EDUCATIONAL
INITIATIVE
Explore connections between music, history, literature & the arts to bring stories of 100 years ago to reality for the youth of today
Emphasize the aesthetic and cultural transformation of Jazz in the World War One era
The goal is to reach more than 10 million Generation Z students and Millennials through virtual classroom materials and online media
With the purpose of preserving the history and cultural memory of Americans who fought and lived through World War One, especially those associated with the 369thRegiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hell fighters , several educational projects are planned for students in K-12, college and for the general public. This history will be shared with students of all ages, libraries and museums across the nation through the study of historical accounts, literature, poetry, and a unique musical experience reenacting the historic 369th Infantry Regimental marching band. We will explore the aesthetic and cultural transformation of Jazz in the World War One era. Each aspect of the educational initiative will delve into history through an interdisciplinary approach exploring connections between history, literature, and the arts to bring stories of a hundred years ago to reality for the youth of today. The Commission’s goal is to reach more than 10 million Generation Z students and Millennials through virtual classroom materials and other internet-driven media including texts, videos, images and interactive activities. We will also share curriculum resources, study guides and teachers’ guides with more than 600,000 educators and scholars through the HISTORY e-mail newsletters. The 369th Experience and the Coca-Cola Foundation will team up to identify world war one experts, historians, and consultants to create and produce the K-12 study guide and Resources Guide.
The Educational Initiative will include:
A study guide for K-12 and college students across the nation. This guide will address national standards including National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies, Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects Writing, as well as National Core Arts Standards. Curriculum-based units will focus on various perspectives of the historical time including the study of musical breakthroughs and innovations of the 369th, women and life on the home-front, as well as the experiences of other American wartime divisions.
Grade-level appropriate studies will be based on literature such as Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War: The Undaunted 369th Regiment and the African American Quest for Equality by Sammons and Morrow, poetry, as well as various supporting historical documents. Interviews and personal testimonies from the 369th Experience descendants will be available from Noble Sissle, Jr. and James Reese Europe, III & IV.
To support scholarly engagement by undergraduate and graduate students of the themes explored in The 369th Experience’s a Resources Guide will be created by Dr. David Taft Terry, Asst. Professor, Museum Studies & Historical Preservation, Department of History and Geography at Morgan State University. This guide will direct researchers to a trove of primary (archival, documentary, and literary), and secondary (articles, books, and web-based) materials germane to the topic writ large. Not only will students have opportunities to explore resources that help them understand from first and second perspectives the lives and experiences of the men of the 369th Division, but also the broader context of their historical moment will be available as well.