PODCAST · education
Teaching Hard History
by Learning for Justice
From Learning for Justice and host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., Teaching Hard History brings us the crucial history we should have learned through the voices of leading scholars and educators. The series, which includes four seasons that originally aired from 2018 to 2022, 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. Join us as we relaunch this podcast series, highlighting an episode each week and including a new resource page with key points from the conversation, resources and connections for building learning experiences.
Episodes
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Slavery Today
After the Civil War and emancipation, slavery evolved into other exploitive economic and legal systems, the legacy of which can still be seen today. Historian James Brewer Stewart discusses how modern slavery operates around the world and across the United States, connecting the past to the...
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Confronting Hard History at Montpelier
At James Madison's Montpelier, an exhibit models how to explore American slavery at a historic site through the commitment to accuracy and truth about slavery and engagement with the descendants of the enslaved community. Christian Cotz, Price Thomas and Patrice Preston Grimes explain how that...
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Slavery in the Supreme Court
Building on the discussion of "Slavery in the Constitution," historian Paul Finkelman examines the connections among the Constitution, the Supreme Court, politics and slavery. This episode offers insights into the ideologies and tensions that shaped the United States, led to the Civil War and...
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Slavery in the Constitution
Constitutional and legal historian Paul Finkelman explains the critical role slavery played in the founding of the United States and how the politics of slavery shaped the U.S. Constitution in ways that are still evident today. Join host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., and Learning for Justice, a...
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Ten More … Film and the History of Slavery
Film historian Ron Briley returns with more suggestions for teaching through film — from thought-provoking documentaries and feature films to miniseries. Spanning productions from the works of Ken Burns to the blockbuster Black Panther, this episode offers essential background information and...
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Film and the History of Slavery
Film has long shaped our nation's historical memory — for good and bad. Film historian Ron Briley offers ways to responsibly use films in the classroom to more accurately frame the narrative of American slavery and Reconstruction. Join host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., and Learning for Justice, a...
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Diverse Experience of the Enslaved
The experiences of enslaved people varied greatly based on a variety of factors, including time, location, crop, labor performed, size of slaveholding and gender. Yet, most students leave school thinking enslaved people lived like the biased representation in Gone With the Wind. Deirdre Cooper...
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Resistance Means More Than Rebellion
For a more complete picture of enslaved people's experiences, we need to expand our understanding of resistance. Kenneth S. Greenberg, Ph.D., examines the numerous ways enslaved African Americans incorporated resistance into every aspect of their lives, offering a lens to help students see how...
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In the Footsteps of Others: Process Drama
In learning about slavery, students often ask, "Why didn't enslaved people run away or revolt?" Lindsay Anne Randall explains "process drama" — a method to help build empathy and understand the risks and complexities that enslaved individuals faced. Join host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., and...
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Doing the Work of Teaching Hard History
In many ways, the U.S. has fallen short of its ideals. How can we explain this to students — particularly in the context of discussing slavery? Salem State University professor Steven Thurston Oliver shares practical strategies for teaching hard history and creating supportive classroom...
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Slavery and the Northern Economy
When we think of slavery as a strictly Southern institution, we perpetuate a "dangerous fiction," according to historian Christy Clark-Pujara. Avoid the trap with this episode about the role the North played in perpetuating slavery and the truth behind the phrase "slavery built the United…
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Slavery and the Civil War, Part 2
Salem State University professor Bethany Jay returns to examine how the actions of free and enslaved African Americans shaped the progress of the Civil War and contributed to emancipation. Join host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., and Learning for Justice, a project of the Southern Poverty Law…
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Slavery and the Civil War, Part 1
What really caused the Civil War? In this episode, Salem State University Professor Bethany Jay 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. Join host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D.…
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Why Hard History Matters: Addressing the Legacy of Jim Crow – w/ Rep. Hakeem Jeffries
Congressman Hakeem Jeffries represents New York's 8th congressional district. Our final episode this season takes us to the U.S. House of Representatives for a conversation between Rep. Jeffries and his brother, our host, Dr. Hasan Jeffries, to discuss the lingering effects of the Jim Crow...
