African American History

SOCIAL'STUDIES'
AFRICAN2AMERICAN'HISTORY'
CURRICULUM'FRAMEWORK'
!
THE INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHY ON SLAVERY

1 week
STATE STANDARDS
AAH.1 Analyze the economic, political, and social reasons for focusing the slave trade on Africa, including the role of Africans, Europeans and
colonists.
AAH.2 Analyze the role of geography on the growth and development of slavery.
AAH.3 Assess the impact of the slave trade on Africa and the colonies.
AAH.4 Identify and explain the Middle Passage as one of the largest forced migrations in human history.
BIG IDEAS
African-Americans, both slave and free, not only influenced Jamestown in 1607, but influenced the colonization of America, all the way to the
American Revolution in 1775.
RELEVANCE: Although the majority are, not every African-American is derived from the roots of slavery. Some early inhabitants of
Jamestown were free blacks.
TNSS: AAH.1
Economic, geographic and social factors all contributed to the rise of slavery in the Americas.
RELEVANCE: Enslavement of Africans was not strictly an economic issue. Geography fit into the question because Africans could be
transplanted as slaves to the Caribbean and southern United States to use skills they already possessed. The stigma of slavery associated
with dark skin color of African slaves was not always present as there were some people of African descent who did not come to the Americas
as slaves.
TNSS: AAH.1
Slavery ultimately flourished and aided economic increase in the American colonies.
RELEVANCE: Slavery was not only a cheap source of labor in the Americas, but it was effective, too, as slaves greatly boosted the economy
of the colonies. Ships bearing slaves came regularly to American shores, many times using the better harbors of the northern and middle
colonies and making it easy for slave dealers to bring to market and plantation owners to purchase enslaved workers.
TNSS: AAH.3
While slavery benefitted the Americas, it robbed Africa of millions of inhabitants with skills that could have helped the continent develop further.
RELEVANCE: What would Africa be like today if millions of its people had not been sent to the Americas to perform their labor there? The
slave trade hindered the growth and development of some sections of west, central and southwest Africa. The trade benefitted some African
communities and states but robbed others of their most productive citizens.
TNSS: AAH.3, AAH.4
The climate, soil, and land forms of the American south fostered the development of a plantation economy that utilized slave labor to produce
cash crops like rice, tobacco, indigo, and cotton. The climate, soil and physical geography of the American north generally encouraged the
development of smaller farms that produced subsistence crops.
RELEVANCE: Tobacco, one of the most profitable crops of the south, was grown on large plantations and maintained by slaves. Without
slaves, crops like tobacco, cotton, rice and indigo could not be produced without higher labor costs. The combination of enslaved labor,
abundant land and cash crops supported and expanded the economic system in the south.
TNSS: AAH.3
Shelby County Schools 1 of 4!
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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GUIDING QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Why was Africa considered fertile ground for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade?
Did slavery already exist prior to the transatlantic slave trade of Africans? When? Where? How did the enslavement of Africans in the
1600s differ from other instances?
How were Africans enslaved on the continent of Africa?
When did the first enslaved Africans arrive in the Americas?
What were the Middle Passage and the seasoning process?
Besides economics, what other factors were important in the advent of the slave trade?
SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
Assign groups of students one of the first 3 chapters from the book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus
Vassa, the African, and allow them to report out on interesting words, descriptions and passages they find. How does Equianos perspective
compare to that of someone who was not born in Africa and may have just been to the area as a visitor?
In groups students can research the various ancient civilizations, groups or cultures of Africa, their cultures and their contributions and then
report out to the class. Presentations should include information on the process of researching these ancient civilizations.
Give students two blank outline maps of Africa and assign students to create a map showing Africa of the 1600s and the Africa of today.
Assign groups of students to generate a list of the various groups of people who inhabited the American colonies in 1750. How might race,
class, gender, national origin, and other factors influence an individual's or a group's legal and economic status?
Assign students to select a piece of art from different parts of Africa and compare and contrast the style, subject and medium in each piece.
How does this help them to understand the diversity of the continent? See National Archives link in Resources section below.
RESOURCES
Africa unstereotyped
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9ejcr7torrszpn7/AACv7aTZ4uohvn9ALEgsG_4ea
Maps of African kingdoms throughout time http://www.timemaps.com/history/africa-979ad
Information on the first Africans arriving in Jamestown http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p263.html
http://www.nps.gov/jame/historyculture/african-americans-at-jamestown.htm
Jamestown, Virginia Free Black, Anthony Johnson
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p265.html
The online text of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15399/15399-h/15399-h.htm
The first Africans in America
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/video/page/2/ - 271
The Africans in America
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/index.html
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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Images to consider for the Middle Passage
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/es37ow7lh4n5y1u/AADwfAS_YIt-9Xys9mONodV_a
National Archives Harmon Foundation of Contemporary African Art
http://www.archives.gov/research/african-art/
GENERAL RESOURCES TO BE REFERRED TO THROUGHOUT THE COURSE
National Civil Rights Museum
http://civilrightsmuseum.org/
The Smithsonian Institute
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/resource_library/african_american_resources.html
http://africanamerican.si.edu/
PBS The African-American World
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/index.html
PBS Slavery and the Making of America
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/index.html
PBS Africans in America
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
PBS The African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/
PBS American Experience Films
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/
Amistad Resource
http://www.amistadresource.org/
In Search of African-America (this exhibit has short thoughts and images to use throughout this course)
http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/africanamerican/introduction/index.html
Freedoms Story (this site has resources to refer to throughout this course)
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/freedom.htm
African-American History Month
http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/index.html
http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/teachers.html
The History Makers
http://www.thehistorymakers.com/
African-Americans in the Military
http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/AfrAmer.html
The Gilder-Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition
http://www.yale.edu/glc/index.htm
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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ASSESSMENT
Create Venn diagrams that compare factors of life between indentured servitude and slavery in the 18th-century British American colonies.
Areas to consider would include ethnicity, types of labor performed, lifestyle (residence, food, clothing, marriage, family, interactions with
master, etc), and specific rights possessed or denied. Who became servants? Who became slaves? How were the lives of servants and
slaves similar? How were they different? What rights did servants have that slaves didn't?
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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THE GROWTH OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA - 1619-1860

2 weeks
STATE STANDARDS
AAH.5 Analyze the economic, social, religious, and legal justifications for the establishment and continuation of slavery.
AAH.6 Identify and evaluate the various ways Africans in America resisted slavery.
AAH.7 Analyze the role slavery played in the development of nationalism and sectionalism.
AAH.8 Assess the development of the abolitionist movement and its impact on slavery and the nation.
BIG IDEAS
The growth of slavery increased due to economic factors such as supply and demand for resources produced in the Americas but it was also a
protected institution as part of both the Articles of Confederation and of the Constitution. Southern states demanded that slavery be permitted,
although not specifically named in the Constitution, before they would ratify the document and create the federal union in either instance.
Relevance: The economic concepts of supply and demand determined concentrations of the enslaved African populations. As the demand
for the items produced on southern plantations increased the demand for more slaves also increased. Slavery was protected under the
Constitution in order to appease southern states. If the northern states had not agreed to allow it the United States would never have gotten
onto its feet as an independent nation. Many northerners argued against its continuation but southern leaders insisted even though the words
slave or slavery were not mentioned in the original body of the document.
TNSS: AAH.5
Slavery was defended as an necessary economic social institution of the south that also carried social consequences.
Relevance: The south was a mostly agrarian society (based on agriculture) and many of the wealthiest southerners had achieved their status
through the use of slavery. Many southerners felt that slavery had to continue in order for them to maintain their way of life and to continue to
prosper. Slaves were a capital investment in property and slave owners simply did not want to end the practice. Southerners argued that if
slavery were outlawed they would need to be compensated for their monetary loss. Not all northerners we against slavery as it benefitted
them economically as well. The ending of slavery in the south would drive up prices for raw materials in the north and cut into profit margins.
TNSS: AAH.5
Not all Americans were in favor of slavery and many did not accept the practice.
Relevance: Martin Delaney, Harriet Tubman and others resisted the institution of slavery through the development of philosophies and ideals
of equity, equality and freedom. Enslaved Africans resisted by escaping slavery via the Underground Railroad or other methods such as
breaking tools. Other examples of resistance include conspiracies and rebellions, the Amistad episode, the Dred Scott case, and the activities
of anti-slavery activists like David Walker, Maria Stewart, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass. Anti-slavery societies were active in many
parts of the country, including Tennessee. The abolitionist movement started in northern states in the 1830s and leaders like William Lloyd
Garrison argued that slavery was morally wrong in hopes of pressuring the federal government into outlawing the practice.
TNSS: AAH.6
Slavery accentuated a divide in America between north and south and added to the ideas of nationalism and sectionalism.
Relevance: The fact that slaves were more common in the south helped further the divide between an industrial north and agrarian south.
Though northern states had allowed slavery as colonies during the colonial times period most had outlawed the practice soon during and after
the Revolutionary War. The sectional partisanship played out in Congress as new states were admitted to the union as either free or slave
states. This allowed slave holding states to keep enough members of Congress to avoid having the practice banned by that body. This
division would ultimately lead to the Civil War.
TNSS: AAH.7
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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The abolitionist movement involved Americans of both genders, varied races, religious beliefs and walks of life.
Relevance: Harriett Beecher Stowes novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which opposed slavery by exposing it as inherently evil, was published in
1852 and was a popular book. The Underground Railroad started in the 1840's to help slaves escape to the north. Quakers were always
opposed to slavery and started one of the first abolitionist societies in the country.
TNSS: AAH.8
Slaves successfully pursued freedom or reparations through legal channels in Massachusetts in the 1700s and helped fuel abolitionist
movements in America.
Relevance: Mum Bett (Elizabeth Freeman) had her case heard in court after being attacked by her owners wife and won her freedom and a
small monetary award. Belinda Royall petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for freedom and a pension from her masters estate because
he had left at the start of the Revolutionary War and she was left with no means of support.
TNSS: AAH.8
GUIDING QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
When did the first enslaved Africans arrive in the British colonies which now make up the United States?
Were Africans enslaved only in the southern states?
What role did religion play in the enslavement of Africans?
Did Africans resist slavery and if so how?
What role did slavery play in the development of sectionalism in the United States?
How did the abolitionist movement affect slavery?
Who were Nat Turner and Martin Delaney?
Using a blank map of the Atlantic Ocean showing at least part of the continents on either side, assign students to create their own map of the
triangular trade and how it was or was not triangular. Students should mark illustrate the flow of products between the continents.. See
available map in Resources section.
View slave sale advertisements and fugitive slave newspaper advertisements to assess the impact of them on society. Discuss or ask
students to research and write about the following: When did these advertisements start to appear? How common were they? What fugitive
slave laws and acts supported these advertisements? How did they affect non-slave holders or abolitionists? What impact might these sales
or escapes have on enslaved people and their families? See the newspaper ads link in the Resources section below.
Ask groups of students to identify one specific item, program or plan that led to an increase in slavery during this era. Assign students to
research more on how this helped grow slavery and what effect it had on those currently held in slavery and those who were still arriving.
Students should present the findings from their research to the class.
RESOURCES
Map of the Atlantic Ocean
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w85f2tjridb5rqk/AAAvn3cKgdPTA1wPbRPb-1hGa
Priscilla, a slave
Newspaper ads for slave sales and fugitive slaves
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/saff8avsdqkh3j4/AADbtV0-1Qkdl6wSIXtTcPOza
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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George Washington and slavery
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h9.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2i1629.html
http://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/slaves/index.htm
The relationship between black and white children
The growth of cotton and slavery
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/why-was-cotton-king/
January 13, 1777 petition of slaves in Massachusetts seeking freedom http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h32.html
Founding of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p249.html
Evaluation of the Willie Lynch letter
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/may04.htm
Mum Bett
http://www.biography.com/people/mum-bett-7324
http://loki.stockton.edu/~kinsellt/projects/sedgwick/storyReader$29.html
Belinda Royall
http://www.royallhouse.org/slavery/belindas-petition/
http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/archive/2002/august/calendar/royall2.shtml
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4491599?uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21103998748081
ASSESSMENT
Assign students to create a list of at least 10 abolitionist leaders, movements or incidents working against slavery during this time period. Rank
each item in order determining which was most effective and explain their reasoning of why for each.
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE 1690-1860

