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In Honor of Dr. King's Legacy

1/19/2015

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06124
In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wanted to post here my Community Meeting message from this past Friday. Every Friday at Harlem Academy we gather as a Middle School and teachers share a reflective message with the students and staff that connects to our school’s creed and mission. In leading my meeting this past week, I wanted to share how empathy and compassion are core to the legacy of Dr. King. In particular, I wanted to illustrate how empathy is key to solving our current threats in the world and our country and that the legacy of Dr. King is not static, that today is a day of service that should further the goals and ideals this great man stood for.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first signed into law as a federally recognized holiday in 1983 and celebrated for the first time in 1986. But like Dr. King’s long struggle towards equality for all, the holiday would not be celebrated in all 50 states until the year 2000.

We all know who Dr. King was. From his emergence during the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, to his arrest in Birmingham, the march in Selma, and of course perhaps his most famous moment in his “I Have a Dream Speech.” Dr. King believed in the ideals of our nation’s founding documents – the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Most importantly, that all men are created equal, that the individual – regardless of color or creed – has worth, and that we are all entitled to certain “unalienable” rights and freedoms.

But Dr. King lived in a time when these rights and freedoms were not protected for African Americans in our country. King fought tirelessly for the enforcement of equal rights for all citizens. He fought to end racism and poverty. He stood for his convictions and his belief in the true nature of this nation’s promise to its citizens. He stood for these things in the face of threats, beatings, jailing, and ultimately gave his life in furthering the movement.  He preached using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to achieve his goals. Using one’s body to create tension that can lead to dialogue and compromise or resolution of our differences. It meant never speaking ill back. It meant never hitting back. In the face of violence and hatred, Dr. King refused to give in to hate or violence. Instead, he preached love and empathy when confronted by the worst in humanity.

In November of 1957, after having battled and one the right to first-come-first-served seating on Montgomery buses, Dr. King spoke to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (Montgomery, Alabama):

"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies." 

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2015: A New Start for Junior Historians

1/9/2015

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Happy 2015!

Here at Junior Historians, things have been picking up steam. We have been ramping up our content on this space (as well as on twitter and instagram) and sharing more about how we utilize primary sources in the middle school classroom. We have a lot planned for 2015, so please bookmark our site and make us a part of your online reading routine.

This week marked the start of the second trimester at Harlem Academy and the start of two new Junior Historians' Field Manuals. This term the seventh grade will be investigating 19th century US History and the eighth grade will be investigating the Cold War. 

Let's take a closer look at what's in store ...

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Amazing Grace Part Four

1/8/2015

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You can find Amazing Grace Part One here

You can find Amazing Grace Part Two here

You can find Amazing Grace Part Three here
This past fall I participated in Amazing Grace: How Writers Helped End Slavery, a masters level course offered by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History. The course, led by Columbia Professor, and GLI President,  James Basker, examined the role of abolitionist writers in the 19th century struggle to end that "peculiar institution." The final project was to compile our own abolitionist writing anthology that could be used in the classroom. 

I wanted to share the work I generated during this course as perhaps the primary sources I chose could prove useful in your own classrooms. In this blog "mini-series" (Amazing Grace) I will share with you my reflections, my anthology introductions, and the sources themselves. Most, if not all, of the sources I reference can be found in James Basker's book American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation.

The Culminating Project: 
A New Abolitionist Anthology
Reflection:
In my seventh grade United States History course we take an entire trimester to investigate slavery in the 19th century. We examine the conditions of chattel slavery, the works of abolitionists, the era of failed compromises, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction Era utilizing only primary source materials. In creating my abolitionism anthology, I intend to create a supplementary workbook for my students to guide them in researching and discussing the evolution of abolitionist writings. In particular, I wish my collection to track the varied justifications and arguments presented by 19th century writers to push the issue of abolitionism to the forefront in the 19th century.

The collection will culminate with excerpts from the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s second inaugural address, and the text of the thirteenth amendment. Students will then discuss and debate the essential question of whether or not Lincoln deserves the moniker, the Great Emancipator. Students will also identify the argument or justification from the anthology that they feel best exemplifies the abolitionist spirit – in that it is the most persuasive.

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Amazing Grace Part Three

1/6/2015

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You can find Amazing Grace Part One here

You can find 
Amazing Grace Part Two here
This past fall I participated in Amazing Grace: How Writers Helped End Slavery, a masters level course offered by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History. The course, led by Columbia Professor, and GLI President,  James Basker, examined the role of abolitionist writers in the 19th century struggle to end that "peculiar institution." The final project was to compile our own abolitionist writing anthology that could be used in the classroom. 

I wanted to share the work I generated during this course as perhaps the primary sources I chose could prove useful in your own classrooms. In this blog "mini-series" (Amazing Grace) I will share with you my reflections, my anthology introductions, and the sources themselves. Most, if not all, of the sources I reference can be found in James Basker's book 
American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation.


