US History - Standards of Learning - USII.10
This Spanish language edition covers Cuban baseball games (including those with teams from other leagues), star players, and the sport's history.” The rules of baseball here demonstrate the lengths to which organized baseball was welcoming to the idea of diversity. Students who see this image might be prompted to ask questions about the openness of the American Game three decades before Jackie Robinson broke the color line. Cuban players were allowed to play in the Major Leagues at the same time that the Negro Leagues existed. Games between American and Cuban teams were regularly scheduled without regard to race.
-Chris Garth
Source IDTag: USII.10.001
2. Bartolomeo Vanzetti
http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=245
This particular source is a letter written on August 21, 1927 by Bartolomeo Vanzetti from the death house at Massachusetts State Prison two days before hi execution. The letter was written to Sacco’s son, Dante, and basically tries to shore up Dante’s feelings toward the impending doom of his father. Vanzetti does not mince words and does not try to reassure the boy. He does; however, try to get Dante to recognize the bravery and honesty of his father.
This source was taken from another source so that students will be able to follow different links to other parts of the Sacco and Vanzetti case. The particular link above was produced by the Massachusetts Society for the Humanities website, and it links us to another website produced by the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law. On this parent site, students can also read about the Red Scare mentality that helped produce the results in the Sacco and Vanzetti trial.
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/mhr/5/bold.html
This particular website reproduces a primary source handbill that can be used as face value for students to be able to understand the use of handbills to attract attention to the impending protest against the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. This primary source is part of an article in the Massachusetts Historical website. It can be viewed separately as a free standing primary source; however, the meat of the article looks at the WPA Writer’s Project’s treatment of Sacco and Vanzetti a decade after their execution. The Writer’s Project touched off considerable debate as to the historical memory of the men in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Included in the article are two other primary sources, a poster advertising the WPA Writer’s Project, and a photograph of two former Massachusetts governors, Charles Hurley and Levrett Saltonstall. Hurley was central to the debate. Upper level students can read the entire article and use it as a springboard to discuss historical treatment and perspective.
3. WWI Victory Parade in Fall River July 4, 1919
http://www.sailsinc.org/durfee/cdpictures/victoryparade4.jpg
Like most post war eras, the 1920s were marked by conflict, controversy, and attempts at conformity. This photograph displays an attempt to return to the ‘normalcy’ of pre-war America. This July 4, 1919 WWI Victory Parade combines patriotic pageantry with a certain sense of disillusion. The granite building in the foreground, know as Granite Block, along with four city blocks burn in a conflagration in 1928. The website contained in the above link also hosts a full publication on the fire (large file).
4. The John T. Scopes Trial
http://www.authentichistory.com/1920s/music/Vernon_Dalhart-The_John_T_Scopes_Trial.mp3
This is a song about the Scopes Monkey Trial, recorded from 1925, the same year the case was tried. The song is significant because its lyrics represent much of the religious establishment of the time, which was committed to keeping the teaching of evolution out of high school science classrooms. The State Frameworks directly require that teachers cover this seminal trial.
It is clear this song was written by a Christian who was committed to Biblical doctrine above any scientific principles or discoveries derived from extra-Biblical sources. From what I have read about it, the song’s author expresses many of the attitudes held by William Jennings Bryan in the real Scopes case. The song does not challenge the principles of evolution in a direct manner; rather, it simply states that all teaching that strays from Scripture is not based on a solid foundation (ie. Those who reject Biblical ‘truths’ will be cast into hell). This topic could also parlay into more recent court cases relating to the teaching of evolution, such as ones in Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
Teachers can have students listen to the song and have them record attitudes expressed in the lyrics about the Scopes debate. I would not give this assignment a lot of time, as I usually show the movie ‘Inherit the Wind’ to bring the Darrow-Bryan drama to life. Given that this is a touchy subject in our school, and that we are so pressed for time, these two activities along with notes would probably cover it for me.
- Benjamin Pease
