We hold these truths?: An examination of teaching about gender and race with historical biographies

Scholarly and popular attention about Elizabeth Jennings’ ejection from a segregated streetcar in 1854 and her subsequent lawsuit in 1855 has grown in recent years. Museum exhibits, curricular materials, children’s literature, and biographies focus on her lawsuit challenging racial segregation in the antebellum north. However, many of these biographies focus only on this ordeal, which leaves the fuller picture of the significance of Elizabeth Jennings’ life as a Black woman, wife, mother, daughter, educator and activist are largely unacknowledged. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide teachers with a process in how to conduct a content analysis to examine depictions of matters such as race and gender in historical biographies about Elizabeth Jennings. Additionally, I show how the findings of a content analysis of depictions about Elizabeth Jennings in three biographies can be leveraged to create inquiry-based lessons, modeled around the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework, to engage students in meaningful analysis of intersectionality and truth telling in historical biographies that are often used for elementary and middle school social studies instruction.