History by Quota?

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

History by Quota? IN THE SCHOOLS History by Quota? Robert Lerner, Althea K. Nagai, and Stanley Rothman ver since the 1960s, textbook publishers have tried to satisfy demands E for greater representation made on behalf of blacks, American Indians, women, and other groups. To measure the effects of this movement on leading high school American history textbooks, we have employed a quanti- tative content analysis of the historical characters those texts feature. In an earlier Academic Questions article, "Filler Feminism in High School History" (Winter 1991-92), we presented our findings about the representation of women in American history textbooks of the 1980s. In this article, we examine the changes in the textbook representation of two racial minorities--blacks and American Indians--from the 1940s through the 1980s. After describing our methods and presenting the results of our research, we will discuss the impact these changes have had on high school instruction in American history. Method Leading history textbooks were identified this way. In some states, texts are selected at the state-level for the entire state; these are called adoption states. In nonadoption states, texts are chosen by school districts. We asked the education departments of each adoption state and the 120 largest school districts in nonadoption states to list their most popular textbooks per decade from the 1940s through the 1980s. 1 For each decade we chose the three texts most frequently mentioned, for a total of fifteen books (see the Appendix for complete bibliographical information on each book). Reference to any of these texts is by the last name of its first author; for example, The Rise of the American Nation, by Lewis Todd and Merle Curti, is henceforth called Todd. Different editions of the same text are distinguished by their respective date of publication. Our results are based on the systematic coding of individual characters from each of the fifteen books. 2 We constructed the coding scheme to minimize Robert Lerner is assistant director of the Center for the Study of Social and Political Change at Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063. Althea K. Nagai is senior research associate at the center, and Stanley Rothman is the Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of Government and director of the center. This article is part of the center's study of leadership and social change in the United States. 70 Academic Questions/Fall 1992 the tendency of coders to introduce their own interpretations when coding characters. This was done as follows. First, our trained coders were unaware of our hypotheses and unfamiliar with our general paradigm or other re- search. Almost all did not even know the topic of inquiry, except in the vague sense of studying high school history books. In order to be counted and coded, textbook characters had to be identifiable in a picture, be treated in a column-inch or more of text, or be the primary subject of a paragraph. Coders then listed a series of traits for each character, including visual portrayal; textual portrayal in terms of the number of column inches of text; sex, race, ethnicity, religion, occupation(s), age, and personal income; spheres of activ- ities engaged in (from a total of twenty-two categories); actual activities and actions; and every adjectival and adverbial phrase used to describe the character. A book's overall evaluation of each character was also coded as positive, somewhat positive, negative, somewhat negative, mixed, or neutral, s The content analysis scheme underwent two major and several minor revisions before reaching its final form. Coders then worked on a practice chapter, which was corrected and discussed with them before the actual coding began. Lastly, to ensure coding reliability (a sine qua non of quantitative content analysis), a different group of coders recoded a random sample of chapters whose results were compared to the original group's. Using Scott's Pi (a commonly used measure of reliability between coders), the average achieved reliability between our coding groups was 0.81, an excellent result according to the content analysis literature. 4 Changes in Minority Representation Over the decades studied, we discovered a rapid increase, both absolute and proportional, in the coverage of racial minorities. In the 1940s, Dred Scott is the only black to receive enough coverage to be coded (Wirth, 1943). The number of codable blacks increases to seven in the 1950s, twenty in the 1960s, fifty-three in the 1970s, and ninety-three in the 1980s. Of the total number of codable characters, blacks constitute less than .01 percent in the 1950s, 2 percent in the 1960s, 6 percent in the 1970s, and 8 percent in the 1980s. While the 1980s saw a marked increase over the preceding decade in the number of blacks coded (75 percent), it saw an even greater increase (354 percent) in the number of American Indians coded. There were three codable Indians in the 1940s, seven each in the 1950s and 1960s, eleven in the 1970s, and thirty-nine in the 1980s. ~ The way in which characters are presented in the textbooks is particularly important. Being pictured gives a character special prominence. Generally, about one in three white characters appears in a picture alone or in both text and picture. Since the 1960s, however, roughly two in three blacks are pictured. Women are also more likely than men to be pictured. Of all Lerner, Nagai, and Rothman 71 characters, black women are the most likely and white men the least likely to be pictured. TABLE 1 Changes in Character Presentation