Teacher's Guide for FOOTSTEPS Blacks and the White House

GETTING STARTED
Prior to beginning these activities, the teacher should read and review the articles in Blacks and the White House. Ask students to brainstorm a list of outstanding contemporary African Americans. When the list is completed, ask students to circle names of entertainers and sports figures. Ask if any of the people named are in public service, either as civil rights leaders, elected representatives, or government employees. If entertainers and sports figures dominate the list, ask students why they think that is the case. After completing this issue ask students to name African Americans who have held top government positions, such as presidential advisors, military commanders, ambassadors, and cabinet officers. Discuss others who, by achieving excellence, have worked or served at the White House.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. The White House is also called "The People's House," because it is not owned by the President, but by the American people. Today, the White House is a place where "a good citizen and a good American" has the opportunity to work, regardless of race, creed, or sex. How is the White House a mirror of American society? How have presidents used it as a platform for progress? Why is it so important that the White House be accessible to all citizens and not just the rich and powerful? Do you think today's White House is now, in fact, "The People's House?"
2. "Perhaps the most important advantage of working in the White House is that I felt more attached to my country, got to know it and love it better, and acquired a sense of its destiny." Alonzo Fields took great pride in his work as a White House butler. What other examples can you find of people who were inspired by working at or for the White House? What sacrifices have some people made to work at or for the White House? Why do you think the experience influences them in that way? Would you be willing to work in the White House? Explain.
3. "Anything worth doing is worth doing to the best of your abilities," was the motto of John Wrory Ficklin's father, a White House headwaiter. How has a dedication to excellence served people who have worked in or for the White House? How has this dedication helped advance equality? How has this dedication helped to serve the nation? Does excellence always mean being the fastest, strongest, smartest, or richest or can it also mean pride in doing a job well? What examples around you do you see of people who are doing the very best they can? How have they improved your life?

TIME LINE

• Use either the map on page 7 (or detail from it on page 11) or a current map of Washington, D.C. as the basis for a backdrop design for a bulletin board. Create a template with an outline of the White House for students' use.
• Ask students to review the November/December 2002 FOOTSTEPS issue and create a list of significant dates in the history of African Americans and the White House, from Benjamin Banneker's survey of the District of Columbia in 1791 to the present.
• Either assign or allow students to select one of the dates and illustrate the event on one of the time line templates. Students should assemble the illustrated templates in chronological order on the map backdrop.

CREATIVE WRITING

1. Before he became President, John F. Kennedy wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book called Profiles in Courage. It contained the biographies of a number of public figures, each of whom defended justice and the right, even at the cost of popularity, wealth, and safety. Kennedy highlighted individual models of courage and virtue, but sometimes it takes two people to make a change. Select one of the following pairs and discuss how, as "Partners in Courage," they improved the United States: James Madison and Paul Jennings; Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington; Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson; Franklin Roosevelt and A. Philip Randolph; Dwight Eisenhower and E. Frederic Morrow; or Lyndon Johnson and Clifford L. Alexander, Jr.
2. Complete the activity in "Examine the Evidence," on page 40. Next, study either the photograph of Dolly Johnson on page 38 or Jerry Smith on page 39. Pretend you are a newspaper reporter and think about the questions you would like to ask of the person in the photograph. Write a column for your newspaper describing the White House setting of your interview, what the person had to say about working at the White House, and why you photographed them as you did, rather than taking a formal studio portrait.
3. A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison by Paul Jennings (1865) was the first White House memoir. Solve "Simon Says" on page 21 and then write a journal entry for a day in the White House life of one of the individuals featured in this issue. Possible choices include: Benjamin Banneker surveying the White House property; "Jim," a leased slave sawing wood to be used in framing the rooms of the White House; Edy Fosset, a cook in Jefferson's White House; one of Paul Jennings's experiences as a slave, free man, or abolitionist conspirator; Elizabeth Keckley serving Abraham Lincoln's family; White House photographer Frances B. Johnston; Wilson era seamstress Lillian Rogers Parks; John Woodson Ficklin, a head butler in the Kennedy White House; White House Counsel Clifford L. Alexander, Jr. working with President Lyndon B. Johnson; or National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice advising President George W. Bush.

