FLOCABULARY SITE LICENSE MANUAL
Hip-Hop U.S. History
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
Site License Basics
2
II.
F.A.Q.’s
3
III.
Technical Options
4
IV.
Lesson Sequence / Lesson Plan
5
V.
Lyrics
8
VI.
A Teacher’s Guide to the Songs
32
VII.
Crossword Puzzles
38
Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
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I. Site License Basics
A Flocabulary site license combines one of the world’s most innovative and
effective learning tools with current technology to provide students and teachers
easy access to Flocabulary’s materials at an affordable price. A site license
allows an educator to:
* put Flocabulary music / content on a classroom’s website
* put Flocabulary music / content on a school's server / network
* burn CD's of Flocabulary music and distribute them to students
* print out and make copies of lyrics and exercises from the workbook
When a school purchases a Flocabulary site license they have the option of
distributing the digital files in hardcopy format (i.e. printing lyrics, burning CD’s),
having students interact with the content over the computer (including
downloading songs to their mp3 players), or both.
Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
II.
3
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost?
We charge $4 per student for this service, and the license is good for 2 years.
For example, if you have 30 students in your 11th grade English class, you may
purchase the right to use Flocabulary for 2 years with the same number of
students for a one-time fee of $120.
Want every student in your school to have access to the songs? If you are
purchasing the site license for more than 200 students, you can receive a schoolwide license for only $1 per student. The license is good for 2 years. In this
scenario, a school with 1,100 students could purchase the license for $1,100 for
a two-year license.
Want to put Flocabulary materials on shared computers with unlimited student
access (i.e. computer labs)? You can purchase a license for $100 per computer,
also good for 2 years.
Is there a minimum / maximum number of students?
We sell site licenses to teachers / schools for use with 20 students or more.
There is no maximum. We've sold our site license to entire school districts.
What will you receive?
When you purchase a site license you will receive a Master Audio CD (that you
can "burn" for your students), and a Master Data CD containing all songs in mp3
format and a PDF of the workbook (that you can use to host the files on the
school server / classroom website).
Who is eligible?
In order to purchase a Flocabulary site license at this price, you must be
employed by a school, district, or non-profit organization.
Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
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III. Technical Options
The Flocabulary site license allows you (the educator / administrator) to easily
distribute Flocabulary materials to your students. The goal of the site license is
to allow every student to have easy access to Flocabulary media both at school
and at home. This can be achieved in a number of ways.
1. Upload Materials – When you receive a Flocabulary site license, you receive
permission to upload Flocabulary materials to your school / classroom website.
Where it is possible, we ask you to limit outside access to the materials by
providing logins (login ID and password) for students using the materials. Where
that is not feasible, you may place Flocabulary materials on a publicly accessible
webpage, however you must provide a link to Flocabulary.com from the page.
There are many different programs you can use to upload mp3 and pdf files to
your site, usually with an FTP client program. Ask your network administrator or
media specialist for more information.
With web-hosted files, students will have access to Flocabulary media at school,
in the library, and at home. You can host the files as downloadable mp3’s (a
powerful option, since students can easily put the files on their iPods, mp3
players, and even phones) or as streaming (non-downloadable) media.
2. An Internal Network – You may also host Flocabulary materials on your
school’s network for use in computer labs. While this option doesn’t allow
students to access the materials outside of school, it can most successfully be
used in conjunction with burned CD’s and printouts. Having files hosted on an
internal network means that students may still be able to download the songs,
however, they will only be able to put them on mp3 players at school, and this
process may violate your computer lab’s policy. Ask your media specialist how
to upload files onto your school’s internal network.
3. Printouts and Burning CD’s – A Flocabulary site license gives you the right
to burn (i.e. copy) full-length audio CD’s of Flocabulary’s music. You may either
provide the blank CD’s yourself, or ask your students to bring them in. Without a
site license, you do not have the right to duplicate a Flocabulary CD.
You also have the right to print materials (including lyrics, definitions, exercises /
assessments, crossword puzzles, flashcards, and song guides), copy, and
distribute them. It’s all available to you in this Flocabulary Site License Manual.
Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
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IV. Lesson Sequence
Curriculum Goals
The goal of this lesson is to give students an expanded knowledge of U.S. history (terms, dates, and
concepts) through hip-hop song lyrics, and foster student engagement with the stories of each time
period. This general lesson plan can be adapted to any of the songs on Hip-Hop U.S. History. You can
also find lesson plans on specific songs at Flocabulary.com/history/historylessonplans. Teachers are
encouraged to provide a copy of the lyrics via Hip-Hop U.S. History books or a digital site license.
Lesson Goals
In each lesson your students will:
*Listen to a song.
*Discuss the period of history described in the chosen song, including:
a. the general time period.
b. the specific bold-faced terms.
c. how the cultural, political, and sociological changes of the time period affected the country.
d. how the time period has affected America and the world today.
Time Needed
One 30-minute session with optional homework and follow up exercises.
Materials Needed
*Hip-Hop U.S. History books for each student, or a digital site license (which allows you to distribute
copies of the files electronically or via burned CD’s and printouts).
*A CD player
Lesson Sequence
1. Preface the listening with a short speech and/or discussion of the general time period. (5-10
minutes)
2. Play the song in its entirety with the students following along with the lyrics. (4 minutes)
3. Now go through the song playing one verse at a time, with the class together defining the bold-face
terms and analyzing the meaning of the verse. Ask the students to explain each cultural and historical
reference. (15 minutes)
Follow-up Exercise
*Have your students complete an in-class writing exercise. Give the students (or groups of students)
two or three pieces of historical information. Have them write four to six rhyming lines that present that
information (in the spirit of Flocabulary). Encourage students to get creative and take it farther. Give
Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
6
students the option of performing their lyrics – students who are
apprehensive about rapping can give an emotive reading, spoken word style.
Homework
*Assign the crossword puzzle for the time period. The puzzles are available for free at
Flocabulary.com/history/historypuzzles
Additional Ideas
The Great Debate
Many times events in history present two factions warring against each other (Andrew Jackson v.
Native Americans, Colonists v. Britain, Robber barons v. union workers, etc).
At the end of the group discussion have students divide into groups, with two groups each
representing two differing perspectives taught in the song and one group representing a jury that
can ask questions and hold a mock debate moderated by yourself.
Start by giving the sides time to prepare an argument and defense. Conduct the debate in a fashion
similar to high school debate teams, with cross examination and concluding statements. Make sure
to ask stimulating questions throughout that encourage students to delve into the lesson material.
Resolve the debate with a vote from the jury and a closing class discussion.
The Journal
* Write a 1-2 page narrative choosing one character described in the song and write from his or her
perspective. The narrative should be time-sensitive to the period. The narrative should include
references to events that took place during his/her lifetime, but invoke a uniquely creative student
response of the character’s thoughts and emotions to these events.
The Term Sheet & Jeopardy
Have your students keep a running terms sheet for each song, adding onto it with each lesson. You
can complete a quick review, or quiz at the beginning of each lesson to help students retain the
knowledge learned from the past lessons.
Once you have completed a few lessons and your students have compiled a formidable terms
sheet, design a Jeopardy game with the categories coinciding with the material taught in the
individual songs. Choose answers based on the terms, dates, and concepts of your choosing. This
can be a fun, and engaging way to prepare for a unit test.
The Play
After listening and analyzing the song, break the students up into small groups and have them write
a short play depicting all or part of the material discussed. After an allotted time to prepare, have
your students perform their compositions in front of the class.
You can give your students 20 minutes and make this exercise an in-class activity or you could
make it an extended project; student groups could schedule to meet out of class, design sets and
props, write a script, and videotape their performance. If your school is equipped with the right
Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
software, you could even have your students complete some basic
editing: title, credits, special effects, etc.
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
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V. Lyrics
Table of Contents
Song
Page
#1 – Who Discovered It?
11
#2 – I Want America
13
#3 – This Ain’t Working
15
#4 – The Declaration of Independence (Interlude)
17
#5 – It’s the U.S. (Bust the A)
18
#6 – Bill of Rights
20
#7 – O.D.W.M.
21
#8 – Frederick and Abraham (Interlude)
23
#9 – Ghosts of the Civil War
24
#10 – Big Ballin’ (in the Gilded Age)
26
#11 – Jazz Age
28
#12 – F.D.R. (Interlude)
29
#13 – Would You Drop It?
