Teaching Notes

This source is a small selection of excerpts from the WPA Narratives. The interviews gives the reader a glimpse of the enslaved voice during the Civil War. I specifically selected people from Tennessee, mostly Nashville. I included the street addresses too. Later in the year, we do a study on Nashville's Black communities. Circling back to these interviews when we do our place based study makes for a richer, layered learning experience.  Questions I may pose my students is to consider how the interviewees responses would be different had it been someone other than a white person asking the questions. How may have the experience been shared differently? We would also tease out how in what ways does the manner in which dialect is recorded impact the delivery and portrayal of the person being interviewed. These interviews were recorded in the 1930's. How does this impact the validity of the narrative or in what way may the memory be recalled differently?  

Teaching Notes

This resource showcases how after the Civil War freedmen across the nation were taking steps to create their own thriving independent communities.  DuBois used photographs at the Paris Exposition of 1900 to share the progress with the world. We selected Fisk University and Tennessee Black owned homes and businesses to use the images as talking points (hook) to kick off the lesson. These images lay the foundation to our emerging local Black communities in the Nashville area inquiry of study. Questions we may ask students are what impact do they feel these photographs played in moving the needle toward justice & equity? Is it possible these photos could fuel a backlash from White people? Why/why not? 

Teaching Notes

This image shows a Black family gathered around a soldier reading a newspaper. The family all look to the soldier in varying states of shock and hope as he reads the Emancipation Proclamation. Present are eleven people including a mother who is kneeling and praying in the center of the image. This would be a good source to pair up with the WPA Narratives. After reading the excerpts, students can delve deeper into making inferences as they analyze the image. It applies to our theme not in a local manner but gives the learner an idea of the setting and experience enslaved people may have been living under during the Civil War. Questions I may ask students are: 

1. What does the image tell you about the experiences of some Black people and the conditions they lived under in nineteenth-century America?
2. How would you describe the expressions on the faces of the newly emancipated people in this scene?
3. How did Black people self-advocate and fight for their own freedom?

Teaching Notes

Teaching Notes

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): This ruling established the “separate but equal” doctrine that became the key legal permission for Jim Crow laws

1. What is going on in the source? This image is a clear representation of why the Plessy decision was so unfair. 

2. How does it apply to your theme? The idea of civil rights is one of equal treatment for all. The Plessy decision sanctioned clear unequal treatment for people of color.

3. What questions might you pose to students if using this source? I would ask students to analyze the image and give clear historical examples of the failure of Plessy v. Ferguson.

Teaching Notes

1. What is going on in the source? This source provides multiple primary source texts for students to gain insight into the thinking and motivation of one of the most import civil rights advocates of the 1900s.

2. How does it apply to your theme? When focusing on civil rights, this primary source set expands the conversation to not only discuss the struggles of African Americans, but also incorporates the separate, but directly related, struggles endured by women.

3. What questions might you pose to students if using this source? I would ask my students to compare and contrast to civil rights struggles of African Americans and Women of all colors based on the writings of Mary Church Terrell.

Teaching Notes

1. What is going on in the source? This collection chronicles many of the most egregious consequences of the denial of civil rights for people of color. 

2. How does it apply to your theme? It is one thing to talk about generic restrictions due to discrimination, it is much more powerful to show tangible consequences. In this collection, we see real people killed, real businesses destroyed, and real opportunities withheld.

3. What questions might you pose to students if using this source? My primary assignment would be for my students to pick one of the covered race riots from the collection and discuss how the families involved may still feel the impact 50 years later.

Teaching Notes

1. What is going on in the source? This is a picture of civil rights leader Marcus Garvey sitting in his office at the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)

2. How does it apply to your theme? Marcus Garvey dedicated his life to uplifting African Americans. The most interesting part of Marcus Garvey is his belief African American could never expect to receive equal treatment in America and should therefore leave America.

3. What questions might you pose to students if using this source? I would ask student to compare and contrast the messages of Marcus Garvey, WEB Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington.