to end discrimination. In advance of site visits, teachers will hear lectures, examine historical documents, and read primary and secondary sources so that they will be able to explore the Civil Rights past at the landmarks sites. Among the sites to be studied and visited are: the Atlanta University Center colleges--home to W.E.B. DuBois, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birth Home, and Piedmont Park--the site of Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise speech. Teachers will learn how to prepare students to go to landmarks sites to explore the history that transpired there. They will produce lesson plans to use these sites to teach American history.