2 - 3 weeks
STATE STANDARDS
AAH.9 Compare and contrast African-American urban and rural communities in the North and the South.
AAH.10 Describe and analyze the African-American family in antebellum America.
AAH.11 Describe the development of African-American institutions such as religion, education and benevolent organizations.
AAH. 12 Identify and explain the contributions of African-Americans in science and the arts.
BIG IDEAS
African-American life differed greatly between those residing in the north and south both before and after slavery.
RELEVANCE: Many enslaved African-Americans in the north, above the Mason-Dixon Line, were enslaved tradesmen or domestic workers.
Most enslaved African-Americans in the South were outdoor field workers and had a much more difficult existence. Their access to
marketable skills, educational opportunities, possible personal wealth and freedom were polar opposites. Free Blacks in the north, either
released from slavery or born as a free person, were not treated as equals in white society. Only a few states allowed African-American men
to vote and growth in the number of African-Americans in northern states often worried the white population.
TNSS: AAH.9
During the time before the Civil War period, many African-American families in the south were separated in the course of as a result of the
domestic the slave trade.
RELEVANCE: In many instances enslaved African American women did not have control over their own bodies or reproductive capacity and
were bred, often against their will. Child slaves could become currency and could be traded or sold off. Breeders, or women that were
healthy and did well with birthing, were also of high value and often sold or traded for as many as 10 other slaves.
TNSS: AAH.10
Religious worship services for slaves were at times allowed by owners as long as the minister/leader would encourage slaves to cooperate
with the master. African-American Protestant churches in northern states were founded and flourished during this era.
RELEVANCE: Many who were enslaved had been exposed to Christianity at some point in their lives. Missionary societies felt the need to
convert all African-Americans to Christianity as well and established missionary efforts to plantations in the south. Colossians 3:22 and
Ephesians 6:5 were often cited to encourage enslaved African-Americans to obey their master and even justify the practice of slavery. In
1787 in Philadelphia Richard Allen and Absalom Jones founded the Bethel Church, the Mother Church of the African Methodist Episcopal
(AME) denomination. By 1810, there were 15 African churches representing four denominations in major cities of the United States.
TNSS: AAH.11
GUIDING QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
What was a Freeman in comparison to a Freedman?

Were light skinned and darker skinned slaves treated differently? If so, how and why?
What does the term chattel mean?
How did the population of slaves in the United States increase? How did this differ from increases in other western hemisphere
slaveholding nations?
How did the idea of family apply to slaves during this time period? Was this different from ideas of family among free blacks?
What role did religion play in the life of African-Americans during this time period? When, where and how did African American
denominations develop?
How did African-Americans contribute to the growth of America during this time?
How did life differ for African-Americans between in the northern and southern states?
Did free African-Americans in the north have full citizenship and full rights or did they also suffer discrimination? If not, what forms of
discrimination did they face?
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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Assign students to read and compare captivity narratives to slave narratives. How are they similar or different?
Assign students to read both the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Ask students to compare the penalties for
anyone who provided support to or concealed a fugitive slave. Discuss: What are the differences between the two laws? Why might was the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 have been enacted? What might be the impact of the 1850 law on free blacks? How might the 1850 law impact the
abolitionist movement? See resources section for links to laws. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required everyone to aid in the capture of
fugitive slaves or face being fined $1,000 and imprisoned for six months. This act also eliminated protections for fugitives. Previously, some
northern states had required slave-catchers to appear before a judge and jury to validate their claims. After 1850 anyone captured was taken
before an appointed commissioner who received a higher fee for every slave sent south.
Ask students to read the first chapter of Uncle Toms Cabin online. In this chapter the slave trader shares, in detail, his ideas about the
humanity of slaves and how they are to be treated. Outline these ideas to create a description of the system of slavery as viewed by Stowe.
According to Stowe, what drives the system of slavery? What ideas enforce the system of slavery?
Assign students to read Louis Hughess accounts of the prices paid for slaves and the whippings and other punishments. See Resources
section below for the hyperlink. Prices page 12. Whippings and other punishments pages 22-25 & 45-46.
RESOURCES
Slave sale newspaper ads
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oz40ztugd9gs33o/AADF238ZcYhs2l2pgcRe1N7va
Fugitive slave agreement with Native American Indians from 1732
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q0mrda93fas1lx3/AAANkhjJUSWG0NbCqotr1ntQa
Fugitive slave laws
http://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/history/slaveact1793.htm
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/fugitive.asp
Fugitive slave newspaper ads
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/saff8avsdqkh3j4/AADbtV0-1Qkdl6wSIXtTcPOza
Life for slaves at Jeffersons Monticello
http://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/people-plantation
Interactive map on the spread of slavery from 1844-1863 (click on different years to change the map)
http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/map/1844.html
PBS God In America
http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/black-church/
Jarena Lee
African Episcopal Church
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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Other sources for information on African-American churches http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/black-church-brief-history
http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/church-southern/file.html
http://faithcommunitiestoday.org/historically-african-american-denominations
Richard Allen
http://www.biography.com/people/richard-allen-21056735
http://www.ame-church.com/our-church/our-history/
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/denominationalfounders/richardallen.html
http://www.phillyhistory.org/blog/index.php/2009/01/richard-allen-and-the-founding-of-mother-bethel-a-m-e-church/
http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/richard-allen-bishop-ames-first-leader
Absalom Jones
http://www.episcopalarchives.org/Afro-Anglican_history/exhibit/leadership/jones.php
http://www.aecst.org/ajones.htm
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bragg1915/summary.html
Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church
http://www.ushistory.org/tour/mother-bethel.htm
http://christianity.about.com/od/AME/a/AME-Church-History.htm
http://www.motherbethel.org/mus.php
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/search.htm?cx=005555332814368213198%3Ajwvis4yqe7g&cof=FORID%3A11&q=Richard+Allen&sa.x=0
&sa.y=0
Uncle Toms Cabin text online and resources
http://nationalera.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/
http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/utc/
http://nationalera.wordpress.com/further-reading/a-note-on-the-text/
http://nationalera.wordpress.com/
Frederick Douglass autobiography
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/douglass.html
Slave narratives
http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/slave.htm
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/intro.html
Captivity narratives
http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/slave.htm
Twelve Year A Slave text online
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/hughes/hughes.html
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl text online
http://www.readbookonline.net/title/47019/
Hampton, Virginia
http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/06/first_free_african_american_community_possibly_unearthed_in_hampton_va.html
New Philadelphia, Illinois
http://www.newphiladelphiail.org/
http://www.anthro.illinois.edu/faculty/cfennell/np/
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nR/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/130newphila/index.htm
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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Dred Scott
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1856/1856_0/
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/9stlouis/9stlouis.htm
Library of Congress oral history recordings of former slaves
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/index.html
ASSESSMENT
In chapter nine of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, Harriet Jacobs describes the methods of torture and punishment
inflicted on slaves by their masters. Assign students to read the chapter and write an essay regarding the following prompts.
Why, according to Jacobs, do planters/slave masters act in this violent way towards their slaves? What is Jacobs idea about the effect of
unlimited power and isolation? Students should cite Jacobs ideas from the text and then to discuss their own point of view.
http://www.readbookonline.net/read/47019/95863/
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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AFRICAN-AMERICANS DURING THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

