 Activists join forces at an August 1970 women's rights march. Photo by Diana Davies/International Film Circuit. Printed in The Nation. Preparation: #803.
Short version: In 1848, a group of activists met in Seneca Falls, New York and issued a “Declaration of Sentiments” (external link) modeled on the Declaration of Independence. Like the original, it listed a series of grievances. These grievances noted, in part, that women had been denied the right to vote, property rights, and access to higher education. By the 1960s much progress had been made in these areas. In 1961, not only was the right for women to vote enshrined in the Constitution, but 20 sat as members of Congress and 2 more served in the Senate. By 1963, women not only had full rights to income and property, but were protected by the first federal statute guaranteeing equal pay for equal work. Also by the 1960s, it was routine for women to continue their education through university, with some going on to earn PhDs and continue in academia as professors. Consider that document and identify:
Extended version: Read “Roe v. Wade” and “The Legacy of Roe: The Debate Continues” (both external links). After reading these passages, consider:
0 Comments
Preparation: #802 Historical context:
 Demonstrators push against a police car after rioting erupts in the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1965.  Martin Luther King, Jr. during Chicago Freedom Movement, 1966.  Malcolm X with Muhammad Ali, members of the Nation of Islam  Black Panther Party community breakfast program. Malcolm X (from the Gilder Lehrman Institute): Civil rights activist Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little, but Malcolm changed his name because he felt that his last name had been imposed on his family by a slave holder. When Malcolm was young, his family suffered greatly at the hands of white supremacists. His family’s home was burned down, and his father was probably murdered in retaliation for speaking out for African American rights. However, the police called both events accidents. Malcolm joined a controversial group devoted to securing rights for African Americans, called the Nation of Islam. He became a national spokesman for the group but left it after he became disillusioned with its leadership. Malcolm started his own organization and soon became frustrated at the civil rights movement’s lack of progress. When asked what should be done to guarantee equal rights for African Americans, Malcolm X replied, “Our objective is complete freedom, justice and equality by any means necessary.” Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., compared: Questions for pairs/triads and then full-table discussion:
Preparation: #801
Today’s class will be discussion around two connected questions: “What did King learn from Gandhi? And, what about that lesson is relevant for the present?” To facilitate this discussion we will review a timeline, key concepts, and then take up discussion roles. Concepts:
Timelines: Examine the following timelines. As you view them, consider which events are essential for addressing our key questions. Discussion roles:
Preparation: #707 Recall:
Key questions:
America, divided:
Pro-war SPEECHES
1960s pro-war protest (3:31)Pro-War Music: Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard, “Okie from Muskogee,” released 1969. (2:38)We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee We don't take our trips on LSD We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street We like livin' right, and bein' free We don't make a party out of lovin' We like holdin' hands and pitchin' woo We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy Like the hippies out in San Francisco do I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee, A place where even squares can have a ball We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse, And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen Football's still the roughest thing on campus And the kids here still respect the college dean And I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee A place where even squares can have a ball. We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all In Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. Anti-war Speech: MLK
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam: A time to break silence” (4:51)So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years -- especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent. For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. Anti-War Music: Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan, “Blowing in the wind,” released 1963. (2:35)How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man How many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly Before they're forever banned The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind Yes, 'n' how many years can a mountain exist Before it's washed to the sea Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist Before they're allowed to be free Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head And pretend that he just doesn't see The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind Yes, 'n' how many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows That too many people have died The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind Anti-War music: Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield, “For what it’s worth,” released 1966. (2:41)There's something happening here What it is ain't exactly clear There's a man with a gun over there Telling me I got to beware I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down There's battle lines being drawn Nobody's right if everybody's wrong Young people speaking their minds Getting so much resistance from behind It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down What a field-day for the heat A thousand people in the street Singing songs and carrying signs Mostly say, hooray for our side It's s time we stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down Paranoia strikes deep Into your life it will creep It starts when you're always afraid You step out of line, the man come and take you away We better stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down Stop, hey, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down Stop, now, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down Stop, children, what's that sound Everybody look what's going down Significance:
Preparation: #706 Opening discussion:
Key question:
Korean War (1950-53): 
Source examination and discussion:
The Vietnam War: 
View President Johnson speaking before Congress about Vietnam in 1967 (0:42-4:14): Discuss as a class:
Preparation: #705 Connection to previous unit:
Overview:
Document analysis: We will divide the class into two teams: experts on documents A/B and C/D. Each team will evaluate their documents guided by the following questions. You may use this timeline (PDF), and, when confronted with questions that extend beyond the texts themselves, might consider utilizing online tertiary resources like Wikipedia.