Text Only Pictures Number of (%) (%) Characters Pre-Sixties Male Black 63 38 8 White 61 39 1267 Female Black 0 0 0 White 41 59 46 Sixties Male Black 41 59 17 White 65 35 762 Female Black 0 100 3 White 36 64 25 Post-Sixties Male Black 52 48 119 White 67 33 1580 Female Black 30 70 23 White 43 57 168 Before the 1960s, white women were more likely to appear in pictures than in text alone; white men and black men both conformed to the general rule of appearing more often in text alone than in pictures; and there were no black female characters. By the 1960s the percentage of pictured white women rose from 59 to 64 percent. But now they were joined in this favored category by black men, 59 percent of whom are pictured, as are 100 percent of the black women. After the 1960s, this pattern moderates slightly, but still 70 percent of black women, 57 percent of white women, and 48 percent ofblack men are pictured, as are only 33 percent of white men. A special use of pictures deserves mention. A number of textbooks feature highlighted portraits of outstanding individuals. These inserts, usually consis- 72 Academic Questions/Fall 1992 ting of a picture with a biographical sketch, have changed even more radically than other visual and textual portrayals. For example, Canfield (1952) contains sixteen "Picture Biographies." These persons are all white men except for Jane Addams; nearly half portray famous presidents. By 1985, however, the bias of such portraits is against the native-born white Protestant male. Wood (1985) features "American Portraits," consisting of thirty individuals "who have contributed to American life. Some are famous. Others are not." Ten portray- als are of women, seven are of minority males, and eight are of immigrant males (two are Jewish but not identified as such); only five are of native-born white Protestant males. The affirmative action implicit in the selection of portraits continues to increase. For example, the current revision of Todd (1990) contains forty- three American profiles. Fourteen are of blacks or American Indians, and seventeen are of women, while the remaining seventeen are of white males. Of these, one is a portrait of Holocaust survivors; another, of Alexander Graham Bell, focuses on his work with deaf persons; a third, a profile of Vietnam veterans, pictures the Vietnam War Memorial. 6 It should perhaps be noted that altering the racial and sexual mix of pictures and featured portraits is an easy way for textbook authors to meet the changing standards of textbook adoption committees, as it does not require rewriting the text. However, one consequence of this is a growing discrepancy in emphasis between the text and the accompanying illustrations. (See "Filler Feminism" for a more detailed discussion of the role of textbook guidelines in shaping their content.) Since textual alterations are a relatively expensive and time-consuming process for both author and publisher, changes in the amount of textual space characters of different types receive is an especially revealing indicator of their importance. For the period covered in our study, on average white characters receive 6.19 column inches of space while black characters receive 2.55 inches. Breakdown by decade reveals trends similar to those described above. The average per white character for the 1960s is 6.72 inches, while the black average is 1.53-a ratio of 4.39. In the 1970s, the ratio falls to less than 2 to 1--7.36 inches for whites and 4.06 for blacks--a drop of 250 percent. The balance shifts back somewhat in the 1980s: 4.74 inches for whites versus 1.95 for blacks, a ratio of about 2.5 to 1. Another measure of importance is the number of activities a coded charac- ter is described as engaging in. Of the twenty-two categories of activity, the average number ascribed per character is 2.41 for whites and 1.71 for blacks. As with the amount of text allotted to each character, the white to black ratio dropped substantially in the 1970s to 1.24 (2.38/1.92) from 1.85 (2.59/1.40) in the 1960s, and then increased slightly in the 1980s to 1.32 (2.2/1.67).
Recommended publications
  • From David Walker to President Obama: Tropes of the Founding Fathers in African American Discourses of Democracy, Or the Legacy of Ishmael
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Faculty Publications Department of English 2012 From David Walker to President Obama: Tropes of the Founding Fathers in African American Discourses of Democracy, or The Legacy of Ishmael Elizabeth J. West Georgia State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_facpub Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation West, Elizabeth J., "From David Walker to President Obama: Tropes of the Founding Fathers in African American Discourses of Democracy, or The Legacy of Ishmael" (2012). English Faculty Publications. 15. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_facpub/15 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “From David Walker to President Obama: Tropes of the Founding Fathers in African American Discourses of Democracy, or The Legacy of Ishmael” Dr. Elizabeth J. West Dept. of English—Georgia State Univ. Nov. 2010 “Call me Ishmael,” Herman Melville’s elusive narrator instructs readers. The central voice in the lengthy saga called Moby Dick, he is a crewman aboard the Pequod. This Ishmael reveals little about himself, and he does not seem altogether at home. As the narrative unfolds, this enigmatic Ishmael seems increasingly out of sorts in the world aboard the Pequod. He finds himself at sea working with and dependent on fellow seamen, who are for the most part, strange and frightening and unreadable to him.