COMMUNITY PROJECT
Each year, artists create a special White House Christmas Ornament, a White House Christmas Program brochure, and ornaments for themed White House Christmas trees. To celebrate Black History Month in February, you may choose to decorate "Trees of Life" with the theme "African Americans and the White House." Individual students, whole classes or grade levels, or the entire school may wish to participate. A team of parents, teachers, and students may wish to approach community businesses for donations of materials which can be formed into ornaments, from fabric remnants to beverage cups. Elements in this activity will include:

• A team of parents, teachers, and/or students setting up either artificial Christmas trees or branches that can be set into Christmas tree bases (being certain that they do not tip over.) Make certain branches are free of insects; spray-paint branches to coordinate with your color scheme, if you wish.
• Each student designing and creating an ornament that illustrates the theme.
• A team of parents, teachers, and/or students hanging the ornaments on the display trees. If desired, they may choose to add small white lights to help illuminate the ornaments, a tree skirt, and ribbons, flowers, or other decorative tree trimmings.
• Students designing, writing, illustrating, and producing a brochure to highlight the ornaments on each display tree. (Student illustrations may be drawings, clip art, digital photographs, or a mixture.)
• A team of parents, teachers, and/or students establishing display times and scheduling greeters and exhibit monitors to staff the display.
• A team of parents, teachers, and/or students notifying members of the school and general community about the display and inviting them to visit it at the school.

If a local historical society, senior center, church, museum, or other organization (such as the school board) is interested in hosting the display, consider taking it "on the road." If students wish to keep their ornaments, they may. If they do not and there is community interest, sell the ornaments and donate the proceeds to the school or a charitable cause of choice.

MAPS THEN AND NOW
After completing "Creating a Capital" on pages 10 - 11, compare the original L'Enfant plan with a current map of Washington, D.C. (The Washington DC Convention and Visitors Association at www.washington.org or 1-800-422-8644 and local travel agencies are a good source for current maps.) Look at both to answer the following questions:

• How has the shoreline of the Potomac River changed?
• What has happened to the canal (the gray line that resembles an upside-down Y)? What modern transportation systems do you see on the map?
• The Supreme Court was to have been built in Judiciary Square between lots 488/489 and 531/532. Where was it actually built?
• Where are the Senate and House office buildings?
• How have the lots along the Potomac shore been developed? Would you call the shoreline residential, or not?
• Has the Mall changed? How does having a large, open area in the capital city help during special events? How does having a gathering place for many people reinforce the idea that our nation is a democracy?
• Presidents used to be inaugurated on the East side of the Capitol; now they are inaugurated on the West side. Why do you think the change was made?
• If you were moving into Washington, D.C., what area would you like to live in and why? Ask students to write an essay describing how the capital city of Washington, D.C. has evolved, geographically, over the past two hundred years.

JUST FOR FUN

1. Use a magnifying glass to read the "Certificate of Freedom" on page 16 or, if you find it too difficult, use the following transcription as a model:

   District of Columbia
   County of Washington} to wit
   
   I, Samuel D. King, a Justice of the Peace in and for said County do hereby certify that I have know the Reverend John F. Cook for many years as a free man, he having been born and raised in the City of Washington.
   
   As witness whereof I have hereafter signed my name & affixed my Seal at the City of Washington this 15 day of August AD 1842.
   
   Samuel D. King << SEAL >>

   Use a piece of beige paper or stain a piece of white paper with tea. Then, write the "certificate of freedom" for a different person in your most elegant handwriting and seal it with a design, sticker, or wax. Fold the written certificate into quarters, punch a hole through a corner and run a ribbon or piece of yarn through the hole. Decorate the outer portion with symbols of freedom and tie off the ribbon so it can be worn.
2. Believe that someday you, too, will perform at the White House. Create a program listing the songs or music, dances, or dramatic readings you will perform for the President and other international dignitaries. Decorate the cover or margins of your program.

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Updated: 9/2/10 11:23 am
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