Experience history from the ground up, in the voices of those who have lived it. We are a community archive & mapping project documenting historic communities of color, working people, and LGBTQ+ individuals in Riverside and San Bernardino.
How did Latinx Riversiders Create a Thriving Community at the Beginning of the 20th Century?
3 Day Lesson Plan, 55 minutes each day
Despite a dominant narrative that labeled the community as a “problem” and systems of oppression like forced deportation, redlining, and school segregation, Riverside’s Latinx community engaged in transformational resistance to build a thriving community from 1900-1950. It used methods such as placemaking via community organizations, pursuing economic independence, holding culturally-affirming events, and claiming space through recreation, religious worship, and military service to actively resist.
Baseball & Civil Rights
2 Day Lesson (55 Minute period), Grade 9-12
How did Baseball help forge community ties and a strong sense of ethnic identity, pride, and power that was necessary for the fight for civil rights? Students will explore the impact of segregation on communities of color, with a particular focus on the Latino community in the Inland Empire region of Southern California. Students will analyze an excerpt from the book Mexican American Baseball in the Inland Empire, an oral history from South Colton and photographs highlighting Latino baseball and softball players during the era of segregation. Through critical discussion and analysis, students will develop a broader perspective on how segregation shaped everyday life and how the community resisted by forging community pride, support, and identity as they fought in the ongoing struggle for civil rights.
Equal Access to Public Pools
2 Days (55 Minute Classes), 11-12 Grade
In what ways does having access to public pools impact a community? Students will learn about the creation of public pools and the challenges presented to equal access by exploring historic access to pools in three Inland Empire cities: the Fairmount Park Plunge in Riverside during the 1920s, the Sylvan Plunge in Redlands in the 1930s, and the Perris Hill Plunge in San Bernardino during the 1940s. Students will identify why having access to a public pool was important then and now – and how it impacts individuals and the community. Finally, students will research and map access to public pools in their own community to analyze current needs.
Reimagining Citrus Labels
In this lesson, students will learn how citrus crate labels often tell an inaccurate history of the land and those who worked it. Through audio, visual, and other archival materials, students will see that the labor that went into making the citrus industry an empire was built on the backs of exploitation and colonization, but communities of color resisted and continue to resist to this day, not only advocating for accurate history to be told but that communities of color should also be the ones centered in telling this stories. At the end of the lesson, students will create and design their own crate label as a creative counter-narrative to tell a more accurate story of the land and labor of the Inland Empire.
What did housing segregation look like in the Inland Empire in the 1920s-1970’s?
55 Minutes
Students will learn about housing segregation and its effects on Black communities across the country. Students will then explore primary source documents regarding housing segregation in the Inland Empire from 1920-1970. Students will synthesize the information to write a paragraph answering the questions – What did housing segregation look like in the Inland Empire and how do you think this history may have affected the communities you live in today?
Harada Family: House on Lemon Street
This lesson plan provides students the opportunity to use local primary sources to learn about Japanese immigration in the late 19th and early 20th century and the ways California and federal laws created land ownership barriers for Japanese Americans. Students will learn how the Harada family in Riverside challenged racial housing restrictions and ultimately launched a historic legal court case that reaffirmed the rights of American-born children of immigrants were entitled to all the constitutional guarantees of citizenship under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, including land ownership. The lesson plan provides a way to connect local history to national laws like the 1790 Naturalization Act (which excluded non-white immigrants from becoming citizens), the 14th Amendment, and the 1913 CA Land Law.
How can we continue to help preserve our communities’ stories?
55 Minutes
Students will examine oral histories and pictures showing community members from A People’s History of the Inland Empire Story Maps and Bridges That Carried Us Over oral history collection. This collection examines the great migration of African Americans to California from 1940-1960. This lesson also focuses on how people build community when they move to new places and the impact the Great Migration had on the Inland Empire today. The students will look at examples of how community is created and continued.
Building Spaces of Belonging, Resistance & Care in the IE
4-day lesson (55-minute class periods)
How have Inland Empire communities built and sustained spaces of belonging, resistance, and care across generations? Students use historical images from Riverside’s Eastside to explore the concept of spatial entitlement, the idea that marginalized communities have the right to claim and shape space for belonging, resistance, and care. Students will learn the concept of spatial entitlement through personal reflection, an analysis of Orange Valley Lodge, and the study of sonic spaces inspired by Gaye Theresa Johnson’s Spaces of Conflict, Sounds of Solidarity. Students will then research a local Inland Empire space and creating a historical “postcard” that illustrates how the site embodies spatial entitlement. The lesson culminates with a peer postcard exchange and analysis, deepening their understanding of local histories and the power of place.
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