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Criminalizing Blackness: Prisons, Police and Jim Crow – w/ Robert T. Chase and Brandon T. Jett
After emancipation, aspects of the legal system were reshaped to maintain control of Black lives and labor. Historian Robert T. Chase outlines the evolution of convict leasing in the prison system. And Historian Brandon T. Jett explores the commercial factors behind the transition from…
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Music Reconstructed: Lara Downes' Classical Perspective on Jim Crow – w/ Charles L. Hughes
From concertos to operas, Black composers captured the changes and challenges facing African Americans during Jim Crow. Renowned classical pianist Laura Downes is bringing new appreciation to the works of artists like Florence Price and Scott Joplin. In our final installment of Music…
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Music Reconstructed: Adia Victoria and the Landscape of the Blues – w/ Charles L. Hughes
When we consider the trauma of white supremacy during the Jim Crow era—what writer Ralph Ellison describes as "the brutal experience"—it's important to understand the resilience and joy that sustained Black communities. We can experience that all through the "near-comic, near-tragic lyricism" of...
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Black Political Thought – w/ Minkah Makalani
Black political ideologies in the early 20th century evolved against a backdrop of derogatory stereotypes and racial terrorism. Starting with Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Agency, historian Minkah Makalani contextualizes an era of Black intellectualism. From common goals of...
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Music Reconstructed: Dom Flemons, Black Cowboys and the American West – w/ Charles L. Hughes
From ranches to railroads, learn about the often unrecognized role that African Americans played in the range cattle industry, as Pullman porters and in law enforcement. In part two of this special series, Grammy Award-winner Dom Flemons takes us on a musical exploration of the American West…
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Medical Racism: A Legacy of Malpractice – w/ Deirdre Cooper Owens
This nation has a long history of exploiting Black Americans in the name of medicine. A practice which began with the Founding Fathers using individual enslaved persons for gruesome experimentation evolved into state-sanctioned injustices such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, among others....
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Music Reconstructed: Jason Moran, Jazz and the Harlem Hellfighters – w/ Charles L. Hughes
This is a special four-part series where historian Charles L. Hughes introduces us to musicians who are exploring the sounds, songs and stories of the Jim Crow era. In this installment, Jazz pianist Jason Moran discusses his acclaimed musical celebration of a man he calls "Big Bang of Jazz,"...
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The Harlem Renaissance: Restructuring, Rebirth and Reckoning – w/ Julie Buckner Armstrong
During the Harlem Renaissance, more Black artists than ever before were asking key questions about the role of art in society. Oftentimes the Harlem Renaissance is misconstrued as a discrete moment in American history–not as the next iteration of a thriving Black artistic tradition that it was....
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Changing the Game: Sports in the Jim Crow Era – w/ Derrick E. White and Louis Moore
In the United States, Black athletes have had to contend with two sets of rules: those of the game and those of a racist society. While they dealt with 20th century realities of breaking the color line and the politics of respectability, Black fans, educational institutions, and the Black press...
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The New Deal, Jim Crow and the Black Cabinet – w/ Jill Watts
Opportunities created by the New Deal were often denied to African Americans. And that legacy of exclusion to jobs, loans and services can be seen today in federal programs and policies as well as systemic inequities in housing, education, health and the accumulation of wealth. Historian Jill…
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Black Soldiers: Global Conflict During Jim Crow – w/ Adriane Lentz-Smith
U.S. involvement in world wars and the domestic Black freedom struggle shaped one another. By emphasizing the diverse stories of servicemen and women, historian Adriane Lentz-Smith situates Black soldiers as agents of American empire who were simultaneously building their own institutions at…
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Building Black Institutions: Autonomy, Labor and HBCUs – w/ Jelani M. Favors and Tera W. Hunter
Historian Tera Hunter describes Black institution-building post-slavery and throughout the Jim Crow era, illustrating how Black workers reorganized labor to their advantage, despite virulent white resistance. During the same period, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) produced...
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Premeditation and Resilience: Tulsa, Red Summer and the Great Migration – w/ David Krugler
Naming the 1921 Tulsa massacre a "race riot" is inaccurate. Historian David Krugler urges listeners to call this and other violent attacks what they were: premeditated attempts at ethnic cleansing. Decades before, African Americans moved North in record numbers during the Great Migration. Krugler...