2.5 weeks
STATE STANDARDS
AAH.13 Evaluate President Lincoln's views on slavery and the status of freed slaves in the United States.
AAH.14 Identify and explain the roles of African-American soldiers, spies and slaves in the war effort in both the North and the South, including
the 13th U.S. Colored Troops.
AAH.15 Analyze the effects of Reconstruction on the legal, political, social, cultural, educational and economic life of freedmen.
AAH.16 Assess the successes and failures of Reconstruction as they relate to African-Americans.
BIG IDEAS
Abraham Lincoln has been called the Great Emancipator, but did not initially advocate the emancipation of slaves as a war aim. Although he
was against the practice, he thought slavery would eventually end and spoke often about it not expanding to the territories or states carved out
of new lands acquired by the United States.
RELEVANCE: Lincoln had long been against slavery but was not for bringing it to an immediate end through federal power. This was his
stance both as a member of Congress and as President. He felt that the practice would eventually end and he was vehemently against the
expansion of it to any more territories or states. Lincoln faced strong opposition from the south because the south relied heavily on free slave
labor for its agricultural economy, because southern slave owners had invested large sums into the slave trade and because it had become a
regular part of the culture and lifestyle of the south. Some northern factory owners were not strongly opposed to slavery because they were
able to purchase cotton for their thread, yarn and clothing factories at an inexpensive price.
TNSS: AAH 13
African-Americans fought for both the Union and Confederate (though in very small numbers for the latter) armies during the Civil War.
RELEVANCE: The 13th U.S. Colored Troops were one of about 160 African-American regiments to represent the Union Army.!!AfricanAmericans troops helped man Fort Pickering in Memphis and Fort Pillow near Ripley, Tennessee. National cemeteries in Tennessee the
gravestones of some 7,000 USCT veterans 4,208 in Memphis alone - and are marked distinctively with USCT. These men and women
constitute some of Tennessee's heroes who defied Confederate principles: racism, treason and rebellion against the United States.!
TNSS: AAH 14
The Reconstruction Era is regarded as the 10 years that followed after the end of the Civil War. This was a time to bring the country back
together again. Some in the north sought to punish the southern states for the actions that led to the Civil War and the associated costs in lives
and money. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were adopted under the national leadership of the Republican party at this time.
RELEVANCE: The 13th Amendment ended slavery, the 14th gave freed slaves citizenship by birthright and the 15th Amendment gave AfricanAmerican males the right to participate in the political system, including being able to vote or hold office. Southern states passed new laws
creating Black Codes in an attempt to restrict the new rights extended to African-Americans.
TNSS: AAH 15
The successes and failures of Reconstruction depended greatly on enforcement of the slave amendments and the placement of Union troops
in the south.
RELEVANCE: Reconstruction was immediately successful with African-Americans enjoying the right to vote and even hold office. This was all
done with the backing of large numbers of Union troops in southern states. These policies were upheld in the south as long as Union troops
were there to enforce them. When the election of 1876 caused a stir in politics and the Republicans and northern states agreed to end
Reconstruction by removing troops from the south the protections of African-American citizens left with them. Black Codes and Jim Crow laws
were imposed on African-Americans in the south and the social, political and economic discrimination that accompanied the state laws were a
tremendous burden for those who had been freed from slavery only 10 years earlier. African-Americans would not receive the rights and
protections promised in the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments until nearly 100 years later with the Civil Rights movement. The KKK was founded
during Reconstruction and its use of violence and intimidation to prevent Blacks from full participation in society, education, jobs and politics
increased dramatically after the end of Reconstruction.
TNSS: AAH 16
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
GUIDING QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
What role did African-Americans play during the Civil War?

What were the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and what impact did they have on African-Americans?
What was Reconstruction? What did freedom mean to African-Americans? How did their lives change because of it?
How did Reconstruction policies affect African-Americans?
How was the state of Tennessee involved in the Civil War and Reconstruction? What role did African-Americans play?
How and when did Reconstruction end? What was the result for African-Americans in the south?
Ask students to analyze a recruitment poster for African-American men to fight for the Union in the Civil War. Allow them to answer the
questions as part of their learning and discuss finding and answers. See activity hyperlink in the Resources section. More images of posters
are available in a dropbox link also in the Resource section.
Assign students to research and read statements from Abraham Lincoln regarding slavery and the continuation or end of the institution and
answer the following questions. What were Lincolns views? What did he feel should happen regarding slavery? What did he plan to do about
the practice? Did he call for the complete end to it? Was he constitutionally correct in his assessment? Was he morally correct in his
assessment? See Resource #1 for quotations to refer to.
Assign groups of students to research and create a presentation on one of the 13th, 14th or 15th Amendments. Presentations should include
facts about the amendment, important dates, interpretations of the amendment, reactions to it and the effect it had on African-Americans and
America in general.
View the video clip on African-American soldiers and their contributions during the war. See USCT area in Resources section below.
Assign students to read about Booker T. Washingtons day of emancipation. Discuss how different ages of African-Americans were affected
by the announcement and results. See Resources folder for link to reading.
Assign students to read about the Memphis Race Riots of 1866. Discuss what caused the riots, what groups were involved and what the
results were.
Assign students to read pages 67-68 (pages 5-6 of the document) and discuss how white landowners essentially resumed slavery, in
economic terms, with contracts for sharecropping. Consider many of the African-American signees of such contracts could not read or write,
would be limited in any challenges in a court of law and many times had few or no other options to pursue with their new freedom.
Assign students (or small groups) to research one of the African-Americans elected to a political office during the Reconstruction era. Students
should find and detail information about the persons life before the Civil War, what political office they were elected to (title, local, state,
national), legislation and laws they helped create, influence and pass, the circumstances that caused the person to leave office and what they
did after Reconstruction ended. Students should create a presentation and share it with the class.
RESOURCES
Lincoln on slavery
http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/slavery.htm
http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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Frederick Douglass
http://abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abraham-lincolns-contemporaries/abraham-lincoln-and-frederick-douglass/
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/147douglass/147douglass.htm
http://www.biography.com/people/frederick-douglass-9278324
Massachusetts and Abolition
http://www.masshist.org/online/abolition/index.php
United States Colored Troops (USCT)
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/usct/usct-united-states-colored.html
http://www.civilwar.org/video/usctharijones.html (video clip)
African-American soldiers in the Civil War
http://ww2.tnstate.edu/library/digital/BlacKs.htm
http://blogs.archives.gov/blackhistoryblog/2014/04/08/fort-pillow-150th-anniversary/
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/images/recruitment-broadside.gif
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/activities.html
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/douglass-sons.html
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/civilwar/aasoldrs/
The Slave Who Sailed Himself To Freedom
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/video/ - 545
Booker T. Washington day of emancipation
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x0rf36sa0erl7qn/AADmAkqJXfciWj99sG_uMbYCa
Memphis Race Riots
How to set up sharecropping
Interactive timeline
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/segregation.html
13th, 14th & 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html
African-Americans Elected
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/reconstruction-african-american-senators/story?id=18368916
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/black-legislators-during-reconstruction
http://www.thenation.com/article/rooted-reconstruction-first-wave-black-congressmen
http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Black-Americans-in-Congress/
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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ASSESSMENT
Assign students to write an essay addressing the following topics regarding the short readings below: What does each piece propose? How
are the propositions different? Compare and contrast the points of view from each piece. Explain the significance of each piece regarding the
abolitionist movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction.
October 18, 1858: excerpt from Abraham Lincolns letter to James N. Brown:
I do not perceive how I can express myself, more plainly, than I have done in the foregoing extracts. In four of them I have expressly
disclaimed all intention to bring about social and political equality between the white and black races, and, in all the rest, I have done the same
thing by clear implication.
I have made it equally plain that I think the negro is included in the word "men" used in the Declaration of Independence.
I believe the declaration that "all men are created equal" is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest; that negro
slavery is violative of that principle; but that, by our frame of government, that principle has not been made one of legal obligation; that by our
frame of government, the States which have slavery are to retain it, or surrender it at their own pleasure; and that all others -- individuals, freestates and national government -- are constitutionally bound to leave them alone about it.
I believe our government was thus framed because of the necessity springing from the actual presence of slavery, when it was framed.
That such necessity does not exist in the territories, where slavery is not present.
...It does not follow that social and political equality between whites and blacks, must be incorporated, because slavery must not.
.
Call to Rebellion Address, 1843 Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, Address to the National Convention of Negro Men, Albany, New York,
August 1843
Think how many tears you have poured out upon the soil which you have cultivated with unrequited toil and enriched with your blood; and
then go to your lordly enslavers and tell them plainly, that you are determined to be free. Appeal to their sense of justice, and tell them that they
have no more right to oppress you, than you have to enslave them. Entreat them to remove the grievous burdens which they have imposed
upon you, and to remunerate you for your labor. Promise them renewed diligence in the cultivation of the soil, if they will render to you an
equivalent for your services. Point them to the increase of happiness and prosperity in the British West Indies since the Act of Emancipation.
Tell them in language which they cannot misunderstand of the exceeding sinfulness of slavery and of a future judgment, and of the righteous
retributions of an indignant God. Inform them that all you desire is FREEDOM, and that nothing else will suffice. Do this, and forever after
cease to toil for the heartless tyrants who give you no other reward but stripes and abuse. If they then commence the work of death, they, and
not you, will be responsible for the consequences. You had better all die immediately, than live slaves and entail your wretchedness upon your
posterity. If you would be free in this generation, here is your only hope. However much you and all of us may desire it, there is not much hope
of redemption without the shedding of blood. If you must bleed, let it all come at once rather die freemen, than live to be slaves. . . .
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE FROM EMANCIPATION THROUGH WORLD WAR I

