AP Lang Students Visit Civil Rights Museum

Students in IA’s AP Lang classes recently visited the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Downtown Atlanta. This is the second year in a row AP Lang teachers Ms. Velazquez, Dr. Gingrich, and Ms. Rice have taken students to visit the museum. This trip is an important supplement to their year-long study of how Americans throughout the ages have worked to achieve the American dream and is a chance for students to authentically gain insight into a deeply important part of our history. “AP Lang classes read texts like Just Mercy, Educated, The Great Gatsby, and various speeches by civil rights leaders and modern activists,” Ms. Velazquez explained. Visiting the museum brings many of the issues from these texts off of the page for students in a visceral way.

Exhibits at the museum vary in intensity, but Ms. Velazquez recalled that one of the most impactful moments was a simulated restaurant counter experience. “Students sat at a restaurant counter with headphones playing the sounds people often experienced during restaurant sit-ins; this simulated the harassment that people of color experienced in the 1950s and 1960s when attempting to eat in restaurants.” The powerful nature of this exhibit left a lasting memory for students.

AP Lang encourages students to think critically, both about their world and the texts that they read. IA’s AP Lang teachers hope to continue the tradition of visiting the Civil Rights Museum in the hopes that “students can continue to connect what they learn at the exhibits at the museum with the texts in class and modern society.”