LSTA Grant Lesson Plan Writing Cohort Submitted by Rebecca Griffith, Isaac Bear Early College High School

William Madison Randall Library LSTA Grant Lesson Plan Writing Cohort Submitted by Rebecca Griffith, Isaac Bear Early College High School

Overview

Abstract

Examine the work performed by the women and teenagers of the Women’s Good Will Committee of High Point, North Carolina as they labor to bridge race relations in their community. Explore primary source documents using close reading strategies. Discover how the work of the High Point Women’s Good Will Committee serves as a positive model for other groups to replicate. Extrapolate and apply the work of the High Point Women’s Good Will Committee to a current societal ill and seek areas in which adults and students can cooperatively find solutions to these problems.

Standards

AH2.H.4 – Analyze how conflict and compromise have shaped politics, economics and culture in the United States. AH2.H.5 – Understand how tensions between freedom, equality and power have shaped the political, economic and social development of the United States. AH2.H.7 – Understand the impact of war on American politics, economics, society and culture.

Objectives

AH2.H.4.1 – Analyze the political issues and conflicts that impacted the United States since Reconstruction and the compromises that resulted (e.g., Populism, Progressivism, working conditions and labor unrest, New Deal, Wilmington Race Riots, Eugenics, Civil Rights Movement, Anti-War protests, Watergate, etc.). AH2.H.4.3 – Analyze the social and religious conflicts, movements and reforms that impacted the United States since Reconstruction in terms of participants, strategies, opposition, and results (e.g., Prohibition, Social Darwinism, Eugenics, civil rights, anti-war protest, etc.). AH2.H.5.2 – Explain how judicial, legislative and executive actions have affected the distribution of power between levels of government since Reconstruction (e.g., New Deal, Great Society, Civil Rights, etc.). AH2.H.7.3 – Explain the impact of wars on American society and culture since Reconstruction (e.g., relocation of Japanese Americans, American propaganda, first and second Red Scare movement, McCarthyism, baby boom, Civil Rights Movement, protest movements, ethnic, patriotism, etc.).

Time Required

One class period (90 minutes)

Recommended Grade Level

High School

Topics

Civil Rights, North Carolina (Good Will Committee of the City of High Point, Local Good Neighbor Council, State Good Neighbor Council, Goldsboro Bi-Racial Committee) Mary Jane McLeod Bethune Algerian War

Era

Civil Rights Movement, United States, North Carolina, High Point, 1960s

Preparation

Materials and Resources

1) Copies of the Cover Letter https://digitalcollections.uncw.edu/digital/collection/p17190coll13/id/572/rec/2 2) Copies of the “Women and Teenagers Are Helping” document https://digitalcollections.uncw.edu/digital/collection/p17190coll13/id/396/rec/1 3) Copies of the Mary Jane McLeod Bethune Biography 4) Copies of the “On This Day: French-Algerian Truce” document 5) Copies of the Student Activity Sheet 6) Writing Utensils 7) Computers

Procedure

 Distribute copies of the cover letter and the “Women and Teenagers Are Helping” document. – 2 minutes  As a whole class, conduct an oral read aloud of both the cover letter and the “Women and Teenagers are Helping” document. – 10 minutes  Divide students into small groups of 3 students. One student is designated as the “recorder” writing down the group answers. One student is designated as the “spokesperson,” sharing out the group’s answers during discussion time. The third student is the group “facilitator,” guiding the discussion and keeping the group on task. – 3 minutes  Each small group is to use “Think, Pair, Share” to read and answer the questions for the documents. – 30 minutes  If the teacher would like to use the extension activities for Paragraph IX question 2, provide the students with the Mary Jane McLeod Bethune biography, and the “On This Day: French-Algerian Truce” documents. See extension notes below.

 After the students have completed the “Think, Pair, Share” activity, the teacher should conduct a whole class discussion allowing the spokesperson from each group to share out answers. – 20 minutes  Follow these activities with the assessment. – 25 minutes

Evaluation

Method of Assessment

Have students write a paragraph answering the following questions:

1) With what current issue are you concerned? 2) Would you be willing to work with a group of like-minded adults to find a solution to the issue? Why? Why not? 3) What are some practical ways in which you could work to help alleviate the problem? 4) Conduct a discussion allowing volunteer students to share their responses from their writing. A possible follow-up question could be “Have you ever worked with adults to solve a societal problem? If so, share your experiences with the class.”

Possibilities for Remediation

1) Have the student orally re-read the documents with the teacher, a tutor, or another student. 2) Discuss each paragraph and the questions. Have the student ask clarifying questions.

Possibilities for Extension

 Mary Jane McLeod Bethune biography – Students may conduct additional research about the life and works of Mary Jane McLeod Bethune then report their findings to the class  “On This Day: French-Algerian Truce” document – Students could conduct additional research in order to hypothesize why the young adults may have chosen to send materials to Algeria

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) The daughter of former slaves, Mary Jane McLeod Bethune became one of the most important black educators, civil and women’s rights leaders and government officials of the twentieth century. The college she founded set educational standards for today’s black colleges, and her role as an advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave African Americans an advocate in government.

