Transcript Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
By: Mildred D. Taylor
Civil
War
(1860-1865)
• Tension between Northern and Southern States was
high.
• They disagreed on:
▫
▫
▫
▫
State’s Power/ Federal Government Control
Industrialization
Trade, and
Slavery
• Abraham Lincoln became president of the United
States in 1860
• 11 States succeeded from the Union, and Jefferson
Davis was elected President of the Confederate
States of America
(Watch the Civil War BrainPop® Video)
Separatist Organizations
(1865-)
• Formed in the South after the Civil War
• Main goal was to protect Confederate Culture
and possibly the Economy
• In the past, this was accomplished through
intimidation
• Members were thought to have viewed
themselves as the superior race- above Jews,
Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, etc…
Reconstruction (1866-1877)
• The process for rebuilding America after the
North beat the South in the Civil War
• President Lincoln was assassinated in 1865,
so President Johnson led the way with the
▫ Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 process for readmitting Southern States into the
Union
▫ Ratifying The Fourteenth Amendment, and
 granted citizenship to “all persons born or
naturalized in the United States” –including
former slaves
▫ The Fifteenth Amendment
 granted all male citizens the right to vote
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-in/page.cgi/jb/recon
Sharecropping (1866)
• Many freed slaves began working as
sharecroppers after the war
• They had no land, no place to live, and no skillsbesides farming
• They often continued working for their former
slave owners in exchange for a home, groceries,
and very low wages.
• Most black families could not afford to buy food
and clothes, so they became indebted to their
boss- meaning they could not leave their land.
• NOT ALL SHARECROPPERS WERE BLACK,
AND NOT ALL BLACKS WERE
SHARECROPPERS…
(Read chapter from Leon’s Story)
Watch “Slave to Sharecropper” Video Clip from PBS®
Plessy v. Ferguson
• Made “Separate, but Equal”
facilities legal
• Led to segregation and racial
“superiority”
• “African American legislator
Benjamin W. Arnett described a
train ride in segregated Ohio in
1886: "I have traveled in this free
country for 20 hours without
anything to eat; not because I had
no money to pay for it, but
because I was colored. Other
passengers of a lighter hue had
breakfast, dinner and supper. In
traveling we are thrown in [cars
for blacks only], denied the
privilege of buying a berth in the
sleeping coach.” (L.O.C.)
(1896)
The Great Depression
(1929-1941)
•
•
•
•
The stock market crashed
Many people lost their jobs and homes
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president
He got people back to work, and put the economy
back on track with his “New Deal”
(Watch the Great Depression BrainPop® Video)
(Watch the New Deal BrainPop® Video)
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
• Overturned Plessy v.
Ferguson “Separate is
NOT Equal”
• Unanimous Decision
• Segregation is
Unconstitutional
(View Brown v. Board of Education BrainPop® Video)
(View Civil Rights BrainPop® Video)
Did you know???
• That Ligon was the first black high school
in Raleigh?
• Yep! Ligon opened in 1953 as Raleigh’s
first black high school.
• Ligon became a Junior High School in
1971- an attempt at desegregation by the
Wake County Consolidated School System
• Ligon became a GT Magnet Middle School
in the 1980s- offering elite academic and
arts programs that would attract an array
of students from across the county.
Have you noticed evidence of history in our novel?
How is Jefferson Davis
connected to our novel?
• Which school’s name honors him?
• What details to remember about
that school, and how does that
school differ from Great Faith
Elementary and Secondary School?
• How were students at this school
taught to treat people who were not
like them?
How is Reconstruction
connected to our novel?
• _________ was able to buy
and pay for two hundred acres
of former Granger land from a
Yankee.
• He was later able to purchase
_______ hundred more acres
of land. Throughout Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry Big Ma,
Mama, Papa, and Uncle
Hammer fight to keep this land.
Is there evidence of the Great Depression
or the New Deal in our novel?
• Our novel is set in rural ____________ in
the 19___s, during the Great Depression.
• The price of cotton has ________-forcing
Papa to seek work, building a _________ in
Louisiana.
• Most black people are _____________ or
tenant farmers, who work for and live on the
land of white people, like Harlan Granger.
• What examples can you find?
Who are the sharecroppers in our novel, and
how does sharecropping impact their lives?
• T.J.’s family, the __________ sharecrop on
Granger Land.
• Moe __________ family sharecropped on the
Montier plantation. Many children from the
Montier plantation stopped attending Great
Faith after fourth grade, because they had a
____________ walk to and from school.
• Why were these families inclined to “pull out” of
Mama’s boycott against the Wallace Store?
Do you notice any separatist
groups or signs of segregation?
• Why are the two schools so close, but so different?
• What is the motivation of the night men?
• Why is Jeremy ostracized for being friends with
Stacey?
• Why do Lillian Jean and Cassie have trouble getting
along?
• Why does Mama deem it necessary to take her
children to visit the Berry’s home, to cover the insides
of the children’s books, to teach slavery, and to
organize a boycott?
Sources
• BrainPop.com
• America’s Story from America’s Library
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb
• The Ku Klux Klan
http://www.kkk.bz/
• Reconstruction, The Second Civil War
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/sharecrop/program_clips.html