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A decade after Brown, Title IV again called for desegregation of public schools. Studying images of segregated schools close in time and place can help students build a picture of the wide discrepancies between educational facilities.

The emancipation story remains largely incomplete, over 150 years later.

I’m constantly struck by the memory of my first time in a jail. It was during a tour as a part of SPLC’s efforts to monitor the conditions of detention facilities. I recall being shocked at how young some of the people looked. When I stepped into the first cellblock, I muttered a prayer. In front of me stood rows and rows of black men. I was sick to my stomach; so many of them looked like they could be my cousins, uncles and other loved ones.

Fifty years after the historic ruling, American schools are resegregating.

This toolkit for “One Hundred Years in the Making” provides instructional ideas to experience the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) without traveling to Washington, D.C.

It happens in every class. We’re discussing a text, a publication, a current event, a poem. The content doesn’t matter. It’s the phrase that counts. A student comments and uses the phrase “African American” or even “black people.” The student is white. The reaction of the class – almost all white – is swift. As if choreographed, all eyes turn to the one student of color. The spotlight of eyes shines down and he or she blinks back as if staring into the sun. The teacher should use this moment to open a discussion.