Born on July 10, 1875 near Maysville, South Carolina, Bethune was one of the last of Samuel and Patsy McLeod’s seventeen children. After the Civil War, her mother worked for her former owner until she could buy the land on which the family grew cotton. By age nine, Bethune could pick 250 pounds of cotton a day.

Bethune benefited from efforts to educate African Americans after the war, graduating in 1894 from the Scotia Seminary, a boarding school in North Carolina. Bethune next attended Dwight Moody’s Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago, Illinois. But with no church willing to sponsor her as a missionary, Bethune became an educator. While teaching in South Carolina, she married fellow teacher Albertus Bethune, with whom she had a son in 1899.

The Bethunes moved to Palatka, Florida, where Mary worked at the Presbyterian Church and also sold insurance. In 1904, her marriage ended, and determined to support her son, Bethune opened a boarding school, the Daytona Beach Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls. Eventually, Bethune’s school became a college, merging with the all-male Cookman Institute to form Bethune-Cookman College in 1929. It issued its first degrees in 1943.

A champion of racial and gender equality, Bethune founded many organizations and led voter registration drives after women gained the vote in 1920, risking racist attacks. In 1924, she was elected president of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, and in 1935, she became the founding president of the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune also played a role in the transition of black voters from the Republican Party —“the party of Lincoln”— to the

Democratic Party during the Great Depression. A friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, in 1936, Bethune became the highest ranking African American woman in government when President Franklin Roosevelt named her director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration, where she remained until 1944. She was also a leader of FDR’s unofficial “black cabinet.” In 1937 Bethune organized a conference on the Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth, and fought to end discrimination and lynching. In 1940, she became vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP), a position she held for the rest of her life. As a member of the advisory board that in 1942 created the Women’s Army Corps, Bethune ensured it was racially integrated. Appointed by President Harry S. Truman, Bethune was the only woman of color at the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945. She regularly wrote for the leading African American newspapers, the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender.

Additionally, Bethune was a businesswoman who co-owned a Daytona, Florida resort and co- founded the Central Life Insurance Company of Tampa. Honored with many awards, Bethune’s life was celebrated with a memorial statue in Washington DC in 1974, and a postage stamp in 1985. Her final residence is a National Historic Site.

Source

Michals, Debra. “Mary McLeod Bethune." National Women's History Museum. 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune.

On This Day: French-Algerian Truce

On March 18, 1962, France and the leaders of the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) sign a peace agreement to end the seven-year Algerian War, signaling the end of 130 years of colonial French rule in Algeria.

In late October 1954, a faction of young Algerian Muslims established the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) as a guerrilla organization dedicated to winning independence from France. They staged several bloody uprisings during the next year, and by 1956 the FLN was threatening to overrun the colonial cities, home to Algeria’s sizable European settler population. In France, a new administration, led by Guy Mollet, promised to quell the Muslim rebellion and sent 500,000 French troops to Algeria to crush the FLN.

To isolate the rebels and their area of operations, France granted Tunisia and Morocco independence, and their borders with Algeria were militarized with barbed wire and electric fencing. When FLN leaders attempted to travel to Tunisia in October 1956 to discuss the Algerian War, French forces diverted their plane and jailed the men. In response, the FLN launched a new campaign of terrorism in the colonial capital of Algiers. General Jacques Massu, head of France’s crack parachute unit, was given extraordinary powers to act in the city, and through torture and assassination the FLN presence in Algiers was destroyed. By the end of 1957, the rebels had been pushed back into rural areas, and it seemed the tide had turned in the Algerian War.

However, in May 1958, a new crisis began when European Algerians launched massive demonstrations calling for the integration of Algeria with France and for the return of Charles de Gaulle to power. In France, the Algerian War had seriously polarized public opinion, and many feared the country was on the brink of army revolt or civil war. On June 1, de Gaulle, who had served as leader of France after World War II, was appointed prime minister by the National Assembly and authorized to write a new national constitution.

Days after returning to power, de Gaulle visited Algiers, and though he was warmly welcomed by the European Algerians he did not share their enthusiasm for Algerian integration. Instead, he granted Muslims the full rights of French citizenship and in 1959 declared publicly that Algerians had the right to determine their own future. During the next two years, the worst violence in Algeria was perpetrated by European Algerians rather than the FLN, but scattered revolts and terrorism did not prevent the opening of peace negotiations between France and the FLN-led provisional government of the Algerian Republic in 1961.

On March 16, 1962, a peace agreement was signed at Evian-les-Bains, France, promising independence for Algeria pending a national referendum on the issue. French aid would continue, and Europeans could return to their native countries, remain as foreigners in Algeria, or take Algerian citizenship. On July 1, 1962, Algerians overwhelmingly approved the agreement, and most of the one million Europeans in Algeria poured out of the country. More than 100,000 Muslim and 10,000 French soldiers were killed in the seven-year Algerian War, along with thousands of Muslim civilians and hundreds of European colonists.