2 weeks
STATE STANDARDS
AAH.17 Assess the economic and social impact of Jim Crow laws on African-Americans.
AAH.18 Analyze the legal ramifications of segregation laws and court decisions on American society.
AAH.19 Compare and contrast the political movements that developed in response to Jim Crow laws, including the Niagara Movement, the
NAACP, the Urban League, the Atlanta Compromise, the Colored Farmers' National Alliance and Cooperative Union, Brotherhood of Sleeping
Car Porters and the Anti-Lynching Crusade.
AAH.20 Compare and contrast the African-American political and legal personalities of the time period and their impact on American society,
including Samuel McElwee, Robert R. Church Jr., Ida B. Wells, Randolph Miller and James Napier.
AAH.21 Describe the development of African-American institutions such as religion, education and benevolent organizations.
AAH.22 Evaluate the economic, cultural, political, and social impact of African-American migration within and from the South, including the
Exodusters, Benjamin Pap Singleton and the 2nd Great Migration.
AAH.23 Describe the impact of African-American regiments in the western campaigns, the Spanish-American War and World War I, including
Buffalo Soldiers and George Jordan.
BIG IDEAS
Jim Crow laws and disfranchisement limited the upward mobility and economic earning potential for African-Americans.
RELEVANCE: In several states African-Americans were not allowed to vote, live in certain communities nor hold certain jobs. This made them
second-class citizens at best in most communities and limited their ability to grow and prosper as an ethnic minority in the United States.
African-American professionals, institutions, universities, businesses and communities did register success but in an unequal environment.
TNSS: AAH.17
Several legal challenges to segregation were defeated in federal and state courts. Legal challenges to state constitutional changes (poll taxes,
literacy tests, residency requirements, the grandfather clause) that disfranchised large numbers of black voters were also defeated.
RELEVANCE: In the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision the United States Supreme Court ruled that separate facilities did not violate the 14th
Amendment of the Constitution as long as these facilities were equal. Separate but equal was legal precedent for the next 100 years. In
Williams v. Mississippi (1898), the Supreme Court ruled that state constitutional changes limiting the franchise did not violate the 15th
Amendment.
TNSS: AAH.18
Responses to segregation and disfranchisement varied in goal, strength and success and included the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, the
Urban League, the Atlanta Compromise, the Colored Farmers' National Alliance and Cooperative Union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters and the Anti-Lynching Crusade. Not all African-Americans agreed on how to proceed forward.
RELEVANCE: Booker T. Washingtons Atlanta Compromise called for black economic independence and developing skill sets to earn a more
respected place in society. Protest organizations including the Niagara Movement, the Liberty League and NAACP, supported activists like
W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Robert R. Church, Jr.,, and sought a more radical agenda calling for complete equality of rights.
Organizations like the Colored Farmers Alliance and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters advocated group pressure by farmers and
laborers to push for changes in employment, wage and benefit policies.
TNSS: AAH.19, AAH.20, AAH.21
Many African-Americans chose to leave the Jim Crow south. They migrated west or north seeking better economic and educational
opportunities in addition to greater freedom and safety.
RELEVANCE: The Exoduster Movement (1870s) and the Great Black Migrations of the twentieth century increased black populations in rural
and urban areas in the Far West, Midwest, and Northeast and decreased the population of blacks in the rural south. African Americans also
left rural farms and plantations for southern cities like Memphis and Nashville. Because many of these people had limited skills and low
incomes they were forced to live in less desirable areas and faced many challenges.
TNSS: AAH.22
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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African-American men served in military campaigns against Native Americans as well as in the Spanish-American War and World War I.
RELEVANCE: Although African-American soldiers, such as the Buffalo Soldiers, helped to open the western frontier, for American expansion
and black soldiers rode with Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders at Cuba during the Spanish American War, they served in segregated
units, faced discrimination and most were not allowed to become officers. This standard continued through World War I and World War II and
only ended when President Harry Truman issued an executive order ending segregation in the United States military in 1948.
TNSS: AAH.23
GUIDING QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
When did slavery officially end?

What were the Great Black Migrations? What motivated these migrations?
Why did so many African Americans leave the rural south heading to urban areas?
What were some similarities and differences in the goals and strategies for challenging segregation and disfranchisement of leaders like
Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Robert R. Church, Jr., and W.E.B. DuBois?
Did all African-American leaders seek the same path to full inclusion in society? If not, why? Which do you think were most effective?
What is the significance of the Plessy v. Ferguson and Williams v. Mississippi decisions?
What forms of political action did African-Americans initiate? For what goals?
How was political action affected by the increase in discrimination and violence during the 1890s?
Read and interpret the call for a national conference to address the condition of race relations in 1909. See resource link below for images of
item from the Library of Congress.
Assign students to review the Supreme Court decisions in Plessy v. Ferguson and/or Williams v. Mississippi.. Did the justices interpret the 14th
and 15ht Amendments correctly? Think about the laws as they were written and understood in that day, not our present state. Write an essay
outlining your position and cite evidence from the texts of the law or the court decisions to support your point of view.
Using a blank United States map, assign students to create a map of Great Migration patterns and trends. Show on the map where AfricanAmericans moved from and to during the process. Students should label the map with important cities and states.
Assign students to research their own families to see if they can find family members who participated in the Great Migration. What migration
patterns do they see in the movements of family members? Were these migrations permanent? What impact did these changes have on
other family members? Has there been movement since for subsequent generations?
Using the PBS American Experience transcripts, divide students into eight groups and have each group read and report back on their topic of
African-American life in 1900 as discussed by Cornell Professor of History Margaret Washington. See Resources section below for the
hyperlink to the site.
Assign students to read the American Experience transcript from Yale Professor of History Laura Wexler regarding photographer Frances
Benjamin Johnstons photos of Hampton Institute around the year 1900. After reading the transcript ask each student to select one photo from
the Library of Congress collection and present the photo to the class noting the title, place, date, setting and significance of the photo and the
persons or events depicted in the photograph. What does the photograph reveal about the lives of an African-Americans of that day? Is it
typical? Why or why not? Would such a photo fit better with the words and ideas of Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. Du Bois? Why? See
Resource section below for hyperlinks to necessary sites.
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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RESOURCES
Visit to the Jim Crow Museum film clip
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/video/racist-images-and-messages-in-jim-crow-era/
Plessy v. Ferguson
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1895/1895_210
Call for national conference to address racial inequality
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/naacp/earlyyears/Assets/na0018p1_enlarge.jpg (page 1)
PBS American Experience 1900 Margaret Washington Transcripts 2-9
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/filmmore/reference/interview/index.html - washington
PBS American Experience 1900 Laura Wexler Transcript 6
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/filmmore/reference/interview/wexler_johnsphotoaframe.html
Library of Congress collection of Frances Benjamin Johnston prints of African-Americans around 1900
http://www.loc.gov/search/?q=frances+benjamin+johnston+hampton&fa=original-format%3Aphoto,+print,+drawing
The NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/naacp/index.html
Chicagos Black Metropolis
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/53black/53black.htm
New York City Race Riots of 1900
http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/nyriot.html
http://people.hofstra.edu/alan_j_singer/294 Course Pack/x10. Civil Rights/112a.pdf
369th African-American Infantry during World War I
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/369th-infantry/
http://www.archives.gov/kansas-city/press/2014/14-17.html
The National Archives Black History blog
http://blogs.archives.gov/blackhistoryblog/
African-American experience in Ohio
http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/
NPR interview about Great Migrations
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129827444
ASSESSMENT
Assign students to give a brief synopsis of the Great Migration and write an essay on the cultural, political and geographic impact of the Great
Migration on contemporary American life .
Using information from this unit assign students to compose an essay discussing how the life, point of view and actions of an African-American
born after emancipation may differ from one born before and how the implementation of Jim Crow laws may affect each differently.
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND THE HARLEM RENAISAANCE

