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AAG Highlights Civil Rights, KGA Efforts for GAW 2017

The American Association of Geographers (AAG) acknowledged and commended the 2017 theme for Geography Awareness Week (GAW), "The Geography of Civil Rights Movements." The organization also highlighted efforts by the Kansas Geographic Alliance (KGA) to collect and develop educational resources relating to civil rights.

1960 photo of U.S. Marshals escorting Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School.  Six-year-old Bridges was the school's only black student at the time (U.S. State Department).

What is the story behind this photo? Taken in 1960, this is an image of U.S. Marshals escorting Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Six-year-old Bridges was the school's only black student at the time (U.S. State Department).

From the AAG Article: "The theme of civil rights is a timely choice in 2017. The past few years have seen numerous milestone anniversaries of major civil rights campaigns and victories. Ironically, hate groups are on the rise and highly publicized incidents of racialized violence dominate the news—suggesting that civil rights movements remain a salient and necessary fact of life rather than just pieces of history. In addition, recent studies have documented the uneven and frequently missing place of civil rights education within the standards and curriculum of many public school systems within the United States. The same critique could be lodged against many of the introductory geography textbooks used in our universities."

View the article here.

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