Overview

This lesson serves as either a great introductory or concluding lesson on Jim Crow, and can easily be adapted for upper elementary through high school students. It can be used with:

• PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Two: Fighting Back (1896-1917)
• Popular Art and Racism essay
• Image Gallery Collection: Distorted Mirror Collection

In the lesson, groups of students research different segments of the Jim Crow Era; create a political cartoon for a class museum; and, as curators, share their political cartoon exhibits with the class. Finally, the class will debrief the assignment.

Curriculum Standards

For a list of standards that this unit addresses, click here.

This lesson should last from three to five days, including research, design, evaluation, and post-discussion.

Materials Needed

• Internet access to these web sites:
  • The jimcrowhistory.org Image Gallery: The Jim Crow Collection
  • http://www.ghg.net/hollaway/civil/contents.htm
  
  (If school Internet access is unavailable, teachers can print the necessary information and distribute)
  
  
• Transparency or slide of a political cartoon to use as an example
• Worksheet outlining student project, below
• Easel or poster paper
• Markers, crayons, colored pencils, or paints

The Lesson

Anticipatory Set

Have the students use the cartoon, below, or another favorite political cartoon to answer the following questions:

• What is the event or issue that inspired this political cartoon?
• Are there symbols in the cartoon? What do they represent?
• What kinds of ideas are included in political cartoons?
• Are there people in the cartoon? Who are they, and what do they represent?
• What is the subject of the cartoon?
• What is the cartoonist's opinion on the subject?
• What is the objective of a political cartoon?

To help students visualize their answers to the questions, project the attached sample image, "Political Participation and Voting," or another popular political cartoon on an overhead or PowerPointŪ slide.

Procedures

1. Allow students to answer questions individually while encouraging them to look at the image of the political cartoon.
   
   
2. Discuss each question by referring to the projected image. Have the class generate a list of criteria that should be included in each political cartoon.
   
   
3. Because students already should have been introduced to the general mood of the Civil Rights Era, have them brainstorm a list of attitudes that existed within the U.S. population. Then, instruct them to make a chart that includes the following: black Southerners, white Southerners, black Northerners, and white Northerners.
   
   
4. Explain to students that they will be the political cartoonists for a museum they create in their classroom. They should consider their answers to the Anticipatory Set as they create their exhibits. Have them work with up to three other people to research a topic, then design a political cartoon in response to that topic. While you should let the groups pick their topic, make sure the class encompasses an evenly spread out range of times. The topics that either teachers or students can choose from include the following:
   • The Klan is Born
   • The Radical Republicans and Reconstruction
   • Reconstruction Ends and Blacks Flee the South
   • Blacks Launch a United Effort
   • Plessy v. Ferguson--Separate-But-Equal Declared Unconstitutional
   • The Evolution of Black Leadership at the Turn of the Century
   • Immigrants and Blacks Clash
   • The Red Summer of 1919
   • The Black Wall Street
   • The Klan Enjoys its Greatest Hour
   • World War II and Executive Order 8802
   • The War Ends the Violence Begins--Again
   • The Ruling--Brown v. Board of Education
   • Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
   • The Civil Rights Struggle Takes a New Turn
   • Spontaneous Reactions
   • Black Suffrage
   • The Freedom Rides
   • Freedom Has a Price
   • Birmingham, 1963
   • The March on Washington
   • The Sixteenth Street Church Bombing
   • 1963: The Year Ends with the Loss of a President
   • The EEOC and Affirmative Action
   • Selma and the 1965 Voting Rights Act
   
   
5. Once students have their topics, have them read the short selection, either information they found on the Internet or a hand-out they received from you, about their respective topics and determine the following: the cartoon's main idea, the perspective from which they will be designing their cartoon, and the message they want to share through the cartoon.



6. Have students look, if they want to, at sample cartoons for ideas regarding design, subtlety, and language. You might suggest Harper's Weekly as a great place to get these examples. Students should not try to copy the images; rather, they should simply use the examples as models.



7. Instruct students, once they finish their artwork, to give their cartoon a title either using word art on their computer or neatly printing it on a separate sheet of paper at the bottom of the cartoon.



