“As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me—
although you’re older—and
white
and somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.”
“Theme for English B l. 37″ (1951)
Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in English Language Arts, New York City, Quotes
Tagged black history, poetry, united states history
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Lagos, which is, of course, the largest city in Nigeria and that nation’s capital until 1991, when the government moved the capital to Abuja, in the center of the country.
This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one very long compound sentence, separated by a semicolon, and a two-part comprehension questions on one line.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Brian and Eddie Holland (originally Edward): U.S. songwriters and producers. In 1962 the Detroit-born brothers Brian (b.1941) and Eddie (b.1939) formed a team with Lamont Dozier (b.1941) which subsequently created a series of hits for almost every artist on the Motown label, and helped define its characteristic sound through blending elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues with elaborate arrangements. Their songs include ‘Baby Love,’ ‘Stop! In the Name of Love’ (two of the seven number one hits they wrote for the Supremes), ‘Heat Wave,’ ‘Baby I Need Your Loving,’ and dozens of other hit for such artists as Marvin Gaye and the Temptations.”
Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Harlem Renaissance. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences (one of which, longish, presents a nice summary list of writers associated with the Harlem Renaissance) and three comprehension questions.
Once again, this is a short document that serves as a good general introduction to one of the most significant and consequential moments in 20th-century American cultural history.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Sarah Breedlove Walker originally Sarah Breedlove: (1867-1919) U.S. businesswoman and philanthropist, the first black female millionaire in the U.S. Born near Delta, Louisiana, she was a widowed washerwoman with a daughter to support in 1905 when she developed a method for straightening curly hair. She founded the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Co. to sell her treatment, and her door-to-door saleswomen became familiar figures in the black communities in the U.S. and the Caribbean. In 1910 she moved her company to Indianapolis. She augmented her earnings with shrewd real-estate investments, and she donated two-thirds of her fortune to charitable and educational institutions. Her daughter, A’lelia Walker Kennedy, hosted salons where artists and cultural figures mingled during the Harlem Renaissance.”
Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
For the final Friday of Black History Month 2025, the Weekly Text from Mark’s Text Terminal is this reading on Langston Hughes along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. These documents join a solid body of material by and about Langston Hughes on this blog.; to find others, just search his name on the home page.
And now we move on to Women’s History Month 2025 in March.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
Posted in Announcement, New York City
Tagged fiction/literature, lgbtq history, united states history, women's history
“Power never concedes anything without a demand. It never did and never will.”
Speech, Canandaigua, N.Y. 4 Aug. 1857
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Last, and quite possibly least, this morning is this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Kharthoum. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one sentence and one comprehension question. As I said: quite possibly least.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Negroes, then, learned from their oppressors to say to their children that there were certain spheres into which they should not go because they would have no chance therein for development. In a number of places young men were discouraged and frightened away from certain professions by the poor showing made by those trying to function in them. Few had the courage to face this ordeal; and some professional schools in institutions for Negroes were closed about thirty or forty years ago, partly on this account.
This was especially true of the law schools, closed during the wave of legislation against the Negro, at the very time of the largest possible number of Negroes needed to know the law for the protection of their civil and political rights. In other words, the thing which the patient needed most to pass the crisis was taken from him that he might more easily die. This one act among many others is an outstanding monument to the stupidity or malevolence of those in charge of the Negro schools, and it serves as a striking demonstration of the mis-education of the race.
Almost any observer remembers distinctly the hard trials of the Negro lawyers. A striking example of their difficulties was supplied by the case of the first to be permanently established in Huntington, West Virginia. The author had entrusted to him the matter of correcting an error in the transfer of some property purchased from one of the most popular white attorneys in the state. For six months this simple transaction was delayed, and the Negro lawyer could not induce the white attorney to act. The author finally went to the office himself to complain of the delay. The white attorney frankly declared that he had not taken up the matter because he did not care to treat with a Negro attorney; but he would deal with the author, who happened to be at that time the teacher of a Negro school, and was, therefore, in his place.”
Excerpted/Adapted from: Woodson, Carter G. The Mis-education of the Negro. Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books, 2018.
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