Memphis
Since the Memphis office opened in 1992, more than 1,900 educators from across the state have participated in our professional development programs. These educators annually reach an estimated 190,000 middle and high school students in over 485 public, independent, and religious schools as well as colleges and universities in the region.
In Tennessee, Facing History curriculum units have been endorsed at the district and state levels. The semester-long Facing History high school elective course has been certified by the Tennessee Department of Education. Memphis City and Shelby County Schools have also adopted Facing History units as a mandate for social studies curriculum in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades.
Changing School Culture
"So much of what we hear and see in our politics and in our media is from the extremes, and so what you usually end up with is a public shouting match. We're trying to teach students to slow down, to listen to what is being said, to think about it, and then to respond in a civil and respectful way.”
—Arlington High School educator Andrew Reese.
Memphis Stories
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“From the early years of the 20th century to well past its middle age, nearly every black family in the American south, which meant nearly every black family in America, had a decision to make.” – Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other SunsIsabel...
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Consider it a book club on a huge scale. That’s what the Commercial Appeal daily newspaper is hoping to create with its fall serialization of the New York Times bestselling book, Outcasts United. For six weeks this fall, the Memphis, Tennessee,...
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Memphians know what it’s like to live in a city where it is common for high school graduates to go off to college, and never move back home. The stakes are high: with each student that relocates, the city loses valuable hands, hearts, and minds...
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'Wednesdays in Mississippi' in Memphis |
Stars from the film Wednesdays in Mississippi appeared on a local Memphis, Tennessee, television station. Co-producer and director Marlene McCurtis joined Susan Goodwillie Stedman and Josie Johnson for a segment on WREG-CBS to discuss the film, shown in conjunction with Facing History and Ourselves’ Choosing to Participate traveling exhibit, on display September 6 through November 6, 2011, at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library. Wednesdays in Mississippi tells the story of the dozens of upper- and middle-class Northern black and white women who traveled to Jackson, Mississippi, during the summers of 1964 and 1965. The women left the North on Tuesday nights only to return to their homes on Thursdays in order to build support for the civil rights movement. |
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"The Right Thing at the Right Time": Choosing to Participate in Memphis |
Margot Stern Strom, interviewed by TV station WREG in her hometown of Memphis, describes Facing History and Ourselves’ Choosing to Participate exhibit there as “human behavior writ large, but with a concentration on upstanders.” Strom reflects on how her youth in Memphis—where “history wasn’t taught well and we didn’t talk about the colored and white water fountains or the colored-only day at the zoo sign while we took Civics classes”—influenced the development of Facing History, and the changes that have taken place there since her childhood. |
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Jayanni W.: "The Work that Facing History Does has a Place on the Global Stage" |
Jayanni W. learned from Facing History and Ourselves "to harness the power of education and use it for social change." While doing a research study in Northen Uganda, she discovered the connections between Facing History and Boston-based Insight Collaborative, through which Ugandan children learn "that they are not alone—that they too can transcend their pain and anguish to rebuild better lives—that they too can turn conflict and marginalization into opportunity." Related Materials: |
Participating Schools
Facing History and Ourselves is actively used in history, literature, interdisciplinary, government and specially designed Facing History electives in schools all over Tennessee. In addition to being incorporated into K-12 schools, Facing History is also taught in colleges and universities. Our program associates work with educators to help them use these materials in the most appropriate ways.
View the full list of schools
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Location
Memphis Office
650 East Parkway South Kenrick Hall, Room 16
Memphis, TN, 38104-5581United States
Office Phone: 901-452-1776
