From Maryland to Missouri, Oregon, New York, North Carolina to the District of Columbia, over 100 attendees joined Peta Lindsay, Charla Johnson, and Cyrus Hampton, leaders of the Ida B. Wells Education Project, in a panel discussion via Zoom on “Joy in Resistance: Teaching about Oppression with Hope and Inspiration” as part of the Teaching for Change and Howard University’s 2021 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action Curriculum Fair. 

As participants introduced themselves in the chat, it was clear that the topic attracted interest from teachers in a range of roles and content areas including English language arts, Spanish, English language learners, afterschool programming, social studies, principals, counselors, teacher educators, and more.

Peta Lindsay, Ida B. Wells Education Project executive director, fostered discussion from the beginning with her argument that, “The best professional development is teachers talking about teaching and sharing their expertise with other teachers.” Then she asked educators to investigate their own philosophy with the question, “Why do we teach history?”

A teacher from Philadelphia responded, “I want to inspire learners to speak their truth.” An Iowa teacher said, “[My] purpose is to inspire and empower all youth.”

Lindsay went on to address three key points everyone should carry in their philosophical thinking as an educator: 

• ask a guiding principle, 

• recognize that all education is a process of conveying values, 

• and as noted by Freire, decide whether you teach for conformity or freedom. 

As the workshop continued, Lindsay asked teachers to identify their goals for their classroom concretely, while also expressing her own. A teacher from Massachusetts stated, “My goal has always been to inspire young people to make changes in their world, to work for justice, to right wrongs, and to spark that sense of curiosity, joy and sense of urgency.” While one DC public school teacher wrote, “My goals in the classroom are to educate and support students to become anti-racist, culturally inclusive, and knowledgeable global thinkers. I teach my students to ‘question everything’ and to identify uplifted voices versus silenced voices.”

Then Lindsay introduced the focal point of their presentation: finding the joy in teaching resistance to students. After sharing a quote by Alice Walker, she emphasized the importance of building community and validating students’ feelings before engaging in this work.

Lindsay stated, “I do use trigger warnings to ensure I talk with my students first. I allow them to come back when they are ready. We often let our own discomfort [as teachers] dictate what we do in our classrooms. If students do not process with you, they are still processing somewhere else.”

Lindsay spoke specifically about pedagogical strategies such as a See Think Wonder Activity around a central image, for example, the Dancing in the Congo Square piece by Edward Kemble from 1886. She said that asking students’ questions like “What do you think is happening here? What do you think they feel?” prompted rich student discussion on themes of unity, community and pride in dark times. 

“Above all else”, stated Lindsay “center resistance. Center the agency of oppressed people in the face of oppression. Always ask: but what did people do?”

As Lindsay went on to detail key points from the groundbreaking Lovecraft Country Lesson Series, the chat filled with people asking for a whole day with the Ida B. Wells Education Project.

Cyrus Hampton, Ida B. Wells Education Project board of directors member and instructor at Howard University, asked attendees one key question, “How do we counter the narratives that are hidden from our students?” Hampton’s answer: “We must directly respond to the exclusion of certain histories. We often talk about leaders and exemplars; however, it is easy to forget how leaders require rarity of circumstances. I would be failing to understand history if I forgot the experiencing of rural sharecroppers. Their reality is just as important as freedom riders and members of SNCC”.

Hampton went on to provide details of Lesson 4 in the Lovecraft Country Lesson Series on the “History of Black Americans and Medicine.” He pondered whether he could get students to not just think about horrors of the past but also possibilities for the future. 

A teacher from New York showed his appreciation by writing, “Lindsay urged educators to teach the many ways in which African Americans have resisted mob violence, including the role of the Black Press in exposing horrific crimes against African Americans and the system that facilitated them. She talked about making sure that students knew the story of Mary Turner (#sayhername) and emphasizing the role of Black organizers and writers like NAACP organizer Walter White, who risked his life going undercover in the South to investigate her lynching, exposing the gruesome details and collusion of the authorities in her death. This kind of reporting was crucial and galvanized this early movement for Black lives. 

Charla Johnson, secondary English Language Arts teacher and Ida B. Wells Education Project board of directors member, discussed her framework for teaching and her contributions to the Lovecraft Country Lesson Series. Inspired by the show’s depiction of both the real and fictional horrors facing Black Americans, as well as Toni Morrison’s assertion, “What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not?” Johnson wrote a lesson examining gothic themes in African American literature. She walked participants through her thinking for the lesson while also providing context for the comparative analysis. Midway through her explanation, a teacher asked if this session was being recorded. Another teacher asked if lessons were already adapted for younger learners and participants were encouraged to review Johnson’s newest lesson, “The Hill We Climb: An Exploration of Text Connections” based on Amanda Gorman’s message at the 2021 Inauguration of Joe Biden.

Like many opportunities to engage with themes such as this one, we are only just scratching the surface in the short time that we have together. What it is clear from this workshop through the conversations and chat is the reminder that there is “Joy in resistance,” and that through this workshop educators are leaving with renewed hope and a reminder on how to engage and center hard conversations around resistance. Additionally there is hunger and desire for more echoing comments from participants to have an expanded version of this workshop, even a full-day experience. The workshop reflected an eagerness and desire to remain connected with the Ida B. Wells Project as a resource for continued classroom engagement.

Many of the participants said they wished it had been longer. Here are some reflections about what they learned: 

Joy in resistance — by centering hard conversations around resistance (even in the pictures we use) we provide historical context with HOPE for the future — and a roadmap for future resistance.           

The most important thing I learned about teaching the history of Black Americans is to not sugarcoat injustice and center the lesson on resistance every time (Ask: What did people do?) I found it very powerful.

SO MUCH BRILLIANCE — anchoring history in stories and experiences of resistance.

This workshop description was written by DCPS middle school teacher Caneisha Mills.