Common Core Social Studies Lesson Plan: "Old Settler" Bias during the Black Chicago Renaissance

During the Black Chicago Renaissance there was some tension between :"Old Settlers", Blacks who had lived in Chicago over an extended period of time, and the "New Settlers" , recent migrants to Chicago from rural areas of the South.
     The "Old Settlers" felt the habits and behaviors of the new migrants were an embarassment to the Afro-American community. As a result, the Chicago Defender printed articles and cartoons to teach the "New settlers" the proper social behaviors they should manifest now that they lived "up" North in Chicago. Below is a lesson teachers can use to teach students about the intraracial  bias that existed between "Old" and "New" Settlers in Chicago during the Chicago Black Renaissance.

Lesson Plan: “ As Others Know Us”

Agenda

1.            Review previous lesson

2.            Distribute Jay Jackson’s Cartoon: Untouchable (1934 ).

3.            Guide Students in close read of Jay Jackson’s Cartoon: Untouchable (1934).

4.            Students continue the close read and explain how this cartoon relate to “Old Settler” bias 

                the Great Migration

Lesson Plan

CCSS Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.6
Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author's point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7
Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.

 Review Yesterdays assignment. T. Write key vocabulary terms: bias, prejudice, culture, community, norm and satirist on the board to review their meaning(s).

Tell students to place their dictionaries on their desk. Discuss the vocabulary items. First, ask students what they think each word means. Next chose a different student to look up a vocabulary word and read the definition to the class. Make sure that students understand the definitions of prejudice and bias. The definitions are  Prejudice: preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience ; and Bias: prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair

Teacher write on the board: “Old Settler Bias and the Great Migration”.  Ask the students, “Can people belonging to the same race be prejudice and biased  towards members of their own race”?. Guide students during the discussion to the understanding, that many “Old Settlers”, people who had lived in Chicago for years held prejudicial ideas about recent  rural migrants from the South settling in Chicago.

T. Introduce Jay Jackson. Explain that he was a cartoonist of the Chicago Defender Newspaper.

Tell students that Jackson wrote a series called “As Others see Us”, directed at recent rural migrants to Chicago.

Let them know that the “As Others see Us”,  cartoons  reinforced what “responsible” Afro-Americans in the “Old Settler” population in Chicago, considered to be proper social behaviors for Bronzeville residents to maintain Social Conformity in the Bronzeville  community.

 T. After this discussion distribute Jay Jackson’s “As others see Us”; “Untouchable (1934), newspaper cartoon. Explain that lightening cream was used by many dark Afro-American females to brighten their skin tone.

Students  work individually or in pairs using information from the visual text to evaluate the images and text, and make inferences about their meaning(s). Exit Slip: Completed worksheet.

Assessment: During discussion use oral Questioning Strategy and S. written response to the “Untouchable” cartoon.

 Assignment

 “Old Settler Bias during the Black Chicago Renaissance”

Caption Under the Cartoon reads:”Way down in the land of Cotton where your race can’t be forgotten  are a happy lot of Critters living on cornpone and fritters. All are colored front to back. But some are light and some are black. And there by hangs a sad tale that makes me gnash my teeth and wail. The light altho they can’t be white, won’t treat the darker brother right they put such value on the face, they form a race within a race I’ll bet our Nordic neighbors think they’ve found at last the missing link”.

There are two side panels.  In the bottom side panel  titled  'Ain't Nature Wonderful' panel, we see three female performers wondering what amount of lightening cream they should apply so that they  can “ get light over night”. In a side panel above   'Ain't Nature Wonderful' panel,  a southern white declares “Look what I started”.

Assignment

 “As Others see Us”, were cartoons published in the Chicago Defender that reinforced what “responsible” Afro-Americans considered to be proper social behaviors for Bronzeville residents to maintain Social Conformity. This cartoon is titled “Untouchable (1934). In the 1920s-1960s, lightening cream was used by many dark Afro-American females to brighten their skin tone. Make a close read of this cartoon.  Work individually or in pairs using information from this cartoon to evaluate this text. Using evidence from the cartoon to make inferences about the meaning(s) the artist had behind certain images in the cartoon and determine if these images are evidence of “Old Settler” bias and prejudice directed at the “New” migrants. In listing the biased elements in the cartoon, explain why you belief an image is evidence of bias.