Whole class discussion:
Preparation: #704  Huge fires that broke out a few hours after a nuclear bomb was detonated on Aug. 6, 1945, over Hiroshima, Japan, caused billowing clouds of smoke. Credit United States Army, via Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, via Associated Press and The New York Times.  Hiroshima, Japan, in September 1945, a month after the detonation of an atomic bomb. Credit Stanley Troutman/Associated Press and The New York Times. Context: Pacific Theater at the end of World War II  Key question: Was President Truman justified in his decision to use nuclear weapons against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945?
Evaluate evidence Examine Atomic Bombs: Multiple Perspectives handout. For each item, identify:
Discussion By show of hands, split the class into three groups: (1) those who support Truman’s decision, (2) those who are skeptical of his decision, and (3) 1-2 facilitators to lead our discussion and pose questions to both sides. Each team will meet to review the evidence available from the handout and from Foner, with the facilitator(s) meeting with Mr. Hall. With the time that remains, we will conduct a student-led discussion based on these materials. With five minutes remaining, we will ask the facilitator to recap what we have learned, with an opportunity for others to aid the debrief. WWII homefront overview (Google Slides) Examine the timeline (PDF) and review the major events.
Watch the following film on the newsreel footage produced by the U.S. government sometime in the middle of 1942. The goal of the film is to explain the reasons and strategies for interning Japanese Americans. Questions:
Read selections of the majority opinion in the Korematsu v. United States ruling on pages 121-23 of the Course Reader. Consider:
Finally, read selections from Justice Black’s dissent on page 125-26 of the Course Reader. Consider:
Today's goals:
Part I: Debating U.S. entry into World War II Examine this selection of primary source documents (Google Doc) that highlight different dimensions of the debate on entry into World War II from the late 1930s through December 1941. In teams of 3-4, identify:
Part II: The Four Freedoms Questions for guided discussion:
 Time permitting, watch the following clip from Frank Capra's "Prelude to War," produced by the American Office of War and Information in 1942 (4:00-11:30). As you watch, follow how he incorporates the Four Freedoms into his narrative.
Key questions:
Background:
Today:
 Questions for discussion: How does Daniel Victor’s article compare responses to Jewish refugees in the 1930s with responses to Syrian refugees today? What are some of the key similarities and differences? How do ideas about race and religion shape attitudes to refugees in each example? What other factors play a role? How does the film clip from “Defying the Nazis” connect to Mr. Victor’s article? How does it extend your thinking about the lives of refugees and the fears, hopes and challenges they have experienced? How does it add to your understanding of United States’ policies and attitudes toward refugees in the 1930s? The historian Peter Shulman, interviewed in the article, argued that there are “enough similarities between Jewish refugees in the 1930s and Syrian refugees today to draw a ‘moral connection’ between the two situations.” Do you agree with Mr. Shulman? Why or why not? If yes, how would you describe this “moral connection?” What dilemmas did Martha and Waitstill Sharp face in their decision to leave home and help refugees in Europe? What risks did they take? What do you think motivated them to make a choice to help refugees when that was so at odds with American public opinion and national policy? Many who connect the refugee crisis of the 1930s to the plight of Syrian refugees today emphasize the failure of the United States and other countries to help. The Sharps’s story, in contrast, is about a small group of private citizens banding together to aid refugees. Is their history relevant to the current refugee crisis? How might a story of people who chose to help then inform decision-making about the refugee crisis today? Samantha Power argues in favor of learning the “lessons of history.” In one New York Times article, a Human Rights Watch staff member argued, “We all say we have learned the lessons of history, but to be turning away these desperate people who are fleeing a horrific situation suggests that we haven’t learned the lessons at all.” What are the potential benefits of looking for “lessons” in history? What might be some of the challenges or drawbacks? Why is it so difficult to learn and apply the “lessons of history?” The two images below were placed side by side atop a newspaper column written by Nicholas Kristoff of The New York Times with the caption "Anne Frank, left. At right, Rouwaida Hanoun, a Syrian 5-year-old who was wounded during an airstrike on Aleppo last week." What do you think Kristoff was hoping to communicate by placing these two images side by side? Do you agree with the newspaper's decision to publish them together? Why or why not?  What concerns does Donald Trump have about letting in refugees from predominantly Muslim countries today? How are these concerns like – and unlike – the concerns felt by Americans in the 1930s and 1940s about Jewish refugees seeking to enter the United States?
|
RSS Feed