Everyday Lives, Extraordinary Legacies: Investigating the Past to Feel in the Present
Suggested Teaching Instructions
Title: Everyday Lives, Extraordinary Legacies: Investigating the Past to Feel in the Present
Overview: From Harriet Jacobs (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl) to Anne Frank (Diary of Anne Frank) to David Sheff (Beautiful Boy), we learn about the different ways in which ordinary people have lived through an event or told the story of their everyday lives in such a remarkable way that helps create lasting and timeless human connections, making us and others feel understood and heard. In this lesson, students will learn how adverse conditions in the South created a movement of African Americans to areas in the North and West, including New York State, where their struggles and achievements are now woven into the history and current culture of the state and the Western New York region specifically. *
*This lesson could be broadened to all of New York State or could feature other regions of New York using local resources and resources found in Consider the Source New York, New York Heritage, and New York State Historic Newspapers.
Goal: This lesson is intended to help students develop their research skills with primary and secondary resources, as well as to provide a tool for building their own social and emotional support in navigating their lives. Vocabulary, geography skills will also be applied to critical inquiry activities of the students.
Objectives: In this lesson, students will be able to:
o Conduct research using search techniques.
o Expand vocabulary.
o Expand knowledge of geography.
o Organize and synthesize information.
o Overcome resistance to change.
o Improve their disposition towards others.
o Learn to teach their peers.
o Read with a critical lens on diversity, equity, and inclusion through the sharing of stories.
Investigative (Compelling) Question: How did everyday lives of African Americans from the past make a difference in (Western) New York today?
Time Required: The lesson should take approximately 2 45-minute sessions or 90 minutes total.
Recommended Grade Range: 7-12
Subject: ELA and Social Studies (Can be taught as a stand alone or as part of the Social Studies curriculum covering the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance).
Standards: The specific NYS and Next Gen standards that this lesson is designed to meet. New York State Grades 9-12 Social Studies Framework
Credits: Heidi Ziemer
PREPARATION
Materials Used: Worksheets and computers for research and recording research findings.
Resources Used:
Teacher prep reading:
Article titled, The Power of Storytelling to Facilitate Human Connection and Learning https://sites.bu.edu/impact/previous-issues/impact-summer-2022/the-power-of-storytelling/
Blog from the National Archives, The Great Migration (1910-1970): https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/migrations/great-migration#:~:text=The%20driving%20force%20behind%20the,the%20oppression%20of%20Jim%20Crow.
Blog and video from Preservation League of NYS, The Great Migration in New York: https://www.preservenys.org/blog/the-great-migration-in-new-york
Blog post by Sandra Bush Williams (member of the BGSAD): African American Funeral Program Collections: https://ancestorcallings.blogspot.com/search/label/African%20American%20Funeral%20Program%20Collections
Student Research Resources:
A Select List of Former and Present African American Churches in Buffalo, N.Y (B&ECPL Guide) https://www.buffalolib.org/sites/default/files/special-collections/guides/African%20American%20Churches%20in%20Buffalo.pdf
Buffalo Maps from Buffalo Research.com: https://buffaloresearch.com/maps/, specifically: Redlining Map of Buffalo
New York State Historic Newspapers – online newspapers will be searched (select “Erie County” and in the search box, type the name of the individual and select “Exact phrase” for results). Examples:
· Search phrase “Daniel Acker” (199 results)
§ HOME ads in newspapers: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn91066599/1966-03-11/ed-1/seq-3/
§ Announcement for Forum on Neighborhood Decay & Rehabilitation: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/np00130006/1976-12-06/ed-1/seq-2/
§ NAACP and lawsuit against Buffalo Yacht Club: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn88074337/1977-11-29/ed-1/seq-1/ and next page: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn88074337/1977-11-29/ed-1/seq-12/
§ School integration impact: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/np00130006/1979-09-10/ed-1/seq-3/
§ Board member of Housing Assistance Center and repair project: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn88074337/1979-12-04/ed-1/seq-53/
Consider the Source New York: select documents.
An evaluation of businesses in Buffalo, New York led to these reported statistics about business owners and race at the end of the 1960s (see tables 2-14, 2-15, 3-6). https://considerthesourceny.org/document/buffalo-business-type-and-race-statistics-during-urban-renewal
Digital Collections of the Monroe Fordham Regional History Center: https://library.buffalostate.edu/archives/mfc/collections
A listing of digitized materials for organizations, individuals, and more from the region’s African American communities. A black icon indicates an online inventory is available, and a blue icon indicates part or all of the collection is available online.
Uncrowned Community Builders: https://www.uncrownedcommunitybuilders.com/
Website created by the original Uncrowned Queens Project leaders. Biographies of deceased and living leaders from the African American community in Western New York.
Buffalo African American Funeral Program and Obituary Collection in 3 Volumes
Consider the Source link for select names above here:
New York Heritage link (for complete collection of names): https://nyheritage.org/index.php/organizations/buffalo-genealogical-society-african-american-diaspora). Use the name index file to search for names in the collection of funeral programs.
○ Daniel R. Acker, Sr. (1910-1997) co-founder of H.O.M.E., president of the NAACP, Board member of the Michigan Avenue YMCA, among other accolades. He's listed in Who's Who in Colored America, Who’s Who Among Black Americans and Blacks in Science and Medicine.
■ Page 1: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/2409/rec/1
■ Page 2: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/2410/rec/1
○ Gladys Chase (1900-1999) was born in Easton, Maryland, and moved with her husband to Buffalo, NY in the early 1940s. Here she became a “Rosie” working as a scarfer in the Republic Steel plant. After the war she was active in several churches, specifically in music and as President of the Sisterhood for over forty years.
■ Page 1: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/1378/rec/2
■ Page 2: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/1379/rec/2
○ Mary Lee Crosby Chappelle (1905-2006) is fondly remembered as a Buffalo educator. She was also an active member of the Phyllis Wheatley Club of Colored Women, Lit-Mus Study Club, and a founding member of the Mary B. Talbert Civic and Cultural Club.
■ Page 1: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/3268/rec/2
■ Page 2: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/3269/rec/2
○ James J. Freeman, M.D., PhD. (1933-1993) When he graduated from University at Buffalo Medical School in 1974, he was the university’s first African American student to hold a doctorate and earn a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree. In the United States, he was one of forty African Americans to hold the distinct honor. Dr. Freeman had an OB/GYN practice at 50 High Street.
■ Page 1: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/241/rec/3
■ Page 2: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/
○ Placid Jean Parker (1925-1996) One of the first black nurses to work at Millard Fillmore Hospital. Served as Clinical Instructor and coordinator for adult health nursing at Buffalo General's School of Nursing for eight years in the 1970's and was appointed director of Nursing at Sheehan Memorial Hospital. She was founder of the Practical and Registered Nursing Association. She was also the founder of a nursing scholarship program at Buffalo General Hospital.
■ Page 1: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/5006/rec/19
■ Page 2: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/5007/rec/19
■ Page 3: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/5008/rec/19
■ Page 4: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/5009/rec/19
○ Mozelle Richardson (1929 - 2001) She served four terms as Board President of the Buffalo Board of Education. As a Board member, she introduced the idea and design for the School of Music and Performing Arts. In addition, she chaired the Community Advisory Committee for New Construction of the Stanley A. Makowski Early Childhood Center. Mrs. Richardson retired from the Board in 1995, after 21 years.
■ Page 1: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/5246/rec/20
■ Page 2: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16694coll184/id/5247/rec/20
PROCEDURE
Connect: At this point, students should be familiar with the postwar Civil War period in American History (referred to as “Reconstruction”). The teacher should refresh their memory or, if the topic is new, give a quick overview of the time 1867-1900. Make sure students understand factors that prompted so many African Americans to leave their homes in the South with the hope of better opportunities in places like Buffalo in New York State in the North.
Factors in the South:
Disenfranchisement – challenges to civic participation.
Sharecropping – challenges to economic opportunity.
Jim Crow laws – challenges to equal opportunities in education, housing, and more.
Lynching – race violence and hate crimes.
Factors in the North:
Job opportunities resulting from WWI (and again, during WWII)
Expansion of industrial manufacturing in the North.
Job opportunities created by stricter US immigration laws.
Investigate, part 1: Vocabulary activity.
Directions: For each of the people listed below there is a set of words relating to their work, their life, and their interests.
· Read the funeral program document of each person for clues about the vocabulary words.
· Write a brief definition of what you think each vocabulary term means (1 or 2 sentences),
· Consult the dictionary to see how closely your description matches the definition of that word!
· Finally, try using your new word in a sentence!
*Use the “What Did They Mean” worksheet for this activity.
Daniel R. Acker, Sr. (1910-1997)
Cryosurgery
Affiliation
Merged
Ensure
Advocate
Dissertation
Hallmarks
Gladys Chase (1900-1999)
Renovation
Union
Supervisor
Striving
Mutual
Service
Banded
Mary Lee Crosby Chappelle (1905-2006)
Preceded
Thereafter
Enrolled
Founding
Magna cum laude
Subsequently
Curricula
James J. Freeman, M.D., PhD. (1933-1993)
Expressed
Aptitude
Dedication
Recruited
Status
Ordained
Mourn
Placid Jean Parker (1925-1996)
Dispatched
Enthusiasm
Recipient
Cherish
Legacy
Host
Distinguished
Mozelle Richardson (1929 - 2001)
Magnetic
Matrimony
Relocated
Auxiliary
Caterer
Nominee
Union
Wonder: What did Martin Luther King, Jr. mean when he said, ““Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.”
How are these individuals regarded as “great” in their communities? Do you see yourself in any of the people we are studying? What words would you use to describe yourself?
Investigate part 2: Geography activity.
Directions: Read the funeral programs once again and this time, identify the city and state for each person’s birth and death. Fill in the information after each name.
· Look at a map (or use MapQuest) to calculate how far the two distances are from each other. Record the distances.
Wonder: How did the person get from one place to another? Why did they move?
· Have students brainstorm ideas for reasons why people move from one place to another (jobs, family, wartime, civil rights, education, other) and look for clues in the funeral programs for possible explanations (When did they move? Where did they come from? Were they old or young when they moved? Alone or with a family?). Discuss the ways in which African Americans may have traveled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (trains, buses, automobiles) and segregation in public transportation and accommodation.
· How easy or difficult might the journey have been?
· Show students the map of the 1921 New York Central Rail Line and the 1924 Collier’s map of Buffalo, NY, and have them answer these questions:
Where is the train station located? (Exchange Street).
Where are the depots for the Erie, Pennsylvania, and Union train lines?
Which main street is nearby? (Michigan Avenue).
What might students be able to infer from this information? (African Americans arriving in Buffalo by train were likely to settle along the Michigan Street corridor – more on this when they explore the locations of the churches).
· Show students The Negro motorist Green-book, digitized by the Library of Congress, especially the sections for New York, and ask:
Looking at a map of the City of Buffalo, where are most of the listings for Negroes located in the City?
Ask them why was there even a travel guide just for African Americans?
Explain that racial segregation was prevalent throughout the United States and not just in the South in the first half of the twentieth century.
*Note: Students may not be familiar with the term “Negro” and so teacher may need to explain how terms for racial labeling and identification have changed over time. If time permits, teacher and students can read and discuss the following piece from NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/03/30/295931070/the-journey-from-colored-to-minorities-to-people-of-color
· Either show students or task them with finding examples of segregation from the Prints & Photographs collections at the Library of Congress either using the search bar or an advanced Google search (use domain “loc.gov/photos/). Show students how to use filters when searching. For example, to narrow the time down to the period when the people they are researching traveled to Buffalo (ca. 1910-1950).
· Next, for each person, use information from the funeral programs to list which church or churches they were affiliated with.
For each church, record the address and then identify where it is on the map provided (city and neighborhood).
*Use the resource, A Select List of Former and Present African American Churches in Buffalo, N.Y to help locate the churches: https://www.buffalolib.org/sites/default/files/special-collections/guides/African%20American%20Churches%20in%20Buffalo.pdf
Use this resource to find their location on a map: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=f44e20f80343452993027b84534d7b73
Wonder: What is the neighborhood like where the church is today? What might it have been like when the person first lived in that area? · Have students study maps, maps, timeline, and newspapers* to see where the churches were located and what may have been around them in the early to mid-20th century.
Use Resources: Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority Maps, 1935: https://nyheritage.org/collections/buffalo-municipal-housing-authority-report-maps
“Map of Family Heads Who are Negro” https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/VTP005/id/1858/rec/29
New York State Historic Newspapers – the Help tab shows how to search the site. Teacher should go through this first and then guide students in a search. (Try searching both the names of the individuals as well as the names of the churches for the individual’s lifetime).
Daniel R. Acker, Sr. (1910-1997)
Born: East Radford, Virginia
Died: Buffalo, New York
Church affiliations:
Lloyd’s Memorial Congregational Church, 497 South Division St.
New Covenant United Church of Christ, 459 Clinton St
Gladys Chase (1900-1999)
Born: Easton, Maryland
Died: Buffalo, New York
Church affiliations:
Centennial Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore, Maryland
St. Luke’s A.M.E. Zion Church, 585 Michigan Ave. (1906-1923); name changed to Durham Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in 1958.
Durham Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, 174 Eagle St
Mary Lee Crosby Chappelle (1905-2006)
Born: Milton, Florida
Died: Buffalo, New York
Church affiliations:
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1525 Michigan Ave. (the name was changed from First A.M.E Church of Buffalo in 1912)
James J. Freeman, M.D., PhD. (1933-1993)
Born: Hallsboro, North Carolina
Died: Buffalo, New York
Church affiliations:
St. John Baptist Church, 184 Goodell St. (Formerly known as: St. John’s
Baptist Church and St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church)
Placid Jean Parker (1925-1996)
Born: Perth Amboy, New Jersey
Died: Buffalo, New York
Church affiliations:
Central Park United Methodist Church, 216 Beard Avenue
Mozelle Richardson (1929 - 2001)
Born: Savannah, Georgia
Died: Buffalo, New York
Church affiliations:
First Zion Baptist Church, Riceboro, Georgia
St. John Baptist Church, 184 Goodell Street, Buffalo
● Construct: Using knowledge about the Great Migration along with knowledge gained in researching individual names from the funeral programs, ask students to describe how the events of the past, including the growth of the African American community in Western New York, has made an impact on the economy, culture, and politics of the region today.
● Express: Ask students how they might compare the experiences of African Americans migrating from the South to more recent populations of new immigrants coming to the Western New York region, specifically some of the refugee populations who felt forced to relocate here, much as African Americans from the South in the last century.
● Reflect: Students are asked to think about what they have learned and how this informs them of the ways in which the lives of everyday people are woven into the fabric of their communities, contributing to history. How do they think their lives will impact future generations? What would they like their impact to be?
Extensions
Students may wish to replicate these activities by investigating the names of other individuals from the Uncrowned Community Builders site.
Additional lessons from Consider the Source New York:
· 1965 Front Page News: Exploring Digitized Issues of The Buffalo Criterion: https://considerthesourceny.org/activity/1965-front-page-news-exploring-digitized-issues-buffalo-criterion
· African American Citizen Action in the 20th Century: https://considerthesourceny.org/activity/african-american-citizen-action-20th-century
· Before Brown v. Board of Education: The Fight to Desegregate Elementary Schools in Hillburn, New York: https://considerthesourceny.org/activity/brown-v-board-education-fight-desegregate-elementary-schools-hillburn-new-york
· The Little Harlem Hotel of Buffalo, NY: Juxtaposing 1930s History, Music, and Images: https://considerthesourceny.org/activity/little-harlem-hotel-buffalo-ny-juxtaposing-1930s-history-music-and-images
EVALUATION: Teacher uses the student output from the activities identified above to evaluate the student progress in engagement with the lessons and demonstrated research skills. Teacher provides each student with an “exit ticket” upon completing all activities.