Tag Archives: black history

Cultural Literacy: The Compromise of 1850

Here’s a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Compromise of 1850, which of course was a debate about how much further the commodification of persons of African descent in the burgeoning United States in the middle of the nineteenth century. This worksheet is a full page–longer than most of these exercises I’ve drafted, so it is perhaps useful for independent practice work.

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.

Dr. King on Government Action and Inaction

“Government action is not the whole answer to the present crisis, but it is an important partial answer. Morals cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. The law cannot make an employer love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of the color of my skin.”

Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story ch. 11 (1958)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Everyday Edit: Juneteenth

OK, let’s wrap up this Tuesday with an Everyday Edit worksheet on the Juneteenth holiday in observance of Black History Month 2020. Incidentally, if you like these kinds of exercises, the good people at Education World will gladly hand over a year’s supply of them for free.

And if you find typos in this document, fix them! It’s an Everyday Edit worksheet, after all.

Timothy Mofolorunso Aluko

“Timothy Mofolorunso Aluko: (1918-2010) Nigerian novelist. Aluko’s novels deal with the conflicts and dilemmas attendant upon social change in a comic manner. Unlike his fellow Nigerian, Achebe, Aluko focuses on the more contemporary clash of values which accompany modernization. Aluko’s style is lightly ironic, preferring to reveal the corruption of the educated African elite in seemingly neutral tones. His novels are One Man, One Wife (1959), One Man, One Matchet (1964), Kinsman and Foreman (1966), Chief the Honorable Minister (1970), His Worshipful Majesty (1973), Wrong Ones in the Dock (1982) and A State of Our Own (1986).”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

An Independent Practice Worksheet on Ibn Battutah

Ok: very quickly, on this busy Tuesday morning, and in the ongoing observation of Black History Month 2020 at Mark’s Text Terminal, here is an independent practice worksheet on Ibn Battutah.

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.

Did Ralph Ellison Speak for You?

“Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?”

Invisible Man epilogue (1952)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Cultural Literacy: Brown v. Board of Education

Continuing with Black History Month 2020, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court Decision that desegregated public schools in this country.

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.

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

“Long Walk to Freedom: The autobiography (1994) of Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), the first black president of South Africa, who, under the apartheid regime, had been jailed for three decades, largely on Robben Island. The title is said to have been inspired by the words in ‘From Lucknow to Tripuri,’ and essay (1939) by Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), who was to become the first prime minister of independent India:

There is not easy walk-over to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow again and again before we reach the mountain-tops of our desire.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

Everyday Edit: Tuskegee Airmen

Here is an Everyday Edit worksheet on the Tuskegee Airmen. As I say every time I post one of these documents, if you and your students like them, the good people at Education World generously give away a yearlong supply of them.

And if you find typos on this document, well, that’s the purpose of them; edit and repair as needed!

Malcolm X on Self-Defense

“There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teachers us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That’s a good religion.

Message to the Grass Roots” (Speech), Detroit, Michigan, 10 November 1963″

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.