CHANGE CROSSING URBAN BORDERS The New Media Classroom Borough of Manhattan CC July 10 - 14, 2000

Marcus Garvey

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Strategies for Change: Terell, Washington, Du Bois and Garvey

American Social History Project 

OVERVIEW: In the years after Reconstruction, African Americans debated the best course of action for ensuring their future "progress." At the end of the 19th century, many blacks were poor, uneducated tenant farmers in the South. They also had to contend with the social and political burden of "Jim Crow" laws and the terror of lynching. African Americans faced a major dilemma: which should they attack first, their economic problems, or their social and political problems? Four famous black advocates offered varying solutions to this question:

• Booker T. Washington, an educator and founder of Tuskegee Institute and the National Negro Business League
• W.E.B. Du Bois, a Harvard-educated writer, educator, and founder of the Niagara Movement and the NAACP
• Mary Church Terrell, educator, suffragist, and president of the National Association of Colored Women
• Marcus Garvey, entrepreneur and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)

GOALS: to help students gain a deeper understanding of the debates within African American communities of active strategies for achieving equal rights.

THEMES: Disenfranchisement, Segregation, Civil Rights, Accommodation

SKILLS: Document analysis, Point-of-view writing, Debate

RESOURCES:

Booker T. Washington "Address delivered at the Cotton States and International Exposition, at Atlanta, GA, September 18, 1895"

Marcus Garvey Editorial Letter by Marcus Garvey, New York, September 7, 1920 "FELLOW MEN OF THE NEGRO RACE, Greeting"

Mary Church Terrell "The Progress of Colored Women" An address delivered before the National American Women's Suffrage Association at the Columbia Theater, Washington, D.C., on February 18, 1898, on the occasion of its Fiftieth Anniversary.

W.E. B. Du Bois Excerpts from Souls of Black Folk (1903) Chapter III. "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others"

ACTIVITY: (60 minutes total) Debate

Step One: Individual Reading (15 minutes)
Divide the readings among the people in your group, so that each participant will be responsible for reading the document written by ONE of the leaders: Garvey, Terrell, Du Bois, and Washington.

While reading, take notes and keep in mind that the debate, set in the early decades of the twentieth century, will center on the following question:

"What method should African Americans employ to achieve equality in the twentieth century?"

Step Two: Writing (15 minutes)
Each participant should draft a brief opening statement that addresses this question. The statement should be no longer than 2 minutes in length. When writing your opening statement, be sure to use clear, concise language and to employ the tools of persuasive argument. Think carefully about the context of the early 20th century, the position your character would be likely to hold, and the kinds of evidence she or he would draw on in crafting their position.

Step Three: Discussion (15 minutes)
To prepare for the debate, analyze the differing points of view of these four leaders and discuss what they would have said to each other in a public debate setting,

Step Four: Debate (15 minutes)
Each participant should assume the role of the leader whose work he/she has read and should present a brief opening statement, speaking as the leader he/she studied.

After opening statements are given, each representative has one minute to rebut or agree with any of the statements they heard from the others and/or to defend his/her position. 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
To extend the range of resources on the debate about effective strategies for racial equality, consult "The Progress of a People," (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aapexhp.html) a special presentation of the Daniel A. P. Murray Pamphlet Collection at the Library of Congress. In 1898, the National Afro-American Council met in Washington, D.C., to consider the status of the race. Although the pamphlets in the Murray collection do not include the actual speeches made at the 1898 meeting, similar voices, ideas, and concerns (organized around the themes of "Segregation and Violence," "Solving the Race Problem," and "Contributions to the Nation) are presented. Audio excerpts are included.

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (30 minutes)
Meet with others who used these resources to share insights, ideas, and reflections on your experience of doing this activity. Begin by briefly sharing your ideas for the presentations and then discuss the activity, using the following questions as prompts:

• What could students learn from this activity about the debate that ensued after Reconstruction African Americans regarding the best course of action for ensuring "progress" and the elevation of the race? What kinds of background information would students need to effectively engage in this activity?
• Would this activity, or some variation of it, work in your classroom or site? How would you reshape it for your audience? How would you combine it with other resources or sequence it with other lessons?
• What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of this activity? Is it a good vehicle for developing student skills in inquiry, exploring primary sources, and developing arguments?
• How would you describe the pedagogy (or principles of teaching/learning) that informs this activity? What aspects of the activity help to make it effective? What skills and modes of thinking does it support? Do the electronic resources suit the assignment's goals? What can we learn from this activity about the kinds of inquiry assignments that work best when using new media?
• How might this activity fit into a "Great South" unit?

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