A Voice to Your Rights

FEDERAL HOLIDAYS and JUNETEENTH

Introduce Juneteenth
Civics, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History
Read and discuss the KidsPost article, “Juneteenth: An emancipation celebration.” Close reading and discussion questions are found in A New Federal Holiday.

Walk in Her Shoes
Character Education, Ethics, U.S. Government, U.S. History
What would inspire a person to spend years advocating for a new federal holiday or a special local celebration? Read “Meet Opal Lee, the 94-year-old activist who marched for miles to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.” Close reading and discussion questions are found in A New Federal Holiday.

How Is a Federal Holiday Created?
Civics, U.S. Government, U.S. History
Teachers might have students brainstorm a local holiday. To provide background use How Does a Day Become a Federal Holiday? See Teachers Notes for more details about federal holidays.

Additional reading is found in historian Diana Muir Appelbaum’s article, “The creation of holidays in America has always been political.”

Add Graphics to the Storytelling
Art, U.S. History, Visual Arts
Some articles are black-and-white text. Others have a photograph that captures a fraction of the event. For still others, writers and editors determine that informational graphics communicate better than words in text blocks. Use “America’s long and uneven march from slavery to freedom | Juneteenth” to illustrate the use of visuals to relate a more complete story.

Teachers might have students brainstorm stories from their campus or community. Write the lede to the story. In what ways would the story be enhanced with photographs? Of what subject? Might graphics communicate numbers, percentages and dates better than words?

Put the Pieces Together
Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, Visual Arts
Ask students to read one or more of the articles about the creation of Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Discuss responses to the questions found in A New Federal Holiday.

What influence do politics, economic conditions, current community concerns and a country’s values have in the creation of a federal or local celebration?

Compare and Contrast Ways to Relate Past and Present
Media Arts, Journalism, U.S. History, Visual Arts
In addition to learning about the history of emancipation and Juneteenth celebrations from 1865 to present, students may use Post coverage to read, evaluate, and utilize different media approaches. Students will analyze the effectiveness of three different platforms for essentially the same information:

• The e-Replica format of the June 18, 2021, article on pages A14 and A15.

• “America’s long and uneven march from slavery to freedom: Juneteenth” that is found in our resource guide.

• A Post interactive: “The joy of Juneteenth: America’s long and uneven march from slavery to freedom.”

Discussion could include

• The effectiveness of each format to convey basic information

• The choice writers and editors make when considering space available and their readers

• Use of graphics, photographs and text to create a multi-media presentation of a past event

Give students Historic Context: The Choices of Writers and Editors to guide their discovery and discussion. 

Read More About Juneteenth
English, U.S. Government, U.S. History, Visual Arts

Teachers Notes: More Ways to Convey Lessons provides suggestions and resources for additional approaches. Recent Washington Post coverage includes

• All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles | image of the sack found online and with the print book review, July 11, 2021, B8

• On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed  Celebration of Black American independence put into context of the history of the U.S.

• “Juneteenth brings together many celebrations, and reminders of the work still ahead”

• “The joys and struggle of Juneteenth,” Post podcast

TULSA RACE MASSACRE — THEN AND 100 YEARS LATER

Step Back 100 Years
English, U.S. Government, U.S. History

What was life like in urban and rural American in the 1920s? If your students conduct a U.S. decades project, the readings in this section will give a reliable background on the Red Summer.

Students might be asked to focus on one territory, then state — Oklahoma — as a case study of settlement; relations with indigenous people and people of color; economic, political and social relations in the state and/or Tulsa. Have them end in 1921.

The Story Photographs Tell
Art, U.S. History, Visual Arts

KidsPost’s “100 years later: The Tulsa Race Massacre” is presented as an online slideshow with informative captions.

For the KidsPost gallery and other photographs of the 1921 actions, ask students to consider the importance of photographs as eyewitness accounts, evidence of actions and “postcards” to be sold as souvenirs.

To learn about the Tulsa historic events through photographs in more depth, go online to “The devastation of the Tulsa Race Massacre.”