30
#14 – Let Freedom Ring
32
Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
1. Who Discovered It?
LYRICS
Wow, I just discovered America.
You didn't discover it. We were already here.
Back before buffalo wings at Domino's,
America was where the Buffalo roamed. What you don't know?
Thirty thousand years ago some dudes
came across the Bering Strait wearing snowshoes.
Eskimos chasing woolly mammoth, Ice Age white like dandruff.
This is the range, home of the free, land of the brave.
They were nomadic, hut to hut like quarterbacks,
hunting deer with the spear and ax.
Some tribes formed towns and they settled down.
Domesticated plants, oh they're farming now.
Pray for rain, dancing on the Great Plains,
while mad cats with cornrows were planting maize.
In the Southwest, Anasazi built caves.
By the Great Lakes, tribes, they made blades out of copper.
Aztecs played games. Lots of Indian tribes engaged in trade.
Iroquois planting squash all up in the Northeast,
they master agriculture with the slash-and-burn technique.
There were five tribes white guys called civilized,
because of the way their government was organized:
Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Creek.
Isn't cheap? They call my Jeep a Jeep Cherokee?
What if they called my Jeep a Jeep Jew?
Imagine the outrage. What would you do?
Wow, I just discovered America.
You didn't discover it. We were already here.
Wow, I just discovered America.
You ain't discovered nothing. We was already here.
People are people, ain't nobody perfect.
Indians weren't living on some heaven on Earth tip.
Aztecs had slaves, war in war zones,
putting holes in enemies' domes like the ozone.
Sacrificing humans at the order of Montezuma, the ruler.
Mayans knew dope astronomy too,
had cities with markets, temples, and factories.
Incas had a vast empire by today's Chile.
Then in the year 1492, an Italian was sent by the Spanish to find
a new route to India. His name was Christopher Columbus.
He was hungry for gold . . .
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
The Niña, the Pinta, the Santa Maria.
Boats hit the New World screaming out "arriba!"
Arawak greeted the crew, heated some stew.
They came out bearing more gifts than Saint Nick do.
Columbus like:
"Gather these slaves up quick, lickety-split,
let's split back to Spain."
Exaggerate how much gold he had seen.
Came back with not three ships but seventeen.
Columbus was a sailor and an explorer,
most of all, Columbus was an entrepreneur.
Spanish would give him 10 percent of all the slaves, gold,
land, and spices that he claimed in their name.
Indians didn't know about guns and greed.
After a hundred years, 90 percent were deceased.
America is freedom, I've been told, but I know
that it was also born of blood and gold.
Wow, I just discovered America.
You didn't discover it. We were already here.
Wow, I just discovered America.
You ain't discovered nothing. We was already here.
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
2. I Want America
LYRICS
Planted their feet to build a land of deceit, plot it, conquer,
and spread disease across the seas it's the Spanish Fleet.
Welcome to America, the era of early terror
where Columbus named the country out of error.
1606, England sent John Smith to lead a hundred colonists to
Jamestown, to go and conquer it.
Health became a problem and disease would just devour
the strength of the manpower 'till it became the final hour.
John Rolfe thought it'd be slick to make money off of cancer sticks,
dropping tobacco off of his ships.
Made Pocahontas his chick, converted her to Christianity,
brought her to England where she fell to this calamity.
Smallpox or insanity. Is it true? If you say can it be,
of course the next plan will have to stand complete.
In 1619 new force, government, set up the House of Burgesses
and started running it, they're coming in.
I want America, I want America!
Crisscross the ocean, too cold to handle.
We're coming overseas for more, so Land Ho!
It was the year 1620, the pilgrims landed in the land of plenty,
sipping Henny. JK LOL BRB TTYL! :-)
Supplies shorter than Dora the Explorer.
Saw land calling "Hoo-Ah!" like Scent of a Woman,
the Pilgrims had the sense to bring some women,
'cause if you're fleeing to escape religious persecution,
don't forget the LADIES!
All signed the Mayflower Compact, except the LADIES!
But it was still progressive and kind of crazy.
They split from the church; they're breaking away,
while some folks in Plymouth were just trying to get paid.
Probably would have died, but Squanto helped them out,
brought them food, fur, and drink and let them sleep in the house,
saved them. After Thanksgiving he died of smallpox.
