University of California Santa Cruz’s ‘The History & Civics Project’ includes lessons and resources on January 6, 2021, comparing it to Ku Klux Klan demonstrations and acts of murder and violence perpetrated in the late 1800s

SUMMARY

University of California Santa Cruz’s “The History & Civics Project” includes lessons and resources on January 6, 2021, comparing it to Ku Klux Klan demonstrations and acts of murder and violence perpetrated in the late 1800s. The Project also features lessons on the “Historicizing of Race & Whiteness” that promotes anti-racism and anti-Blackness content.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The HCP includes lessons and resources for teaching the “Historicizing of Race & Whiteness” which promotes anti-racism, The 1619 Project, “racist policing,” and Movement for Black Lives’ policy platform.
• A January 6, 2021, lesson from a Kindergarten teacher promotes the use of passage that compares a World War II naval hero to a Capitol Hill officer.
• The HCP provides a high school lesson and resources on January 6, 2021, that include comparing the day’s events to the Wilmington massacre of 1898 and Reconstruction. Other lessons created by UCSC and UCLA also compare January 6 to the Wilmington massacre and a Ku Klux Klan demonstration.

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UCSC ‘THE HISTORY & CIVICS PROJECT’

What is The History & Civics Project?

UCSC’s History & Civics Project (HCP) states that it is a “regional site for the California History-Social Science Project [CHSSP]” and “provides programs, support, resources, and technical assistance to educators, schools, and districts to support these shifts.” The program aims to “support the region’s educators, schools, and districts in offering engaging, challenging, and significant history and civics curriculum and instruction for all of their students.”

History & Civics Project Lesson Plans

The HCP offers free access to Lesson Plans & Resource Sets sub-titled “Interrogating and Re-Imagining Historical, Artistic, and Literary Representations: Teaching Ethnic Studies.” The page includes various topics with links to lessons and resources for teachers to use in their classrooms.

Historicizing Race & Whiteness

The section titled “Historicizing Race & Whiteness” includes subsections called “Teaching with Primary Sources – The Possessive Investment in Whiteness” and “Learning and Teaching about Racial Injustice in the U.S.-Selected Resources.”

A linked resource titled “Racial Injustice_Teaching & Learning Resources” promotes anti-racism, The 1619 Project, “Beyond ‘White Fragility,'” and “Violence in Minneapolis is rooted in the history or racist policing in America.” The document also recommends the use of the Movement for Black Lives Policy Platform and a piece on “anti-Blackness.”

Teaching the January 6, 2021 Insurrection on Capitol Hill

A section titled “Teaching the January 6, 2021 Insurrection on Capitol Hill” includes

A linked activity titled “Teaching the Insurrection on Capitol Hill in English and Spanish” includes reading an article by Gloria Ladson-Billings that situates the “January 6 2021 insurrection on Capitol Hill within a larger context of white supremacy.”

A linked document titled “CHSSP 1.2.21 IRL Lessons” includes lessons and slide decks for teachers to use to teach the events of January 6, 2021. The document asks students “which of these terms provide you with the language you need to make sense of the events of 6 January 2021?” and includes a list of “terminology and use of language” such as “mob,” “sedition,” “terrorism,” “insurrection,” and “coup.”

A teacher from San Rafael City Schools provided a K-2 prompt that leads to a discussion about the event. The lesson also promotes using a short lesson titled “Heroes in American History” which compares a World War II naval hero to a Capitol Hill officer on January 6.

A Berkley High School (Berkeley Unified School District) teacher had students compare and contrast two X (formerly Twitter) posts asking “How do the events of January 6, 2021 reveal continuities and contradictions about the United States?”

A lesson created by a San Lorenzo Valley High School teacher for eleventh grade US History students compares January 6 events to the Wilmington massacre of 1898 and Reconstruction.

A pair of lessons created by UCSC HCP and UCLA compare the events of January 6, 2021, to the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 (also known as the Wilmington massacre of 1898) and a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) demonstration.

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SCHOOL DISTRICTS

North Monterey County Unified School District

In 2024 and again in 2025, the North Monterey County Unified School District contracted with UCSC-HCP to assist with developing the district’s ethnic studies programming. The district has paid a total of $23,200 to the university program for services.