"Hands-on History" at the John Brown Farm: Collaborating on Behalf of Racial Justice in an Era of Teacher Censorship

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology, Activism, and Protest", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Hundreds of state and local laws and resolutions have been adopted recently to restrict how teachers teach the history of race in America. As a result, today’s teachers face undue scrutiny, critique, and punishment for how they approach Black history. It is in this volatile climate that John Brown Lives!, a human rights organization centered on the John Brown Farm State Historic Site (North Elba, N.Y.), sought to expand outreach to teachers and students through its innovative Hands-on History project. In this paper, we will introduce this initiative, which brings together educators, historians, artists, and archaeologists to develop and implement curriculum illuminating the region’s freedom history. After describing its goals and the steps taken to support and listen to teachers and other stakeholders during this precarious political moment, we will situate the collaboration in the history of archaeology and activism, and we will reflect on lessons learned during its implementation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Archaeology, Activism, and Protest

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow