DOCSLIB.ORG

The Politics of Children's Literature

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Politics of Children's Literature The Politics of Children’s Literature What’s Wrong with the Rosa Parks Myth By HerBert KoHl Issues of racIsm and direct confrontation the two names that most children associate between African American and European Ameri- with the Civil Rights Movement, the other can people in the United States are usually being Martin Luther King Jr. The image of considered too sensitive to be dealt with directly “Rosa Parks the Tired” exists on the level of in the elementary school classroom. When Afri- a national cultural icon. Dozens of children’s can Americans and European Americans are books and textbooks present the same version involved in confrontation in children’s texts, of what might be called “Rosa Parks and the the situation is routinely described as a problem Montgomery Bus Boycott.” This version can be between individuals that can be worked out on synthesized as follows: a personal basis. In the few cases where racism is addressed as a social problem, there has to be Rosa Parks was a poor seamstress. She lived a happy ending. in Montgomery, Ala., during the 1950s. This is most readily apparent in the bio- In those days there was still segregation in graphical treatment of Rosa Parks, one of parts of the United States. That meant that Associated Press Associated African Americans walk to work during the first days of the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. The Politics of Children’s Literature—Zinn Education Project 1 African Americans and European Ameri- Correcting the Myth cans were not allowed to use the same public facilities such as restaurants or swimming 1. Rosa Parks was a poor, tired seamstress. pools. It also meant that whenever the city She lived in Montgomery, Ala., during the buses were crowded, African Americans had 1950s. Rosa Parks was one of the first women to give up seats in front to European Ameri- in Montgomery to join the National Associa- cans and move to the back of the bus. tion for the Advancement of Colored People and was its secretary for years. At the NAACP One day on her way home from work Rosa she worked with chapter president E.D. was tired and sat down in the front of the Nixon, who was also vice president of the bus. As the bus got crowded she was asked Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Parks to give up her seat to a European American learned about union struggles from him. She man, and she refused. The bus driver told also worked with the youth division of the her she had to go to the back of the bus, and NAACP, and she took a youth NAACP group she still refused to move. It was a hot day, to visit the Freedom Train when it came to she was tired and angry, and she became Montgomery in 1954. The train, which car- very stubborn. ried the originals of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, was The driver called a policeman, who arrested traveling around the United States promoting Rosa. When other African Americans in the virtues of democracy. Since its visit was Montgomery heard this, they became angry a federal project, access to the exhibits could too, so they decided to refuse to ride the not be segregated. Parks took advantage of buses until everyone was allowed to ride that fact to visit the train. There, she and the together. They boycotted the buses. The members of the youth group mingled freely boycott, which was led by Martin Luther with European Americans who were also King Jr., succeeded. Now African Americans looking at the documents. This overt act of and European Americans can ride the buses crossing the boundaries of segregation did together in Montgomery. Rosa Parks was a not endear Parks to the Montgomery political very brave person. and social establishment. Parks’ work as a seamstress in a large This story seems innocent enough. Rosa department store was secondary to her com- Parks is treated with respect, and the African munity work. In addition, as she says in an American community is given credit for run- interview in My Soul Is Rested, she had almost ning the boycott and winning the struggle. a life history of “being rebellious against On closer examination, however, this version being mistreated because of my color.” She reveals some distressing characteristics that was well known to African American leaders serve to turn a carefully planned movement in Montgomery for her opposition to segre- for social change into a spontaneous outburst gation, her leadership abilities, and her moral based upon frustration and anger. The following strength. Since the 1954 Brown v. Board of annotations on the previous summary suggest Education decision, she had been working that we need a new story, one not only more in to desegregate the Montgomery schools. She line with the truth but one that shows the orga- had also attended an interracial meeting at nizational skills and determination of the Afri- the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee a can American community in Montgomery and few months before the boycott. Highlander the role of the bus boycott in the larger struggle was known throughout the South as a radi- to desegregate Montgomery and the South. cal education center that was overtly plan- ning for the total desegregation of the South. The Politics of Children’s Literature—Zinn Education Project 2 At that meeting, which dealt with plans for of the African American educators felt that school desegregation, Parks indicated that young children do not need to be exposed to she intended to participate in other attempts the violent history of segregation. They wor- to break down the barriers ried about the effects such expo- of segregation. To call Rosa sure would have on race relations Parks a poor tired seamstress To call Rosa Parks in their classrooms and especially and not talk about her role a poor tired about provoking rage on the part as a community leader is to of African American students. turn an organized struggle seamstress and The other educators felt that, for freedom into a personal not talk about her given the resurgence of overt rac- act of frustration. It is a role as a community ism in the United States, allowing thorough misrepresentation rage and anger to come out was of the Civil Rights Move- leader is to turn the only way African American ment in Montgomery and an an organized struggle and European American children insult to Parks as well. for freedom into could work toward a common life. They felt that conflict was a 2. In those days there was still a personal act of segregation in parts of the positive thing that could be heal- United States. That meant frustration. ing when confronted directly and that African Americans and that avoiding the horrors of rac- European Americans were ism was just another way of per- not allowed to use the same public facili- petuating them. I agree with this ties. The existence of legalized segregation in second group. the South during the 1950s is integral to the 3. Whenever the city buses were crowded, story of the Montgomery bus boycott, yet it African Americans had to give up seats in is an embarrassment to many school people front to European Americans and move to and difficult to explain to children without the back of the bus. Actually, African Ameri- accounting for the moral corruption of the cans were never allowed to sit in the front of majority of the European American com- the bus in the South in those days. The front munity in the South. Locating segregation in seats were reserved for European Americans. the past is a way of avoiding dealing with its Between five and ten rows back, the “col- current manifestations and implying that rac- ored” section began. When the front filled ism is no longer a major problem. Describ- up, African Americans seated in the “col- ing segregation passively (“There was still ored” section had to give up their seats and segregation” instead of “European Americans move toward the back of the bus. Thus, for segregated facilities so that African Americans example, an elderly African American would couldn’t use them”) also ignores the issue of have to give up his or her seat to a Euro- legalized segregation, even though Parks was pean American teenager at the peril of being arrested for a violation of the Alabama law arrested. that required segregation in public facilities. 4. One day on her way home from work Rosa It doesn’t talk overtly about racism. And it was tired and sat down in the front of the refers to “parts” of the United States, soften- bus. Parks did not sit in the front of the bus. ing the tone and muddying the reference to She sat in the front row of the “colored” sec- the South. I’ve raised the question of how to tion. When the bus got crowded she refused expose children to the reality of segregation to give up her seat in the “colored” section and racism to a number of educators, both to a European American. It is important to African American and European American. point this out as it indicates quite clearly Most of the European American and a few that it was not her intent, initially, to break The Politics of Children’s Literature—Zinn Education Project 3 the segregation laws. At this point the story was placed under arrest. See, if I had just been lapses into the familiar and refers to Rosa evicted from the bus and he hadn’t placed Parks as “Rosa.” The question of whether to me under arrest or had any charges brought use the first name for historical characters in against me, it probably could have been just a factual story is complicated.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Beyond the Stereotypes: a Guide to Resources for Black Girls and Young Women
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 275 772 UD 025 155 AUTHOR Wilson, Geraldine, Comp.; Vassall, Merlene, Comp. TITLE Beyond the Stereotypes: A Guide to Resources for Black Girls and Young Women. INSTITUTION National Black Child Development Inst., Inc., Washington, D.C. SPONS AGENCY Women's Educational Equity Act Program (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE 86 NOTE 71p.; Educational Equity for Black Girls Project: Building Achievement Motivation, Counteracting the Stereotypes. AVAILABLE FROMNational Black Child Development Inst., 1463 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20005 ($8.50). PUB TYPE Guides - General (050) -- Reference Materials - Bibliographies (131) -- Reports - Evaluative/Feasibility (142) EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS *Adolescents; Annotated Bibliographies; Black Attitudes; Black Culture; *Black Literature; *Blacks; *Black Youth; *Females; Films; *Preadolescents; Preschool Children; *Resource Materials ABSTRACT This resource guide lists books, records, and films that provide a realistic and wholesome depiction of what it means to be a black girl or woman. Organized according to medium and appropriate age ranges, it includes a brief annotation for each item. Suggestions for use of the guide are provided, as are the following criteria for selecting resources for black girls: (1) accurate presentation of history; (2) non-stereotypical characterization; (3) non-derogatory language and terminology; and (4) illustrations demonstrating the diversity of the black experience. Also included are distributors and
    [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]
  • Türkiye'de Biyografik Sinema Filminde Bellek, Çarpıtma Ve Boş Alan
    T. C. MALTEPE ÜNİVERSİTESİ İLETİŞİM FAKÜLTESİ RADYO SİNEMA TELEVİZYON BÖLÜMÜ TÜRKİYE’DE BİYOGRAFİK SİNEMA FİLMİNDE BELLEK, ÇARPITMA VE BOŞ ALAN: “VEDA” FİLMİ ÜZERİNDEN ÇALIŞMA YÜKSEK LİSANS TEZİ AYTUNA (TOSUNOĞLU) ÇALIK 091105107 Danışman Öğretim Üyesi: Yrd.Doç.Dr. Nazan HAYDARI PAKKAN İstanbul, Haziran 2011 “But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more insubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the endless edifice of recollection.”* Swann’s Way – Marcel Proust * “Yaşananlar geçmişte kaldığında, insanlar öldükten, herşey kırıldıktan ve parçalara ayrıldıktan sonra yine de yalnız, daha kırılgan ancak daha canlı, daha gerçek dışı, daha inatçı, daha inançlı; nesnelerin kokusu ve tadı uzun bir süre boyunca dengede kalır; tıpkı geride kalan her şeyin yıkıntıları arasında hatırlanacakları o anın gelmesini bekleyen ve uman ve yeniden bir araya gelmenin sonsuz mabedinde varlıklarının en küçük ve neredeyse tutulamayacak damlasında bile kendinden emin olan ruhlar gibi…” (Çeviri: A.Tosunoğlu) 2 ÖNSÖZ Sevgili Atıf Yılmaz 2004 yılında, Bir Sinemacının Anıları kitabını benim için imzalarken şunları yazmıştı; “Bugün iyi bir romancı, senaryocu yarın belki iyi bir yönetmen daha sonra iyi bir oyuncu ve daha neler neler... Bilmem az şey mi bekliyorum?..” Belki bunların hiçbiri olmadım, belki bir kısmı... İyi olup olmamak da oldukça göreceli. Bu hayattan geçerken kendisini hep bir öğrenen olarak niteleyen ben için iyi olmak diye bir şey yok.
    [Show full text]
  • Teaching Young Children About the Civil Rights Movement Applying Effective & Developmentally Appropriate Strategies
    Promising Practices Teaching Young Children about the Civil Rights Movement Applying Effective & Developmentally Appropriate Strategies Janet E. Foster, Tonja L. Root, & Seungyoun Lee Introduction Considering the importance of the Selected Developmental Civil Rights Movement, children need to It is crucial for teachers to persis- Characteristics That Influence be introduced to the related concepts early Children’s Learning tently examine, be knowledgeable about, in their school experiences, and teachers and reflect on their beliefs, assumptions, need to consider students’ developmental Teachers must consider the devel- values, standpoints, experiences, biases, needs and curriculum standards in order to opmental levels of the children they are prejudices, and stereotypes about diversity provide appropriate content and methods teaching as guidance in planning instruc- and multicultural education that they of instruction. tion about the Civil Rights Movement, carry into their teaching and learning. The purpose of this article is to in- since aspects of emotional, social, cognitive, Teachers’ viewpoints and interpretations troduce a variety of resources to support and moral development are important in about the Civil Rights Movement will teaching and learning about the Civil organizing effective instruction. Accord- affect their problem-solving and decision- Rights Movement based on the premise ing to Copple and Bredekamp (2008), making as well as discussions on the topic that concrete learning experiences permit kindergarten-aged children are able to and resources and materials they choose children to build an understanding that form and sustain relationships and seek for such lessons. will impact their learning, attitudes, and peer acceptance. These characteristics The Civil Rights Movement is today beliefs about diversity and multicultural are important in understanding the Civil just as important a topic as it was in 1954 education.
