Re
cent, and very flawed, debates in free speech and racism make it clear that America’s school systems may not have done a thorough job at educating the masses on black history. The Southern Poverty Law’s Teaching Tolerance is changing that one lesson at a time, by offering teachers lessons and stories for kids starting at the kindergarten level. They just need some help in creating those lessons.
Teaching Tolerance needs writers who can speak to the younger audiences. They are currently looking for pitches on “slavery” and how it affected the lives of the enslaved. The Call for pitches is below.
Teaching Tolerance, the nation’s leading provider of anti-bias resources, seeks writers to create original works about the history of American slavery. Specifically, we are interested in publishing works of fiction and nonfiction appropriate for readers grades K-5. Successful pitches should be less than 400 words and include: a brief description of expected content; an estimated word count; and projected alignment to one or more of the following areas:
- The lived experience of slavery
- The diverse experiences of the enslaved
- The dependence of the Northern economy on slavery
- The importance of slavery in understanding the nation’s founding documents
- Slavery’s central role in causing the Civil War
- Resistance to slavery
- Establishing connections to the present state of affairs
- The unique and enduring nature of the culture of the enslaved
Authors should feel free to pitch multiple pieces. No piece should be previously published. Please send pitches to Kate Shuster via email at kate.shuster@gmail.com. We’ll respond to all pitches within four to six weeks. Payment is $1 per published word.
Best,
Kate