2 weeks
STATE STANDARDS
AAH.24 Assess the literary contributions made by African-Americans.
AAH.25 Describe the contributions of African-Americans to the performing arts, including Fisk Jubilee Singers, W.C. Handy, John Work III and
DeFord Bailey.
AAH.26 Describe the contributions of African-Americans to the visual arts, including Edmondson Williams.
AAH.27 Evaluate the impact of the African-American media on American life.
AAH.28 Analyze reactions of Americans to the Harlem Renaissance.
BIG IDEAS
Harlem was the most densely populated area for African-Americans during the first decade of the Great Migration. By 1920, Harlem had
roughly 75,000 African- American residents. It was a mecca that attracted African-American intellectuals.
RELEVANCE: The movement and exchange of ideas during the Harlem Renaissance was greater than the accomplishment of several
individuals. It offered an expressive outlet for African Americans to demonstrate their struggles and oppression through the works of poets,
singers, musicians, artists and writers. Similar literary renaissances occurred in urban communities, particularly those with sizable black
populations and African-American educational institutions.
TNSS: AAH.28
The Harlem Renaissance served a two-fold purpose of unifying African-Americans and providing a mechanism for expressing dissatisfaction
with their place in white dominated America.
RELEVANCE: Literature, art, music and ideas that were generated and expressed during the Harlem Renaissance reflected a sense of pride
In their African past as well as a common identity as African-Americans. These works also highlighted the social, political, and economic
disparities confronting African-Americans.
TNSS: AAH.27, AAH.28
Racial identity and the struggle endured by African-Americans was a major theme for writers during the Harlem Renaissance.
RELEVANCE: Authors such as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay and Jean Toomer created works that openly spoke of
their racial identity and the problems of second-class citizenship that African-Americans experienced in the early twentieth century. However,
authors like Countee Cullen believed that racial identity and the negro experience were not factors in the ideas and works of AfricanAmerican writers and poets.
African-American intellectuals, writers, dancers, singers, musicians, artists and poets all made significant contributions to mainstream America
during the Harlem Renaissance.
RELEVANCE: Although few blacks had access and income to attend college, many of the leading names during the Harlem Renaissance
attended some of Americas best schools and were highly educated people.
African-Americans were not the only supporters of the Harlem Renaissance.
RELEVANCE: Charlotte Osgood Mason, Carl Van Vechten, Alfred A. Knopf and other affluent white Americans supported and introduced
African-American works from Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglas, Zora Neale Hurston and others during the Harlem Renaissance.
African-Americans were portrayed in a dual light from a media standpoint.
RELEVANCE: The media depicted most Africans-Americans in a stereotypical sense, while Ethel Waters (singer, actress) and Paul Robeson
(athlete, actor, singer, teacher, lawyer, activist) reflected the variety in and a more realistic view of the African-American experience.!
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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GUIDING QUESTIONS
1. Why was this great cultural explosion in Harlem, New York? Where did other similar movements rise??
2. What effects do the arts have on a community and culture? How do culture and community affect the arts?
3. How did the creativity expressed by African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance impact white Americans and their perceptions of
African-Americans?
4. How did the Harlem Renaissance impact African-American life outside of the arts in areas such as politics, sports and other social circles?
Assign students to choose one piece of art from the Harmon Foundation Collection at the National Archives (see Resources section below)
and compose a poem or short story to go with the piece. The images on the site are black and white, but can be increased in size and
downloaded for closer study. Students can also do a Google search to find the image in color if it was made that way.
Readers Theater Divide students into small groups and assign them to dramatically read a part of or a full short poem by Langston Hughes.
See Resources section below for link to Readers Theater instructions.
Assign students to choose one piece of visual art from the Harlem Renaissance and do a formal analysis of the piece using the document from
the resources section. Teachers may choose to allow students to simply answer each question from the analysis document or compose an
essay using it as a basis for the writing.
Assign students to read the excerpt Returning Soldiers from The Crisis, by W. E. B. DuBois. How does the reading reflect the challenges to
the traditional perceptions of race? See Resources section below for a link to the writing.
Assign students to research, compare and contrast the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) with the NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People). What were the goals and objectives of each? Assign students to compose a short
essay suggesting which movement was the most important and most effective in facilitating change during this period and defending their
choice. See Resources section for sites to refer to.
RESOURCES
Library of Congress Carl Van Vechten Collection of photographs (includes many leading persons of the Harlem Renaissance) http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/van/index/subjects/
Library of Congress Primary Source sets
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/harlem-renaissance/pdf/teacher_guide.pdf
National Archives Harmon Foundation Collection of Harlem Renaissance art (429 works to view, most are downloadable)
http://research.archives.gov/search?refinegrp_location=31&expression=Harmon+Foundation&pg_src=brief&data-source=online
UNIA
http://www.theunia-acl.com/
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/garvey.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/peopleevents/e_unia.html
NAACP
http://www.naacp.org/
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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Readers Theater Instructions
https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/readers-theatre
National Gallery of Art
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/global-site-search-page.html?searchterm=harlem&searchpath=%2Fcontent%2Fngaweb%2Faudiovideo%2Faudio%2Fsense-of-place-fine&category=Works of Art&pageNumber=1&lastFacet=category
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/global-site-search-page.html?searchterm=harlem&searchpath=%2Fcontent%2Fngaweb%2Faudiovideo%2Faudio%2Fsense-of-place-fine&category=Artist Information&pageNumber=1&lastFacet=category
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/global-site-search-page.html?searchterm=harlem&searchpath=%2Fcontent%2Fngaweb%2Faudiovideo%2Faudio%2Fsense-of-place-fine&category=Education&pageNumber=1&lastFacet=category
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/global-site-search-page.html?searchterm=harlem&searchpath=%2Fcontent%2Fngaweb%2Faudiovideo%2Faudio%2Fsense-of-place-fine&category=Audio%2FVideo&pageNumber=1&lastFacet=category
Pratt Library
http://www.prattlibrary.org/locations/afam/index.aspx?id=8982
Smithsonian American Art Museum
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/aaa/
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/aaa/aaa_checklist.pdf
Formal Analysis of an Artwork
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/en0g5emk0l79qc4/AACKSoKu8k_bSSwtLEe_E05ya
James Van Der Zee
http://www.biography.com/people/james-van-der-zee-9515411
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/photographer-james-van-der-zee
http://lightbox.time.com/2014/02/25/death-in-harlem-james-vanderzees-funerary-portraits/ - 1
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collectiononline/search?pg=1&deptids=19&who=James+Van+Der+Zee&ft=*&ao=on&noqs=true
Langston Hughes
http://www.biography.com/people/langston-hughes-9346313
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/langston-hughes
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/langston-hughes
Amistad Resource
http://www.amistadresource.org/plantation_to_ghetto/harlem_renaissance.html
Returning Soldiers
http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1127.htm
ASSESSMENT
Harlem Renaissance Box Life Project
Purpose: TLW be provided an opportunity to share their own Harlem Renaissance history knowledge by way of an original
shoe box creation and a detailed narrative featuring their pre selected Harlem Renaissance persona
The information presented should be organized and cover an entire shoe box
Your grade will be based on the following criteria
o Covering the entire shoe box with an original design
o Outside lid title presentation (must be typed)
o Inside lid biography presentation (must be typed)
o Running time line covering all four outer sides of the shoe box that features your Harlem Renaissance persona
o Covering entire inside of your shoe box and including replicas of personal artifacts, highlights and/or achievements that
highlight your Harlem Renaissance personas historical accomplishments
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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o
o
Back/bottom of your shoe box should be completely covered and include a large portrait of your Harlem Renaissance
persona
On the due date, each student should complete a 4 minute oral presentation showcasing your Harlem Renaissance Box
Life Project
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND WORLD WAR II

2 weeks
STATE STANDARDS
AAH.29 Analyze the impact of the Great Depression and the New Deal on the lives of African-Americans.
AAH.30 Evaluate the continued quest for civil rights in America.
AAH.31 Describe the effects of African-American "pop" culture of the 1930's and 1940's.
AAH.32 Analyze the impact of racism in America during World War II.
AAH.33 Describe and evaluate the contributions of African-Americans during World War II.
AAH.34 Explain how World War II laid the groundwork for the modern Civil Rights Movement.
BIG IDEAS
The New Deal brought much needed aid to the Black community during the Great Depression in the form of employment opportunities, access
to food, assistance to the agricultural community and several other initiatives. However, many of those that served in positions to distribute
such aid to those in the African-American community did not complete the process in an equitable manner.
RELEVANCE: Although the New Deal brought new opportunities for African-Americans,ideas of racial inferiority and segregation were still at
the forefront of African-American existence.
During the 1930s and 1940s, the NAACP took the lead in a series of court challenges in the battle for civil rights.
RELEVANCE: The court battles fought and won by the NAACP in the 1930s and 1940s, laid the foundation for legal precedents that bolstered
the twentieth century civil rights movement.
W. E. B. Du Bois was a charter member of the NAACP and the editor of the organizations Crisis magazine. Du Bois saw the African-American
struggle as one that involved two major initiatives - civil rights and income equality.
RELEVANCE: Although the NAACP placed a heavy emphasis on civil rights as their major political agenda, the idea of including a greater
emphasis on economic policies coincided with the African-American struggle in a broader perspective.
The Great Depression threw the American economy into turmoil. However, the impact was felt more deeply and widely in the African-American
community because of the harsh realities of being treated as second class citizens and their status of being poorer than most of their white
counterparts.
RELEVANCE: The notion of hard work, communal sharing and trade was even stronger in the Black community during the Great Depression.
Blacks were no strangers to unemployment, working longer hours for lower pay. However, the Great Depression made many AfricanAmericans feel as though they had made no economic progress since the Reconstruction era.
As pop culture evolved in the 1930s, the media presented audiences with such characters as those from The Amos n Andy Show to the
American public.
RELEVANCE: Although many people of both races enjoyed the show, the African-American community did not share the same viewpoint as
mainstream America and the idea of repeatedly portraying blacks in traditionally accepted roles of service workers or as clowns.
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
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The 1930s and 1940s ushered in an era of blacks on film. These films were known as race films and were meant to be viewed by black
audiences.
RELEVANCE: Although Hollywood executives cast some blacks in movie roles and tried to engage the marketing power of blacks, the roles
portrayed by blacks were often as servants, comforters, entertainers, clowns or other roles that generalized African-Americans as slow moving,
dumb and second in nature to their white counterparts.
Although African Americans were accepted into the armed forces during World War II at the same rate as their white counterparts, they were
served in segregated units that generally were not meant to see combat.
RELEVANCE: Before the start of the war fewer than 4,000 African-Americans were serving in the military with only 12 holding an officers
rank. By the end of the war more than 1.2 million African-Americans were serving in the military. During World War II, the demand for nurses
was high. Rather than utilize qualified Black nurses, situations were created such as in Arizona. In Fort Huachuca, Arizona, during the time of a
high demand for nurses during the war effort, 82 African American nurses were overseeing 150 Black soldiers. The racial status of the nurses
superseded their ability to make the call to duty for nurses serving during the war. African-Americans landed on the beaches at D-Day, helped
supply troops advancing through France and flew fighter planes in the 332nd Fighter Group the Tuskegee Airmen.
GUIDING QUESTIONS
1. How did the African-American community survive the Great Depression?
2. Did the New Deal end the Great Depression and offer African-Americans a chance at prosperity?
3. In what ways did the United States federal government attempt to combat racial discrimination and empower the black community during
the Great Depression?
4. What role did race play during World War II?
5. How did the war effort affect the Great Migration?
Assign students to create a list describing the major organizational activities in which black Americans engaged themselves during the 1930s.
Students should identify if the group is social, religious, economic, governmental or some combination of more than one.
Assign students to choose one photograph from the TIME magazine resource (see list of Resources below in the African-Americans and the
Great Depression section) and write a description of the image. Students should describe the setting, time period, fashion, technology, what
the photographer is trying to display and how they feel about the image. Students should then compose an essay describing how life for
African-Americans today is similar or different from what is displayed in the assigned photograph.
Assign students the following reading:
Mrs. Thomas Irvington was a white Southerner raised in Georgia and living in Florida when she was interviewed by a federal writer
in 1939. In the interview, later published in from American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940,
Mrs. Irvington discussed her work as a kindergarten teacher and mother of two sons. In the excerpts below, she describes the
relationship between her family and the employees who were descendants of slaves owned by Mrs. Irvington's ancestors.
Ask students to record their initial impressions of what the passage will be about and what the tone of it will be. What do they expect the
passage to feel like as they read? How will Mrs. Irvington regard the African-Americans in the passage?
Ask students to then read the passage and as a class discuss their impressions compared to what they read in the passage. See Mrs.
Thomas Irvington section in the Resource section below.
Ask students to create a World War II recruiting poster directed at African-Americans.

SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
RESOURCES
Tulsa Race Riot
http://www.tulsahistory.org/learn/online-exhibits/the-tulsa-race-riot/
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/t/tu013.html
http://www.mc.cc.md.us/Departments/hpolscrv/VdeLaOliva.html
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5119/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_tulsa.html
The Great Depression and African-Americans
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/depwwii/race/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_depression.html
http://www.amistadresource.org/plantation_to_ghetto/the_great_depression.html
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&zid=b57acc008e359910d5c2
4de390bb447b&action=2&catId&documentId=GALE|CX3404500017&userGroupName=sand55832&jsid=e59233f4c141abf9b03a0b9f9cd94a6
3
http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2106839,00.html
The National Youth Administration
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/n/na014.html
http://www.nextnewdeal.net/national-youth-administration
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ncn04
Mrs. Thomas Irvington reading passage
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/depwwii/race/threegen.html
Leon Bass World War II African-American soldier, Concentration Camp Liberator
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/142/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97552131
http://www.opendoorpublications.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Good-Enough-excerpt.pdf
https://www.facinghistory.org/chunk/2335
51st Marine Battalion faces segregation during World War II
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/npswapa/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003132-00/sec3.htm
The Tuskegee Airmen
http://www.redtail.org/the-airmen-a-brief-history/
http://www.nps.gov/tuai/index.htm
http://www.tuskegeeairmennationalmuseum.org/home
http://www.tuskegee.edu/about_us/legacy_of_fame/tuskegee_airmen.aspx
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/tuskegee-airmen
African-Americans in the Navy
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/prs-tpic/af-amer/afa-wwii.htm
http://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/your-visit/african-americans-in-wwii/
Mabel Staupers
http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org/archon/?p=creators/creator&id=523
http://www.ajc.com/news/business/profile-of-a-famous-nurse-mabel-keaton-staupers/nQMSf/
http://www.nursingworld.org/MabelKeatonStaupers
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/staupers-mabel-keaton-1890-1989
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
ASSESSMENT
According to historian Stephen Ambrose the lamentable American irony of World War II was that The worlds greatest democracy fought the
worlds greatest racist with a segregated army. (Ambrose, Citizen Soldier) During this global conflict, African-American leaders and
organizations established the Double V campaign, calling for victory against foreign enemies overseas and victory against racism at home.
Using sources from this unit compose an essay that reflects some aspect of the foreign and/or domestic experiences of African-Americans
during World War II.
Assign students to read the following passage and write an essay on how this was a typical or atypical experience for African-American
soldiers during World War II. The essay should address the following: How did soldiers overcome feelings of resentment they may have had?
What problems did they face whole at war? What issues did African-American veterans face when they returned home from the war? How did
their post-World War II experience compare with those African-American veterans returning home after World War I.
April 4, 1995, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Interviewer: Giles R. Wright
A seventy-seven year-old black native Philadelphian, Reginald W. Maddox, recalled a particular incident of racial discrimination he
experienced while serving in the navy during World War II. He described this incident in the following manner:
After we finished our basic training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station near Chicago, we were sent to the Millington Naval Air Station in
Tennessee. At this base, several miles north of Memphis, I underwent training as an aviation machinist mate for about six months. At the
completion of this training, around October of 1943, I, along with eleven other black seamen, was transferred to the naval air base at Pasco,
Washington. In order to get there, we took a bus to Memphis where we were to get a train that would carry us to Seattle. We arrived at the train
station and, after getting off the bus, marched to an area close to the entrance to the stations restaurant for whites. As we stood there, we
could see into this restaurant. And inside we saw a group of about thirty fellows dressed in brown shirts with large white letters that said PW.
These letters reached from the shoulder to the waist, front and back. We didnt know who they were. One of us asked the white seaman in
charge of us who they were. And we were told that they were German prisoners of war. This caught everyones attention for a moment or two.
And someone said, Daggone Germans can go in there and we cant. Isnt this something. And we were thinking that here we have on the
uniform of this nation and the people who we are fighting against who might have to shoot at us and we at them are able to go into a
restaurant that we cant enter. But they were white, and white was right. So, we didnt think about it too long because we knew we were in the
South where there were the regular signs everywhere saying White and Colored. So we marched on off, went around the back, upstairs, to
the stations colored restaurant, and waited for our train.
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
THE MODERN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

