Can the 'Magic City' Really Be Magical with Convict Leasing? A Qualitative Study

Social studies teachers have to design classroom instruction to prepare students to be future democratic citizens. This means that middle school students need learning opportunities to grapple with issues of racism in our country's past and present. In this article, I discuss a six-day research project implemented in a sixth-grade U.S. history classroom in the Birmingham metropolitan area. These sixth-grade students explored the convict-leasing system that was constructed to fill the need for workers at Birmingham's founding that played upon existing racial prejudices. Findings from this qualitative study are discussed that show how these sixth graders articulated the racism present within Birmingham's convict-leasing system at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Data were collected from coding students' completed graphic organizers with analyzing primary sources about the convict-leasing system. Additionally, students' writing prompts designed to take civic action against the convict-leasing system were coded for themes of how they discussed racism present at Birmingham's founding. Through examining emergent themes from this study and exploring racism present at Birmingham's founding, this study presents an approach that can be duplicated for students to explore racism in U.S. history that is still faced in contemporary American society.