Class Updates: 2/27/13 and 2/28/13

Yesterday (2/27/13) we read four documents involving Marcus Garvey. There was a set of questions to go along with each reading. Marcus Garvey created the UNIA which prepared African Americans to leave; he wanted all African Americans to return to their “motherland” or homeland of Africa. Marcus’s plan differed greatly from African American leaders who wanted everyone to be together, while Marcus wanted everyone in their correct homeland. Today in class (2/28/13) we read several poems by Langston Hughes, these poems described life in the South. The poems describe how awful life is in the South with things like Jim Crow Laws and lynching going on, they describe how great life would be in the North.  We also listened to several songs by Duke Ellington that were made during the Harlem Renaissance, these included: East St. Louis Toodle-oo, The Mooche, and Mood Indiso. These songs were created when the Africans ended up in Harlem. This all started during “The Great Migration” when African Americans left the South to move to big cities in the North like Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and New York City. They left due to the racism and discrimination of the South and because of the job opportunities available in the North. The African Americans that went to New York City ended up in Harlem, and this is when the “Harlem Renaissance” developed in the 1920s and 1930s. 

Class Updates: 2/25/13 and 2/26/13

Yesterday (2/25/13) we only had class for about 5 minutes due to the “I am dirt” presentation about drug awareness. Today in class (2/26/13) we started a new unit on Civil Rights and learned about Booker T. Washington who was born a slave in 1856 and was nine years old when slavery ended. Washington became the principle of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama which was a school designed to teach blacks industrial skills. Washington believed that African Americans should start from the bottom and work their way to the top to earn respect. Dubois was born a free man and was raised in Massachusetts. He was the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard. Dubois opposed Washington’s ideas and started the Niagra Movement, which demanded immediate rights through legal cases. 

Class Updates: 2/14/13 and 2/15/13

Yesterday in class (2/14/13) we videotaped are drawings on the whiteboard for are RSA Animate projects. Today in class (2/15/13) we recorded are voices for our RSA Animate projects. Over vacation Mr.Boyle is going to put are voices and drawings together and speed them up to create are projects. The purpose of this project was to decide if Reconstruction was a success or failure.

 

Updates: 2/11/13 and 2/12/13

We did not have class yesterday (2/11/13) due to the blizzard and continued snow removal. Today in class (2/12/13) we had a dress rehearsal for our RSA Animate project. The purpose of this project is to determine if Reconstruction was a failure or success. 

Timeline Events for Reconstruction

Class Updates: 2/6/13 to 2/7/13

Yesterday in class (2/6/13) we watched a video on Jim Crow Law’s. The Jim Crow Law’s were mandated in all public factories in Southern States of the former Confederacy, they created a “separate but equal” status for African Americans. Some examples of Jim Crow Laws are segregation of public schools, public places, and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated. These laws followed The Black Codes of 1800-1866.

Today in class (2/7/13) we depicted a picture of African American’s picking cotton. We learned about sharecroppers, these sharecroppers who were freemen, rented land from planters. They would only receive a small portion of the profit, the sharecroppers owed money do the planters and they could not leave the farm until the debt was paid. The sharecroppers had to work similar to the way slaves worked except they were free, not completely though, they couldn't leave the farm unless all their date was paid in full. 

Class Updates: 2/4/13 and 2/5/13

Yesterday in class (2/4/13) we took notes on the 15^th Amendment. By 1870 African Americans had all the legal freedom they could have possibly wanted. The 15^th Amendment guaranteed the right to vote, “regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Using these right African Americans attained an education; this was against the law in most southern states before the war.  Southern whites became surprised that African Americans could read and write but they did not like the fact that their children would have to sit next to black children in a classroom. This made whites angry that African Americans were getting so much; this resulted in the “Ku Klux Klan” or the KKK. This was the United States first true terrorist organization. The KKK plated burning crosses in front of African American homes, dragged them from their homes, tortured them and sometimes brutally killed them. Congress realized something needed to be done so they passed the Enforcement Act of 1870, which banned violence that prevented people from voting due to their race. In 1875 Congress guaranteed African American Civil Rights, from the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