Citation Information Article Title: French-Algerian truce Author: History.com Editors Website Name: HISTORY URL: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/french-algerian-truce Access Date: March 11, 2019 Publisher: A&E Television Networks Last Updated: August 21, 2018 Original Published Date: February 9, 2010

Raleigh, North Carolina Box 584 l

To: Chairmen of Local Good N&ighbor CouncUs, Human Relations Committees, Bi-Racial Committees, Etc.

From: D. s. Coltrane, Chairman N. C. Good Neighbor Council

Subject: Report on Activities of the High Point Women's Good Will Committee

Enclosed ts a report of activtttes tn the field of race relations by the High Point Women's Good Will Committee. We believe you will find this report interesting and worthwhile.

This kind of activity on the part of women and teenagers ts worthy of consideration by your committee or council as a part of your program.

If more information ts desired, write Mrs. Howard Marsh, llO Brantley Circle, High Point. Mrs. Marsh was recently appointed a member of the State Good Neighbor Council.

DSC:mkt Enc. Htgh Point, N. C.

WOMEN AND TEENAGERS ARE HELPING

What is regarded as a development of special importance in the efforts in North Carolina to effect adjustment of racial discontent in justice and good wUl is the new role women are assuming. Ftrst in High Point and next in Goldsboro the women enlisted for direct action tn promoting the kind of group discussion designed to promote understanding. These groups are en­ couraging teenagers to take a stand for racial fairness and friendship, and much of value in human relations in the State is expected to come from these special forces.

The Good Will Committee of the City of High Point was formed in .July 1963. The Chairman of the High Point Bi-Racial Committee recom­ mended that the women of the community become directly involved in dealtng with the problem of race relations. Acting as individuals but through appeals: to existing church and civic organizations a group of women leaders met and accepted the civic service challenge.

The two women members, one Negro and one white, of the Bi-Racial Committee undertook to promote action on the assignment. A steering com­ mittee of two Negro and eight white women, including the two members of the Bi-Racial Committee, were chosen to determine the area of service to be undertaken. Individuals were selected because of their outstanding lead­ ership experience and were representative of the total community.

It was stated that the purpose of this Women's Good Wlll Committee of High Point would be "To work through public discussion and dissemination of information toward increased understanding in relations between the races, as well as among those of the same race with different views, 11 about the problem presented by the Negro petition for citizenship equality.

The Mayor of High Point officially and publicly endorsed the Women's Good Will Committee and its relationship to the whole civic movement.

In September 1963, a "dutch-treat" luncheon meeting was held. In­ vitations were sent to 150 civic and church organizations of women, both Negro and white, requesting that at least one representative be present at the luncheon. Thts meeting was attended by 165 people representing eighty organizations. General Capus Waynick addressed the group as special rep­ resentative of Governor Terry Sanford.

The Chairman of the Good Will Committee presented the plan of offering the services of discussion leaders from the committee for programming on race relations, moral obligation and civic responsibility. These discussion leaders were trained in three work-shop sessions. These included the following: information on the various organizations working in the area. of Page 2 - High Point Women's Good Will Committee Report

race relations, discussion techniques, and consideration of questions to be presented for discussions. In the ensuing weeks the response was en­ couraging as church groups, YvvCA, service clubs, Association of Ameri­ can University Women and college alumnae groups were scheduled for programs. By some groups a bi-racial team of discussion leaders was requested.

The steering committee of the High Point Women's Good Will Committee has been holding regular bi-weekly meetings. The role of the church, schools and other organizations, and the current progress in race relations are among the subjects presented by local people in these specialized fields. Interested women are invited to take part in these "round-table" discussion meetings.

As a result of the Youth Good Will Committee of this group the :following results have occurred:

(1) The white Y-Teens and the teenagers from the Negro YvvCA (Mary Bethune Branch) agreed to join in community projects. Their first project was the packaging of materials to be sent to Algeria.

( 2) An inter-racial tennis tournament took place in High Point.

( 3) The swimming pool at the white YVvCA was opened to Negroes without incident. Swimming instructions were given to one Negro Girl Scout Troop by the white staff e.t the YvvCA.

(4) The Negro and white high school students formed a Youth Council, holding their meetings at the white YvvCA.

In November 1963 the Goldsboro Bi-Racial Committee formed a Women's Good Will Committee following the procedure established in High Point. Mrs. Howard Marsh and Mrs. Matt Wall, Co-chairmen of the High Point group, went to Goldsboro on invitation and aided that city's movement by discussing methods and results.

When the High Point Bi-Racial Committee was replaced by the Human Relations Commission, which was made directly responsible to the Mayor and the City Council, it was decided that the non-official organization of women, young volunteers and men, who are expected to become a part of the committee within the near future, could serve more appropriately as a High Point ally of the State Good Neighbor Council set up by the Governor with Dave S. Coltrane as chairman. That is the present status of the Women's group, of which Mrs. Marsh is acting chairman.