    [Show full text]
  • The Attucks Theater September 4, 2020 | Source: Theater/ Words by Penny Neef
    Spotlight: The Attucks Theater September 4, 2020 | Source: http://spotlightnews.press/index.php/2020/09/04/spotlight-the-attucks- theater/ Words by Penny Neef. Images as credited. Feature image by Mike Penello. In the early 20th century, segregation was a fact of life for African Americans in the South. It became a matter of law in 1926. In 1919, a group of African Americans from Norfolk and Portsmouth met to develop a cultural/business center in Norfolk where the black community “could be treated with dignity and respect.” The “Twin Cities Amusement Corporation” envisioned something like a modern-day town center. The businessmen obtained funding from black owned financial institutions in Hampton Roads. Twin Cities designed and built a movie theater/ retail/ office complex at the corner of Church Street and Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfolk. Photo courtesy of the family of Harvey Johnson The businessmen chose 25-year-old architect Harvey Johnson to design a 600-seat “state of the art” theater with balconies and an orchestra pit. The Attucks Theatre is the only surviving theater in the United States that was designed, financed and built by African Americans. The Attucks was named after Crispus Attucks, a stevedore of African and Native American descent. He was the first patriot killed in the Revolutionary War at the Boston Massacre of 1770. The theatre featured a stage curtain with a dramatic depiction of the death of Crispus Attucks. Photo by Scott Wertz. The Attucks was an immediate success. It was known as the “Apollo Theatre of the South.” Legendary performers Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Nat King Cole, and B.B.
    [Show full text]
  • BLACK HISTORY – PERTH AMBOY PUBLIC SCHOOLS Black History in Kindergarten
    BLACK HISTORY – PERTH AMBOY PUBLIC SCHOOLS Black History in Kindergarten Read and Discuss and Act out: The Life's Contributions of: Ruby Bridges Bill Cosby Rosa Parks Booker T. Washington Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Jackie Robinson Louie Armstrong Wilma Rudolph Harriet Tubman Duke Ellington Black History in 1st Grade African Americans Read, Discuss, and Write about: Elijah McCoy, Booker T. Washington George Washington Carver Mathew Alexander Henson Black History in 2nd Grade Select an African American Leader Students select a partner to work with; What would you like to learn about their life? When and where were they born? Biography What accomplishments did they achieve in their life? Write 4-5 paragraphs about this person’s life Black History 3rd & 4th Graders Select a leader from the list and complete a short Biography Black History pioneer Carter Godwin Woodson Boston Massacre figure Crispus Attucks Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman Orator Frederick Douglass Freed slave Denmark Vesey Antislavery activist Sojourner Truth 'Back to Africa' leader Marcus Garvey Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad Legal figure Homer Plessy NAACP founder W. E. B. Du Bois Murdered civil rights activist Medgar Evers Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil rights leader Coretta Scott King Bus-riding activist Rosa Parks Lynching victim Emmett Till Black History 3rd & 4th Graders 'Black Power' advocate Malcolm X Black Panthers founder Huey Newton Educator Booker T. Washington Soul On Ice author Eldridge Cleaver Educator Mary McLeod Bethune Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall Colonial scientist Benjamin Banneker Blood bank pioneer Charles Drew Peanut genius George Washington Carver Arctic explorer Matthew Henson Daring flier Bessie Coleman Astronaut Guion Bluford Astronaut Mae Jemison Computer scientist Philip Emeagwali Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai Black History 3rd & 4th Graders Brain surgeon Ben Carson U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • 2011/2012 Black History Trivia Bowl Study Questions # CATEGORY
    2011/2012 Black History Trivia Bowl Study Questions # CATEGORY QUESTION ANSWER Along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, what type of music is played 1 Arts with the accordion? Zydeco 2 Arts Who wrote "Their Eyes Were Watching God" ? Zora Neale Hurston Which one of composer/pianist Anthony Davis' operas premiered in Philadelphia in 1985 and was performed by the X: The Life and Times of 3 Arts New York City Opera in 1986? Malcolm X Since 1987, who has held the position of director of jazz at 4 Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City? Wynton Marsalis Of what profession were Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Countee Cullen, major contributors to the Harlem 5 Arts Renaissance? Writers Who wrote Clotel , or The President’s Daughter , the first 6 Arts published novel by a Black American in 1833? William Wells Brown Who published The Escape , the first play written by a Black 7 Arts American? William Wells Brown 8 Arts What is the given name of blues great W.C. Handy? William Christopher Handy What aspiring fiction writer, journalist, and Hopkinsville native, served as editor of three African American weeklies: the Indianapolis Recorder , the Freeman , and the Indianapolis William Alexander 9 Arts Ledger ? Chambers 10 Arts Nat Love wrote what kind of stories? Westerns Cartoonist Morrie Turner created what world famous syndicated 11 Arts comic strip? Wee Pals Who was born in Florence, Alabama in 1873 and is called 12 Arts “Father of the Blues”? WC Handy Georgia Douglas Johnson was a poet during the Harlem Renaissance era.
    [Show full text]
  • Crispus Attucks Museum Unit #3: School Segregation and Desegregation of Indianapolis Public Schools Grades:Grade 11/ Subject: U.S
    Crispus Attucks Museum Unit #3: School Segregation and Desegregation of Indianapolis Public Schools Grades:Grade 11/ Subject: U.S. Teacher: Grade 12 History/U.S. Government Duration: 30 minutes (each) Day(s) 1 Lesson #: 1 of 2 Standards: Grade 11 – U.S. History after 1877 USH.6.2 Summarize and assess the various actions which characterized the early struggle for civil rights (1945-1960). USH.6.3 Describe the constitutional significance and lasting societal effects of the United States Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case. USH.6.4 Summarize key economic and social changes in post-WW II American life. USH.9.1 Identify patterns of historical succession and duration in which historical events have unfolded and apply them to explain continuity and change. USH.9.2 Locate and analyze primary sources and secondary sources related to an event or issue of the past; discover possible limitations in various kinds of historical evidence and differing secondary opinions. USH.9.4 Explain issues and problems of the past by analyzing the interests and viewpoints of those involved. Grade 12 – U.S. Government USG.1.9 Evaluate how the United States Constitution establishes majority rule while protecting minority rights and balances the common good with individual liberties. USG.2.8 Explain the history and provide historical and contemporary examples of fundamental principles and values of American political and civic life, including liberty, security, the common good, justice, equality, law and order, rights of individuals, diversity, popular sovereignty, and representative democracy. USG.5.2 Analyze the roles and responsibilities of citizens in Indiana and the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • We a Dream 1776 1976
    We Had A Dream 1776 1976 Contributions of Black Americans Author and Editor- Vernon C. Lawhorn + II1II Additional methods can be used to further educate students about this mural. We Had a Dream 1776-1976 No. 1. This material can be used to enhance biographical work of historic figures. Contributions of Black Americans No.2. The material will readily lend itself to standard testing procedures, such as True or False, Multiple Choice, Matching Fill-Ins and Essays. No.3. This Visual material will aid the student in his or her effort to compare and contrast current events with the past or historical occurences. No.4. It could be useful in understanding the borrowing and synthe- The subjects of this painting are both male and female, encompassing sizing that occurs in the birth and development of movements. Dr. Martin virtually all aspects of the American Experience. Luther King, Jr. borrowed from Mahatma Gandi; Ceasar Chavez, the No. 1. It is a history in color of the Black experience in America. It's Mexican American who now still marches and protests against a system first figure is that of an African Mask: It's final figure is a Red, Black & that deprives his people their freedom and rights, from Dr. King. Green flag, symbolic of the desire by blacks to understand and relate to their African Heritage. In summation, the question is, who would benefit? NOTE: The African Mask is symbolic of the origin of American Blacks. No.2. Some of the individuals in the painting are anonymous but most . Multiculture is apparently the wave of the future.
