Teacher's Guide for FOOTSTEPS Great Migration

• to understand the reasons behind The Great Migration
• to understand the impact of The Great Migration on both African Americans and the country as a whole
• to gain an appreciation for the significant role various organizations have played in minority communities
• to increase use of contextual clues to enhance comprehension
• to experience the opportunity to take inspiration from artists and create from a model
• to improve geography skills through map practice
• to practice writing skills through a variety of activities
• to participate in small group and whole class activities

1. Discuss the idea that a newspaper can have an impact on what happens in the world. As an example, show the front page of your local paper and discuss how the choices for what appears on that front page might have been made. Other newspaper activities might include the following:
   • Show the editorial page and explain that most newspapers do have a voice. Explain how that voice might be used to influence elections, etc.
   • If African American newspapers (or other minority newspapers - such as Hispanic or Asian) are published in your community, bring these in and discuss their importance.
2. Ask students to highlight or copy everything in quotation marks in this article. Show how an understanding of what this article is about could be reached by simply reading the first paragraph and then making sense of each of the items in quote.

In order to more fully appreciate all of the information in this article, it can be broken down into five sections. Provide each student with a study guide. Divide the class into five groups, and explain that each group will find the answers for one section and then provide those answers to the rest of the group, either by rotation among groups or during a class presentation.

Section #1 (page 5 - bottom of page 6)

1. Who was Frederick Douglass?
2. What did Douglass say "the black man want(s)"?
3. What three things did Douglass say freedom included?
4. What did the 14^th Amendment declare?
5. What were four actions African Americans took which made white southerners initiate violence against them?

Section #2 (bottom of page 6 - bottom of first column on page 7)

1. What was the Ku Klux Klan determined to do?
2. What groups of African Americans did they target?
3. What was "taken away" during the 25 - 30 years after Reconstruction?
4. What was usually a part of a supremacist constitution?
5. During what time was there no black representation in the U.S. Congress?

Section #3 (bottom of first column page 7 - last column page 8)

1. By the end of the 1800s what kind of work did most African Americans do?
2. How were they paid (and what were the problems with this payment method)?
3. What is a "boll weevil" and how did it affect farming?
4. What other problem caused share croppers to fall deeper into debt?
5. Explain where the words "Jim Crow" originally came from and what the phrase meant when applied to laws.

Section #4 (last column page 8 - first column page 9)

1. White people who (fill in) _____________________________ enacted laws to do what?
2. What was one of the first places where black people were segregated from whites?
3. Name eight other places where black people faced segregation.
4. What did the famous Plessy v. Ferguson case determine?
5. How did this decision conflict with the 14^th amendment?

Section #5 (bottom of first column page 9 through end of article)

1. What had these injustices destroyed?
2. Why did African Americans begin to migrate to urban areas?
3. What kinds of groups helped in the struggle?
4. With what river was the Ohio River compared?
5. With what place was the North compared?

1. Together, look through the magazine at Lawrence's work. Ask students to notice that Lawrence uses simple shapes and only a few colors in his work. (You might read aloud the caption on page 12.)
2. Ask students to make a drawing of a part of the classroom, following Lawrence's lead. Suggest that they only use a couple of shapes - such as rectangles and triangles, and instruct them to use only a few strong colors. (The caption lists "red, yellow, turquoise, and brown.")

1. Provide a blank map of the United States with the states outlined but not named (for students with lower level skills, provide labeled maps). Ask students to draw lines from various southern states to the most likely places people migrating might have gone. Destinations mentioned include Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Chicago, New York, and the West Coast.
2. Give each student a blank piece of paper. Read aloud the section of the article on housing problems (roughly pages 17 - 20). When you're finished, ask students to look back through the reading and decide which problem with housing they consider to have been the most severe and to privately write it down so that it covers the whole sheet of paper. Then ask the students to hold up their papers; compare answers, count to see which one was given the most often. Repeat the process with the last section of the article which deals with employment problems.

1. Pair students. Ask them to "time travel" to the summer of 1919. Using the first two paragraphs on page 23, one student might act as a reporter and the other as an eyewitness to what happened during that week. The reporter conducts an interview with the eyewitness. Pairs can either present the interview orally or prepare it together in written form.
2. Discussion topic: Why were white southerners "often angry to see their black neighbors leave?"

Creating a Time Line will help students better understand both the sequence of events and the impact of other historical events on The Great Migration.

1. Place students in groups.
2. Provide them with posterboard or butcher paper, and ask them to use markers to write the following dates horizontally down the page:

   1929   1930   1932   1935   1941   1940 - 1945   1950s

3. Explain that these dates are not necessarily in order in the article.
4. Assignment: Write down next to each date, WHY the date was mentioned in the article - what exactly is its significance to The Great Migration?

Ask for volunteers, students who would like to each read aloud one of the letters in the article. After hearing the letters, discuss the photographs on these pages. Then, ask students to select any one of the photos and pretend they are part of The Great Migration and that they are sending this photo home along with a letter explaining it in detail.

Additional Requirement: Make sure your letter contains at least four facts about The Great Migration. (Look back through the magazine if you need ideas.)

Ask students to design a brochure which tells the history, purpose, leaders, and size and scope of the Urban League. Show them how to tri-fold a piece of paper so that they will have six sides. The "cover" should give the title of the organization and one or two important facts. The other information should be appropriately divided among the remaining five pages. (Try to find some legal size or larger paper for this project.)

1. Explain the meaning of the word "legacy."
2. Read aloud the following sentence from page 40: "The Great Migration unleashed a new spirit, a new confidence that changed the daily existence of all African Americans and the political, economic, and cultural life of America."
3. Then, go back to the beginning of the article and read the section about Richard Wright. (If possible, also read a selection from Black Boy.)
4. Give students a sheet on which you have copied the sentence in #2. Ask students to write a short paragraph beneath that sentence explaining how it pertains to Richard Wright.

1. Using a piece of construction paper, make a "billboard" advertising the South as a good place to live today.
2. On your billboard, include the following:
   • one quote from someone who is quoted in the article
   • three reasons why someone might want to move to the South
   • some kind of graphic or illustration

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Updated: 11/21/09 02:41 pm
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