The Institute for History and Equity

Leveraging History to build power; confront structural inequality; and equip communities, organizations, and educators to shape an equitable future.

History is the Blueprint of Now

The Institute for History and Equity is a nonprofit organization that identifies, creates, and implements innovative, locally based projects and programming designed to dismantle structural inequality while we empower communities, organizations, and educators to generate lasting change.  We understand that to transform communities, we must educate people about the historical processes that have created systems of inequity. Thus, we are dedicated to illuminating undervalued, underappreciated, and pivotal aspects of our collective history as we use lessons from the past to chart a path forward. Educating the public and educators about the history of rural and urban development, as well as community building, agency, and empowerment, is instrumental to ensuring that people have a clear understanding of the inception and perniciousness of systemic inequality while inspiring people to create lasting change. We believe that History functions as both prologue and primer; it serves as our guide as we work to catalyze people to action that is transformational, sustainable, and equitable. 

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The Stories We Learn
Shape the World We Build.

What we do

We are committed to providing education that illuminates the history of marginalized groups.  Our Lectures, Courses, Inspirational Conversations, and Book Clubs  are powerful ways to uncover typically unknown aspects of history. 

Our Offerings

We offer lesson plans, lists of secondary resources, a compilation of short history documentaries, and more to illuminate the history and culture of historically marginalized people.

Cost

We believe that this history belongs to all of us and we are dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to history uninhibited by financial barriers. Therefore, lesson plans, secondary resources, and other materials are free to access. Only courses and some lectures require a payment. 

Quality Teaching

Renowned scholars who are leaders in their fields teach our courses. We also feature lectures by educators from across the world who are dedicated to educating the public.

History as Prologue
and Primer

We are committed to creating and promoting public educational offerings that examine inequity as we herald and implement the actions, perseverance, strategies, and courage of historical changemakers who have demonstrated possibility and worked to create change in America. 

Upcoming Lectures, Courses and Workshops

"Beyond the Bridge in Selma: Organizing After the Voting Rights Act"
 Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries

FREE COURSE
Live Monday, Oct. 12, and Wednesday, Oct. 14 
Asynchronous also available

The march from Selma to Montgomery and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are often presented as the triumphant conclusion of the struggle for voting rights. In fact, they marked the beginning of a new phase of organizing. This two-part lecture series examines how activists worked to transform access to the ballot into meaningful political power and how their efforts formed part of a much longer struggle to build an inclusive American democracy.

Moving from the rise of independent Black political organizing in the 1960s and 1970s to the challenges facing democracy today, the series explores what happened after the bridge was crossed, the legislation was signed, and the difficult work of making democracy real began.

"The Revolution of 1868: The Fourteenth Amendment and Ten Cases at the Nexus of History and Equity"
Dr. Yohuru Williams

FREE COURSE
Live Wednesdays, November 4th and 11th
Asynchronous also available

Ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment has been described as part of a “Second Founding”—a constitutional revolution that transformed the meaning of citizenship, liberty, equality, and the relationship between individuals, the states, and the federal government. Its deceptively simple promises—that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens, that no state may deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and that all persons are entitled to the equal protection of the laws—have become some of the most consequential and contested words in the Constitution.

But how has the Fourteenth Amendment functioned historically as an instrument of equity?
In this two-day mini-course, historian Dr. Yohuru Williams explores the history, promise, limitations, and evolving meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment through ten landmark Supreme Court cases. Moving from Reconstruction through the struggles over race, citizenship, education, gender, immigration, marriage, and political representation, participants will examine how individuals and communities have turned to the Fourteenth Amendment to challenge exclusion and expand the boundaries of American freedom.
Rather than approaching these cases solely as matters of constitutional doctrine, the course places each decision within the historical struggle that produced it. Together, we will consider the distance between constitutional principle and lived experience and ask an enduring question: How—and for whom—has the Fourteenth Amendment helped transform the promise of equality into the practice of equity?

"Slavery in America: From Inconceivable Struggle to Profound Resistance among African Americans."
Dr. Terry Anne Scott

FREE COURSE
Live Tuesday February 2nd and Wednesdays, February 10th and 17th
Asynchronous also available

This lecture series surveys the struggles and accomplishments of people of African descent in
the United States. While some attention will be paid to African origins, the three sessions in
this series will analyze the historical path from importation through the Civil War and the
process of freedom. Through a largely, but not exclusively, chronological approach, this series
will emphasize how African Americans have worked to determine the trajectory of their own
lives. Areas of exploration will include, but are not limited to, the following: the construction
of racial identity and alterity, the enslaved family and community, the domestic slave trade, abolitionism,
resistance, and the process of freedom.

 The Institute for History and Equity believes that history fills us with the hope and determination necessary to change society.

Educational Resources

Use our resource pages to learn about and teach the history and culture of historically marginalized people. We have short history videos; lists of secondary sources; free, downloadable K-12 lesson plans; and more.

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