Robertson_9_12

This is the page created by Bill Carey of TN History for Kids to assist Robertson County high school teachers.

Teachers who are doing the high school elective on TN History are invited to email me (bill@tnhistoryforkids.org) and ask more detailed questions about standards and resources. Since we provide curriculum for fifth grade teachers who do a semester of Tennessee history, we can help high school teachers as well!

You will see many references to the booklet called Don’t Leave Them in Doubt. This is a 96-page paperback booklet that we wrote, designed and printed to help high school students teach the Tennessee specific topics in the high school US history class. This booklet is not a free pdf; we charge $2.50 a copy of for them. Click here to learn more about how to obtain them.

Here are suggestions arranged by topic and standard:

Slavery and the Slave Trade (TN 15, TN 26)

Click here to take a virtual tour called “Slavery and Wessyngton.”

Also, I recommend every high school in Robertson County bring in John Baker to talk to and meet the students. Every high school graduate in Robertson County should know about John Baker. Not only is the history he tells very important to the county, but the fact that he was inspired by a personal connection that he saw in a textbook is incredible!

Transcontinental Railroad (US 01)

We intend to do another Zoom inservice this fall from Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah.

I will notify teachers as soon as I know when it will occur.

Exodusters, Pap Singleton (US 03, AAH 26, TN 38)

Chapter One of Don’t Leave Them in Doubt covers these topics.

Also, click here for a virtual tour of Nicodemus, Kansas — a place that is directly related to the Exodusters and Pap Singleton.

Lynchings (US 03)

Click here for an interactive map of lynchings that occurred in Tennessee between 1870 and 1940. Please be aware that some of this material may (obviously) be disturbing to students.

Napier and Jim Crow (US 03, AAH 21, AAH 23, AAH 24)

My April 2024 Tennessee Magazine column was about how James Napier resigned his high ranking federal government job in protest of President Wilson’s imposition of Jim Crow laws. Click here to read it.

World War I (US 25)

A lot of the topics in this standard are covered in Chapter 4 of Don’t Leave them in Doubt.

Also of note, click here to take a virtual tour of York Historic State Park.

Some of Ida B. Wells’ descendants
visit a post office named for her
in Holly Springs, Mississippi

Ida Wells (US 35, AAH 24)

A few years ago, I was a guest at the annual Ida B. Wells’ birthday celebration in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Click here to see the virtual tour “In Search of Ida B. Wells” that I put together afterwards.

Immigration US 07

Please don’t neglect to mention Castle Garden, which was the main immigration station in New York Harbor from 1855 until 1890. EIGHT MILLION immigrants came through Castle Garden, and the fact that the main immigration station was in the North and not the South ended up being important during the Civil War!

Also, I love students to read this short article (on the left). Click on it to make it bigger. It ran in the June 6, 1807, Knoxville Gazette, and reminds us that immigrants have always been a major part of life in Tennessee.

Coal Creek labor saga (US 11)

Chapter 2 of Don’t Leave Them in Doubt covers the Coal Creek Wars. Also, the real expert here is Barry Thacker, founder of the Coal Creek Watershed Foundation — click here to see its web site. I will almost certainly have Barry as a guest presenter at my inservices in the future.

This photo, held by the TN State Library and Archives, proves that the anti suffragists held a big gathering in SPRINGFIELD!

Suffrage Movement (US 18, 8.42, TN 46)

I don’t know the story behind it, but the photo on the right is part of the Tennessee State Library and Archives collection. Apparently, the anti-suffrage organization held a meeting in Springfield’s Washington Hall (of all places) as the big showdown in Nashville loomed in August 1920.

Chapter 5 of Don’t Leave Them in Doubt covers Tennessee’s suffrage movement and the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Also, if you grow weary of the same ole story, I wrote this column about surprising and under publicized anecdotes from the saga.

Scopes Trial (US 36, TN 49)

The folks in Dayton and Rhea County have done a great job preserving the memory of the Scopes Trial.