    [Show full text]
  • Rosa Parks-Sources of Information (General Version)
    ROSA PARKS: SOURCES OF INFORMATION Page 1 CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS RATIONALE This lesson has material appropriate The purpose of this lesson is for students to examine their own and others’ for history, social studies, civics, and sources of information about historical events. Students also have an opportunity social science classes. to examine how misrepresentation or omission of facts can lead to a less than complete understanding of events and issues. REQUIREMENTS Materials OBJECTIVES • Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott • Students will determine if their knowledge of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott is a complete and accurate account of the events • Rosa Parks and the Montgomery that took place. Bus Boycott (Answer Key) • pens/pencils, chart paper/markers • Students will identify common sources of information and misinformation. (optional) • Students will examine the limits of having an incomplete or inaccurate understanding of an event or issue. Time 45 minutes or one class period PROCEDURES Grade Level Grades 6 & Up 1. Explain that the purpose of this lesson is for students to consider sources of information. To prepare for the lesson, have students consider the following TECHNIQUES & SKILLS questions: critical thinking skills, large-group • How do we acquire our knowledge of people and events? How do we discussion, recalling factual know what we know? information, writing skills • What are our sources of information? KEY WORDS & PHRASES • How do we know if we have all the facts? boycott Brown v. Board of Education • How do we know if the information is accurate? desegregate • Have you ever found out that the information you had about a topic was Montgomery Bus Boycott inaccurate? How did you learn it was inaccurate? NAACP racial justice 2.
    [Show full text]
  • PEGODA-DISSERTATION-2016.Pdf (3.234Mb)
    © Copyright by Andrew Joseph Pegoda December, 2016 “IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE PAST, CHANGE IT”: THE REEL CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION, HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND THE MAKING OF UTOPIAN PASTS _______________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By Andrew Joseph Pegoda December, 2016 “IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE PAST, CHANGE IT”: THE REEL CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION, HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND THE MAKING OF UTOPIAN PASTS ____________________________ Andrew Joseph Pegoda APPROVED: ____________________________ Linda Reed, Ph.D. Committee Chair ____________________________ Nancy Beck Young, Ph.D. ____________________________ Richard Mizelle, Ph.D. ____________________________ Barbara Hales, Ph.D. University of Houston-Clear Lake ____________________________ Steven G. Craig, Ph.D. Interim Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Department of Economics ii “IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE PAST, CHANGE IT”: THE REEL CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION, HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND THE MAKING OF UTOPIAN PASTS _______________ An Abstract of A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By Andrew Joseph Pegoda December, 2016 ABSTRACT Historians have continued to expand the available literature on the Civil Rights Revolution, an unprecedented social movement during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s that aimed to codify basic human and civil rights for individuals racialized as Black, by further developing its cast of characters, challenging its geographical and temporal boundaries, and by comparing it to other social movements both inside and outside of the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • Classroom & Teacher Resources on Rosa Parks
    CLASSROOM & TEACHER RESOURCES ON ROSA PARKS Page 8 Kohl, Herbert. “The Politics of Children’s Literature: What’s Wrong with the Rosa Parks Myth?” In Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching by Deborah Menkart, Jenice View, and Alana D. Murray, eds. Washington, D.C.: Teaching For Change and PRRAC, 2004, 25–31. ISBN: 1878554182. Kohl points out the subtle, but real, racism inherent in the usual telling of the Rosa Parks story and offers another, more truthful version. [Teacher Resource] ––– She Would Not Be Moved: How We Tell the Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. New York: The New Press, 2005. ISBN: 1595580204. Kohl has expanded and updated his essay on dispelling the myths about Rosa Parks and added a number of complementary pieces in this book. Beginning with a new introduction by Marian Wright Edelman, She Would Not Be Moved also includes an original essay by Cynthia Brown on civil rights activists Septima Clark, Virginia Durr, and Rosa Parks; an extensive teachers' resource guide to educational materials about Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement; an appendix explaining how to evaluate many of the textbooks written for young people about this period; and a half dozen historical photographs. [Teacher Resource] Hampton, Henry, and Steve Fayer. Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s. New York: Bantam Books, 1991. ISBN: 0553352326. The section on the Montgomery Bus Boycott provides powerful first-person testimonies appropriate for classroom use with middle and high school students. [Intermediate/Secondary] Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks.
