Education Committee

This learning plan is designed to support K-12 educators in their endeavors to teach about the life of Harriet Tubman and the history of the Underground Railroad. The Jackson County NAACP Branch 54AB is pleased to sponsor this learning plan as an accompaniment to the public exhibition of the sculpture Harriet Tubman: Journey to Freedom to be displayed at Bridge Park in Sylva. The sculpture depicts Harriet Tubman confidently leading an enslaved girl on the Underground Railroad to freedom. The sculpture was on display in Sylva from September -December 2021.

This learning plan is designed to support 9-12 educators to help students learn about the challenges black youth face and about considerations surrounding conscious and unconscious biases to name a few. Nic Stone’s novel Dear Martin is about the experiences of Justyce McCallister, a black teenager from Atlanta who attends a predominately white preparatory school. In response to an encounter with a police officer who unjustly arrests him when he is assumed by the officer to have criminal intent, Justyce begins a larger dialogue with himself about questions of identity and race.