Issac. Jack. Moses.

Hilary Green has guided about 4,500 people through an alternate campus tour elevating the stories and experiences of the enslaved men, women and children who contributed to the prosperity of the University of Alabama.

Luna. Ben. Neal.

During the excursion, known as the Hallowed Grounds tour, Green speaks the names of the enslaved as they pass by buildings etched with the names of their slave owners.

Gabe. Crawford. Silas.

Since 2015, Green has dedicated her academic career to educating people about what they should unlearn about slavery.

Green's passion began with dispelling a myth. A black student in her class asked why she was teaching about slavery at a university where enslavement didn't exist.

As an associate professor of history in the department of gender and race studies, Green knew that wasn't true.

The beginning of slavery myths

Tuscaloosa County neighbors the Black Belt, where slaves toiled in the dark, fertile soil from which the region gets its name. Green’s research reveals the University of Alabama spent nearly $6,000 Confederate State Dollars buying enslaved people in 1864, which equates to over $98,300 in 2019. However, Green said conversion calculators don’t account for the increasing inflation of Confederate dollars, which became worthless by the end of the Civil War in 1865.

Green told AL.com in September that she doesn’t blame the student for not being informed. But she has wondered how a student would carry this mistaken belief into his junior year of college.

"His education, K-12 and college experience, had failed to provide enough awareness of the history of slavery in a state known for its cotton production produced by enslaved labor," Green said. "The student’s comment showed that slavery is not being taught in a meaningful way."

Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance program has been challenging educators to promote culturally inclusive class environments for almost three decades. While a student's knowledge of any subject is built over time, Maureen Costello, who was the director of Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance program until her retirement on Dec. 3., believes slavery myths begin to take root in elementary school.

Children are introduced to slavery as soon as they can read, she said, since Harriet Tubman is a common protagonist in many children's books.

"It’s in the lower grades that narratives get started. So, it’s important to start them with accuracy, honesty and, most important, respect," Costello said. "Right now, they’re learning a lot of myths – that it was common to escape on the Underground Railroad, that quilts provided 'maps' for escape, that (slavery) was only in the South – and high school and college teachers spend a lot of time debunking those myths."

As the state edges closer to its 200th birthday on Saturday, there is an appetite to learn and teach a fuller version of the state’s slave history.

But barriers get in the way. And teaching slavery honestly to young kids can come with risks.

Green guided K-12 educators on her tour as part of the state's bicentennial celebration and discussed ways they can integrate old newspapers, letters and other documents into their lesson plans. But not every educator who wants to teach history accurately can attend those workshops, Green said.

Last February, after releasing a dismal report on how enslavement is taught across the nation, Teaching Tolerance uploaded free lesson plans, primary texts and other materials for 6th-12th grade educators on its website. In August, the project expanded its resource reservoir to include a K-5 framework and materials on slavery. After examining website traffic, Costello estimates that at least 1,000 Alabama educators and students have so far used the programs lessons, primary source texts and webinars.

But it’s hard for teachers of small children to decide how much to share on such a challenging topic. Costello said she understands the tough balancing act of educational needs with their emotional well-being.

“One of the big jobs for elementary school teachers is to motivate kids to learn and to take care of them emotionally,” Costello said. “So they have to back that with teaching this very difficult history which if they don’t do it well is going to produce guilt or shame.”

MONTGOMERY, AL - APRIL 26: A sculpture commemorating the slave trade greets visitors at the entrance National Memorial For Peace And Justice on April 26, 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama. The memorial is dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people and those terrorized by lynching and Jim Crow segregation in America. Conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative, the physical environment is intended to foster reflection on America's history of racial inequality. (Photo by Bob Miller/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 775158015 ORG XMIT: CLE1804271232280575 The Plain DealerThe Plain Dealer

The difficulties of teaching hard history

The struggles of teaching enslavement on an elementary level have been documented across the nation. In February, a Virginia principal apologized after the school’s physical education teacher made third- through fifth-graders run through an obstacle course representing the routes slaves took to freedom. In March, black students wrapped imaginary chains and shackles around their bodies before white students placed “bids” on them during a mock auction in Bronxville, New York. The school investigated the incident which and the teacher was removed from the classroom. On Tuesday, a Missouri math teacher was placed on administrative leave for asking fifth-grade students to “set your price for a slave.”

Along with the multiple events and activities planned in honor of the state's 200th birthday, educators from across the state were encouraged to create lesson plans and activities that incorporated primary resources - the letters, photos and other documents that can give students a first-person account of history. Teaching Tolerance red-flagged two Alabama bicentennial committee-approved lesson plans that asked fourth-graders to write their own slave narratives.

"They’re being asked to take on the emotional weight and trauma of those experiences, and of course this could affect black kids in particular ways that it won’t affect other kids," Costello said.

Approved lesson plans and primary resource materials were featured on the bicentennial committee’s website. Costello said the lesson plans in question seemed well-intended, but were problematic.