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Lynching: White Supremacy, Terrorism and Black Resilience – w/ Kidada Williams and Kellie Carter Jackson
Black American experiences during Jim Crow were deeply affected by the ever-present threat of lynching and other forms of racist violence. Historian Kidada Williams amplifies perspectives from Black families, telling stories of lynching victims obscured by white newspapers. She and Kellie Carter...
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Correcting History: Confederate Monuments, Rituals and the Lost Cause – w/ Karen Cox
The Lost Cause narrative would have us believe that Confederate monuments have always been celebrated, but people have protested them since they started going up. Historian Karen Cox unpacks how the United Daughters of the Confederacy used propaganda to dominate generations of teachings about the...
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Reconstruction 101: Progress and Backlash – w/ Kate Masur
Just months after the Civil War ended, former Confederates had regained political footholds in Washington, D.C. In her overview of Reconstruction, Kate Masur notes how—in the face of evolving, post-slavery white supremacy—Black people claimed their citizenship and began building institutions of...
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The History of Whiteness and How We Teach About Race – w/ Edward E. Baptist and Aisha White
Historian Ed Baptist provides context on the creation and enforcement of a U.S. racial binary that endures today, as well as Black resistance as a force for political change. And Aisha White urges educators to ask themselves, "What did you learn about race when you were younger?" before they…
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Creating Brave Spaces: Reckoning With Race in the Classroom – w/ Matthew R. Kay
People from all corners of public life are telling teachers to stop discussions about race and racism in the classroom, but keeping the truth of the world from students simply doesn't work. English teacher Matthew Kay urges educators to create brave spaces instead. He provides examples of…
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Jim Crow: Yesterday and Today
This season, we're examining the century between the Civil War and the modern civil rights movement to understand how systemic racism and slavery persisted and evolved after emancipation—and how Black Americans still developed strong institutions during this time. Co-hosts Hasan Kwame Jeffries…
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Baseball, Civil Rights and the Anderson Monarchs Barnstorming Tour (special) - w/ Steve Bandura and Derrick White
In 2015, Coach Steve Bandura loaded the Anderson Monarchs, a little league baseball team from Philadelphia, onto a 1947 Flxible Clipper Bus for a barnstorming tour back in time. Bandura and the players recount lessons learned while visiting historic civil rights sites, meeting veteran activists…
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Walking in Their Shoes: Using #BlackLivesMatter to Teach the Civil Rights Movement – w/ Shannon King and Nishani Frazier
The civil rights movement offers critical context for understanding the systemic police violence, voter suppression efforts, 'law and order' rhetoric and criminalization of activism we see today. It also helps us understand the strategies activists use to fight these injustices. Historians…
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The Black Panther Party and the Transition to Black Power – w/ Robyn C. Spencer and Jakobi Williams
The history of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense can help us understand the transition from civil rights to Black Power, as well as contemporary issues like mass incarceration. From the Ten-Point Platform to survival programs, historian Robyn C. Spencer outlines key aspects of the party's...
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Malcolm X Beyond the Mythology – w/ Clarence Lang
Historian Clarence Lang joins us for a conversation about Malcolm X. We discuss his commitment to Black pride and self-determination and his rejection of the white gaze and the myth of American exceptionalism. Learn how teaching about the life and works of Malcolm X can illuminate the universe of...
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Community Organizing, Youth Leadership and SNCC – w/ Courtland Cox, Kaia Woodford, Karlyn Forner and John B. Gartrell
In this episode, we talk with movement veteran Courtland Cox about lessons from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and his own development as a young organizer of the Emmett Till generation. We join Karlyn Forner and John B. Gartrell to tour the resources available through SNCC Digital...
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Listen, Look and Learn: Using Primary Sources to Teach the Freedom Struggle – w/ J. Todd Moye, Guha Shankar, and Noelle Trent
Oral histories, historic sites, archives and museums expand students' understanding of the past. They fill in gaps in our textbooks—complementing what's included and capturing what's not. This episode highlights online oral history collections including the Civil Rights History Project. It offers...
