Memphis 13 Curriculum Project Receives Additional Funding
September 13, 2024 - The Memphis 13 Foundation has been awarded a grant to continue its work with the University of Memphis College of Education (COE) to integrate the powerful story of the Memphis 13 into local social studies curriculum. The grant comes from Humanities Tennessee, a non-profit organization that supports public humanities initiatives across the state, and its funding brings the COE team one step closer to their ambitious goal.
“Procuring the grant from Humanities Tennessee means a lot to us,” said Dr. Gina Tillis, a research associate with COE’s Center for Research in Educational Policy (CREP). “We love Memphis and are so grateful for this opportunity to support our teachers through this initiative.”
Since 2021, Tillis and Dr. Anna Falker, a COE assistant professor of Early Childhood
Education, have worked with the Memphis 13 Foundation – an organization co-founded
by Tillis – to develop a curriculum for 2nd and 5th graders that tells the story of the Memphis 13 and how their stories fit into the
larger story of the Civil Rights Movement. The team received an initial grant from
the Library of Congress to develop the social studies curriculum. In May of 2023,
the curriculum was implemented in elementary classrooms across Memphis Shelby County
Schools (MSCS).
The goal now is to further educate MSCS social studies teachers on how to more effectively teach this homegrown curriculum, and, with the grant from Humanities Tennessee, they’re now able to provide stipends to pay for teachers to attend professional development (PD) sessions on the curriculum. Tillis and Falkner have also been able to use the funding to bring on board Dr. Crystal Cook, a COE assistant professor of Elementary Education.
“The funds will be used to expand our reach to an English Language Arts (ELA) audience and pay Memphis Shelby County Schools (MSCS) teachers to help co-develop integrated ELA curriculum units with (Cook).”
In October of 1961, 13 African American children made local history by enrolling across four different Memphis elementary schools that, up until that point, were all-white. The children have since become known as the Memphis 13. Last year, Tillis and Falkner held a listening session with the surviving members of the Memphis 13, gathering insights on how their stories should be told.
“This year, we’re partnering with MSCS by meeting with top district officials and curriculum specialists to plan a big rollout and required professional development (PD) for all second and fifth-grade social studies teachers,” Falkner said. “We had over a hundred teachers join for our PD sessions in 2023-2024, and we plan to extend this beyond teachers and meet with other instructional support staff throughout the district.”
The grant from Humanities Tennessee also provides complimentary picture book sets for each of the elementary school libraries. This was one of 13 total general grants awarded by the non-profit. The meeting Falkner mentioned is with MSCS elementary principals and is scheduled for Sept. 24.