Dr. John Giggie and the Summersell Center for the Study of the South were recently recognized for their efforts to map the history of lynching victims in Alabama and develop a program for teaching about racial violence and southern history at the secondary education level.
The Council on Community-Based Partnerships at The University of Alabama awarded Dr. Giggie a grant to expand the Center’s partnership with Central High School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Specifically, the Community Engagement Graduate Fellowship covers the full cost of tuition and health insurance of a UA graduate student and provides a monthly stipend for them to work with Dr. Giggie. Ms. Margaret Lawson, a current senior majoring in history who will begin the Secondary Education MA program in The University of Alabama College of Education this fall, will serve in that capacity.
The project builds on a partnership with Central High School, the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, along with the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Tuscaloosa Civil Rights History Task Force, and professors from the Department of Education and the University Libraries at The University of Alabama. Dr. Giggie and Ms. Lawson will seek to design and implement a new curriculum that allows students to explore the place of lynching in Southern history. At its core, students from Central will research the history of local lynching victims and work closely with local community partners to erect a monument dedicated to these victims.