3 weeks
STATE STANDARDS
AAH.35 Explain how legal victories prior to 1954 inspired and propelled the Civil Rights Movement.
AAH.36 Describe the impact of Brown v. Board of Education and evaluate the resistance and reaction to it.
AAH.37 Define various methods used to obtain civil rights.
AAH.38 Identify various organizations and their role in the Civil Rights Movement, including the Highlander Folk School.
AAH.39 Assess the extent to which the Civil Rights Movement transformed American politics and society.
AAH.40 Determine the impact of the Vietnam War on the Civil Rights Movement.
AAH.41 Summarize the Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee, including the integration of Clinton High School, sit-ins in Nashville and the
activities of Diane Nash and Jim Lawson.
BIG IDEAS
Although Brown v. Board of Education was one of the most highly publicized cases of the Civil Rights Movement, it would not have occurred
had it not been for the earlier cases won by the NAACP.
RELEVANCE: In previous court cases such as Sweatt v. Painter, Gaines v. Canada, and Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of
Oklahoma, the NAACP had previously challenged the notion of separate but equal and won. These earlier cases laid the foundation for the
the Brown decision.
The decision reached by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education sparked a flurry of emotions from the American public, both
positive and negative.
RELEVANCE: African-Americans celebrated the ending of separate but equal in public education as a major victory of the Civil Rights
struggle. But some southern whites vowed to maintain segregation through legal and extralegal means. The Brown decision called for ending
segregation in public education with all deliberate speed. This allowed changes to take place at the discretion of local communities. The
result was a very slow pace in some southern cities and states with some areas taking 16 years to fully integrate public schools. One of the
most notable instances was in Little Rock, Arkansas.
From the late 1940s through the 1960s, Civil Rights activists used various strategies and tactics in challenging segregation and
disfranchisement of African Americans.
RELEVANCE: African-Americans fought for equality on many fronts, utilizing different modes to challenge the realities of second-class
citizenship for blacks. They marched, led protests, initiated boycotts, participated in sit-ins and freedom rides, and organized into massive
groups for change. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the SNCC, the SCLC challenged segregation in the courts. African-Americans pooled
their resources, created car pools, worked through church congregations, created volunteer groups and formed womens clubs to campaign for
change. Labor unions, college organizations and other initiatives supported the Civil Rights Movement. Though most groups practiced the
strategy of nonviolence, other groups claimed that violence was the best way to confront the violence directed towards the movement and its
members and to compel change. One of the most effective actions tended to be boycotts that hit the establishment economically. Where
whites had long been the preferred or only supplier of goods to many African-Americans in the past, when citizens stopped buying from such
businesses policies were more apt to change.
TNSS: AAH.37, AAH.38, AAH.39
Violence directed toward African-Americans garnered massive attention from the national and worldwide media, the American public, and most
importantly, the national government.
RELEVANCE: The Civil Rights Movement created a rapidly changing political landscape in America. With the highly publicized brutalization of
African-American citizens and victories of the NAACP and other Civil Rights organizations, American politicians and politics were forced to
respond to a profoundly new America.
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
Civil Rights protests were by children and students of all ages as well as adults.
RELEVANCE: Many times children were used in protests so parents could avoid going to jail and losing their jobs and homes. The
Birmingham Childrens Crusade involved young students taking part in the protests. When children were struck by law officers, hit with water
from fire hoses, attacked by police dogs, arrested and sent to jail it opened the eyes of the world to the stance of southern states regarding
equality for all and the lengths they were willing to go to maintain the status quo and avoid change. Four teenaged college freshman in North
Carolina started the sit-in movement which Diane Nash, John Lewis and several other students from Fisk University and other college
campuses would later participate in at lunch counters across the south. Nine African-American students bravely integrated Central High School
in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the face of terrible intimidation but with the support of the National Guard.
The Vietnam War led many Americans to have mixed emotions about the countrys involvement in the war effort. The Vietnam War presented
opportunities to once again accentuate the idea of going overseas to fight for another groups right to freedom from oppression when AfricanAmericans did not have it in their own country.
RELEVANCE: Large numbers of African-Americans served in the military during the Vietnam War. Some African-American leaders noted that
these numbers did not reflect the percentage of blacks in the American population and were the result of the economic problems and the
difficulties young black men faced in securing draft deferrals .Some African Americans refused military service, but others who did serve were
afforded educational and employment opportunities that were not otherwise available.
Service in the Vietnam War provided some African-Americans educational and job opportunities that might not have been available otherwise..
RELEVANCE: Although many African-Americans were denied high paying jobs at home the war effort offered a wider range of opportunities
for African-Americans who served in the military. Blacks who joined the military were afforded opportunities for advancement . They could also
use the G.I. Bill to pay for education when they returned.
TNSS: AAH.40
GUIDING QUESTIONS
1. How did violence against African-Americans shape the Civil Rights movement?
2. How did activities of white Americans like Ernst Borinski, Janie Forsyth, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and Joan Trumpauer
Mulholland help the Civil Rights movement?
3. How did Supreme Courts rulings on cases such as Gaines v. Canada and Sweatt v. Painter help to lay the foundation for Brown v. Board
of Education and the ruling against separate but equal?
4. What was Freedom Summer? How did it affect the Civil Rights movement? How did it affect America?
5. What role did students and children play in the Civil Rights movement?
6. What was the philosophy of non-violent direct action? Where did it come from? Was it effective? Why or why not?
7. Why was media attention important for the Civil Rights movement?
8. How and why did the federal government respond to the events of the Civil Rights movement?
9. What effects did the Civil Rights movement have on American politics?
10. What role did the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike of 1968 play in the overall Civil Rights movement?
11. Were Memphis Black Mondays and effective protest? How? Why? What was their impact?
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
Assign students to complete an image interpretation sheet regarding photos from the Civil Rights movement. See Resources section below for
the hyperlink.
Assign students to select one Civil Rights History Project video interview to watch and report back to the class on. As students report on each
persons recollections create a chart that records similarities and differences that each person relates. How were experiences different from
Tennessee to Mississippi to Louisiana to Georgia? What struggles were the same? See resources below for Library of Congress website with
the video clips.
Assign students to complete the Civil Rights Activities cited below in the Resource section. As a class, discuss the answers students arrive at
as the complete each activity. On the image activity students should complete at least 3 of the sections.
Assign students to read the 1942 Bayard Rustin essay located in the Resources section below. Discuss whether Rustin did the correct thing or
not. Ask students to explain their reasoning. What would have been the outcome if he had acted differently? Why were people willing to
eventually come to his aid? How might that have changed if his reactions had been different? What does Bayard Rustin tell us about our own
actions and how we should conduct ourselves in todays world?
Review the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike Timeline listed in the Resources section below with the class. View the I Am A Man video
from the online site listed in the Resources section below or use the DVD many schools already have. After viewing, ask students to address
the following topics and questions: Describe the working conditions of the sanitation workers in Memphis. What did a sanitation workers job
entail? What challenges and hazards did they face? How much did they earn per week, per day, per hour and per year? How did that wage fit
with the economy of 1968? Were they paid a fair amount? Why or why not?
The Readers Lounge
Purpose: TLW experience a first class reading lounge while reading, Warriors Dont Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals
Create a timeline for producing your Readers Lounge and reading the book
This project should be conducted over a three week period
Two weeks prior to the onset of your project, ask students to bring one pillow and one large bath towel to class (This will ensure you
have something for everyone or at least time to bring in extra materials for students that do not have items to bring to class)
o These items are to enhance your lounge environment
o Be certain to check for any covered corners or small nooks in your classroom environment prior to the onset of this project
o During the actual Lounge implementation be certain to monitor your students carefully
o Lounge activities should not last longer than 20 minutes per class period
o Remove all desks from the main space of the room so that they form a circle on the outer perimeter of the group
o Have students sit on the floor using their towels and pillows
o Break the book into sections and have the class broken down into smaller groups
o After the breakdown, each group should be assigned specific chapters of the book to read during the Lounge portion of
class
o If broken down correctly, it should take no longer than 1 full week to read the entire novel
o After completing the reading, each group should discuss what happened in their section, assign roles and attempt an
impromptu acting skit that speaks to their section of the novel
o After hearing from each group, engage the learners in a full circle discussion of the novel in its entirety
Sample Guiding Questions for Warriors Dont Cry
1. What does freedom mean to you?
2. These students faced a mob because they believed they were right. What are you willing to stand for?
3. How does it make you feel knowing that Melba was only a teenager when this all occurred?
4. Has reading this novel affected how you feel about your own education?
5. What does it mean to be African-American in America today?
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
Each high school has received a classroom set of Harvard Sitkoffs chronicle of the modern Civil Rights movement, The Struggle For Black
Equality. Divide students into groups and assign each group a different incident (chapter) from the book. Each group should create a
presentation about their chapter/incident to share with the class. The presentation should describe the key moments in the modern Civil Rights
movement, whether the actions at these moments were non-violent or violent, how the chapter would have been different if the actions (nonviolence) had differed, why this was an important moment in the fight for Civil Rights and how it affects us today.
RESOURCES
Library of Congress Civil Rights History Project oral history interviews
http://www.loc.gov/collection/civil-rights-history-project/
Emmett Till
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-delayed-but-not-denied/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/emmett-till-case-willie-louis-key-witness-in-the-1955-murder-of-teen-in-miss-dies-at-76-report-says/
Brown v. Board of Education
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/121brown/index.htm
http://www.streetlaw.org/en/landmark/cases/brown_v_board_of_education
http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/brown/resources/biblio-teachers.html
Dropbox folder of additional resources including more readings, images and film clips
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k9ufbff1jsphzlm/AACKWAbjJcnVJn4GfP5NXERFa
The Childrens Crusade film clips
http://www.biography.com/news/black-history-birmingham-childrens-crusade-1963-video
http://www.biography.com/news/celebrating-black-history-the-unsung-heroes
Medgar Evers
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sabd2jx0ozsp5kj/AAB3gIpIjTtzw2V-JAmoGdwba
http://civilrightsteaching.org/1159/
Selma, Alabama
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/133SEMO/133selma.htm
Freedom Summer
http://www.biography.com/news/civil-rights-act-1964-freedom-summer-50th-anniversary
http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/06/freedom_summer_what_was_it.html
http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/06/freedom_rider_hank_thomas_civil_rights_activist_reflects_on_the_struggle.html
http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/06/freedom_summer_by_the_numbers.html
Freedom Riders
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/teachers-guide
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/road/s29.cfm
http://www.npr.org/2006/01/12/5149667/get-on-the-bus-the-freedom-riders-of-1961
Janie Forsyth
http://video.pbs.org/video/1559817617/
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Oprah-Honors-Freedom-Riders
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/An-Emotional-Reunion-Video
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/civil-rights-activists-still-remember-203453
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
Bayard Rustin
http://www.biography.com/people/bayard-rustin-9467932
http://civilrightsteaching.org/resource/nonviolence-vs-jim-crow/
Civil Rights Activities
http://people.hofstra.edu/alan_j_singer/294 Course Pack/x10. Civil Rights/116.pdf
Other informational reading pieces
Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike of 1968
http://www.iamamanthemovie.com/
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_memphis_sanitation_workers_strike_1968/
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/ive_been_to_the_mountaintop/
http://crdl.usg.edu/events/memphis_sanitation_strike/
http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/iamaman/
http://www.chrysler.org/ajax/load-collection-item/59
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/memphis-v-mlk/
Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike of 1968 Timeline
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w85f2tjridb5rqk/AAAvn3cKgdPTA1wPbRPb-1hGa
Ernst Borinski
http://www.pbs.org/itvs/fromswastikatojimcrow/story1.html
http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_archives/vault/projects/OHtranscripts/AU081_096123.pdf (pages 8-9 & 22-31 of PDF, pages 6-7 & 20-29
of document as typed)
http://cds.library.brown.edu/projects/FreedomNow/do_search_single.php?searchid=47 (click on image to enlarge)
Joyce Ladner
http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/joyce-ladner-39
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/3play_1/joyce-ladner-and-the-media-of-the-march-on-w/
http://www.c-span.org/video/?312729-1/dorie-joyce-ladner-oral-history-interview
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/pbs-back-civil-rights-struggle-turning-point-article-1.1435060
Memphis Black Mondays
http://www.commercialappeal.com/opinion/black-mondays-signaled-new-day-despite-risky-the
http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/7/8/2/p377826_index.html?phpsessid=65b9962fbb60438a906ee047eba
44cf3
http://crdl.usg.edu/export/html/tnmpl/memphiscrp/crdl_tnmpl_memphiscrp_000214.html?Welcome
http://books.google.com/books?id=FSxUFpj_9dwC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=black+mondays+Memphis&source=bl&ots=WtQcaH7reS&sig=e
FAYoGZRHhNXhfDpWCVESRr0owc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uePHU4rYEKjhsAT0qYDQBA&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBw - v=onepage&q=black mondays
Memphis&f=false (pages 47-51)
Memphis Civil Rights photo collection
http://crdl.usg.edu/cgi/crdl?query=cl%3Amemphiscrp&_cc=1
James Meredith
http://www.biography.com/people/james-meredith-9406314
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ptycnagnj8gva8c/AAAUEEdhGOn-2K46X7wMGRRFa (film clips)
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/james-meredith-shot
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
ASSESSMENT
Assign students to review the arguments of the Brown v. Board of Education case. See resources links in the section above. Assign students
to write an essay outlining the case and addressing the questions below. Looking at the case according to the laws that were in place in 1954
and with the eyes of someone from that era, students should evaluate if the Supreme Court justices came to the correct decision and cite why.
They should not consider conditions today in their explanation. Did the court over reach in its action? If so, how? Was this judicial activism
or just requiring that the law be enforced as written? Explain. What was the importance of the phrase with all deliberate speed and how did it
affect the actions of states following the ruling? Why did the justices use this term and should they have done something different? Explain.
What is the impact of the decision on our country today? How does it affect them personally? Is the decision still in force or have the citizens
of our country forgotten about it and moved on? Explain.
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
AFRICAN-AMERICAN ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY TIMES

