justice.tougaloo.eduHistory and Social Justice | Inspired by James W. Loewen

Truth about the Past Menu Toggle In K-12 Schools Menu Toggle Using Lies My Teacher Told Me and Teaching What Really Happened Problems with Existing Textbooks Alternatives to the Usual Fat Textbooks Resources for Teaching with Lies My Teacher Told Me Getting Students Doing History Teachers’ Corner: Teaching with Lies My Teacher Told Me In College and Graduate School Menu Toggle Using Lies My Teacher Told Me Using Teaching What Really Happened Contact Jim Loewen to Speak to Your Group To The General Public Menu Toggle Take This U.S. History Quiz Continuing Historical Controversies Reactions to Lies My Teacher Told Me Causing Change With Lies My Teacher Told Me Works Inspired or Influenced by Lies My Teacher Told Me Useful Quotations about History and Social Justice On the Landscape, In Public History Menu Toggle General Problems Lies Across America Natives Confederates Resources Surprises Confederate History About Mississippi Race Relations Menu Toggle Native American Issues, Including the Explorers Racism Curve Over Time Teaching Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction Teaching the Nadir of Race Relations Civil Rights Movement to Modern Times: c. 1945 – Now Teaching and Changing Race Relations Sundown Towns Menu Toggle Using the Sundown Towns Database Menu Toggle Alphabetical Map of Sundown Towns by State Geographic Map of Sundown Towns How to Research and Teach About Sundown Towns Information about Sundown Towns Sundown Towns in the News, Arts, etc. Sundown Town Illustrations Using Research Information to Help a Sundown Town Overcome Its Past Standardized” Testing Menu Toggle What Does SAT” Stand For? Take the Loewen Low-IQ Test” Publications on Standardized” Testing Loewen’s Work on Standardized” Testing Used by Others Embarrassing Questions about Standardized” Tests Teacher Expectations are Crucial Gender Menu Toggle Fathers’ Rights James W. Loewen Menu Toggle Writing Teaching Social Change Personal Life Unfinished Projects Quotations Search Search for: History and Social Justice Inspired by James W. Loewen, sociologist, historian, citizen. Telling the truth about the past helps cause justice in the present. Achieving justice in the present helps us tell the truth about the past. James W. Loewen (1942-2021) We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began. Reflections on the Life and Work of Jim Loewen (I f you have reflections on the life and work of James Loewen we invite you to share those with us via email at publichistorysites@gmail.com .) Watch the James W. Loewen Memorial Service video Truth About the Past Americans want to know their past. The Civil War” set records at PBS. Roots” changed our culture. Historical movies from Birth of a Nation” through Dances With Wolves” to Twelve Years a Slave” draw millions. Meanwhile, our history textbooks mystify the past and bore everyone, while historical markers and monuments mostly tell only the stories that make their communities and their white leadership look good. Race Relations Our past cannot be taught plain,” then leavened with Black History in February and maybe Native Americans in November. Properly conceived, U.S. history is totally interracial. Therefore, teachers and school systems must teach topics like slavery and mascot issues, even if their students are mostly white. Sundown Towns In 1999, Loewen started to research sundown towns, places that for decades were (some still are) all white, on purpose. He expected to find maybe ten such towns in Illinois, his home state, and fifty across the country. He had no idea. He found about 506 towns in Illinois alone, 2/3 of all the towns in the state. Similar proportions in Oregon, Indiana, and other Northern states also went sundown, mostly between 1890 and 1940. Standardized” Testing Teaching at Tougaloo College, 1968-75, made Loewen aware that standardized” tests have unfair impact on racial minorities. Tougaloo produced students with fine minds and good skills who subsequently performed well in difficult graduate programs, yet scored below the national median on the SAT and ACT. Subsequent research revealed that these tests also disadvantage women, nonaffluent, and rural students. Gender Relations In 1975, Loewen got divorced. At that time, Vermont was even more backward on men’s rights and roles in divorce than Mississippi. Having less societal and legal power than his then spouse, Loewen wound up with visitation. The literature convinced him that anthropologists saw that gender meant complementary areas of relative benefit for males and females, while sociologists only saw female disadvantage. This web page shows both. James W. Loewen Loewen is/was proudest of his children, his physical impact on the landscape, his writings; his direct efforts at social change, and his deployment of money to support good causes. Unfortunately, a dire prognosis struck him before he finished some projects. A box tells of these too; perhaps a visitor might take one on. Don’t miss the map of Sundown Towns A sundown town is not just a place where something racist happened. It is an entire community (or even county) that for decades was all white” on purpose. All white” is in quotes because some towns allowed one black family to remain when they drove out the rest. Also, institutionalized persons (in prisons, hospitals, colleges, etc.), live-in servants (in white households), and black or interracial children (in white households) do not violate the taboo. View the Sundown Town map Recent News Examining the History and Legacy of ‘Sundown Towns’ in Connecticut WNPR Connecticut Public Radio Opinion: The Price of Being Black in a Small Town — La Cañada Flintridge Los Angeles Times How Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ Became a Political Controversy NPR Lombardo signs law that silences Minden’s controversial siren KUNR Were there ‘sundown towns’ in central Ohio? WOSU Public Media View the News Archive Ten Highlights of this Website Don’t leave until you: Flunk the U.S. history quiz. Read the intro to Loewen’s bestseller, Lies My Teacher Told Me. Contemplate the Racism Curve Consider doing something to tell history better or to improve social justice today. Read Loewen’s complete opera libretto. It’ll make you cry. See the White Anti-Racist Hall of Fame. Look over your state on the Sundown Towns map. Enjoy the array of historical illustrations. Take the Loewen Low-IQ Test Laugh at a Vermont joke This site was created by Matt Cheney, revised by OddBird , copyrighted by James W. Loewen and heirs (Nick Loewen), and is maintained by Phil Huckelberry and Stephen Berrey. Hosted by Tougaloo College , Tougaloo, MS, 39174 and facilitated by Pantheon . Benefactors Contact Us History and Social Justice Website Copyright © 2024 Facebook Twitter...