Town History Research/Sharing

Durham was basically founded during the Reconstruction Era of 1865-1877. It grew with the grow of industry, particularly with tobacco factories and cotton mills from 1880-1920. It also experienced many effects of the Progressive Era. All these topics are taught during the second semester.
Durham sprung up as a train station. Soon, Blackwell Tobacco Company formed and made “Bull Durham” tobacco. This was later followed by George Washington Duke founding American Tobacco. With Duke’s consolidation of many local tobacco companies, including Blackwell’s, and use of vertical integration, American Tobacco became so large it was declared a trust and split up during the Taft Administration pursuant to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Students visited the old tobacco companies.
Being in the South and with the genesis of Durham, many opportunities arose for the Freedmen. Parrish Street, once dubbed the “Black Wall Street”, was a major center of African-American owned businesses. Large companies at the time, such as N.C. Mutual Life and Mechanics and Farmers Bank, re-invested in the African-American community. As such, the street was home to numerous African-American professionals, truly an oddity in the U.S. at the time. Students visited the buildings as well.
On their visit, they took pictures of the various landmarks. They also compiled research on the topics to present to Kindergarteners. They merged the pictures and research together to make “historical markers”. These products of the 8th graders research were then posted around the building. The 8th graders then paired up with Kindergarteners and took them around to the historical markers, a sort of “walking field trip” for the younger students.
This lesson plan reflects a day of online research using eleven laptop computers-students had to share, taking up more time than was actually necessary. This was done due to use of the computer lab by a lower grade. Laptop computers are vital to middle school learning as our school does not permanently schedule time in the lab and the demand for the lab among middle school teachers and specials teachers is high. Having more laptops would help alleviate the situation of sharing.