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BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Video Springboards from the Gallery of Achievement
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View the following video interview segments. They feature exceptional Black Americans who have made incredible contributions in public service. Consider how their comments relate to Black History Month. After viewing and discussing these video segments, select a research project that fits your grade level and interests related to Black History.
Rosa Parks
Pioneer of Civil Rights
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My mother was a teacher in a little school, and she believed in freedom and equality for people, and did not have the notion that we were supposed to live as we did, under legally enforced racial segregation. She didn't believe in it.
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[ Interview ] Rosa Parks |
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Two policemen came on the bus and one asked me if the driver had told me to stand and I said, "Yes." And he wanted to know why I didn't stand, and I told him I didn't think I should have to stand up. And then I asked him, why did they push us around? And he said, and I quote him, "I don't know, but the law is the law and you are under arrest."
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[ Interview ] Rosa Parks |
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Rosa Parks: I don't remember feeling that anger, but I did feel determined to take this as an opportunity to let it be known that I did not want to be treated in that manner and that people have endured it far too long. However, I did not have at the moment of my arrest any idea of how the people would react.
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[ Interview ] Rosa Parks |
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The Hon. Colin L. Powell
Former Secretary of State
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Colin Powell: One night after working on the house, I tried to buy a hamburger at a drive-in place in Columbus. I knew I couldn't go in, I didn't try to go in, I just tried to order it on the little speaker box for it to be brought out. The young lady came out to take my order, the way it was done in those days, and she looked in the car and she asked me if I was Puerto Rican, and I said "No." And then she asked me if I was an African student studying at the Infantry School. I said, "No, I'm not an African student studying at the Infantry School, I'm an American." And she said, "I'm terribly sorry, but I can't bring it out to the car, you'll have to get out and go around to the back." And I said, "Thank you very much, no thanks," and I drove off.
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[ Interview ] Colin Powell |
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Colin Powell: One of my little rules is, you get all the facts you can. You get all of the analysis you can. You grind it up in your mental computer and then, when you have all the facts available to you, go with your instinct. I go with my instinct a great deal, but it is not just snap-go. You have to learn the technique of informing your instinct, of educating that little place down in your stomach where instinct resides, so that it is not blind instinct, but informed instinct. Built into each of us is a little calculator that can make judgments that will never appear on a piece of paper. And sometimes you just know something's right -- you can't prove it to anybody -- or you know something's wrong. Little ethical circuit breakers you carry around inside of you, or little right and wrong circuit breakers you carry around inside of you. So, I go with my instinct a great deal.
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[ Interview ] Colin Powell |
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So in 1963 when I came home from Vietnam, having served my nation, having sworn an oath to the Constitution to serve my nation, I came home and was denied access to restaurants and refused service in hotels and motels. If my skin was white, or if I could shine it up a little more than it is and put a hat on my head so my hair wasn't showing, as long as I could prove I wasn't black, then I was free to enjoy these benefits. The fact that I was a soldier of the nation was irrelevant. And this all rested on the Constitution, according to the courts. And according to some 30-odd presidents, and according to some 180 Congresses. This isn't ancient history to me, this is my lifetime, my generation. I choose not to forget that we have this history. No one loves the Declaration or the Constitution more than me, but you have to see it in its correct perspective. And because it was so misused over those years, and it took us 200 years to get into the spirit that was intended by the Founding Fathers, even though they knew they couldn't do it in practice at that time, even though it took us 200 years, we can't ignore the legacy of that history that is still contaminating the present. I think tools such as affirmative action are useful to help us rub out, sand down this inequity that continues to haunt the present, that came from the past. Some say, "We don't wallow around in old history." Why not? We wallow around in the beauty of the Constitution and the Declaration, that's old history. So let's wallow around in all of it, as did the black people for all those years. Therefore, I think it is appropriate to use tools such as affirmative action and other similar tools.
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Johnnetta B. Cole, Ph.D.