    [Show full text]
  • William Cooper Nell. the Colored Patriots of the American Revolution
    William Cooper Nell. The Colored Patriots of the American ... http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/nell/nell.html About | Collections | Authors | Titles | Subjects | Geographic | K-12 | Facebook | Buy DocSouth Books The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, With Sketches of Several Distinguished Colored Persons: To Which Is Added a Brief Survey of the Condition And Prospects of Colored Americans: Electronic Edition. Nell, William Cooper Funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities supported the electronic publication of this title. Text scanned (OCR) by Fiona Mills and Sarah Reuning Images scanned by Fiona Mills and Sarah Reuning Text encoded by Carlene Hempel and Natalia Smith First edition, 1999 ca. 800K Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1999. © This work is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. Call number E 269 N3 N4 (Winston-Salem State University) The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH digitization project, Documenting the American South. All footnotes are moved to the end of paragraphs in which the reference occurs. Any hyphens occurring in line breaks have been removed, and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line. All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as entity references. All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as " and " respectively. All single right and left quotation marks are encoded as ' and ' respectively.
    [Show full text]
  • United Negro College Fund Campaign of '6 Impressions of Clark
    Vol. XXX. No. 3 CLARK COLLEGE - ATLANTA, GEORGIA January-February, 1968 UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND CAMPAIGN OF '6 Start of Something Big Clark Gets 7 In Student Exchange Program by Jerry R. Allen by Jerry R. Allen of Indianapolis, Indiana, is a February 15th is the com­ The exchange program at sophomore with a major in Po­ mencement date of--the United Clark College has progressed litical Science. He is a member Negro College Fund Campaign. greatly since its beginning. This of Phi Gamma Delta Frater­ This year’s goal is to beat all nity known as “Fiji.” semester there are two students previous heighs which proves to leaving Clark on the exchange Western Maryland College be a tedious task. For, the latest has three students here on the program. While, at the same totals reveal that Clark College exchange — Charlene K. Wil­ time, there are seven exchange is ranked sixth nationally with liams, Stephen Earl Hiltner and a net sum of $6,100.00 and a students here at Clark. David Wilson Buller. Charlene per capita ratio of $6.79. Mary Alice Stevenson and Williams is a sophomore with Miss Omega Tucker, a soph- Maryjo Clark, Clark students, a major in German. Stephen more pharmacy major and Miss are attending Depauw Univer­ Hiltner, also a sophomore, has UNCF of Clark College for the sity in Greencastle, Indiana. a major in Sociology. And, Da­ year 1966-67, will attend the Mary Stevenson, a native of At­ vid Buller, a junior, has a major 22nd Annual United Negro Col­ lanta, Georgia, is a sophomore lege Fund Convention on Feb­ with a major in Elementary in Psychology.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Morris: Lawyer & Activist
    1 ROBERT MORRIS: LAWYER & ACTIVIST Boston College Law Library Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room SPRING 2017 Curated by: Mary Sarah Bilder, Founders Professor of Law Laurel Davis, Curator of Rare Books 3 We would like to offer a special thanks to everyone at Boston College’s John J. Burns Library for their support of this exhibit and for the loan of almost three dozen titles. In particular, a huge thank you goes to Christian Dupont, Katherine Fox, Shelley Barber, and, last but certainly not least, Barbara Adams Hebard, for her conservation work, advice, and generous help in mounting some of the more fragile items. Also, about two years ago, Barbara encouraged her lab assistant at the time, James Heffernan (BC, Class of 2015), to explore and write about the Morris collection at the Burns Library. It was through James’s wonderful blog post that we discovered the collection. We also are deeply thankful for the Boston Athenaeum’s willingness to loan us items from the Robert Morris papers. Curator Stanley Cushing was an encouraging shepherd for that loan, and the exhibit is richer for it. As always, many thanks to all of our colleagues and supporters in the BC Law Library. Much gratitude in particular to Lily Olson, Access Services Librarian, for her extraordinary work on the catalog cover, as well as the exhibit bookmark and webpage. We would also like to thank Ritika Bhakhri (BC Law, Class of 2018) and Lauren Koster (BC Law, Class of 2019) for their research assistance. Additionally, we are very grateful to our friends at the Social Law Library for sharing the image of Morris used in the exhibit and catalog.
    [Show full text]
  • Commentary: Why the Transatlantic?
