Virginia Teacher Holds Mock Slave Auction

Tuesday, 12 April 2011 | by Pat's Picks

In an attempt to illustrate a lesson on the Civil War, an elementary school teacher in Virginia held a mock slave auction with her fourth graders, ordering black and mixed-race students to one side of the room and white children, who proceeded to bid on them, to the other. The Washington Post says it took just a few hours for the parent complaints to start rolling in. Because of their proximity to some of the “Confederacy’s bloodiest battles,” the Post says lesson about the Civil War have “long been among the most sensitive topics in Virginia classrooms.”