For educators looking for guidance in how best to use our digital materials in their classrooms, we have included lesson plans and reading and writing prompts:

• Lesson Plans
• Reading and Writing Prompts
• Using Primary Documents in the Secondary Classroom

Plus, be sure to take a look at these free and engaging opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience and learn more about art, writing, and social justice.

• Creative Arts and Scholarly Engagement (CASE) Festival: Annual two-day student conference in the spring showcasing students’ research, creative works, presentations, and more. Also includes an opening panel, luncheon, and keynote conversation with a special guest.
• Catherine Coleman Initiative: Week-long residential summer program at Jackson State that invites emerging Mississippi high school students to participate in writing workshops and learn more about food justice and the history of social justice.

Some background on Margaret Walker (Biography) may also prove helpful. As a teenager in New Orleans in the early 1930s, Margaret Walker began her writing career and had the opportunity to meet Langston Hughes who encouraged her and suggested that she leave the South for her education. In 1935, Walker graduated from Northwestern University, her father’s alma mater. While in Chicago, she met Richard Wright and joined his Southside Writer’s Group, which she led after he moved to New York City.

By 1937, Margaret Walker had written her seminal poem, “For My People,” which served as her master’s thesis at the University of Iowa and won the Yale Younger Poets Award. She was the first black woman to be so recognized.

In 1949, Walker began her career as an English professor at Jackson State University and, while in Mississippi, finished her dissertation: a neo-slave narrative based on the memories of her maternal grandmother, Elvira Ward Dozier. Published in 1966, Jubilee represented over thirty years of research and reflection. Two years later, Margaret Walker founded the Institute for the Study of the History, Life, and Culture of Black People, which today bears her name.

The power of education, especially through reading and writing, launched Margaret Walker’s career. Her personal journals that are found in our digital archive chronicle that story in Walker’s own words and provide a valuable resource for researchers and educators.

We hope that you will be able to incorporate these lesson plans and reading and writing prompts in your classes and share Margaret Walker’s life-long love for learning and literature with your students. Below you can also find additional educational resources from other organizations that may be of interest.

• Mississippi Department of Education Standards
• National Council of Teachers of English
• National Council of Teachers of Social Studies
• International Literacy Association