Open Houses on Tennessee’s Civil Rights Movement

Tennessee History for Kids will do three student open house events in May 2024. These events are meant to be broadcast LIVE to entire classrooms (see right column for more details).

Here is the remaining schedule:

The first Black students who integrated Clinton High School got to meet Rosa Parks (top left) at the Highlander Folk School (Highlander Research and Education Center photo)

Thursday, May 9 — The Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee

We will review the stories behind the Fayette County Tent Cities, the Highlander Folk School, the integration of Oak Ridge and Clinton High Schools, and the Nashville Sit-Ins. All five of these events were huge and involved incredible back stories. We’ll try to explain it all — even though we won’t have time to go into a huge amount of detail!

This event is recommended for 5th, 8th, the U.S. history class typically taken in the 11th grade, and for any students taking the high school elective course on Tennessee history.

Click here to register for the May 9 event on the Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee.

Student open houses in 2023-24 sponsored by BlueCross Blue Shield of Tennessee.

Here is the way these “student open house” events work:

“History Bill” will do a LIVE 30-minute presentation which targets students, and he will do it EIGHT times in a single day.

Teachers have to register. Once they receive a link from Zoom, they can tune in whenever they like, and they can tune in multiple times during the day (if they have multiple classes, for instance).

48 hours days before the event, History Bill will email to all registered teachers a copy of a study guide that students can use to follow along on the day of the presentation.

Presentations run from:

8-8:30

8:30-9

9:30-10

10-10:30

10:30-11

12:30-1 pm

1-1:30

2-2:30.

ALL TIMES ARE CENTRAL! So if a teacher is in Knoxville, for instance, the first presentation will begin at 9 a.m. her time.

When he is not doing a presentation (from 9 to 9:30 Central, for instance), the Zoom link will be active but the screen will be dark. Just stand by; “History Bill” will tune in at starting time!