Assignment to draw Black person picking cotton sparks concern from Indiana parents

An Indianapolis middle school drew ire over an assignment given to students during Black History Month, local media reports.

Students at Fall Creek Valley Middle School were asked to draw a picture showing what life was like in northern and southern states in the 1800s, the school district said in a statement.

But Cindy and Ramond Clark, a Black couple and the parents of a student at the school in Lawrence Township, told WTHR their daughter’s teacher asked students to draw a picture of a Black person picking cotton and a white person using machinery.

The Clarks’ daughter told her parents that she and several other students refused to complete the project, and that the assignment “drew tears from another student,” WTHR reported.

The Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township addressed the matter in a statement, saying that its schools are “committed to providing high quality instruction to all students” and that the assignment in question did not meet that standard and demonstrated “poor judgment.”

The district said the assignment was not intended to be specific to Black History Month and that the inclusion of the prompt, “to draw an image that depicted economic life in the south vs. economic life in the north during that time,” was in alignment with the school’s content standards.

“This addition took place in one social studies class and was not a part of the instructional plan,” the district said in the statement.

Lawrence Township is about 16 miles northeast of Indianapolis.

This story was originally published February 15, 2022 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Assignment to draw Black person picking cotton sparks concern from Indiana parents."