Graphic Novel and Student Discussion Guide on the central ideas of John Stewart Mills work on the necessity of free speech in a democratic society.

The American Yawp constructs a coherent and accessible narrative from all the best of recent historical scholarship. Without losing sight of politics and power, it incorporates transnational perspectives, integrates diverse voices, recovers narratives of resistance, and explores the complex process of cultural creation. It looks for America in crowded slave cabins, bustling markets, congested tenements, and marbled halls. It navigates between maternity wards, prisons, streets, bars, and boardrooms. Whitman’s America, like ours, cut across the narrow boundaries that strangle many narratives. Balancing academic rigor with popular readability, The American Yawp offers a multi-layered, democratic alternative to the American past.

Consider the need for home education for Black and African-American families in Southern Maryland in the 1870s through 1920s, when public education was unavailable or inaccessible. This resource combines 3D models and 2D interaction to introduce students to Alphabet Wares/Alphabet Plates as found at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum when excavating "Sukeek's Cabin," a late-19th century home by a newly-freed family on the park grounds. Themes include unjust limitations, archaeology as a primary source, and home life in the 1870s-1920s. The resource includes simple prompts and resources for hypothesizing about archaeological findings, researching them, drawing conclusions, and suggestions for further reflection.

This resource uses Genial.ly, an online-presentation service, with additional tools by S'CAPE to increase the interactivity. Public Genial.lys may be remixed into new presentations after signing up for an account with the service.

This resource is part of Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum’s open educational resources project to provide history, ecology, archaeology, and conservation resources related to our 560 acre public park. More of our content can be found on OER Commons, YouTube, and SketchFab. JPPM is a part of the Maryland Historical Trust under the Maryland Department of Planning.

This video segment explores how the song Strange Fruit became one of the best-known and most enduring songs of protest. In 1939, the legendary blues singer Billie Holiday performed the song as a daring criticism of the commonplace practice of the lynching of African-Americans. Civil rights groups such as the NAACP had made countless appeals, but it was Holiday’s haunting rendition that made it impossible for white Americans and lawmakers to ignore the widespread crime.

A second video segment includes the story of Abel Meeropol, son of Russian Jewish immigrants and a high school English teacher in the Bronx neighborhood where he was born, wrote a poem entitled Strange Fruit. This video discusses how the poem would later be performed by the legendary Billie Holiday as a song of protest, bringing national attention to the crime of lynching.
https://opb.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/bf09.socst.us.prosp.songborn/abel-meeropol-billie-holiday-and-a-song-born-in-protest/

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.