DOCUMENT RESUME ED 041 997 24 UD 010 515 AUTHOR Vogt, Carol Busch TITLE Why Watts? An American Dilemma Today: Teacher's Manual; Student's Manual, INSTITUTION Amherst Coll., Mass. SPONS AGENCY Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, D C. Bureau of Research. BUREAU NO BR-5-1071 PUB DATE [67] CONTRACT OEC-5-10-158 NOTE 46p.; Public Domain Edition EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.25 HC-$2.40 DESCRIPTORS *Activism, Civil Disobedience, Community Problems, *Demonstrations (Civil), Family Characteristics, Ghettos, Instructional Materials, *Negro Attitudes, Police Action, Poverty Programs, Prevention, Student Attitudes, Teaching Guides, Unemployment, *Violence IDENTIFIERS California, Los Angeles, *Watts Community ABSTRPCT Designed to invite the senior and junior high school student tO investigate the immediate and underlying causes of riots and what can be done to prevent them, the student manual of this Unit begins with a description of the Watts riots of 1965, The student is encouraged to draw his own conclusions, and to determine the feasibility of a variety of proposed solutions to this problem after consideration of the evidence drawn from a variety of sources, including novels. Ultimately, the student confronts the dilemtna that the riots pose for American values and institutions, and is asked to articulate his personal role in meeting this challenge. The suggestions in the accompanying teacher manual are considered not to restrict the teacher, but the goals and interests of each teacher and each class are held to determine the exact use of the materials. (RJ) EXPERIMENTAL MATERIAL SUBJECT TO REVISION PUBLIC DOMAIN EDITION TEACHER'S MANUAL WAX WATTS? AN AMERICAN DILEMMA TODAY Carol Busch Vogt North Tonawanda Senior High School North Tonawanda, New York U,S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION St WELFARE OFFOCE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS SEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECES- SARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU- CATION POSITION OR POLICY. This material has been produced by the Committee on the Study of History,Amherst, Massachusets under contract with the U. S. Officeof Education as Cooperative Research Project #H-l68. 1 This unit presents evidence which the student can use to formulate his ideas as to how riots begin, what causes riots and what can be done to prevent riots.By examining Watts as a case study of riots in the Negro ghettos, the student is, in essence, examining American society, American values, and the capacity of the American people and their institutions to solve difficult and complex problems. The organization of the unit is simple. Section I is a narrative describing the immediate incident that triggered the Watts riot of August, 1965. Section II presents evidence which suggests various underlying causes of the riots from which the student is encouraged to draw his own conclusions. The adequacy of the wide ranging responses to the riots and the probability of implementing these responses are the concerns of Section III. In Section IV the student is encouraged to ponder his own role in preventing filture riots, in meeting the challenge presented by Watts. The suggestions in this manual are not meant to tie the teacher's hands. The goals and interests of each teacher and each class will ultimately determine the use of these articles. 2 SECTION I WHAT HAPPENED? The first section describes the immediate incident, the spark that set off the powder keg that was Watts. This narrative may catch the student's interest and provoke him to ask wily a simple traffic arrest turned into a riot which was characterized by the manifesto "Burn, Baby, Burn!" and which resulted in excessive human tragedy and property damage. The first eight selections provide a blow by blow account of the incident that led to the rioting, and may give the student some insight into the mood of Watts on the eve of the riots. The selections revealing the crowd's abrupt change from humorous appreciation of the arrest of a drunk (#1) to fanatical shouting of "Burn, Baby, Burn!" (#8), the interaction between Marquette Frye and his mother ( #2), and the double mistake that Mrs. Frye and Joyce Gaines were pregnant (#4 and #6) may lead students to ask questions as to the frame of reference of the people who gathered at the scene of the arrest. The teacher might ask the students to compare the accounts of the police with those of the Fryes (#3 and #4), the statements of the police with those of Joyce Gaines and Jimmy Lee Ticey (#5-#7). In what specific ways did the accounts differ?A discussion of the contrasting attitudes of the residents of Watts and the police could lead to a consideration of the role of individual and crowd behavior in an historical moment. How would the students evaluate the decisions made by the officers in charge (#5 and #8)?At this point the students could be asked to write an essay based on research in the llbrary describing the incident that triggered some other riot, comparing and contrasting this with the arrest of the Fryes. The students could also be asked to write a para- graph giving their opinion as to what caused the Watts riot. Answers might range from such simple ones as "The arrest of Mar- quette Frye," "Joyce Gaines spit at a cop," or "It was so hot that people got mad and started throwing things," to those that look beyond the immediate incident. Reading several student re- plies to the whole class could stimulate a discussion of the dif- ferences between immediate and underlying causes and prepare the student for further examination of what caused the riots in Section II. The statistics revealing human casualties and property damage (#9) are included since they provide graphic evidence of what hap- pened in the Watts rioting, what resulted from the manifesto "Burn, Baby, Burn!" To heighten the drama, some teachers may want to illustrate specific incidents which occur during a riot. This could be done by opaque or overhead projection of riot scenes. The July and August, 1967, issues of Life and Newsweek contain excellent photographs which could be used for this purpose. The selections in this Section might best be read as an assign- ment in preparation for one class day of discussion. In groups with low reading ability, the Section could be divided into one assignment on the arrest of the Fryes (#l-#4) and one on the 'spitting' incident, the withdrawal of the police and the results of the riots (#5-#9). 3 J. SECTION S. WHAT CAUSES THE RIOTS? This section is the co2e Of 'the unit since it is here that the students find, evidence throwing Some light on the social, psychological, economic', andpolitical causes of rioting. The Material does not suggest a correct answer to what causes rioting, for the question is an 'open-ended one. HoweVer; the student is asked to grapple with the historian's task, to make judgments based on the sometimes conflicting evidence he finds and to arrive at some conclusions as to what evidence makes the most sense. The materials in this seotion are arranged to introduce the student to the notions of single and multiple causation in history. Parts A and. B present sociological, psychological'and economic evidence of the multiple causes of the riots. Part C provides two examples of single cause explanations of Watts. It is suggested that 2 days be spent on Part A" and one dayJeabh on Parts B and C. The evidence in PartA.is; broadly Speaking, sociological and psychological. The central questions posed are: What is it like to be a Negro in a community such as Watts? Does the answer to this question explain,such,riots as the one inWatts? The graph in the introduction to this Part indicates increas- ing migration of Southern Negroes to the Northern cities, from rural to urban areaS.Watts, then, is a community of rural immi- grants or children of rural immigrantS. The selection from Richard Wright's Black 112,y (AO.) provides some of the reasons these people have one North:-The students might well ask thequestion: What do Richard Wright's friends think they will find in the North? The rest of the seledtions in this Part indicate what the Negro did find, not the "promised land" but frustration and despair, a variety of discrimination ''ar more subtle-but equally as damaging as that experienced in life "dawnhome." In white America to be black in the north means having experiences like Claude Brown's day in court with his father(A,2), being denied the right to be a man, to be somebody. The "invisi- bility", experienced"by Mr. Brown in court raises the question of a man's self-image when a society tells him hp"ain't nuthin or nobody." Students might be asked to determine the relationship between such experiences as this and Grandpa Brown's attitude towards himself and his color (A,5). This dilemma of identity and self-image is apparent in Claude's mother's advice that Pimp had better know his place and not aim too high (A,3) and in George Baxter's eIperience8-in the' garment center in New York City (A14). T6 what extent are our expectations and views of our- selves determined' by what others think andexpect of us. Dick 4 Gregory said "I've got to be a colored, funny man, not a funny, colored man" (A,6). Does his resolution of this identity crisis save him from the self hatred withwhich Grandpa Brown must live? The real experiences of the Horace Bakers(A,7) and the fic- tional experiences of the family in Raisin in the Sun(A18) provide evidence of another facet of beingbritErrn-Vhi-77M-Frica.