Teaching History through Poetry How one English Language Arts teacher uses the Newberry’s Digital Collections for the Classroom to teach the 1919 Chicago race riots
used a c t a Wh riots e c a r the on o g a c i in Ch 1 9 1 9? , 7 2 July
By Kara Johnson “What caused the race riots in Chicago on July 27, 1919?” “What were the Chicago stockyards?” “Why does racism still occur?” These questions appear on Post-It notes on the walls of Valerie Person’s sophomore English Language Arts class at Currituck County High School in North Carolina. Person’s students are starting a new chapter in their class: a unit on the 1919 race riots in Chicago. And they’ve asked these questions to guide their work. These sophomores are looking to sources across the humanities, analyzing historical documents alongside works of fiction and poetry related to the race riots. Person knows that
Valerie Person teaches her class about the 1919 Chicago race riots. Photo by Sara Allman
What were the Chicago stockyards ?
W h y does raci s m s t i l l o c c u r? her experimental, interdisciplinary class challenges expectations, and she relishes being able to respond to questions about her approach. She says with a laugh, “I learned early on in my career that it was a good thing when I was asked questions like, Why are we doing history in English class?” Person has been an active participant at the Newberry, including taking part in Reading Material Maps in the Digital Age, a 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities summer
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