Student

Examine the tension experienced by African-Americans as they struggled to establish a vibrant and meaningful identity based on the promises of liberty and equality in the midst of a society that was ambivalent towards them and sought to impose an inferior definition upon them.

The primary sources used are drawn from a time of great change that begins after Reconstruction's brief promise of full citizenship and ends with the First World War's Great Migration, when many African-Americans sought greater freedoms and opportunities by leaving the South for booming industrial cities elsewhere in the nation.

The central question posed by these primary sources is how African-Americans were able to form a meaningful identity for themselves, reject the inferior images fastened upon them, and still maintain the strength to keep "from being torn asunder." Using the primary sources presented here, look for answers that bring your ideas together in ways that reflect the richness of the African-American experience.

• In what ways did African-Americans identify themselves during this era?
• In what ways did others identify African-Americans during this era?
• Is there evidence for the assertion that African-Americans possessed a dual identity?
• How much progress did African-Americans make in the journey from slavery to equality?
• How do different types of primary sources provide different insights about African-Americans?
• What kinds of information about African-Americans are lacking in the primary sources that comprise this project?

Complete all of these activities.

Exercise One: Finding Documents

Procedure:

1. Before beginning our study of primary sources, it is important to become familiar with the American Memory collections.
2. Read the finding documents tutorial and complete the practice exercise.

Procedure:

1. Now that you have some familiarity with finding documents in the American Memory collections, it is time to learn how to interpret primary sources.
2. With your teacher as a guide, complete the interpreting primary sources tutorial.

Procedure:

This activity is the heart of the unit. Give your time and attention to completing your analyses of the primary source sets.

1. This activity consists of seven topics: Family, Work, Play, Faith, Education, Race, Violence. Your group will be assigned one of these topics. Each topic presents a selection of text, photographic, and audio primary sources drawn from several American Memory collections. Click on the appropriate link on the color bar below to enter your topic.

   Family

   Work

   Play

   Faith

   Education

   Race

   Violence

2. Before beginning, read and discuss the cautionary notes with your peers - many of the documents contain hurtful stereotypes.
3. View each of the documents within your topic, using the skills you learned in the interpreting primary sources tutorial.
4. Complete a response journal for each item you analyze. Use this page to record information about the documents and to record your reactions to the primary sources. Note: Keep your response journals together. You will need them for several of the follow-up activities.