Marion Butts Collection:
Historic African American Schools in Dallas

Objectives: Students will gain a deeper understanding of the significance of historic African American schools in Dallas.

Social Studies TEKS:

• TEK 7.21C Organize and interpret information from outlines, reports, databases, and visuals including graphs, charts, timelines, and maps
• TEK 7.7C Trace the civil rights and equal rights movements of various groups in Texas in the 20th century and identify key leaders in these movements

Suggested Time:

Approximately 2-4 class periods (depending upon the depth of the projects)

Materials & Resources:

• Printed photos from the Marion Butts collection
• Construction paper and/or copy paper
• Markers or colored pencils
• Glue & scissors

Student Project:

• Students will be assigned to heterogeneous groups of 3-4 students. Each group will be assigned a historical African American school in Dallas.
• Each student should have a role:
• Editor - In charge of the overall layout & look of the yearbook and editing errors in writing
• Writer(s) - Responsible for writing the school history and biography
• "Photographer" - Selects photographs from the collection and writes captions for each photo
• Students will create a yearbook for an assigned school including:
• Cover
• School history
• Biography of the school's namesake
• Student life
• Clubs & sports
• Academics

Discussion Questions:

• Why do you think the schools were named for these particular individuals?
• How does this school compare to your school today?

Extension Activities:

• After looking through all of the yearbooks, students can decide which school they would want to attend and why.