European Association of History Educators

Titled Facing history and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behaviour, an international seminar will take place in London from 26-30 July. During this Seminar different kind of resources, next to the book with the same name as the seminar, will be used to give participants a good encounter with this history. Perhaps for that reason, participants from very differing countries (i.e. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Rwanda, Ireland and Colombia) are joining this seminar. There’s a new resource as well, namely a study guide for the movie Banished, that tells the story of African Americans driven from there communities during the 19th and 20th century. Questions that will be dealt with during the seminar are those like who to blame for crimes against humanity when generations have passed, and judgment with regard to memory. For more information on this seminar, click here to go to the website where you can find this

Facing History and Ourselves  has recently published Teaching Banished, a written resources book focusing on the violent mobs in the late 1800s and early 1900s century which drove away thousands of African Americans from their communities, businesses and land never to return again. The publication is accompanied by the documentary Banished by Marco Williams. While the later zooms in on three towns in the United States which were affected, in order to then connect it to the race relations in contemporary times.
The first examines attempts of current residents, descendents, journalists and politicians to raise awareness on this element in history. It is an excellent guide to complement the documentary due to its critical approach by asking questions about memory, justice and reconciliation. As for instance: How does a community reconcile past wrongs and move toward justice? How can addressing the past restore the dignity of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders? The resource book Teaching Banished can be downloaded from http://www.facinghistory.org/banished.