Using postcards and photographs in the Library of Congress collection and contemporary photographs, the story of the Tulsa race violence and 100-year commemoration are told. The photographs are enhanced by audio testimony of three survivors who were children when fires were set, people were killed and injured and their homes invaded. From the National Museum of African American History and Culture audio collection, listen to these individuals testimony before Congress on May 19.

The text was written by DeNeen L. Brown who has done extensive research, interviews and on-site visits of the Greenwood District. On September 28, 2018, her early work on this story was published as Tulsa began planning for the 100-year commemoration of what had been a taboo subject that was not taught in schools. Read "‘They was killing black people.’"

Use a Documentary
Broadcast Journalism, English, Media Arts, U.S. History, Visual Arts

“Rise Again: Tulsa and The Red Summer” is a National Geographic documentary about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the racial violence that preceded it. Directed and produced by Dawn Porter, the film follows Oklahoma native DeNeen L. Brown as she explores Tulsa’s past that is commemorated in 2021 and reports on the search for a mass grave in the Greenwood community.

Black Wall Street and an Explosive Tulsa
Broadcast Journalism, Journalism, U.S. History

Read “His arrest sparked the Tulsa Race Massacre. Then Dick Rowland disappeared.” written by DeNeen Brown. This article may be read with the online article, “The devastation of the Tulsa Race Massacre.”

Teachers may ask students to locate when hasty assumptions and misinformation led to destruction. For example, what is the impact of a questionable newspaper account that was “proved inaccurate when Sarah Page later wrote a letter exonerating [Dick Rowland]”?

In addition, DeNeen Brown shares the backstory of how she got involved with reporting on the former Black Wall Street for The Post and her involvement with the Tulsa Race Massacre documentaries. Read “Merrill’s DeNeen Brown Reflects on Involvement With Two Upcoming Tulsa Race Massacre Documentaries.”

Where are the bodies?
Race Relations, U.S. History

The Post published “Where are the bodies from the Tulsa race massacre?” an excerpt from University of Michigan historian Scott Ellsworth’s most recent study of his hometown of Tulsa — “The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice.”

Before reading the essay, teachers might have students listen to the YouTube video on Scott Ellsworth’s study of his hometown’s race massacre. He has authored two books on the subject, The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice and Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.

Teachers may wish to use Covering a Centenary Commemoration. Close reading and discussing questions cover works by Brown, Ellsworth, Malveaux and Attiah.

Read a Book Review

English, U.S. History

Read and discuss with students “Pursuing painful truths, and tangible evidence, of the Tulsa race massacre,” a book review by Keisha N. Blain of Scott Ellsworth’s The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice.

• Do you learn why the author chose this subject?

• Do you get a sense of his style and depth?

• Does the reviewer think the book is worth your time?

Compare and Contrast Two Opinion Pieces
Composition, English, Journalism, Psychology, Social Studies

Post columnist Karen Attiah and guest commentary by civil rights law professor Suzette Malveaux are included to expand perspectives on the Tulsa commemoration. They are both based in personal experience. How do they differ in tone, theme and perspective?

Teachers may use questions from Covering a Centenary Commemoration to begin close reading discussion of the two works.

What Can Be Done 100 Years Later?
Ethics, Psychology, U.S. Government, U.S. History

To update the story with the perspective of one of the survivors, read “One of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre — 107 years old — wants justice.” Viola Fletcher, who lived through the Tulsa Race Massacre a century ago, testified before Congress on May 19 on the push for reparations.

Teachers may put reparations into perspective of other citizens who have sought reparations from injustice foisted upon them. Students may search the story behind those who have sought payment (monetary or otherwise). These would include:

• Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II

• Aleuts sent to camps in Juneau in World War II

• Jewish victims of the Holocaust

• Victims to eugenic programs and the Tuskegee experiment

• Descendants of enslaved people

• Survivors of the Rosewood (Fla.) massacre

Discussion may include

• What are reparations?

• When may reparations be given?

• What form may reparations take?

• Who should provide reparations?

Write a Commentary
English, U.S. History

Teachers may use Different Angles to Tell the Story | Tulsa Race Massacre to illustrate the different approaches that may be taken to cover one event. This concept may apply to annual events in your school such as homecoming, prom, and end-of-season sports coverage.

Teachers may ask students to write an essay on the contents of the listed works. They may also discuss topics of concern in your community. Then outline the different angles that could be taken to cover the topic for different audiences. 

YOU AND YOUR RIGHTS 

What the Supreme Court Decided About Students’ Rights
Journalism, U.S. Government, U.S. History

Reporters — as well as teachers and students who are discussing student rights — can benefit from knowing what the Supreme Court has determined to be students’ constitutionally protected rights. Give students Think Like a Reporter | Know the Student Rights Cases and the Supreme Court Decisions. Establish what judicial precedent is before moving on to the cases involving students’ rights.

This activity could be done in pairs or in teams, with each given a different case for which they will become experts. Discuss the cases with the “experts” taking the lead.

Teachers could also present situations — perhaps based on current happenings in your community or state — and ask what the Supreme Court says about this. Do students have rights that apply?

This activity could be expanded to learn the personal stories of the people who sued for their rights. An example of finding the story behind the decision is found on the Student Press Law Center website, “Then and Now: 40 years ago, Tinker and Eckhardt families solidified First Amendment rights for all students on school grounds.”

Learn About Students’ Off-Campus Speech Rights
Civics, U.S. Government, U.S. History

In the 2021 the Supreme Court heard Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. Teachers may use one of the three resources provided to give background and perspective on the case or have older students read all three to compare and contrast the approaches.

In the resource guide, you have

• Post legal reporter Robert Barnes’ “A cheerleader’s Snapchat rant leads to ‘momentous’ Supreme Court case on student speech”

• Columnist George Wills’ “A cheerleader’s salty language gives the Supreme Court a chance to bolster the First Amendment”

• Law professor and guest opinion writer Justin Driver’s “Why we all should want the suspended cheerleader to win her Supreme Court case”

Reading and discussion questions to use with these works are provided in Snapchat. Salty Language, Suspension and the Cheerleader.

Inform Your Community
Journalism, Media Arts, U.S. Government

After students have read one or more of the articles and commentary, and have reviewed the decision of the Supreme Court, teachers could ask them to write a commentary about the Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. Supreme Court decision. Inform their school community. For this assignment, use Does the First Amendment prohibit public school officials from regulating off-campus student speech?

Perhaps, your school system has a student responsibilities and rights document. Review it. Does it have a statement about off-campus speech that needs to be updated? Be sure students include the circumstances when their off-campus speech may be regulated.

What About Social Media and Freedom of Speech?
English, Ethics, Social Studies, U.S. Government

Post columnist Jennifer Rubin ended her 2020 column, “10 rules to preserve common sense in the debate about free speech”:

8. It’s not a bad thing to have vigorous and even angry arguments about highly charged issues. Having such conversations on social media, however, will not result in civil, honest or informative debate. Indeed, platforms such as Facebook contribute mightily to the polarization and incivility that plague our public debate. Alternative forums for virtual or actual face-to-face debate are badly needed. (I’ve signed up for one of these, Persuasion, run by one of the letter’s signatories, Yascha Mounk, who — disclosure — is a friend and valued professional colleague.)

9. It is easy to say that “there are more important things to fight about” than cancel culture or suppression of speech. But the latter is a precondition to a democratic, free society that can successfully govern itself and address those problems. We can and must defend free speech at the same time we are calling out police brutality, threats to public health and systemic racism.

10. Did I mention that social media is an anathema to cordial, respectful debate?

Teachers could use this excerpt or use entire column found in the e-Replica or online formats. Discuss her ideas about social media and its limitations for civil discourse.

Post NIE Guide Editor | Carol Lange
Post NIE Guide Art Editor | Donna McCullough