8. Have students set up the "exhibits," making sure they display the cartoons throughout the classroom so up to four students can view a cartoon at a time. Each group should also establish a "curator" for their cartoon. The "curator's" job is to explain these three categories of information: the background, the main idea, and the message conveyed by the cartoon. While the curator is doing so, make sure students take notes on each of the categories for each cartoon as they visit the exhibits. (They should either have a worksheet outlining the task, or they can set up their notebooks ahead of time.)



9. Set up the visits in rotations, allowing students no more than eight-ten minutes for each exhibit.



10. Ask students, in addition to taking notes, to assess the quality of the cartoon by rating it on a scale of one-ten, one meaning poor and ten meaning extraordinary. Remind them, as they evaluate the exhibits, to consider how well the cartoons deliver the main idea, whether they convey their message, what the overall quality is of the artwork and the main idea. Post the scores at each exhibit; then have the curator average the scores.



11. Bring the whole class together to share their findings once all "exhibits" have been visited. This method will allow for clarification and for the curators to see the other cartoons.

Assessment

Assess the students according to the following criteria:

• Ability to understand the main idea of the reading
• Efficacy of the curator in presenting information
• Ability to interpret the chosen perspective
• Neatness and presentation of artwork
• Peer evaluation

Ask these follow-up questions:

• To what extent is the cartoon historically accurate?
• What does this cartoon say about the obstacles African Americans faced compared to white Americans?
• According to the cartoon, what is the most important way to participate in politics?
• Are there any obstacles today that prevent African Americans and white Americans from participating in politics?

You work for a Republican newspaper in the 1890s. You have just been handed a very important assignment with an urgent deadline. You must gather the necessary information, apply this information to the assignment, and hand it in before the deadline! Your job depends on it! Haste makes waste!

Assignment: All reports are in except for the critical political cartoon page--the reason why your newspaper is a best seller in your area. Your editor will assign to you a specific topic and inform you of your deadline. The topics of the political cartoon include:

• The Klan is Born
• The Radical Republicans and Reconstruction
• Reconstruction Ends and Blacks Flee the South
• Blacks Launch a United Effort
• Plessy v. Ferguson--Separate-But-Equal Declared Unconstitutional
• The Evolution of Black Leadership at the Turn of the Century
• Immigrants and Blacks Clash
• The Red Summer of 1919
• The Black Wall Street
• The Klan Enjoys its Greatest Hour
• World War II and Executive Order 8802
• The War Ends the Violence Begins--Again
• The Ruling--Brown v. Board of Education
• Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
• The Civil Rights Struggle Takes a New Turn
• Spontaneous Reactions
• Black Suffrage
• The Freedom Rides
• Freedom Has a Price
• Birmingham, 1963
• The March on Washington
• The Sixteenth Street Church Bombing
• 1963: The Year Ends with the Loss of a President
• The EEOC and Affirmative Action
• Selma and the 1965 Voting Rights Act

1. RESEARCH FIRST!
   
   As you research, keep these questions in mind:
   
   
   • What is your topic about? Read the information provided and summarize in one to three sentences.
   • What can you draw to symbolize this topic?
   • How were any of the following groups involved: black Southerners, white Southerners, black Northerners, and white Northerners?
   • Which of these groups was directly involved with your topic?
   • How can you describe the involvement?
   • How can you draw this?
   
   
2. DRAW!
   
   
   • Use the Internet, your notes and your textbook to get ideas.
   • Make it colorful, neat, and attractive.
   • Use labels and symbols.
   • Give the cartoon a catchy title.

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   Sample Project Assignment
   Part 2: Take a tour through the Jim Crow Cartoon Museum

   Yesterday, we were in the 1890s newsroom. Today, we are back in the present day in a museum that has collected political cartoons from the 1890s newsroom and is displaying this collection in an exhibit about Jim Crow. You will visit each exhibit and take notes about the picture and the presentation. Finally, based on your opinion of the cartoon, you will rate the cartoon and its presentation on a scale of one-ten, one meaning it was poor and ten meaning it was "out of this world!" Make sure to write the title^* of the exhibit that you have visited!

   (^* The titles of the different exhibits depend on what your class "collected.")

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   Sample Student Evaluation

   Title: Plessy v. Ferguson: Separate but Equal declared Unconstitutional

   Notes: RR car, whites only sign...

   Rating: 8

   Comments: great detail in depicting segregation, good use of stereotype ...

   This lesson was submitted by Angela Pata, a teacher at Churchill Junior High School in New Jersey.
   
   View this page as a printable Adobe PDF file.