The lesson plans were removed from the bicentennial’s website after Susan DuBose, educational coordinator for the bicentennial, was made aware of Teaching Tolerance’s criticisms by AL.com.

"It has been our desire and hopes to make sure that we gave them the tools and information so that they can begin that process of discussion without harming, as we all want to do," DuBose said.

DuBose said the lesson plans were approved by a committee made up of about 15-20 professors who train teachers at the state's colleges and universities. She said the bicentennial website doesn't keep count of how many times a lesson plan or activity has been downloaded. So it is unknown how many times the lesson plans were used in Alabama classrooms.

Another concern Costello and her team pointed out about the lesson plans was the complexity of the content that the students were asked to read.

In an effort to get unemployed writers back to work after the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration employed writers to the Federal Writers’ Project. More than 2,000 interviews were conducted with formerly enslaved individuals. One of the bicentennial lesson plans, written by a Tuscaloosa County Schools elementary teacher, asked fourth-graders to read some of those slave narratives. The lesson plan linked to a site listing interviews conducted in Birmingham.

Then students then had to write their own narratives "from the point of view of a slave."

Tuscaloosa County Schools has not responded to questions from AL.com. So, it is unknown if the lesson plan has been used in the classroom.

"It’s one thing to have children react to narratives they’ve read through third-person writing to show they understand the history," Costello said. "It’s another thing to have them embody that and put down details in writing."

Scholars have questioned the authenticity of those slave narratives. While some of the interviewers were African American, Costello said most of the interviewers were white writers who were most likely taught the Lost Cause Narrative. Costello defines the Lost Cause Narrative as a version of revised history touting the Confederate veterans as heroic leaders who fought for a noble cause: States’ rights. Not the preservation of slavery. Costello mentions the interviewers’ questions may have been filtered through that lens.

A report released in August examining the Federal Writers' Project's interviewing methods state that the social and economic conditions of the time could have influenced the former slaves' answers. Kathryn Roulston, a qualitative research professor at the University of Georgia's College of Education created the report. She wonders what a former slave would say to white interviewers, who could possibly be the children of former slave owners, during the Jim Crow era.

"The interviews were conducted at a time when there was legalized segregation in public spaces in the South. That would also have influenced what the former slaves would have reported to white interviewers," Roulston said. "At the time the interviews were conducted participants were living in dire circumstances and suffering from extreme poverty. Historian Catherine Stewart suggests in her book that some Former Slaves used the interviews as a way to bargain for economic compensation."

Roulston’s report also considers the ages of former slaves, men and women who were over 80 years old who were asked to recall memories from their childhood 70 or more years prior.

Despite the critiques, Roulston still considers the slave narratives a good resource to use in all classrooms. A number of African Americans, including author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, were editors for the project that collected a massive amount of former slave stories.

There is some caution, however.

"The challenge of using these lies in being able to understand the context in which the narratives were produced, the ways in which the race relations of the time are reflected in the narratives produced by fieldworkers, as well as assessing the factuality of the information provided in the narratives," Roulston said. "Teachers would need to take great care not to use the narratives in a way that perpetuates stereotypes of the former slaves as well as inaccurate and/or oversimplified portrayals of slavery."

Costello said investigating the context of the content requires a level of critical thinking that may exists for high schoolers, but not young children.

"It is very tricky when you are dealing with a primary source. You should always ask, 'Who was this directed at,'" Costello said. "In the case of the narratives, 'Who is taking the notes? Who is asking the questions? What might be left out?' I think that is a lot to ask an elementary school student."

Dealing with discomfort

Giving teachers free access to multiple lesson plans and activities wasn’t the only way the bicentennial made it into Alabama’s classrooms. Over the past three summers, 12 teachers tapped by the Bicentennial Commission to become “master teachers” were challenged to lead professional development workshops for other educators across the state. With help from the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the teachers were made aware of what resources are available to them and how to use them in their classroom for different subjects, such as Native American history or the Civil Rights Movement. About 1,200 teachers attended those workshops in total, according to DuBose.

DuBose said teachers did voice their discomfort in teaching slavery over the summer. Teaching Tolerance was invited to do a professional development workshop for the master teachers this summer and last.

"They will tell you that this is the hardest thing they have to teach, many times," DuBose said. "We want to give teachers the tools to teach those conversations. If all goes well in the next several years, I hope these kinds of conversations don't have to happen. That's the gift with living with difficult history: This is where we have been and this is not where we want to go in the future."

During the professional development session, Costello said she presented the Teaching Tolerance's slavery framework, which functions like a curriculum. The framework details key concepts Teaching Tolerance believes kids should know about slavery, such as how enslavement was protected in the founding documents.

Costello wished she had more time with the teachers. Both professional developments sessions lasted only about an hour each.