    Commentary: Why the Transatlantic? Ahmed Foggie Humboldt State University Spanning forty-one million square miles of the earth’s surface and connecting four continents, the Atlantic Ocean houses the origins of our current global culture. Within its depths lie legacies of nightmarish atroci- ties, traces of great human ambitions, and the echoes of enlightened ideas. Traverses back and forth across this giant pool, the epicenter of the so-called “Age of Exploration,” resulted in unprecedented exchanges of humans, ideas and ideologies, goods and gods, technologies and diseases. The manifold consequences of these transatlantic interactions reverberate with us today. As evidence, one need look no further than the Black Lives Matter movement, which emphatically reminds us that the current economies in the Ameri- cas are founded on the labor of enslaved Africans. Financial interlinkages across the Atlantic, founded and strengthened through waves of European colonization and imperialism, continue to structure the global economy in ways that uphold the dominance of countries in Western Europe and North America over societies in Africa, the Caribbean, and Middle and South America. New and hybrid cultural forms, from food to fashion and music, arose from transatlantic interactions, subsequently becoming global culture. In short, study of the transatlantic as a historic geographic region can lead to critical insight into complex social and cultural dynamics that we grapple with today. The purpose of this essay is to offer a glimpse at the Transatlantic World’s history, shedding light on events that birthed our modern society, which in turn might help us to understand the specters of disease, civil turmoil, racism, and economic downturn confronting us today.
    [Show full text]
  • African American Trivia by Leandra Smith 1
    African American Trivia by LeAndra Smith 1. Of seamstress, librarian, and nurse, which was Rosa Parks’ occupation at the time of her historic bus incident? Answer: Department store seamstress. Parks was arrested December 1, 1955, after refusing to give up her seat to a white man. 2. What Olympic gold medalist broke three track and field world records within a 45-minute span while competing for the Ohio State University in 1935? Answer: Jesse Owens. Owens’ achievement happened within 45 minutes on May 25, 1935, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the Big Ten meet where he broke three world records and tied a fourth. 3. Who was the first African American Nobel Peace Prize winner, receiving the honor in 1950? Answer: Ralph Bunche. Bunche received the Peace Prize for his efforts as a mediator between Arabs and Jews in the Israeli-Arab war from 1948 to 1949. 4. Crispus Attucks was the first casualty of what war? Answer: Revolutionary War. Attucks was the first person killed in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. 5. Who was the first African American baseball player to play in Major League Baseball? Answer: Jackie Robinson. Robinson made his debut before a crowd of 26,623 spectators at Ebbets Field on April 15, 1947. 6. In what North Carolina city did the first “sit-in” occur at a segregated lunch counter? Answer: Greensboro. Four freshman classmates at North Carolina A&T went into the Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and “sat-in” at the lunch counter. 7. What is the name of the Army Air Corps group of African American aviators from WWII? Answer: The Tuskegee Airmen.
    [Show full text]
  • Who Was Crispus Attucks?
    Fact or Fiction? Name: _________________________ Below is a biography on Crispus Attucks. On the following face is a chart with twelve statements. Indicate whether each statement is fact or fiction. Crispus Attucks was thought to be the first person of African-American descent to be killed in the American Revolution. He died on March 5, 1770, during the Boston Massacre. Who was Crispus Attucks? Crispus Attucks was born sometime in 1723 in or near Framingham, Massachusetts. His cultural heritage is the subject of much debate. Some historians believe Attucks was of African and Native American descent. Although his mother was a slave, it is not clear whether Attucks was considered a free black man, or, was a runaway slave himself. Although details of his life are largely unknown, Attucks spent many years as a sailor and working the docks of various colonial ports. Historians who claim he was a runaway slave believe he used the name “Michael Johnson” to elude capture. Background on the Boston Massacre Following the 1768 issuance of the Townshend Act, and the subsequent unrest in Boston, British soldiers patrolled Boston’s streets, leading to resentment and bitterness among the citizens. On the night of March 5, 1770, tensions finally boiled over when a British soldier assaulted a Boston man who was harassing him. Tensions quickly escalated as a mob of Bostonians gathered with ice chunks, bottles, and other objects. Several British soldiers were cornered. When someone within the mob hurled a club at a soldier, gunshots rang out. When the mob finally dispersed, five Bostonians were left dead including Crispus Attucks, who was thought to be the first killed.
    [Show full text]