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

FAIN: BH-50319-09

Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc. (Atlanta, GA 30302-3999)
Timothy J. Crimmins (Project Director: March 2009 to August 2011)

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

The "Problem of the Color Line" will use Atlanta landmarks to trace the rise and fall of segregation. 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 In advance of site visits, teachers will hear lectures, examine historical documents, and read primary and secondary sources so that they will be able to explore the Civil Rights past at the landmarks sites.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: Piedmont Park-where B. T. Washington delivered his Atlanta Compromise speech; the Fox Theater-built as a segregated facility; the Atlanta University Center; and the Martin Luther King Birth Home. 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.