ABSTRACT
On a blustery day in March 2021, a line of bundled-up, masked first graders walked from school to a house on the National Register of Historic Places in their south Minneapolis neighborhood. For these 23 young learners, it wasn't just a walk. This COVID-era field trip was a culminating activity in a series of lessons, "Unearthing Histories," that empowered the students to be historians, dig into their complex local history, and then take action to help create a more just future. "Unearthing Histories" was a long time in the making, especially for first-grade teacher Megan Peterson. But Megan's journey from late summer of 2019 to the end of the 2020-2021 school year emphasizes the possibilities of local history in helping to frame and support anti-racist elementary social studies.