Are you picking up the pattern? He died of smallpox!
I want America, I want America!
Crisscross the ocean, too cold to handle.
We're coming overseas for more, so Land Ho!
Britain was into mercantilism: exported more than imported,
important for a system to enhance the borders that they ship from.
Restrictions on colonial trade, Navigation Acts
had the English getting paid off deals that America made.
Not enforced every day, 'cause when the good money would come,
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
Brits would turn the other way. Salutary Neglect was OK,
nobody stepped in the way for that Triangular Trade.
Colonies would barter rum for African slaves
and send them back to West Indian waves,
chopping down the fields of sugar cane, harvested and shipped back
for the rum to be made by American slaves
and indentured servants, never to be paid.
Immigrants from Europe dreaming of a better life;
in 1660, you could own a man's rights.
Even in a time when we outnumbered the whites,
you couldn't stand as a man and fight, the future didn't seem bright.
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
3. This Ain’t Working
LYRICS
It was a late dark night in Boston Harbor.
Pitch black, while a fog hung around the water.
This was the winter, 1773, and the British had
a monopoly on selling tea, thanks to the Tea Acts, but we're going to react,
send a message to show George just where we at.
All was quiet like Ben Franklin's library,
Then some people creepin' out of their houses quietly.
Dressed like Mohawk Indians, there were many men,
150 of them, all assemblin'.
A party gathered to check it, like rubberneckers,
"Let's Twist Again," uh-uh, like Chubby Checker.
Dressed up like Halloween, Trick or Treat!
We're about to trick you, George, we're going to dump your tea!
Sam Adams called out, "Ya'll better follow me."
We dumped $70,000 worth of tea.
England didn't take it lightly, uh-uh, they freaked,
'cause you know how the British just love their tea.
Passed Intolerable Acts, but that don't phase me.
They're turkeys, we'll smother them like we're gravy.
Sometimes you know I feel
like this thing we got ain't working.
Let me tell you the story of Paul Revere.
He saved John Hancock's career and Sam Adams's beer.
It was the year 1775, the Brits wanted to steal some ammo and supplies.
At night Revere is like, "Yo don't even fear,
just hang a lantern from the church when they're coming near.
One if by land, two if by sea.
Then I'll speed off, mad speedy through the country."
Midnight comes around, Paul's getting antsy,
hands be twitching more than Muhammad Ali's.
Two lights ignite, Paul's like "Oh yikes,"
hops on his ride, he and Dawes ride through the night.
His voice in the darkness, his knock at the door,
and his words that shall echo forevermore:
"The British are coming, the British are coming!
Kiss your youngins! Grab your guns!"
The British marched down into Lexington,
and thanks to Paul Revere, we were expecting them.
Captain said, "Don't fire unless you're fired upon,
but if they mean to have a war, we're going to bring it on!"
A shot rang out through the morning.
The revolution was dawning, it's daunting.
They killed us in Lexington, moved on to Concord,
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
but we started putting medal on them like they're honored.
We were ducking out of trees like some Vietnamese,
dressed in brown bringing redcoats to their knees.
They were all lined up like in a soup line.
We polished them off like they were shoe shine.
Sometimes you know I feel
like this thing we got ain't working.
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4. The Declaration of Independence (Interlude)
TEXT
"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. (That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed).”
Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
5. It’s the U.S. (Bust the A)
LYRICS
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do
ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.
It's the U.S., bust that A and come back.
It's the U.S., bust that A and come back.
It's the U.S., bust that A and come back.
We do it like that, we do that.
Who's that? Working hard baby, I'm not laid-back.
If you have money, better save that.
British want us to pay tax? We'll lick your Stamp Acts!
We fought the revolution and won.
Time for states to form up like Megatron. Some like "aww naww."
They liked states' rights, it stays nice.
Slave states get to keep their slave life.
Day one, drafted something to form the nation:
Articles of Confederation. It didn't have power
like Masons, so they're done.
It was too weak, like brittle bones on bubble boys.
Farmer named Shay rebelled, caused trouble boys.
A new Constitution, that's the solution.
If you don't succeed, you better try again.
It's the U.S., bust that A and come back.
It's the U.S., bust that A and come back.
It's the U.S., bust that A and come back.
