The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum at Marshall University invites K-12 teachers to apply for admission to its Summer Institute on Black History Instruction.
The institute is the fifth Summer Institute on Black History funded by the West Virginia Humanities Council and The Woodson Lyceum.
Burnis Morris, professor and director of The Woodson Lyceum, said, “This is our first in-person summer institute since the Pandemic. We look forward to vibrant group discussions and historic tours that will help teachers learn more about integrating Black history in their lesson plans.”
The last institute in 2021was held in a virtual setting using Microsoft Teams and recorded videos from historic sites. This time, Morris said, The institute will take to the road with on-site visits to nearby sites in Huntington and others within a three-hour drive.
Morris said most teachers should benefit from the instruction – not just those who teach history or social science, but others including instructors of English, art, music and all grade levels.
Teachers who successfully complete the course receive three graduate professional development credits and a $500 stipend.
Morris said the application process takes only a few minutes and is available online at 2023 Black History Institute – The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum (marshall.edu).
For additional information, please contact Morris at morrisb@marshall.edu.
BACKGROUND
Funding
The West Virginia Humanities Council grant for the Black History Institute supports K-12 teachers who will study history and how to better integrate Black history within their lessons. The award covers three hours of graduate credit and provides teachers with $500 stipends. The 2023 institute, scheduled for June 19-23, will be the fifth such program since 2017 at Marshall University.
About Black History Month
Dr. Carter G. Woodson (Dec. 19, 1875-April 3, 1950), the Father of Black History, said the turning point in his career was his West Virginia years, a period that included graduation from Huntington’s Douglass School, service as its principal and work as a coal miner. Dr. Woodson created the first “Negro History Week” Feb. 6-12, 1926, and his followers expanded it to a month 50 years later. Dr. Woodson advocated the study of Black History throughout the year, but disrespect for people of African descent was rampant, and only a week was possible during his day. However, his writings (and those of his associates) clearly indicate he advocated the study of Black History throughout the year.
The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum
In 2016, Burnis Morris and the late Alan Gould, then executive director of Drinko Academy, co-founded The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum at Marshall University, with the blessings of President Jerome Gilbert and (former) Provost Gayle Ormiston, cementing Dr. Woodson’s ties to West Virginia and the region. Aristotle’s first school was called lyceum, but the name also is strongly associated with justice and freedom for African Americans and the press. For instance, during a speech at a lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln attacked the murder of abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy, and crusading journalist Ida B. Wells brought attention to injustice at a Memphis lyceum and through that lyceum’s newspaper.
The name lyceum is also associated with the Civil War and a major civil rights victory. The Lyceum is the first building of higher education in Mississippi, which closed for a time because the entire Ole Miss student body fought for the Confederacy and died at the Battle of Gettysburg. A century later, in 1962, the Ole Miss Lyceum came to symbolize the fall of a segregated America and the triumph of the civil rights movement, with James Meredith’s admission as its first Black student, under court order but resisted by a riot.
At Marshall University, The Woodson Lyceum, a collaboration between Drinko Academy and the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications, is a Woodson-inspired forum on Black history and education and provides support for a free press – all, of course, throughout the year. Since its inception, The Woodson Lyceum has produced programs involving U.S. Surgeon General, Jerome Adams; Dr. Earl Lewis, who was president of the Mellon Foundation; Dr. Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress; Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert Wilkins; and Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, the Norfolk State University dean who helped commemorate the 400-year anniversary and significance of Jamestown. The Woodson Lyceum also sponsored programs featuring Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, the first African American to chair the Department of History at Harvard, and trained dozens of West Virginia teachers in Black History instruction despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Institutional supporters of The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum Include:
Marshall University’s Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, College of Arts and Media, College of Education and Professional Development, Intercultural Affairs, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Drinko Academy, Dow Jones News Fund, Friends of Marshall Libraries, Kinfolk Fitness, LLC, Marshall Health, Mountain Health Network, the State of West Virginia’s Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs and Carter G. Woodson Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Please support the work of The Woodson Lyceum. Visit: Maple Grove Society – The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum (marshall.edu)