The Shaping Role of Place in African American Biography

FAIN: EE-50168-05

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (North Adams, MA 01247-4124)
Frances Jones-Sneed (Project Director: October 2004 to April 2007)

A curriculum development project focusing on the lives of five African Americans whose stories link a rural New England county with events and themes of national significance.

The central goal of this proposal is to create a nationally replicable model for developing African American studies curricula that link locally significant figures with broader currents in American history. This 18-month curriculum development project brings K-12 teachers together with an interdisciplinary team of scholars and local history researchers to explore “The Shaping Role of Place in African American Biography” and to generate curricula that meet the challenges of new frameworks. Our central focus is on five African Americans whose stories link a sparsely populated rural county in New England with events and movements of enduring national significance.