Teaching About Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy
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I vividly remember the announcement by CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennesee. I was a middle school student in San Jose, California. On the following day, nothing was mentioned in my middle school classes about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. In fact, in my elementary and secondary school years, I had been exposed to very little about African Americans and their history.
Martin Luther King, Jr., who was born on January 15, 1929, would be turning 95 this year, and 41 years have passed since Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday was approved as a federal holiday in 1983. SPICE recommends the use of a 13-minute lecture—titled “Civil and Human Rights: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy” by Dr. Clayborne Carson—for use at the high school and college levels. Dr. Carson is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor Emeritus at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, FSI, at Stanford University. In the video lecture, Professor Carson not only discusses Martin Luther King, Jr. as a civil rights leader but also examines his larger vision of seeing the African American struggle as a worldwide struggle for citizenship rights and human rights.
A free classroom-friendly discussion guide for this video is available for download at the webpage linked above. The organizing questions that are listed in the guide are:
- What are civil and human rights?
- What were the significant achievements of the Civil Rights Movement?
- What is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy in terms of civil and human rights?
- How are Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision, ideas, and leadership still relevant today?
- How is the American Civil Rights Movement similar and different from other rights-related movements?
SPICE also recommends the resources on the following websites for use in classrooms.
- The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute supports a broad range of educational activities illuminating Dr. King’s life and the movements he inspired. Dr. Carson is the founding director of the Institute.
- The World House Project works to realize Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of the world as a large house in which “we must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.” Dr. Carson is the director of the Project.
- The educational website “What Does It Mean to Be an American?” offers six lessons on immigration, civic engagement, leadership, civil liberties & equity, justice & reconciliation, and U.S.–Japan relations. The lessons encourage critical thinking through class activities and discussions.
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Civil and Human Rights: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy
In this teacher's guide, students learn about the Civil Rights Movement; analyze Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision, ideas, and leadership; and discuss similar rights-related movements and leaders around the world in the past and present.
Visit Civil and Human Rights: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy
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MLK Jr. would be turning 95 this year.
DEI-related Project Update, Summer and Fall 2021
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The update below also appears on SPICE’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page, where we post periodic updates about SPICE’s DEI-focused work.
SPICE serves as a bridge between FSI and K–12 schools and community colleges. As noted in fall 2020, the SPICE staff has agreed to do more to help move our local community, nation, and the world to achieve racial justice. SPICE works in three areas: (1) curriculum development; (2) teacher professional development; and (3) online course offerings. Below are a few recent efforts that SPICE has made with the goal of achieving racial justice.
Curriculum: SPICE launched an interactive website called “What Does It Mean to Be an American?” in 2020. It focuses on topics like civil liberties & equity, civic engagement, and justice & reconciliation and includes videos called “What Does It Mean to Be a Young Black Man in America?” and “What It Means to Be Muslim American.” Student reflections on the website continued to be featured in articles on March 16, 2021, May 18, 2021, and July 20, 2021. This article series will continue in 2021.
SPICE is collaborating with the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) to introduce underrepresented minority high school students to issues in international security and increase awareness of career opportunities available in international security.
Teacher Professional Development: Given the pandemic, SPICE has transitioned its teacher professional development seminars to online webinars.
SPICE worked with community college educators who participated in the Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) program of Stanford Global Studies. On May 22, 2021, SGS hosted the 2021 EPIC Symposium and SPICE staff moderated two panels.
SPICE offered a webinar, “Indigenous Voices: Educational Perspectives from Navajo, Native Hawaiian, and Ainu Scholars in the Diaspora,” for teachers on June 18, 2021.
From June 28 to July 1, 2021, SPICE hosted a summer institute for middle school teachers that focused on East Asia and the Asian American experience. From July 26 to July 30, 2021, SPICE hosted a similar summer institute for high school teachers. Teachers from 20 states attended the seminars as well as teachers from China and Canada.
Online Course Offerings: SPICE currently offers three courses (on China, Japan, and Korea) for high school students in the United States and courses for students in Japan and China. SPICE seeks to broaden its offerings in the United States.
SPICE pledges to continue to do the following:
- In its recruitment of students for SPICE’s online classes, we will redouble our efforts to recruit from diverse areas throughout the United States.
- SPICE will seek to increase the diversity of the teachers who attend its teacher professional development seminars.
- SPICE will seek to expand the diversity of the students who enroll in its online course offerings.
- SPICE will continue to host webinars that focus on diversity.
- SPICE will continue to explore—with the FSI REDI Task Force—additional outreach activities that focus on enhancing diversity at FSI.
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Read about SPICE's recent and current DEI-related efforts.
SPICE Webinar: "Human Rights Day 2020: Teacher Workshop on Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan"
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Webinar recording: https://youtu.be/8oDHKdyhZO0
In recognition of Human Rights Day on December 10, SPICE is honored to feature Dr. Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. Tsutsui’s research and scholarship on the globalization of human rights and its impact on local policy and politics—particularly with regards to minority groups in Japan—has helped to shape student awareness and understanding of the multitude of issues surrounding the protection of human rights.
In this webinar, Tsutsui will address the following:
- How did “human rights” emerge as a universal norm and become institutionalized into various international treaties, organs, and instruments?
- What impact have all the international institutions had on actual local human rights practices?
- How do the case studies of the three most salient minority groups in Japan—the Ainu, Koreans, and Burakumin—help us to understand the transformative effect of global human rights ideas and institutions on minority activists?
Tsutsui’s in-depth historical comparative analysis in his book, Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan, offers rare windows into local, micro-level impact of global human rights and contributes to our understanding of international norms and institutions, social movements, human rights, ethnoracial politics, and Japanese society.
This webinar is a joint collaboration between the Japan Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Center for East Asian Studies, and SPICE at Stanford University.
Featured Speaker:
Kiyoteru Tsutsui, PhD
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His research on the globalization of human rights and its impact on local politics has appeared in numerous academic publications and social science journals. His recent book publications include Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan (Oxford University Press 2018), and the co-edited volume Corporate Social Responsibility in a Globalizing World (with Alwyn Lim, Cambridge University Press 2015). He has been a recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, National Science Foundation grants, and the SSRC/CGP Abe Fellowship, among numerous other grants and awards. Tsutsui received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kyoto University and earned an additional master’s degree and PhD from Stanford’s sociology department in 2002.
Via Zoom Webinar. Registration Link: https://bit.ly/3mMf8Aj.
Kiyoteru Tsutsui, PhD
Stanford University
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