Expired Teaching Hard History: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Resistance to an American Stereotype

Please note, this Chancellor’s Day professional learning session is an in-person event. Blackface entertainment was born from slavery, sharecropping, and sadly became an American institution. It is often a history that is overlooked even though the practice was ubiquitous and its legacy is pervasive. However, the resistance to this American stereotype which was rooted in a long history of civil rights activism began soon after the first performance in the early 19th century and continues to today. Join the Department of Social Studies and Civics, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for a day of professional learning dedicated to teaching this hard history as well as teaching the important resistance to it. Participants will explore effective instructional approaches to teaching difficult topics using Passport to Social Studies, Hidden Voices, and New York Public Library collections and curricular materials. Attendees will receive a copy of the critically acclaimed Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment.