WW2 POW Bus-Eum

Check out this Bucks Courier Article about the WW2 Bus-Eum coming to NFS this Thursday!

Logan's response

In this image there is a mob attacking this black women. This black girl if trying to get into school, but this mob is stopping her and getting in her path. This shows how much whites did not want to go through with integrated schools. I don't understand how a people could act like this. This black lady has done nothing wrong.

Joshua's political cartoon: The Little Fighters of Little Rock

People Will Be PEOPLE

I have written a poem to represent what The Little Rock Nine went through. They were great heroes in getting schools to be together. They changed history and brought people together even though they were screamed at and threatened. They are an important part of history.

People Will Be PEOPLE
By Haley Huxley

When PEOPLE
Hurt PEOPLE
PEOPLE strike back
Unless PEOPLE
Being PEOPLE
Are too scared,
But when PEOPLE
Have courage
PEOPLE fight back
And defend
What they think
Is right,
Brave PEOPLE
Being PEOPLE
Lived in Arkansas
They were called
The Little Rock Nine,
Together
PEOPLE
Helped fight
Segregation
With guts
And Determination,
Schools were not equal
Schools were not fair
So PEOPLE
Fought for PEOPLE
To be together,
History
Will be History
And History
Was made
When PEOPLE
Sought equal
And togetherness,
Black
White
Whatever the Race
PEOPLE
Will be PEOPLE
Together

George's Response to Little Rock School Integration

Individuals and groups of people can and have shaped history in both positive and negative ways. Many individuals throughout history have made decisions that affected mankind gravely, such as Adolf Hitler, and his decisions throughout World War Two, the leader of Japan, bombing Pearl Harbor, causing America to join the war, causing hundreds of thousands of young soldiers to perish. But many individuals and groups throughout history have affected it positively, such as inventions which changed the world for the better.
During the time leading up to the integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, some groups and individuals affected school integration history negatively, while some affected the integration positively. The government of the state of government, the courts, and the governor all affected the integration in a negative way. Governor Orval Faubus ordered, “The state's National Guard to forbid nine black children to enter the Little Rock Central High School.” A crowd of white people opposing the integration of the school gathered to help the National Guard prevent the nine black students from entering the school. Eventually, president Dwight D. Eisenhower “very reluctantly” ordered the state’s National Guard. Due to the incident, the school was closed for the year of the unruly protest, but the next year, the nine black students were able to attend. The nine kids at the center of the unruly protests affected the integration positively. They didn’t give up trying to go to scool, but continued through the crowd. They also did not fight back at the crowds, which I think affected scholl integration history positively.

In the image, there are white people protesting school integration, picketing in a large group, holding signs, some of which say, “Race mixing is communism.” It’s sad how people opposed school integration and how violently they protested. I think that if it were just a few people protesting the integration that the people would not protest, but not oppose the law because they were cowardly. I think many of the school integration protesters protested because many people were opposing the integration and they thought it was ok. It is great that America finally did integrate their schools, but it is sad that it took so long.

Evan's Response to the Little Rock 9 Questions

Throughout history, choices made by people have usually had some degree of an effect on either common lifestyles or opinions of surrounding people. Group choices usually end up being more effective, due to violent, forceful strategies that are too frightful to others that they immediately switch opinions. During World War II, Hitler and the Nazi Party used the Jews as scapegoats to their inner-country struggles and problems. Did the Jews actually do anything? No. But the choice to blame the Jewish people ended up in millions of Jewish lives lost and the most brutal time in world history, which never needed to take place. This is just one perfect exemplar of a significant occurrence that took place due to a small (compared to rest of world) group choice.

In this case, the desegregation of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas definitely was another example of a group choice whose effect arose into surrounding racial conflict. In this case, the group was the formal State Court of Arkansas. In a source from Amistad Digital Resource, it states that, "Less than a week before the 1957 school year began, the Arkansas state court ordered Little Rock to reverse the city's desegregation plan." This then backfired on the black students who wished to attend "regular" school with whites. What was then done after this State Court decision was Governer Faubus instructed the National Guard of the state to guard the Central High School armed. These guards eventually had the job of stopping the Little Rock 9, nine black students who wished to go into the High School.

What rose out of this situation was pure violence towards black people, including the one black girl, who was surrounded by a mob of whites in the live footage video. Another example of this sort of horrific violence is the well-dressed black man being pushed around and then hit in the back side of the head with a brick. So, the main groups of whites shaped the integration of schools in Arkansas to turn into more unnecessary tensions between whites and blacks. These types of group hatreds against others have, unfortunately, been a common beat in the history of humans.

Jake & Max: Little Rock 9

MATTHEW ANGLE's Respose to the Little Rock 9

MATTHEW ANGLE’s Response to the Little Rock 9

I think that the question ‘how do the choices of individuals and groups shape history?’ is a very important question, yet one hard to fathom. It is pretty broad and general after all. I mean there are a lot of ways that someone or some people can shape history by their choices, but there are more specific ways and I think that if one is to ponder this question deeply enough, it will be rather easy to break down.

This (question) can easily fall into the choices made in the incident of Little Rock 9, that took place in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Truthfully I think that the entire act of Little Rock 9 falls under that question (above). Really everything that happened there was a strong decision that, once made, had to be followed. The mob of white people angry because nine intelligent black teenagers were going to attend Little Rock’s Central High really draws a picture of what I would call ‘extremely extreme racism’.

On top of that I have to say that it was all very unnecessary, but we are talking about the south in the 50’s so what would you expect, people would likely revolt and riot against nine black kids entering a white school. It was horrible.

The thing that leads into the beginning question was the one important move those nine kids made. They chose to move forward and go to the school. Not only were they smart, they were brave too. To be a black person in the south in the 50’s and walk in front a mob of white people, who, if they could, would kill you, takes a little more than a lot of courage. They want to go to school and be educated and be done with segregation. Another person who made an important choice and put their foot down was the former President Eisenhower who employed federal troops to stop the racist mob, going against the governor of Arkansas’ beliefs. Sometimes it is not an act that makes up choices; sometimes it is choices that make up an act.

Danielle and Emily Comic

Zac And Dongjae's Little Rock 9 Poem

Poem For History
By Zac and Dongjae

One person
Can help to shape the world
A group of people
Can do the same
In history
Both have done something
But a group is faster
The world is strong
But
Society can crumble
An individual can do this

In history
Segregation has reigned supreme
But to be taken down
By believers of good
People can destroy monsters
They can also become one
When people are put into different situations
They become monsters.

Little Rock, Arkansas is one of many examples
Of how cruel people can be
Angry white mobs crowd around
An ex-all white school.
As nine black children
Enter a domain of hate
Not for who they are
but what they were seen as.

Emily and Danielle Civil Rights AIM Chat

Emily and Danielle’s AIM Chat

KEY
Emily - zeiguanaman456
Danielle - Dontmesswiththechobes
Chobes - Chobani Greek Yogurt

Zeiguanaman456: In 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education stated that segregated schools are not separate but equal and it is unfair to separate children by race.

Dontmesswiththechobes*: But in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Central High School was not integrated until the year 1954.

Zeiguanaman456: Why?

Dontmesswiththechobes: Well, in 1957 the Arkansas State Court voted to reverse the city’s integration plan. Then, Governor Orwal Faibus told the National Guard at the Central High School to forbid the black students from entering.

Zeiguanaman456: So just one individual can change everything?

Dontmesswiththechobes: It seems so.

Zeiguanaman456: Nine people can change everything too, like the Little Rock 9.

Dontmesswiththechobes: Who???

Zeiguanaman456: The Little Rock Nine. You know,the Nine African American teens chosen to integrate Little Rock Central High? They were sooooo brave! They were mobbed by very mean and nasty white parents.

Dontmesswiththechobes: That crazy man! I learns about one girl named Melba Beals. She was bullied because she was an African American at the Central High. She was harassed and even need body guard at school!

Zeiguanaman456: Whoa!!! I would hate to be bullied because of my race! That’s not fair! Poor Melba!

Dontmesswiththechobes: Also, another one of her friends, Elizabeth, was attacked by a mob! How terrible is that??????

Zeiguanaman456: that’s pretty mean! I’m glad that these brave souls took it into their hands to make out country a fair and equal place for all.

Here is a video of Paul McCartney singing the first recording of Blackbird. Enjoy!

Victoria and I chose the song Blackbird by the Beatles. The inspiration behind the Beatles’ song was about the Civil Rights struggle for blacks after Paul McCartney read about the race riots in the U.S. The song was written not long after Little Rock. “we were totally immersed in the whole saga which was unfolding. So I got the idea of using a black bird as a symbol for a black person. It wasn’t necessarily a black ‘bird’, but it works that way, as much as then you call girls ‘birds’; the Everly’s had the Bird Dog, so the word ‘bird; was around. ‘Take these broken wings’ was very much in my mind, but it wasn’t exactly an ornithological ditty; it was purposely symbolic.” Paul McCartney had said in interview from 2008

We feel that the Beatles wrote this song to in a way give strength to the black people when no one was helping them. By the Beatles writing this song, they contributed in the fight against racism and that they wanted to show people that you could stand up without being violent. The Beatles felt strongly about the issue and wrote the song to express their feelings on the subject without being violent and striking out.

