Learning the pivotal moments in America’s civil rights struggle
Here’s a brief description of the Sept. 15, 1963, bombing by the Ku Klux Klan of a church in Birmingham, Ala., that left four girls dead. It was written by award-winning historian Taylor Branch in a book he dedicated to “students of freedom and teachers of history.”That Sunday was the annual Youth Day at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Mamie H. Grier, superintendent of the Sunday school, stopped in at the basement ladies’ room to find four young girls who had left Bible classes early and were talking excitedly about the beginning of the school year. All four were dressed in white from head to toe, as this was their day to run the main service for the adults at eleven o’clock. Grier urged them to hurry along and then went upstairs to sit in on her own women’s Sunday-school class. They were engaged in a lively debate on the lesson topic, “The Love That Forgives,” when a loud earthquake shook the entire church and showed the classroom with plaster and debris. Grier’s first thought was that it was like a ticker-tape parade. Maxine McNair, a schoolteacher sitting next to her, reflexively went stiff and was the only one to speak. “Oh, my goodness!” she said. She escaped with Grier, but the stairs down to the basement were blocked and the large stone staircase on the outside literally had vanished. They stumbled through the church to the front door and then made their way around outside through the gathering noise of moans and sirens. A hysterical church member shouted to Grier that her husband had already gone to the hospital in the first ambulance. McNair searched desperately
Prince George’s teacher begins 40th year in first-grade classroom at Bladensburg school
A group of retired and current teachers from Bladensburg Elementary School in Prince George’s County gets together at least twice a year to talk about families, share fond memories and discuss the latest in education. Read full article >>
Fairfax County students feast on fresh food at new George C. Marshall High School cafeteria
The menu was an appetizing smorgasbord: apple-and-cranberry Waldorf salad, greens with chopped kale, roasted red-pepper humus, falafel flat-bread sandwiches, chow mein noodles and a yogurt parfait with granola and fresh strawberries and blueberries. Read full article >>