2 weeks
STATE STANDARDS
AAH.42 Identify and analyze how the changing political environment has impacted civil rights.
AAH.43 Describe how African-Americans have responded to or engaged in political conservatism.
AAH.44 Compare and contrast the responses of African-Americans to the economic, social and political challenges of contemporary America.
AAH.45 Identify and evaluate major contemporary African-American issues confronting society, including affirmative action, the educational
achievement gap, the wealth gap, poverty, AIDS and crime.
AAH.46 Analyze the impact of immigration and migration on the lives of African-Americans in contemporary America.
AAH.47 Identify the major contributions of contemporary African-Americans in business, education, the arts, politics, sports, science,
technology and society in general.
BIG IDEAS
Civil Rights issues still face African-Americans of the 21st century and continue to affect the political, social and economic landscape of
America.
RELEVANCE: Access to quality educational opportunities, the wealth distribution gap, voting issues, population-disproportionate incarceration
rates and a cyclical continuation of poverty are challenges the African-American community faces today. Although there are many political and
business leaders within the community the number in comparison to the percentage of African-Americans that make up the general population
is low. This is just the opposite of the jail and prison populations and general justice system encounters, which tend to have an unusually large
number of African-Americans.
TNSS: AAH.42, AAH.44, AAH 45
Compared to the America of the past, African-Americans today are afforded many more opportunities to create a better life as it relates to
social status, employment and income growth.
RELEVANCE: Although a greater number opportunities exist and are easier to access, in many ways African-Americans still lag behind other
Americans. African-Americans are underrepresented in access to better employment initiatives, the opportunities to create wealth and
success and equal access to a quality education.
Prior to the modern Civil Rights Movement few people of African descent immigrated by choice to the United States because of the harsh
conditions which African-American citizens experienced.
RELEVANCE: In the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement and the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act, America has seen a steady increase in the
immigration of individuals of African from the continent of Africa and other parts of the world. In recent years, with the increase in Latino
immigrants, African-Americans are no longer the largest minority group in the United States.
TNSS: AAH.46
The question of reparations for African-Americans as compensation for the injustices of slavery and segregation has been debated for
decades. Discussion has also centered on the issue of affirmative action.
RELEVANCE: Many argue that African-Americans should receive reparations since Japanese-Americans and some Native Americans have
been compensated for past discrimination undertaken by the federal government. Affirmative action has been viewed by some Americans as a
method of resolving the effects of past discrimination.
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
Although there is evidence of significant progress among African-Americans since the Civil Rights Movement, poverty is still relatively high in
the black community.
RELEVANCE: Many African-Americans have experienced generational poverty, whereby those before them were poor and the cycle
continues over time. Most blacks that experience poverty currently live in low income housing that is saturated with a high crime rate, more
incidents of violence, exposure to gangs, high rates of HIV/AIDS infections and drug abuse. These living situations often do not allow
opportunities for advancement via better employment opportunities, access to better educational opportunities or adequate healthcare
facilities.
GUIDING QUESTIONS
1. To what extent has racial equality and harmony been achieved in the 21st century?
2. What is hip-hop culture,, where did it come from, what does it portray and what influence does have on mainstream media in todays
society?
3. How has the Civil Rights Movement changed in the 21st century?
4. How has the role of African-Americn women changed over the last 50 years?
5. Have African-American churches remained a constant force in the black community? How? Why?
Assign students to dissect one rap song.
What is the base music original or sampled? If sampled, what is the sample?
Describe the beats or rhythms and how it fits the song and why it is an important element.
Where is the artist from and what is his or her background? What ideas do the lyrics attempt to portray to the listener?
Is the song a commentary on the state of African-Americans in society today? If so, is it an accurate commentary?
If the song presents/describes a problem or issue, does the artist propose a solution? If so, what is that solution?
Do the lyrics reflect the ideals of historical African-American leaders?
What commentary does this song and artist make about the broader American or world society today?
Does this artist reflect the African-American community today? Why or why not?
Assign students to find current articles that deal with an issue positive or negative regarding the African-American community today. Allow
students to present a summary of the article and proposed solution or recommendation regarding the topic.
View the images and read the articles surrounding the famous photo Soiling Old Glory and ask students to comment on how that fits in with
their view of African-Americans in todays society.
Assign students to research recent Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action.. After discussion of articles and the topic, assign students an
essay on whether affirmative action is still necessary today.
Read articles about Donald Sterlings recent comments and his removal as owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. Should the NBA have removed
him from ownership or should his comments been viewed as an issue of free speech? How does this compare with other free speech issues?
Read Myrlie Evers recent interview from National Geographic. Assign each student one question from the interview to address and how they
would answer that question for the reporter if it were asked of them.
View images of the works of contemporary African-American artists. Ask students to select one piece and write an essay about how it touches
them personally and what connection they may have to it. See some suggestions of artists to consider in the Resources section below.
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
Create a classroom talk show featuring one half of students as panelists for the show and the other half as the studio audience. Some
suggested questions for the panel and audience participants may include What factors have allowed African-Americans to make greater
contributions to society? Who are the prominent African-Americans in modern America? Why should we consider them prominent? What are
the most crucial problems facing African-Americans today? What are realistic solutions to these problems that can be enacted right now?
RESOURCES
Soiling Old Glory
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/assets/Image/Nieman Reports/Images by
Issue/75thAnniversary/Meaning/data/images1/stanley_forman_soiling_old_glory.jpg
http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/04/04/a-flag-a-busing-fight-and-a-famous-photograph
http://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/item.php?item_id=210
http://www.slideshare.net/nstearns/soiling-of-old-glory
Artists
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/audio-video/video/glenn-ligon.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/27/30-americans_n_3997477.html
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9f5w2us9uasqju8/AAB146S2TEBvAfTwdI749OqBa
Myrlie Evers National Geographic interview
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140625-myrlie-evers-widow-medgar-evers-civil-rights-history/
Donald Sterling
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/06/23/nfl-great-michael-irvin-focus-on-donald-sterling-taped-comments-misses-point/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/06/03/poll-public-closely-divided-on-whether-donald-sterling-should-sell-team/
http://www.chicagonow.com/chicagos-real-law-blog/2014/05/how-can-you-represent-a-murderer-or-donald-sterling/
http://www.mcphersonsentinel.com/article/20140529/Opinion/140529273/?Start=1
Affirmative Action
http://www.oyez.org/cases/2010-2019/2013/2013_12_682
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/sotomayor-makes-case-for-affirmative-action/2014/06/22/995757d4-fa3f-11e3-b836a372189b76a6_story.html
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/06/justice-sonia-sotomayor-defends-race-based-affirmative-action/
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/jun/02/real-world-experience-shows-affirmative-action-tra/
The National Archives
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/portrait_of_black_chicago/introduction.html
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/summer/pioneering-photographers.html
Tom Brokaw/NBC News on modern feelings about race
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3g72b552r6c0hud/AAB1ptu1ud8kh7_y-t7wphp1a
SOCIAL'STUDIES'
!
ASSESSMENT
Purpose: TLW be provided an opportunity to explain their guided vision through African American History by completing a
African American History rap, dance and video to compliment the historical eras we have discussed throughout the school
year
o Each class will be divided into 5 groups
o Your group will present a body of work on the assigned covered eras of history
o Each body of work will consist of a detailed historical rap, a rap video presentation, props and a group outfit for your video
! Each group will be assigned a specific order of events with no changes made after the assignment
! All team must create an original rap song detailing events from the that sequence the course guide starting with
the influence of geography on slavery, the growth of slavery in America from 1619-1860, African American Life
1619-1860, African Americans during the Civil war and reconstruction, African American Life after Emancipation
through World war I, African Americans and the Harlem Renaissance, African American life during the Great
Depression and World War II, the Modern Civil Rights Movement, and lastly; Contemporary issues in the African
American community today:
All lyrics must be about HISTORY
No profanity allowed
All members must be present in the rap
All members must perform a group dance
Each rap must include a group presentation of the Declaration of Independence speech
o Each group must present in video style format
! All members of the group must be present in the video to receive the group grade
! Each presentation must cover all items addressed only, no raps about items other than history
! All group members must be dressed according to the group selection
! All group panel presentations will be conducted in a rap video format
! Each group must have a rap group name, logo, and motto
! 5 point deduction for each member not dressed properly
o Each group must create an original dance to coincide with your rap video presentation
All members of the group must participate in the rap video choreographed routine
Each dance must be a choreographed routine-group participation is required
All groups must include original drawings, back drop, theme music, and be dressed in uniformed colors based on a
group decision
All videos must be at least 4 minutes in length
o Your goal is to create an entire historical rap video production
! All participants must be at school to participate on the day of presentations
! Each group member that is absent will equate to a loss of 10 points, per person, towards the final group grade
! All members MUST participate in the project; i.e. GROUP PROJECT
! No late projects will be accepted

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SOCIAL'STUDIES'

THE INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHY ON SLAVERY

Shelby County Schools 1 of 4!

Shelby County Schools 3 of 4!

Shelby County Schools 4 of 4!

THE GROWTH OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA - 1619-1860

Shelby County Schools 1 of 3!

Shelby County Schools 3 of 3!

AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE 1690-1860

What was a Freeman in comparison to a Freedman?

Shelby County Schools 4 of 4!

AFRICAN-AMERICANS DURING THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

What role did African-Americans play during the Civil War?

Shelby County Schools 3 of 4!

Shelby County Schools 4 of 4!

AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE FROM EMANCIPATION THROUGH WORLD WAR I

When did slavery officially end?

Shelby County Schools 2 of 3!

AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND THE HARLEM RENAISAANCE

Shelby County Schools 2 of 4!

Shelby County Schools 4 of 4!

AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIFE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND WORLD WAR II

Shelby County Schools 1 of 4!

Ask students to create a World War II recruiting poster directed at African-Americans.

April 4, 1995, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Shelby County Schools 4 of 4!

THE MODERN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Shelby County Schools 2 of 6!

Shelby County Schools 3 of 6!

Shelby County Schools 5 of 6!

Shelby County Schools 6 of 6!

AFRICAN-AMERICAN ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY TIMES

Shelby County Schools 1 of 4!

Shelby County Schools 2 of 4!

Shelby County Schools 3 of 4!

Shelby County Schools 4 of 4!

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