Tag Archives: united states history

Cultural Literacy: Jimi Hendrix

Here is a a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Jimi Hendrix for a Wednesday morning. Jimi was an idol of my crowd in high school; not to put too fine a point on it, but we wore out copies of his records, especially Electric Ladyland, a masterpiece. Did you know that at the time of his tragic, seriously untimely death, Jimi was planning to record with Miles Davis? What I didn’t know, but learned in researching these links, is that Jimi and the great drummer Tony Williams, who himself had worked extensively with Miles in his 1960s quintet, had in fact sought the participation of Paul McCartney in this enterprise.

Can you imagine?

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.

Paul Laurence Dunbar Knows…

“I know why the caged bird sings!”

“Sympathy” 1. 21 (1899)

Paul Laurence Dunbar

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

Cultural Literacy: Paul Robeson

The New York Review of Books recently ran a review of two recent biographies of the the great Paul Robeson. I was glad that the article disclosed the fact that Mr. Robeson earned a law degree, and that on his first–and last–day practicing law, he suffered the indignity of dealing with a secretary who refused to take dictation (see the fourth paragraph of the article beneath the hyperlink above) “from a n****r.” That’s the kind of disgraceful fact that I think we need out on display when discussing, say, the Black Lives Matter movement, especially with those who dismiss the movement with rhetorically insipid and factually dubious claim that “all lives matter” in American society.

Anyway, here, on a Monday morning, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Paul Robeson. I still listen to his music, especially the album Ballad For Americans, which includes his great song “Scandalize My Name.”

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.

Thurgood Marshall on the Promise of the Constitution

“We will see that the true miracle was not the birth of the Constitution, but its life, a life nurtured through two turbulent centuries of our own making, and a life embodying much good fortune that was not. Thus, in this bicentennial year, we may not all participate in the festivities with flag-waving fervor. Some may more quietly commemorate the suffering, struggle, and sacrifice that has triumphed over much of what was wrong with the original document, and observe the anniversary with hopes not realized and promises not fulfilled.”

Thurgood Marshall, Speech, Maui, Hawaii, 6 May 1987

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

Cultural Literacy: Equal Protection of the Laws

On a Monday morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Equal Protection of the Laws. As the squib at the top of the document will inform your students, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees all citizens of the United States, regardless of the color of their skin. This might help students understand the galling and bitter irony of Jim Crow Laws.

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.

Cane (1923)

“Classic ‘novel’ of Jean Toomer (1894-1967). Cane was immediately hailed as one of the foremost pieces of the Harlem Renaissance of the twenties. A collection of poems, sketches, stories, and a novella (‘Kabnis’) built around dialogue, the book was inspired by Toomer’s visit to rural Georgia to teach. There he ‘heard the folk-songs come from the lips of Negro peasants’ and ‘saw the rich dusk beauty of the poor black South.’ The title refers to one of the book’s foci, the cane fields. Cane is divided into three parts: it begins in the cane fields, moves to the harsh streets of the North, and then back to the South. The black South is seen as a link to Africa and as a sensuous, soulful place of hardship, for example dealing with such themes as miscegenation, lynching, and the efficacy of the old Negro spirituals. The second section takes place mainly in Washington, D.C., Toomer’s birthplace, where blacks are estranged from their spiritual home. Though on the surface a potpourri, Cane as whole achieves a tonal and thematic unity through its recurring images and symbols, which suggest the beauty, vitality, and pain that Toomer saw in the agrarian South, a way of life he felt was passing and for which Cane is his lament.”

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

Duke Ellington on Fidelity

“Music is my mistress, and she plays second fiddle to no one.”

Duke Ellington, Music is My Mistress act 8 “Pedestrian Minstrel” (1973)

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

Cultural Literacy: The Puritans

Here, on a rainy, warm Tuesday morning, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Puritans, the zealots who settled this country, and whose intellectual and spiritual descendants are still trying to tell the rest of us how to live our lives.

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.

Santayana on America

“America is the greatest of opportunities and the worst of influences.”

George Santayana

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

Cultural Literacy: Nuremberg Trials

Here, on a chilly Thursday morning in Manhattan, is a Cultural Literacy Worksheet on the Nuremberg Trials. I can think of a number of places and subjects in which a high school teacher could use this short worksheet.

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.