ABHM Exhibit Featured in German High School Textbook

by Dr. Fran Kaplan, Coordinator, ABHM Virtual Museum

A sample Abi-Box for English language learners in German high schools.

A school book publisher located in Hannover, Germany, will reprint ABHM exhibit The Education of Black Children in the Jim Crow South. It will appear in their new book for high school students learning English, called “Abi-Box Englisch Niedersachsen2017 II.”

The book, to be published in November 2015, will reach 4000 students 16-18 years old and their teachers. The purpose of the Abi-Box book is to prepare students to take exams to qualify for college admission.

ABHM and scholar-griot Dr. Russell Brooker, who curated the exhibit, were pleased to grant reprint permission to the book’s publisher, Brinkmann Meyhöfer GmbH & Co. KG. This is not the only time ABHM exhibits have been used to help European students study both the English language and American history. An English teacher in France has her students study and write about essays lynching, which they research at this virtual museum.

In fact, this online museum is visited every year by hundreds of thousands of people from over 200 countries around the globe. Many–but not all–are middle-, high school, and university students researching the history of the black experience in the United States. Even beyond our borders, there is clearly a great deal of interest in issues of race and racism and how it has played out in this country.