English Webquest + Washwoman

Where did the name Jim Crow originate?

after a black character in minstrel shows

What time period did the Jim Crow Laws span?

1880s - 1960s

What was the Harlem Renaissance?  What contributions to popular culture occurred during that time?

The Harlem Renaissance was the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City.

This led to the early 20th century's Black cultural core and the ensuing artistic and social explosion.

Langston Hughes

writer

made the African American experience the subject of his writings (poetry, plays, novels and newspaper columns)

Josephine Baker

dancer, singer, activist, and spy

One of the most successful African American performers in French history, Her career illustrates the ways entertainers can use their platforms to change the world.

Claude McKay

Writer and poet

His work celebrated peasant life in Jamaica to poems that protested racial and economic inequities. His philosophically ambitious fiction, including tales of Black life in both Jamaica and America, addresses instinctual/intellectual duality, which he found central to the Black individual’s efforts to cope in a racist society.

Aaron Douglas

Artist

One of the first artists to document the history of the African-American experience through visual art.

Zora Neale Hurston

writer and anthropologist

Her novels, short stories, and plays often depicted African American life in the South. Her work in anthropology examined black folklore.

Countee Cullen

 Poet and novelist

Paul Robeson

bass-baritone

He became increasingly well-known for his rendition of the song “Ol' Man River.” He was also involved in politics, receiving the 1953 Stalin Peace Prize for openly supporting the Soviet Union.

Marcus Garvey

Activist

He was founded he Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). UNIA aimed to achieve Black nationalism through the celebration of African history and culture.

When was the Stock Market crash?  

1929

How did the Stock Market crash affect the Harlem Renaissance?  

It resulted in Great Depression, which hurt African American-owned businesses and publications and made less financial support for the arts available from patrons, foundations, and theatrical organizations

What 3 colleges did the Delaney sisters attend?

St. Augustine’s, Columbia University, Pratt Institute,

Plessy v. Ferguson

 1892 and 1896

A case in which the Court held that state-mandated segregation laws did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The outcome was that the court upheld a Louisiana law that required separate but equal Brown v. Board of Education for Black and white people

Brown v. Board of Education

1954

African American students had been denied admittance to certain public schools based on laws allowing public education to be segregated by race. They argued that such segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Law that outlawed discrimination in the United States based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

Rosa Parks & Montgomery bus boycott

1955 - 1956

A civil rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. It was the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man.

 A Supreme Court ruling and declining revenues forced the city to desegregate its buses thirteen months later.

Conflicts the wash woman encountered

• no faucet

• thieves stole laundry

• other workers needed clothesline

• thoroughly scrubbed

• rinsed, scrubbed, soaked, boiled

Why does her son look at her with contempt?

He is embarrassed she is a washwoman

What qualities does the washwoman have that makes her admirable?

• although small and old, she was very strong and still doing hard manual labor

• never overcharged

• always did a great job

What is the setting for the washwoman?

Poland, early 20th century

Who is the author and main character of the Wash woman?

Isaac Bashevis Singer