    [Show full text]
  • Collective Amnesia and the Symbolic Power of Oneness
    COLLECTIVE FORGETTING AND THE SYMBOLIC POWER OF ONENESS: THE STRANGE APOTHEOSIS OF ROSA PARKS Barry Schwartz Department of Sociology University of Georgia Collective forgetting refers to what is unregistered in the imagination of the individual, unchronicled in research monographs and textbooks, and/or uncommemorated by monuments, relics, statues, and ritual observances. A metaphor for failure to transmit information about the past, collective forgetting refers not only to people‘s forgetting events they once knew but also to having never known them in the first place. One example of this phenomenon involves America‘s most prominent civil rights heroine: Rosa Parks. Why have so many men and women whose conduct was more consequential than Mrs. Parks‘s been forgotten? What does society gain from their oblivion? William Goode (1978) observed many years ago that ―winners in various kinds of competition, even when they are marked off from the losers by minute differences in performance, or, (as in science) by narrow differences in the time of discovery or achievement, seem to be given far greater amounts of prestige than those differences would appear to justify‖(p.66). Because it usually costs less (in terms of attention) to admire a field‘s best (a single task) than to admire its first and second best (a multiple task), Goode‘s explanation of why the magnitude of reward is often out of proportion to achievement is persuasive, but it skirts the related questions of (1) whether people are unwilling or unable to admire slightly less adept performers, and (2) why these performers not only fail to receive due credit but are often forgotten altogether.
    [Show full text]
  • MESSENGER SUMMER 2014 a Publication for in This Issue of the Avery Messenger, We Celebrate the Very First Statue of an African American in Charleston, SC
    AVERY MESSENGER SUMMER 2014 A PUBLICATION FOR In this issue of the Avery Messenger, we celebrate the very first statue of an African American in Charleston, SC. This monument of African-American icon A Publication of the Denmark Vesey (circa 1767–July 2, 1822) is not only historical, but it is also a powerful show of remembrance. It will no doubt AVERY RESEARCH CENTER encourage further dialogue about slavery, freedom, race, FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE heroism, resistance, and justice. College of Charleston 125 Bull Street • Charleston, SC 29424 Ph: 843.953.7609 • Fax: 843.953.7607 The cover image is a tight head shot in profile of the Archives: 843.953.7608 monument. Photograph by Ramona LaRoche avery.cofc.edu Website: http://www.gullahgal.com/ AVERY INSTITUTE OF AFRO-AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE P.O. Box 21492 • Charleston, SC 29413 Ph: 843.953.7609 • Fax: 843.953.7607 www.averyinstitute.us The bronze sculpture of STAFF Denmark Vesey is 7 feet high, Patricia Williams Lessane, Executive Director and weighs 400 pounds. Vesey Mary Battle, Public Historian is shown holding his carpentry Curtis J. Franks, Curator; Coordinator of Public bag with tools, his hat and his Programs and Facilities Manager Bible. Savannah Frierson, Administrative Assistant Shelia Harrell-Roye, Education Outreach Coordinator Georgette Mayo, Processing Archivist The granite Vesey pedestal is Aaron Spelbring, Manager of Archival Services 44 ¾ inches square x 59 inches Deborah Wright, Associate Director high, and weighs 1800 pounds. AVERY MESSENGER The pedestal is inscribed on Deborah Wright, Editor; Layout, Design two sides with biographical Savannah Frierson, Copy Editor and historical information Avery Research Center Staff, Contributors about Denmark Vesey and the Printed by Nelson Printing conspiracy.
