ABSTRACT
In this chapter, an art education professor, theater professor, university archivist, and graduate student in educational leadership discuss ways that digital media can engage and teach lessons inspired by the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project of 1964, a significant moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Incorporating archives, historical documentary images, and contemporary art into pedagogical practice can connect the past with present-day social justice issues, including racial equity, immigration rights, voting rights, and access to education. Technology becomes a tool that allows one to re-enter historical situations, develop literacies, take multiple perspectives, engage in complex conversations about power and privilege, and connect these narratives to students in a personal way through active pedagogies that put them in dialogue with each other and the larger community. Developing relationships and empathy for others is a key goal of this work. Examples provided consider both community and classroom contexts, and traverse boundaries of generation and geographical location.