Margo and Katie's cartoon

If you can't read it Little Rock, Arkansas is saying, "We don't succumb to peer pressure." And it is the only place in America segregated.

How to Draft Your Research Paper & MLA Parenthetical Citation

If your outline was thoroughly done, you are ready to start drafting your paper.  If you still need to work on your outline, I strongly recommend that you complete that before starting to draft. 

When you are drafting, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• getting it down is the most important thing - don't drive yourself crazy with word choice right now - you can revise that later
• keep yourself organized by following your outline and writing topic sentences
• do pay attention to punctuation, especially for quotes - refer back to the mini-lesson on quotes on the network if you need to
• quote sandwich! quote sandwich!  make sure that you have both a top and bottom slice for each quote
• follow the guidelines for MLA parenthetical citation as detailed on many web sites, including Purdue OWL

Due to the Poetry Slam, which was not yet scheduled when I made our due dates, I am moving the rough draft deadline to 8 pm on Monday, May 2nd.  You will get some time in class that day to work on your drafts but not the full 90 minutes. 

Rough Draft Rubric - 100 points total

includes an introduction with thesis statement - ___/10

parenthetical citations are correct - ____/15
body paragraphs include ample detail - facts, statistics, anecdotes, etc. - ____/15
topic sentences are included for each body paragraph - ____/10

includes a minimum of 5 primary source quotes somewhere in the paper - ____/10

includes a minimum of 5 secondary source quotes somewhere in the paper - ____/10

each and every quote is sandwiched with topic and bottom slices to contextualize the quotes - ____/10

editing is good (doesn't need to be perfect but attention was given to capitalization, spelling, etc.) - ____/10

writer used workshop time efficiently and did not disturb others - ____/10

NO CONCLUSION NEEDED FOR ROUGH DRAFT!

Lauren and Andy Response to question.

As you can see in this picture, one of the girls from “Little Rock Nine” is walking or trying to go to school and a mob of white folk are crowding around her and taunting her and not letting her by. This is an example of groups of people shaping integration of schools in Little Rock Arkansas. We think that this was very wrong, and people were crazy for doing this to these poor, innocent people.

After Brown vs. Board: A Closer Look at The Little Rock 9

The Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown vs. Board, while a legal victory for the Civil Rights Movement, did not solve the problem of segregation and racism.  According to Amistad Digital Resource, "By the 1956-57 school year, 723 southern school districts had been desegregated, and 300,000 black children were either attending formerly white schools or were part of a 'desegregated'school district. However, in most cases, the desegregation of schools was not accomplished without extreme reactionary resistance." 

Today we are going to examine what happened in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Our guiding questions are:  How do the choices of individuals and groups shape history?  How did individuals and groups shape the integration of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas? 

You may respond to this question in any way you choose, but you must respond here on our class blog and must include details and facts from the text and video below.  You can write a blog post, in the form of a narrative or a poem, you can record and upload a video, you can post and analyze pictures, you can create a political cartoon, you can post and reflect about a song...  You can work alone or with a partner.  I will allow groups of three but the response must be substantial (triple big mac).  This assignment is due by Monday, 4/25.  On Wednesday, I will be teaching a mini-lesson about citations within your research paper draft; you may work on this assignment or your draft during the workshop time.  Your research paper drafts are due next Friday, April 29th.

Read the secondary source below from Amistad Digital Resource about the aftermath of Brown vs. Bd in Little Rock:

"Less than a week before the 1957 school year began, the Arkansas state court ordered Little Rock to reverse the city's desegregation plan. A federal court overruled the state jurists, but Governor Orval Faubus, a racial moderate who had gained his greatest electoral support from blacks and middle-to-upper-class whites, ordered the state's National Guard to forbid nine black children to enter the Little Rock Central High School. Armed with automatic rifles, the soldiers and a mob of unruly white people pelted and pushed the young students away from the schoolhouse before national television cameras. In late September 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower very reluctantly ordered the state's 10,000 guardsmen to submit to federal authority, and army troops were called to disperse the angry white mobs terrorizing the black students. Little Rock schools were closed during the 1958-59 school year, and black students did not attend the schools until August of 1959.

As the movement for desegregation continued to gain momentum, the measures employed by white supremacists became more violent. The Ku Klux Klan reasserted itself as a powerful secret (and sometimes not so secret) organization, committing a series of murders and bombings of black homes and churches."

Watch the video below of actual footage from the Little Rock integration battle.


If you didn't read Warriors Don't Cry for English, you can read an excerpt here.  You won't regret it.  This book changed my understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.  I didn't really understand it until I learned Melba's story. 

You might also want to think about the story of Minnijean Brown, one of the Little Rock 9.  She famously dumped a bowl of chilli on a white boy, Dent Gitchel, in the cafeteria, resulting in her leaving Little Rock to finish school in New York City.  A few years ago Minnijean and Dent were reunited (you'll never guess where).  You can read the story at NPR.

Day of Silence

As you know, thanks to TASC's Diversity Committee, NFS is participating in the National Day of Silence.  Technically, today is the National Day of Silence, but due to 6th grade being at Echo Hill, we will have ours on Tuesday. 

The web site for National Day of Silence is http://www.dayofsilence.org/.  It is sponsored by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network).  You got to meet and learn from Jody Smith's friend who works for GLSEN during SPICES week last year.  I want you to spend 10-15 minutes exploring http://www.dayofsilence.org/.  There are videos, FAQs, blog links and much more.  You can go wherever you like.  Then, answer the questions below:

1.  What is the purpose of the National Day of Silence and how is it related to civil rights?

2.  What do you think about National Day of Silence as a method for social action?  How does it compare to other forms of protest we've learned about in American history?

3.  Lady Gaga is donating a portion of the proceeds from sales of Born This Way (Country Road version) to GLSEN.  How do her lyrics relate to Day of Silence?

"The" Research Paper - Outline Assessment Rubric

Printed outlines are due at the beginning of class on Monday, April 18^th

You may email it to me (as a Word document attachment) before then if you like.

Includes draft thesis statement	/5
Includes topic sentences for body paragraphs (5+)	/10
Includes primary source quotes (5+)	/15
Includes secondary source quotes (5+)	/15
Includes author(s)/title source in parentheses after each item	/20
Organization – body paragraphs flow logically, quotes and facts are placed logically	/15
Editing – careful capitalization and spelling	/10
Formatting – followed outline format per mini-lesson	/10
TOTAL	/100

Today's Song - "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in this sand?
Yes, an' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?


The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind


How many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
Yes, an' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, an' how many times must a man turn his head
An' pretend that he just doesn't see?


The answer, my friend, it is blowin' in the wind
An' the answer is blowin' in the wind


How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, an' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, an' how many deaths will it take until he knows
That too many people have died?


The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

1. How do the lyrics of this song relate to the Civil Rights Movement?

2.  When analyzing this song, what significance does Dylan's race have (he was white)? 

3.  Is this song still relevant today?  How so?

Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ARound - Performed by Sweet Honey in the Rock

Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around
I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin'
Marchin' up to freedom land.

Ain't gonna let no injunction turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let no injunction turn me around
I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin'
Marchin' up to freedom land.

Ain't gonna let no hatred turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let no hatred turn me around
I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin'
Marchin' up to freedom land.
Ain't gonna let racism turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let racism turn me around
I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin'
Marchin' up to freedom land.

Ain't gonna let injustice turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let injustice turn me around
I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin'
Marchin' up to freedom land.

Ain't gonna let no jail cell turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let no jail cell turn me around
I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin'
Marchin' up to freedom land.

Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around
I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin'
Marchin' up to freedom land.

This Little Light of Mine - Sung by Sam Cooke (1964)

Amen

This little light of mine
I'm going to let it shine

This little light of mine
I'm going to let it shine

This little light of mine,
I'm going to let it shine,
Let it shine
Let it shine to show my love

Everywhere I go I'm gonna let it shine
Everywhere I go I'm gonna let it shine
Everywhere I go I'm gonna let it shine
I let it shine to show my love

Even in my home I'm gonna let is shine
I let it shine to show my love

When I see my neighbor coming I'm gonna let it shine

Amen

1.  How does this song make you feel?  What colors and pictures do you see?

2.  Why do you think this song resonated for African-Americans and their allies?  How do the lyrics relate to the Civil Rights Movement? 

The Long Road to Brown, 1865-1954

Focus question:  How did black Americans advocate for fair, quality education from 1865-1954?  What roles did whites play?

Clip #1:  Southern Oral History Project, UNC-Chapel Hill (woot!)

Clip #2:  Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP