Teaching Hard History
From Learning for Justice and host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., Teaching Hard History brings us the crucial history we should have learned through the voices of leading scholars and educators. The series, which includes four seasons that originally aired from 2018 to 2022, begins with the long and brutal legacy of slavery and reaches through the victories of and violent responses to the Civil Rights Movement and Black Americans’ experiences during the Jim Crow era to the issues we face today.
Join us as we relaunch this podcast series, highlighting an episode each week and including a new resource page with key points from the conversation, resources and connections for building learning experiences.
- Update frequency
- every 15 days
- Average duration
- 64 minutes
- Episodes
- 76
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2025
Indigenous Enslavement: Part 2 – w/ Christina Snyder
Understanding Indigenous enslavement expands our conception of slavery in what is now the United States. It spread across the entire continent and affected millions of people of different backgrounds…
Indigenous Enslavement: Part 1 – w/ Christina Snyder
Millions of Indigenous people lived in North America before European colonial powers invaded. Along with an insatiable desire for free labor, Europeans brought systems of slavery that significantly d…
The Hidden History of American Slavery – w/ Maureen Costello, Eduardo Díaz and Renée Gokey
American slavery shaped our modern world and most certainly the foundation and development of what is now the United States. The Smithsonian’s Eduardo Díaz and Renée Gokey discuss the importance of l…
Coming Soon: Season 2 of Teaching Hard History
We’re turning our attention to the enslavement of Indigenous people, spending more time with teachers in the classroom and adding support for K–5 educators. Tune in next week for more advice about te…
Wrap up: Questions from the Classroom – w/ Bethany Jay
Historian Bethany Jay returns – answering questions from educators across the country. Host Hasan Kwame Jeffries and the co-editor of Understanding and Teaching American Slavery confront teacher anxi…
Young Adult Trade Books – w/ John H. Bickford
From elementary to high school, YA literature can introduce fundamental themes and information about slavery, especially when paired with primary sources. John H. Bickford shows how to capitalize on …
Sample Lessons – w/ Jordan Lanfair and Tamara Spears
Using the present to explore the past. Tamara Spears and Jordan Lanfair suggest a Social Studies unit about Resistance & Kanye West, and a set of English Language Arts lessons examining holidays—from…
Classroom Experiences – w/ Tamara Spears and Jordan Lanfair
How it’s done. Tamara Spears teaches middle school Social Studies in New York and Jordan Lanfair is a high school English Language Arts teacher in Chicago. Each has been developing additional lessons…
Coming Soon: Stories from the Classroom (and more)
Over the next few episodes, we're bringing Season One to a close. Tune in for stories from the classroom, guidance for elementary teachers and language arts classes. And answers to questions from lis…
Slavery Today – w/ James Brewer Stewart
Enslavement didn’t end with Emancipation. Historian James Brewer Stewart discusses modern-day slavery happening across the world—and right here in the U.S. – showing educators how to connect the past…
Drop Us A Line – Your Questions. Your Stories. Your Episode!
A listener’s question leads to a meaningful moment. And now we want more! Take a listen, then email [email protected] to tell us your story about teaching hard history for an upcoming, special ep…
Confronting Hard History at Montpelier
At James Madison’s Montpelier, the legacy of enslaved people isn’t silenced—and their descendants have a voice. Christian Cotz, Price Thomas and Dr. Patrice Preston Grimes explain how that happened, …
Slavery in the Supreme Court – w/ Paul Finkelman
In the United States, justice was never blind. Historian Paul Finkelman goes beyond legal jargon to illustrate how slavery was entangled with the opinions of the Court—and encoded into the Constituti…
Slavery in the Constitution – w/ Dr. Paul Finkelman
Constitutional historian Paul Finkelman explains the deeply racist bargains the founding fathers struck to unify the country under one document and discusses what students should know about how slave…
Ten More … Film and the History of Slavery w/ Ron Briley
Film historian Ron Briley returns with more documentary, feature film & miniseries suggestions for history & English teachers. From Ken Burns to Black Panther, this episode offers background & strate…
Film and the History of Slavery w/ Ron Briley
Film has long shaped our nation's historical memory, for good and bad. Film historian Ron Briley offers ways to responsibly use films in the classroom to reframe the typical narrative of American sla…