Past President of Spelman College
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Johnnetta Cole: I loved school. I thought school was just great stuff. And somehow, I don't remember being teased because I liked school, being isolated, being called a nerd. And I remember now, and remember with a kind of mixed emotion, that I was growing up in the segregated South, going to segregated schools. There was a point when we went to school only half of the day, because the school board in Jacksonville, Florida said that was enough for colored kids. They'd learn all they needed to learn in half a day. I loved school and I think surely a great deal of the explanation must be in the Mrs. Vances of the world. That these were women, rarely men in my early years, who honest to goodness had a revolutionary idea. That every child is educable. That there's no such thing as a child who cannot learn. And so, learning was an activity that one wanted to engage in. Going to school was fun. And I guess, in a sense, I've never given up that passion.
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[ Interview ] Johnnetta Cole |
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I hope that what we have is just the beginning of what it is that we can become. Because what it is that we say and what it is that we do, must absolutely come into greater harmony. This is a nation whose spoken and written vision is chillingly beautiful. That each should have an opportunity. That work will get you where you need to be. That we need to respect each other, including our differences. That's a mighty vision, it's a precious way to talk about the American democracy.
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[ Interview ] Johnnetta Cole |
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Rosa Parks Tribute Project: Create a multimedia slide show or a print scrapbook that describes the life of Rosa Parks. Describe in detail what it was like for her and other African Americans to live in the segregated south under the shadow of Jim Crow laws. Highlight the day on the bus when she refused to give up her seat, her arrest, and the following Montgomery Bus Boycott. Detail how she has continued to work for civil rights her entire life. Include text, maps, illustrations,, photos, and testimonial quotes about her. Present your tribute to the class.
From Segregation to Civil Rights: Dynamic Timeline Project
Use your research information and creativity to develop a dynamic timeline that traces the history of the civil rights movement. Either using the computer or paper, incorporate text, quotes from the Academy, illustrations, photos, etc. to profile the major events and the heroic people who ended segregation. Present your timeline to the class and take classmates on the journey from segregation to civil rights. Explain how this movement strengthened our American constitutional democracy.
Searching for the American Dream: Script Work:
Use your research information and creativity to develop a script for a one-act play or radio program about Black Americans struggle to achieve the American Dream. It could be a drama that focuses on a dialogue between characters or a monologue that profiles one personıs point of view and experience. Use your research from the Academy of Achievement to get different points of view from famous Black Americans. Use your historical research to compare and contrast current views with those from African Americans from different periods in history. Use your imagination. What would happen if Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman sat down together a talked about the American Dream?
Hall of Fame Project:
Develop a multimedia or three-dimensional plan for a Black American Hall of Fame. Select 5-10 African Americans who you believe exhibited the qualities of exceptional citizens. These should be individuals, famous or not, who have inspired others with their civic actions on behalf of others and their work for the common good. For each of the ten exhibits in the hall of fame, write a tribute to this person in the form of a short essay, poem, or biography.
The Colin Powell Story: Web Site Design Project
The Honorable.Colin Powell, the first African American Secretary of State, was born in Harlem in 1937 to Jamaican immigrant parents. His personal journey through discrimination to achievement is inspiring to young people of all races. Review the complete interview, biography, and profile of Colin Powell in the Gallery of Achievement. Design a web page to spotlight his personal history, struggles, achievements, and views on the importance of active citizenship. Include information about his military career and why this type of public service was important to his development as a leader. Include quotes from Powell that you believe are good advice for todayıs teenagers about to come of age as citizens of the United States.
The Roots of Culture
Use online sources and the Gallery of Arts to select one art form strongly influenced by the creativity and talent of black Americans and artists. Write a research paper about the beginning and evolution of this art form in America. To accompany your essay, create a visual map that traces the influence of this art form on other areas of American artistic and cultural life. Identify and profile the key artists that developed and popularized this art form. Comment on how this art form has contributed to and further unified the shared culture of the American people. How is it reflective of democratic principles?
This is the Place!
Develop a multimedia slide show or research paper that focuses on the contributions of black artists and art forms in a particular American city. For example, review the information in the Galleries of Achievement about jazz in New Orleans, blues in Chicago, and theater like Raisin in the Sun in New York.. Make a link between geography, history, and an art form that showcased the artistic contribution of Black artists.
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