CTI Fellows presented new curricula they developed at the National Council on Black Studies (NCSB) Conference in New Orleans, March 6-9, 2019. The five Fellows, joined by CTI Executive Director Scott Gartlan and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Director of Diversity and Inclusion Chiquitha Lloyd, included:
- Larry Bosc, American History Teacher (retired), East Mecklenburg High School
- Eli Davis, Special Education, Lincoln Heights Academy
- Latonda Mitchell, 5th Grade, Mountain Island Lake Academy
- Eboné Lockett, English, Cato Middle College High School
- Roshan R. Varghese, American History, Butler High School
Their roundtable panel’s abstract below provides an overview of their group presentation. Each member of the panel also provided individual presentations at the conference.
Traveling to Montgomery from Charlotte: Educators Explore A Legacy of Lynching in K-12 Classrooms
In August 2017, a diverse group of 26 Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) teachers attended a presentation and workshop led by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). Then Charlotte Teachers Institute (CTI) offered two seminars for CMS teachers aligned with EJI’s work called “Media and Minorities: Unpacking Stereotypes”, and “Memorials, Memories, and American Identity.” In a culminated trip to Montgomery, AL, the teachers participated in the opening of EJI’s Legacy Museum and the Memorial for Peace and Justice in April 2018. Teachers presented their reflections and new curricula to the Director of Diversity and Inclusion in CMS. This included curriculum innovations in each of their classrooms as well as a workshop for Charlotte-Mecklenburg teachers on implicit bias, which occurred in August 2018. Additionally, planning is underway to include two new curriculum units in all American History II classes in 2020 that focus on both national and local events around 2 key subjects: Jim Crow and the Fight for First Class Citizenship (1876-1953) and The Modern Civil Rights Movement and Beyond: The Fight for Social and Economic Justice (1954-the Present). The panel will discuss these curricular ideas, the implicit bias training for teachers, existing CTI curricula on racial terror lynchings, and efforts in Charlotte-Mecklenburg to collaborate with EJI to bring historical markers and a memorial to commemorate the two documented acts of racial terrorism in Charlotte.
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