As it turns out, the movie Inherit the Wind is very inaccurate. However, there are some wonderful court scenes that you can find on YouTube.

Click here for a virtual tour of the Scopes Trial Museum and here for a wonderful video that goes along with it.

Great Smoky Mountains (TN 51)

Click here to read a column that explains how the Great Smoky Mountain National Park came about.

Click here for a virtual tour of the Little River Lumber Company Museum, which explains what was happening the Tennessee side of the Smokies in the early part of the 20th century.

Resurgence of the Klan (AAH 29, TN 34, US 35)

Chapter 7 of Don’t Leave Them in Doubt covers this topic.

If you need any evidence that the KKK had a friendly relationship with Tennessee newspapers in 1924, click on the image on the right to see an ad for the Klan that appeared in the April 3, 1923, Nashville Tennessean.

World War II in Tennessee/Oak Ridge (US 56, TN 53)

I have an interesting presentation, recorded on Zoom, that covers all the “World War II in Tennessee” angles. I do not intend to delete it anytime soon. Click here to see this 35-minute POWER POINT VIDEO.

Click here to read a column I wrote about the Manhattan Project and Oak Ridge called “The Crate, the Crew and the Secret City.”

Also, click here for the “In Search of War Maneuvers” Virtual Tour.

Norris Dam under construction
PHOTO: Tennessee Valley Authority

TVA/CCC (US 43)

Chapter 9 of Don’t Leave Them in Doubt tells the story of TVA succinctly.

I have written several columns about TVA. Click here for one I did about the story of TVA; here to read about some of Tennessee’s “underwater ghost towns”; and here to read about the companies that were building dams on the Tennessee River and its tributaries long before TVA.

Click here for virtual tour of the Butler Tenn. Museum — which preserves what’s left of a Johnson County town TVA once flooded.

Brown v Board; Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee (US 78, 79, 80, 81; TN 56, 57)

First of all, click on the image on the right to see the front page of the Chattanooga Daily Times on May 18, 1954. As you can see, everyone understood that the Brown v Board decision would change everything (and it did!). As you can also see, the governor of Georgia said his state would not abide by the ruling, while the governor of Tennessee was asking everyone to remain calm.

Chapter 14 of Don’t Leave Them in Doubt is about the Highlander Folk School. Chapter 15 is about the Fayette County Tent City Movement. Chapter 16 is about the integration of Clinton High School.

Click here for an on-line virtual tour “In Search of Highlander.”

Also, notably, every May I do a “student open house” presentation about the Tennessee Civil Rights Movement that covers much of this material. I still have one of the ones I did in May 2024; click here TO SEE THIS 35-minute POWER POINT VIDEO and here to print a copy of the quiz which your students can fill out as they watch it.

Teaching About Slavery: Dos and Don’ts

I’ve done a 35-minute POWER POINT VIDEO that covers things to consider before you teach the topic of slavery and enslavement to your students. It includes a series of recommended dos and don’ts, such as DO use reliable and grade appropriate primary sources and DO NOT do role playing exercises.

Click here to see the video.

For Government Teachers:

Standard GC 11 is about reapportionment. GC 13 is about how a bill becomes law. GC 28 through GC 31 are about state government and duties of a citizen.

TN History for Kids has an online high school civics section that covers all of this material.

Click here to peruse this high school civics section.

TN History for Kids also produces, in partnership with the Chief Clerk of the Tennessee Senate, a FREE booklet that covers these standards.

Called A Students Guide to the Tennessee Senate, you can order copies of it for all your students here.

The Prohibited Concepts Law

Since there’s been a lot of coverage of this law (often referred to as the “critical race theory” law,”) all social studies and history teachers should know what this law says, and what this law does NOT say.

Here is a pdf of the law:

Prohibited_Concepts_Law

It is important to note that the law basically says that teachers are NOT prohibited from using instructional materials involved in the “impartial discussion of controversial aspects of history.” Teachers are also NOT prohibited from using instructional materials involved the the “impartial instruction on the historical oppression of a particular group of people based on race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion or geographic region.”