Mother Emanuel Shooting and the Confederate Flag Issue
Resources to assist teachers in teaching about the shooting that killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June 2015, and the outcry against the flying of - and meaning behind - the Confederate Battle Flag.
Should states fly the Confederate Battle flag? It could be a great discussion starter for students, making sure they understand that they must back up their opinions with fact.
The Washington Post had a great article: "150 years later, schools are still a battlefield for interpreting Civil War" (July 5, 2015). Although it focuses on Texas, mostly due to their revised social studies standards in 2010 and the fact that they adopt textbooks at the state, not district, level, it does take a look at the difference in how the Civil War is taught in North & South."No, you need a history lesson: the Confederate flag is a symbol of hate" is an op-ed piece from the Huffington Post. Written from the point of view of an African-American who grew up in the South, it's a powerful outline of the reasons why so many see the battle flag as a symbol of hatred, racism, and oppression.
An op-ed in the Washington Times outlines a different story: one of Northern domination, brainwashing, and purposeful discrimination against the South, and attempting to whitewash a painful, racist history. For example: "where are the calls to remove every sign of the now-deceased Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan and former Democratic Majority Leader Sen. Robert Byrd, who has his own statue in Congress?...Shall we erase him from our history?"
Finally, CNN has an article "Confederate battle flag: Separating the myths from facts".