Standout Primary Source:
Henry Bibb Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb... 

Reflection:
When digging for primary sources to include in my classroom, I look for eyewitness accounts that will grab the attention of my students. Though the
 American Antislavery Writings anthology contains many such sources, the one that stands out as the most historically significant in discussing slavery and abolitionism is that of Henry Bibb. I have used excerpts from Bibb’s autobiography in class before but never the excerpt presented in this course. I found Bibb’s accounts of the slave trade to be historically minded, dispassionate, and very matter of fact. Usually I tend to gravitate towards works that evoke emotion but Bibb’s accounts are so important to understanding the slave trade and does so without sensationalism, that it is hard to ignore. What stands out most is his ability to convey the indignity and inhumanity of the trade by simply retelling the facts – something only a person intimately involved in the trade could do so masterfully. The explanation of the care taken to attract potential bidders and the explicit details of the examinations will help my students understand just how these enslaved people were treated – as cattle or an inanimate object. Particularly of importance is his account of how intelligence is paramount in inspections, that intelligence was seen as a red flag that a slave might be burdensome or arouse trouble on the plantation. This account is not only “sticky” but steers clear of bias or sensationalism that can cloud the discussion of the facts surrounding the slave trade.

Honorable mention: Patrick Henry’s letter, James Forten’s pamphlet, and Defoe’s
 The Life, Adventuress, and Piracies, of … Captain Singleton.

One source that I have used for many years in my classroom that should be considered for future iterations of this
 Amazing Grace course is Susan B. Anthony’s Make the Slave’s Case Our Own speech from 1859. He eloquence is on display in this powerful argument of persuasion. She quotes the scriptures and uses a simple but effective argument. She puts the onus on the listener by humanizing those who have been so dehumanized through the slave trade. By asking her white audience to imagine a slave’s fate as their own and thus compelling us to consider the golden rule by “walking a mile in their shoes.” Undoubtedly no one in the audience would seek to change places with an African American in 1859 but it so succinctly gets at the very moral issue that slavery was. 


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Amazing Grace Part Two

1/5/2015

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You can find Amazing Grace Part One here
This past fall I participated in Amazing Grace: How Writers Helped End Slavery, a masters level course offered by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History. The course, led by Columbia Professor, and GLI President,  James Basker, examined the role of abolitionist writers in the 19th century struggle to end that "peculiar institution." The final project was to compile our own abolitionist writing anthology that could be used in the classroom. 

I wanted to share the work I generated during this course as perhaps the primary sources I chose could prove useful in your own classrooms. In this blog "mini-series" (Amazing Grace) I will share with you my reflections, my anthology introductions, and the sources themselves. Most, if not all, of the sources I reference can be found in James Basker's book American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation.

Putting primary sources into conversation:
James Forten’s Letters and the anonymous ballad, The African Slave
Reflection:
In my 7th grade history class, students investigate the struggle of abolition as a process. From chattel slavery, to the North West Ordinance, the importation  ban, the failed compromises, etc, until we arrive at the Reconstruction Era amendments (we pick up the civil rights struggle in the 8th grade). The two texts that best fit into this conversation and illustrate the constant push for abolition and the curious situation of free-blacks in America at the time, are James Forten’s Letters and the anonymous ballad, The African Slave.

The first person account of Itaniko’s capture, attempted escape/suicide, role in talking down a rebellion, and mancipation directly to the aversion to and surprise at the actions of these “Christian” men: “You boast of your Freedom … your mild Constitution.” Thus dispelling the philanthropic argument of Christianizing and improving the enslaved African’s lot in life. The eloquence and emotion of the ballad clearly captures well the sufferings of the Africans captured and transported into slavery.

The second piece, Forten’s Letters, is a curious continuation of the struggles of Africans in the Americas. Though the slave trade now abolished, Forten speaks of the injustices and inconsistencies in the application of the words of the Constitution. Harkening to the Constitution, Forten says “… declaring ‘all men’ free, they did not particularize white and black, because … [they weren’t supposed to] question whether we were men or not.” Forten here not only exposes the hypocrisies in the document, but illustrates that mere emancipation is not enough to elevate the enslaved peoples to the true status of citizen, or even man. Seeing Pennsylvania as one of the last bastions of liberty for free black men, he laments that the newly proposed bill would render them slaves again – in the stripping of their liberties, movements, and property. 

These two documents interacting will help my students to see the slow progression towards achieving the ideals in the Constitution through emancipation. That once removed from the bonds of chattel slavery, the free African was no more free in some respects than his enslaved brethren. The long, unsteady march towards full equality would be, as with many things, two steps forward and one step back for many more years to come.


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