Respuesta :
Answer:
Continuity or Change: African Americans in World War II
Author: Karen Hodges, Academy for College & Career Exploration, Baltimore City
Public School System
Grade Level: 911
Duration of Lesson: two 90minute periods
Overview:
Many historians have posed the question: Was World War II a watershed event in the
AfricanAmerican Civil Rights Movement? During the war, the “Double V” campaign of
the black press called for victory over fascism abroad and racism at home. In this
lesson, students will investigate primarysource materials to develop an understanding
of the experience of African Americans in the war overseas and on the home front. In
doing so, they will consider whether the contradictory gains made in the areas of civil
rights, housing, work and military service represented a break with the past or a
continuation of the status quo.
Related National History Standards:
Content Standard:
Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (19291945)
Standard 3: The causes and course of World War II, the character of the
war at home and abroad, and its reshaping of the U.S. role
in world affairs
Historical Thinking Standards:
1. Standard 3 – Historical Analysis and Interpretation:
A. Identify the author or source of the historical document or
narrative. D. Consider multiple perspectives.
2. Standard 4 – Historical Research Capabilities:
A. Formulate historical questions.
B. Obtain historical data.
C. Interrogate historical data. Construct an historical interpretation
Lesson Objectives:
· Students will examine the experience of African Americans during World War II
by analyzing primary sources and formulating historical questions.
· Students will evaluate if the African American experience during World War II
represents continuity or change by writing letters to the editor.
Educational materials were developed through the Teaching American History in Baltimore City Program, a partnership between the Baltimore City Public School System and the Center for History Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
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Topic Background:
Historians studying the experience of African Americans in World War II consistently
ask one central question: “Was World War II a watershed event for African
Americans?” In other words, does World War II represent a continuation of policies of
segregation and discrimination both on the home front and in the military, or does it
represent the beginning of a break with the past that informed the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1950s and 1960s? Historians of the 1960s focused on the war
experience as a “watershed” leading to the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s.
Although African Americans had lost much of the wartime years’ social and economic
progress by the early 1950s, the gains in the military, job training and political
organization served as a catalyst for the protests of the 1950s that in turn helped fuel
later civil rights actions. The fact that outstanding contributions to the war effort did not
result in tangible longterm gains inflamed African Americans and encouraged activism. More recently, historians have tempered the notion of the 1940s as “watershed” or
“revolution” in the Black experience, but still emphasize its significance in presaging the
modern Civil Rights Movement.
Hope I Helped