“They don’t have the background in history,” Costello said. “This was one of those things that if I had three hours or half a day I would have had more back and forth (with teachers). But I didn’t have a chance to hear from them as much.”

Finding time for social studies

Melinda Staubs, an associate professor of elementary education department of curriculum and instruction at Jacksonville State University, also authored one of the bicentennial lesson plans. In her plan, students read “Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave” by Laban Carrick Hill and “Henry’s Freedom Box” by Ellen Levine. The fourth-graders were also asked to look over pictures of a runaway slave advertisement and a picture of a Montgomery slave auction.

The books Staubs selected are recommended by both Teaching Tolerance and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), which is known as the "guru" of social studies education. However, Teaching Tolerance didn't agree with Staubs asking students to use their knowledge to create their own slave narratives and to publish those narratives on website called MyStory.

Staubs said her intent in creating the lesson plans was to show children that the people who were enslaved had skills, talents and lives beyond their bondage. She understood the criticisms and welcomed an opportunity to meet with Teaching Tolerance.

However, Staubs said time spent on social studies is decreasing and there is less time for teachers to spend on historical topics, such as enslavement, with more depth and nuance.

"A lot of the students that are going out as pre-service teachers are finding very little social studies being done today," Staubs said. "There's a lot of demands on educators today and so it's difficult to get everything in. Often social studies is one of the first things to go, unfortunately."

Educators have been pointing to this problem nationwide. The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, educational news outlet, said that instruction time for social studies has tumbled in the last two decades because social studies isn't tested on the state level.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the national report card, measures reading and math abilities in fourth and eighth grade. And when it comes to NAEP, Alabama didn't do too well.

The state fell to last place in math - 52nd in the nation behind school systems run by 49 other states, Washington DC and the Department of Defense - in both grades. The state didn't do much better in reading, tumbling to 49th place.

And that could shift even more focus to reading and math in younger grades.

In a presentation detailing with the Montgomery Public Schools’ 2020 literacy plan that was sent to all of the principals at the beginning of the school year, first through third grade teachers are required to spend 2.5 hours on reading, an hour on math, and 30 minutes on social studies and science each every school day. In fourth through sixth grade, teachers must spend two hours for reading, an hour for math and 45 minutes for social studies and science.

Jacqueline Campbell, executive director of Montgomery Public Schools' office of curriculum and instruction, said the time allotment was recommended by the Alabama State Department of Education.

Sometimes the time allotments play out differently in the classroom, depending on students’ proficiency.

"Because there's so much emphasis on reading, and because our students are struggling in that area, additional time is added to work with students who are performing below grade level in order to close that gap," Campbell said.

But things cannot get too far off track, Campbell said. In October, the district discovered two schools where social studies was taught only once every other week. Campbell said content specialists worked with principals and teachers to help them get back to teaching social studies for the required amount of time.

Campbell said social studies can be a tool to increase literacy. While Studies Weekly, a colorful newspaper filled with social studies content and activities, as their main text for history, teachers can use other literary materials in their class.

"Basically, you take a story from slavery that's from social studies. So that's the text that you're going to use to teach your reading skills," Campbell said.

Staubs said the effectiveness of the historical lesson depends on how the teacher uses the material. Staubs is concerned that by combining English language arts requirements with social studies, teachers could be minimizing the message behind the text.

"Am I teaching my students how to look at or find a simile or a metaphor? Or are we looking at what makes up a democratic citizen, which is the goal of social studies?" Staubs asked. "Are we giving them the skills to be successful citizens? Yes, I know we need to be literate, but do we have social studies literacy?"

Teaching Tolerance advocates for trade books because they offer a more nuanced version of history. For example, children can be exposed to home cultures of enslaved people by reading stories such as "In the Time of Drums" by Kim L. Siegelson, which follows an enslaved child who learns how to play the drum rhythms of his people from his African grandmother who misses home. Costello said that by highlighting the adversity and importance of family, children will better understand the trauma of family separation during slavery.

"We noticed that we tend to teach slavery as a political and economic system and we know that elementary school students don't do economics and politics very well," Costello said. "The big story I would want to leave kids from elementary school with is an understanding of the ingenuity, creativity, resilience of people under the worst of circumstances."

Teaching slavery with nuance and care will set a good foundation for the work of a university professor like Green. What Costello is saying mirrors what Green is doing on a college level - preventing the erasure of the people who labored at the University of Alabama by voicing their stories and their legacies. But getting to this place where people are speaking the names of the enslaved instead of their enslavers will require the help of all educators across the entire K-12 spectrum and beyond.

As Green continues to guide people through the campus on a tour of a largely forgotten and silenced history, she looks to spark an interest in learning more about how Alabama came to be: “The tours are often the start of the re-education, and not the ending.”

This story is part of a series focusing on how we focus on black history in Alabama’s schools. We would like to hear from both students (present and former) and teachers about this subject. You can comment through the form below or through this link. You can also click here to join the Black Magic Project’s Facebook group.