    [Show full text]
  • ADL Honors the Life and Achievements of Rosa Parks (1913-2005)
    ADL Honors the Life and Achievements of Rosa Parks (1913-2005) The Mother of Civil Rights Rosa Parks was an important social activist, a woman hailed by the U.S. Congress as the Mother of the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks is best known for taking a stand against racial segregation by refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955. While most people know of her courageous leadership during the year-long Montgomery bus boycott, many people aren’t aware that Mrs. Parks was a community leader and activist for more than a dozen years prior to the boycott and for five decades after. Rosa Parks: Roots of Activism 1 / 4 Rosa Parks was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, a member of the Voters’ League, and actively involved with the Highlander Folk School, an education center for workers' rights and racial equality. She wrote and spoke frequently on civil rights. In 1987, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, which offers "Pathways to Freedom" tours that introduce young people to important civil rights and underground railroad sites throughout the country. From 1965 until her retirement in 1988, Rosa Parks also worked on the staff of U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan), who recalled, "You treated her with deference because she was so quiet, so serene—just a very special person...'there is only one' Rosa Parks." Changing the Historical Narrative of Rosa Parks When commemorating the life of this remarkable civil rights leader, educators have an opportunity to both celebrate her accomplishments and to challenge the conventional historical narrative on Rosa Parks that is a part of most students’ education, and which is embodied in the following passage from a nationally distributed children’s book: “…Mrs.
    [Show full text]
  • National Shakespeare Competition 2013 30Th Season
    National Shakespeare Competition 2013 30th Season The English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition is a school-based program designed to help high school students develop their speaking and critical thinking skills and their appreciation of literature as they explore the beauty of the language and the timeless themes in Shakespeare works. In the Competition, students read, interpret, and perform monologues and sonnets in three qualifying stages—at the school, community, and national levels. Since its beginnings with 500 students in NYC, the ESU National Shakespeare Competition has given more than 250,000 young people of all backgrounds the opportunity to discover Shakespeare’s writings and to communicate their understanding of his language and message. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, the Competition currently involves 59 English-Speaking Union Branch communities nationwide. Every spring, the winners of the local Branch Competitions come to New York City to take part in the ESU National Shakespeare Competition semi-finals held at Lincoln Center. In the semi-finals, all contestants perform a monologue and a sonnet onstage. In the last phase of the Competition, those students selected as finalists present a cold reading of a monologue from one of Shakespeare’s plays in addition to their prepared monologues and sonnets. The winner of the ESU National Shakespeare Competition receives a full tuition scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s Young Actors Summer School in London, England. The runner-up receives a full tuition scholarship to the American Shakespeare Center’s Theatre Camp in Staunton, Virginia, and third place is awarded $500 by The Shakespeare Society.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rosa Parks Story Movie Guide
    The rosa parks story movie guide Continue Nominated for 1 PrimeTime Emmy. Another 8 wins and 7 nominations. See more of the awards Edit More Edit Seamstress recalls the event leading up to her act of peaceful defiance that prompted the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Plot Summary : America, 1955. Her act of courage changed the world. But how it changed her life was never said ... Still. Certificate: See all the certificates of the Guide to Parents: Viewing Content Advisory Edit by Rose Louise McCauley Parks: Why do you always push us around? Read more : Links Panttivanki (1955) Read more: User Reviews Edit Release Date: 24 February 2002 (USA) Read more Also known as: Freedom Trip: Rose Parks Story More CBS, Chotzen/Jenner Productions, Come Sunday More Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 See the full technical specification of Rosa Parks Story (2002 TV movie) Add to the guide Go to: Certification Australia: M Canada: G (Kwebek) New zealand: M Singapore: PG (CC, L, V, S, MM, MM) Christian worldview with strong political elements, church scene, and racial protests; 8 obscenities; kissing and innocent couples bedroom scenes; racism, intimidation and cruelty to blacks. The African-American film box office success OF BARBERSHOP took the sardonic position that Rosa Parks did nothing but take the bus. So it is with great joy that MOVIEGUIDE® reviews of a television movie, RIDE to FREEDOM: ROSA PARKS STORY, which tells the whole story of this valiant woman. The film begins with a famous press coverage of her getting on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama and quickly flashing back to Rosa going to a little quaker school for blacks in 1924.
    [Show full text]