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Young, Gifted and Black: Teaching Freedom Summer to K-5 Students – w/ Nicole Burrowes. La Tasha Levy and Liz Kleinrock
Teaching civil rights history to young learners creates both opportunities and challenges. The 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project and the subsequent Freedom Schools offer important lessons for helping elementary students to understand the civil rights movement. In this episode, we explore...
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Making a Scene: The Movement in Literature and Film – w/ Julie Buckner Armstrong
From the hard work of organizing to the reality of everyday life under Jim Crow, films and literature can bring historical context to life for students. In this episode, we recommend several "must use" films, books, poems and plays for teaching the civil rights movement. We also discuss…
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The Real Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott – w/ Emilye Crosby
Everyone thinks they know the story, but the real history of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott is even better. This episode details the events that set the stage for Ms. Parks' civil disobedience. You'll meet the leaders and organizations who transformed a moment of activism into a…
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Connecting Slavery with the Civil Rights Movement
To fully understand the United States today, we have to comprehend the central role that slavery played in our nation's past. That legacy is also the foundation for understanding the civil rights movement and its place within the history of the Black freedom struggle. This episode is a special…
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Teaching the Movement's Most Iconic Figure – w/ Charles McKinney
You cannot teach the civil rights movement without talking about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But it's critical that students deconstruct the mythology surrounding the movement's most iconic figure to learn about the man, not just the hero. The real Dr. King held beliefs that evolved over time. A...
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The Jim Crow North – w/ Patrick D. Jones
The Civil Rights Movement was never strictly a Southern phenomenon. To better understand the Jim Crow North, we explore discrimination and Black protest in places like Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland and New York. To examine the Black Freedom Movement beyond the South, we examine the Black-led fights...
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Nonviolence and Self-Defense – w/ Wesley Hogan, Christopher Strain and Akinyele Umoja
Armed resistance and nonviolent direct action co-existed throughout the civil rights era. In this episode, three historians confront some comfortable assumptions about nonviolence and self-defense. Wesley Hogan examines the evolution, value and limitations of nonviolence in the movement....
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New Film: The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors – w/ Alice Qannik Glenn
Alice Qannik Glenn is the host of Coffee and Quaq and assistant producer of The Forgotten Slavery of our Ancestors. This short, classroom-ready film offers an introduction to the history of Indigenous enslavement on land that is currently the United States. This new resource from Teaching…
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Jim Crow, Lynching and White Supremacy – w/ Stephen A. Berrey, Hannah Ayers, Lance Warren and Ahmariah Jackson
Jim Crow was more than signs and separation. It was a system of terror and violence created to control the labor and regulate the behavior of Black people. In this episode, historian Stephen Berrey unpacks the mechanics of racial oppression, the actions white people took—in and beyond the…
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A Playlist for the Movement – w/ Charles L. Hughes
Music chronicles the history of the civil rights struggle: The events, tactics and emotions of the movement are documented in songs of the era. From The Freedom Singers to Sam Cooke, historian Charles L. Hughes explains how your students can use music for both historical insight and evidence in…
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Beyond the "Master Narrative" – w/ Nishani Frazier and Adam Sanchez
Students don't enter our classrooms as blank slates. When it comes to the civil rights movement, we often have to help our students unlearn what they think they know while we're teaching them what actually happened. The people were more complex, the strategies more complicated and the stakes more...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
From Learning for Justice and host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., Teaching Hard History brings us the crucial history we should have learned through the voices of leading scholars and educators. The series, which includes four seasons that originally aired from 2018 to 2022, 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. Join us as we relaunch this podcast series, highlighting an episode each week and including a new resource page with key points from the conversation, resources and connections for building learning experiences.
HOSTED BY
Learning for Justice
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Teaching Hard History have?
Teaching Hard History currently has 70 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Teaching Hard History about?
From Learning for Justice and host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., Teaching Hard History brings us the crucial history we should have learned through the voices of leading scholars and educators. The series, which includes four seasons that originally aired from 2018 to 2022, begins with the long and...
How often does Teaching Hard History release new episodes?
Teaching Hard History has 70 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Teaching Hard History?
You can listen to Teaching Hard History on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Teaching Hard History?
Teaching Hard History is created and hosted by Learning for Justice.
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