Today in class (2/5/13 we had a deep discussion about what it means to be equal. Mr.Boyle had a day similar to Christmas and enjoyed playing devil’s advocate on us. In the end we decided being equal meant people had to be given the same opportunities no matter what condition. A good example we talked about was when if you went to the doctors complaining about a headache, after you were examined the doctor tells you that you have a brain tumor. She then advises you to take two aspirin and get some rest; you were shocked and expected an operation. The doctor states “No” because she prescribes aspirin to all of her headache patients. Doesn't she have to be equal to everyone? That is what our debate was based on in class today. We also received a reading on Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896). Plessy was 1/8 black, On June 7^th, 1892 he purchased a first-class ticket from New Orleans to Covington. Plessy sat in the railroad that was on meant for whites. He was arrested and put on trial for violating the Separate Car Act. In court Plessy argued that the Separate Car Act violated the 14^th Amendment, therefore he did nothing wrong, Plessy was still found guilty. 

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address Questions

Just in case.(These are also in a google doc.)

Charlie Spinale

F period

American Studies 1: History-H

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

Section A:

3.) What do you learn from Lincoln’s address about his attitude towards the South, the apparent losers in the conflict? What do you learn from Lincoln’s address about his attitude towards the North, the apparent winners in the conflict?

Through Lincolns Inaugural Address it’s easy to see his attitude towards the South. Lincoln felt sympathy towards the South and felt that they shouldn't be blamed for the start of the war. If Lincoln had accused the South of starting the war they would have become very upset, Lincoln doesn't blame the North either. He states both parties “deprecated war” and one would make war and the other would accept it. He states that both parties tried to avoid war at all costs. “All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties’ deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.” As well as not expecting war, neither parties expected, “the magnitude, or the duration.” In conclusion I believe both parties were equal contributors to the start of the war, and Lincoln’s prevention of stating one side started the war helped restoration occur much faster.

Section C:

1.) What can you discern from Lincoln’s character on the basis of what he wrote?

Lincoln seems to be very intelligent in general and intelligent with the words he chooses to say throughout the inaugural address. Lincoln is sympathetic and forgives the South thus allowing them back into the Union. He refuses to blame the south for reparation and war itself as most did. Lincoln realized that the future of the country was more important than allowing the South to suffer. He states that the war had to happen it was eminent… “Both parties deprecated war…”  Instead of blaming a side (North and South) he let allowed them to choose their fate, “but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.” We need to realize that without Lincoln our country may have not looked the same way it does today, what if Lincoln hadn't forgiven the South? What if the South never rejoined the Union because they felt threatened because we put the cause of the war on them?  Lincoln’s idea of “Liberty to all” is shown throughout his sympathy towards the south, and allowing them to rejoin the Union they once belonged to and truly belong to. 

Section D

2.) Could a president today use the same religious rhetoric that Lincoln did to explain national policy? Was Lincoln wrong to do so?

When Lincoln made his speech in the 1800’s there wasn't much diversity in religion, the average family was Christian and worshiped the same god. Today religion is incredibly diverse, it seems as everyone is a different religion, some are Atheists, Jewish, Muslim, Jehovah Witnesses, the list goes on. With all this diversity in religion I don’t think anyone could refer to religion and get away with it. Discussing religion in this way would just create conflicts; people would be in non-stop disagreement. This bond that most Americans use to share no longer exists. The only way you could mention religion is religion itself as a whole, nothing else, this still could bring conflict. There wasn't much to compare between the North and South at the time so Lincoln used what he had, and this was religion, a bond that most Americans shared in the 1800's. Lincoln states “…So still it must be said the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether...” Lincoln used religion as a common similarity between the North and South, in the end their basically the same. “…Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God…” Although it would be impossible to refer to religion today in a speech like Lincolns, Lincoln used religion as an American bond that most Northerners and Southerners shared.