What really caused the Civil War? This episode, with Bethany Jay, Ph.D., examines the complex role that slavery played in causing the Civil War and outlines ways to teach this history and clarify our understanding of the Confederacy.
The Moment
Celebrate Juneteenth With a Commitment to Disrupt the Continuum of Hard History
Learning for Justice is relaunching the Teaching Hard History podcast series with host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., to resist current efforts to erase and alter our nation’s history. As we celebrate Juneteenth, we uplift liberation and Black joy and culture. And we commit to learning and teaching the hard history that is foundational to the United States and the ongoing movement for freedom and equality.
Teaching Hard History begins with the long and brutal legacy of slavery and reaches through the victories of and violent responses to the Civil Rights Movement and Black Americans’ experiences during the Jim Crow era to the issues we face today. This is American history that we all need to know and that should be taught in schools and in communities.
Learn more with the updated Season 1, Episode 1: Slavery and the Civil War, Part 1. And join us each week as we highlight an episode from the series and include a new resource page with essential ideas and teaching recommendations from the conversation and updated resources.
Teaching Hard History Podcast Series
Host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., brings us the hard history of the United States from slavery through the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights Movement — with relevance to today’s issues.
Teaching Hard History: American Slavery |Key Concepts Videos
In these short streaming films, historians and scholars explore the undertaught history of African and Indigenous enslavement, explain critical concepts, and share recovered narratives that can help us better understand the individual and collective impact—and the damaging legacy—of hundreds of years of American slavery.
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Pride Is Resistance
Queer America Podcast
LGBTQ+ people have always existed, but LGBTQ+ history, which is an integral part of the history of the United States, has often been ignored or erased. From Learning for Justice and hosts Leila Rupp and John D’Emilio, Queer America reveals stories of LGBTQ+ life we should have learned in school. This 13-episodes series can help us learn about and teach LGBTQ+ history.