Witness for Freedom
The Witness for Freedom project began in 1995 with
the vision of Christine Compston, then Director of the National
History Education Network. She approached Mary Alice Wilson at
the Five College Public School Partnership with the idea of developing
an institute for social studies teachers that would introduce
them to the documents recently published by C. Peter Ripley in
Witness for Freedom: African American Voices on Race, Slavery,
and Emancipation. Together they solicited the participation of
David Blight, Professor of History at Amherst College, and author
of Frederick Douglass' Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee. The
Witness for Freedom Summer Institute was held in 1996 under their
direction and involved twenty teachers from Western Massachusetts.
The project was made possible by a grant from the National Historical
Publications and Records Commission of the National Archives with
additional support from the Nan and Matilda Heydt Fund of the
Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.
Witness
For Freedom Curriculum Guide (PDF)
(1999)
The publication of this guide by Wendy Kohler and Gaylord Saulsberry
of the Amherst Public Schools offers specific guidance for Massachusetts
teachers and district personnel concerned with aligning classroom
instruction with the state curriculum frameworks.
Witness
For Freedom Handbook (PDF) For use with
the Curriculum Guide.
(PDF files require Adobe
Acrobat Reader 4.0 to view. Download free program)