Newswise — The Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University in New Orleans works to keep alive stories of courage from the civil rights movement. The Institute, founded in 1993, is a nonprofit center dedicated to providing education and communications training for educators.
Plater Robinson, education director of the institute, designs study guides and conducting workshops to help high school teachers effectively discuss the history of civil rights in American. Robinson and other presenters from the institute lead workshops in high schools in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and northern Florida. When Robinson isn't leading presentations, he is traveling throughout the South, especially in northern Louisiana and Mississippi, gathering previously untold stories regarding Southern race relations and building the Institute's archive of race relations teaching aids.
"All of the South is a museum," says Robinson as he explains how he finds people willing to recall for him sensitive times in their lives. "You just have to have a little bit of history, know where to go and have a full tank of gas."
One of the institute's guides is a detailed companion to the two-hour documentary "Eyes on the Prize," an important exploration of the civil rights movement. This guide includes interviews and materials focusing on the 1955 murder of Emmett Till. In addition to its free teaching aids related to race relations in the Deep South, the institute has developed teaching materials regarding the Holocaust.
To register for upcoming workshops or to request one of the institute's speakers, contact the Southern Institute for Education and Research at 504-865-6100.
For more information, see http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/111008_southern_institute.cfm
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