We do it like that, we do it like that.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Don't spoil your bag with one bad apple.
Gimme a Break! Gimme a Break!
Break your government up like a Kit-Kat Bar.
We hit it that far with our checks and balances:
honestly a bigger deal than sex and violence is.
Executive is Presidential. He's essential,
doesn't make laws just signs or vetoes.
Picks judges like Sam Alito.
Legislate law bringing heat though, represent the people.
Two chambers like a shotty.
Senate kind of uppity, acting haughty.
House of Reps is by population.
Big states send a congregation all across the nation.
Judicial are the judges, the dudes in robes.
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
What they wear under there nobody knows.
It's the U.S., bust that A and come back.
It's the U.S., bust that A and come back.
It's the U.S., bust that A and come back.
We do it like that, we do it like that.
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
6. The Bill of Rights
LYRICS
Number One
Freedom of religion, speech, and press,
plus you can assemble in crowds and protest.
Number Two
Right to bear arms and cannons,
I bet the Minutemen didn't know about handguns.
Number Three
When soldiers gets sleepy,
you don't have to let them sleep up on your couch.
Number Four
No one can search and seize.
It protects me, unless people have a warrant to arrest me.
Number Five
If you arrest me, respect me.
Sorry Alex, there's no Double Jeopardy.
What’d you do after school? "I plead the fifth."
What’d you do after that, dude? "I plead the fifth."
I don't have to incriminate myself or risk my health,
whenver I'm in trouble, I just plead the fifth.
Number Six
You must process me speedily.
Number Seven
In front of my peers on the jury.
Number Eight
You can't use cruel or unusual punishment.
You can't make me drink turpentine for the fun of it.
Number Nine
The people get more than these rights.
Number Ten
States can make other laws, and they just might.
This is the Bill of Rights.
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
7. O.D.W.M.
LYRICS
Yo, he step up in the House, people call for joy,
but his slaves be thinking they're going to jump this boy
for spitting all that hypocrisy, talking about equality,
but beating brothers who ain't picking up his cotton properly.
He wanted people to choose their religion like dim sum.
Thought the Pres was too powerful like King Kong.
Ding Dong!
Listen to this, not an abolitionist, we're hitting this,
this is softball, slow-pitch. Witch!
Check the map, western half is black and dark.
Buy Louisiana with bonds. We're rich like Häagen-Dazs.
Jefferson sends out Lewis and Clark,
forty men, two-by-two like Noah's ark.
West on the Missouri, winter in Bismarck,
this is nature dawg, this ain't Central Park.
Indian teenager named Sacagawea joins the group.
We’re the Hekawi like F-troop.
Guides them through Rockies like MapQuest,
met Indians and bears, no time to nap or rest.
On the real, expedition mapped the whole west.
Came home, Lewis killed himself, he was depressed.
Who's going to mess with him? He goes by Thomas Jefferson,
the dude who drafted the independent declaration.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time,
with the blood of patriots and tyrants . . .
O.D.W.M.
O.D.W.M.
O.D.W.M.
We're talking 'bout some Old Dead White Men.
There's a thin line between a hater and a lover.
Burr and Hamilton running for governor, but run for cover.
They're dueling. Hamilton missed the mark like Crystal Pepsi,
Burr shot him in the face like Dick Cheney.
What's amazing kid is what came after it:
Burr tried to form the United States of Aaron Burr,
got caught, tried for treason, gave many reasons,
washed his hands, jumped bail to France. Levez les mains.
Jefferson's chilling in Paris, thinking lofty thoughts,
one of his visiting slaves steals his heart.
She's dressed in yellow, she says "hello,
you probably noticed me in the fields of Monticello."
Jefferson and Sally Hemings sitting in a tree, M-A-K-I-N-G many babies.
First come scandal, then comes more.
Now Jefferson's got his face on Mount Rushmore.
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
. . . Jefferson, Jackson,
Madison, Washington,
Monroe, Adams,
John Quincy Adams . . .
O.D.W.M.
O.D.W.M.
O.D.W.M.
We're talking 'bout some Old Dead White Men.
Free Lemonade! Free OJ, like Johnny Cochran.
Monroe Doctrine says Europe don't come a-knocking.
Don't mess with our continent; we ought to get a fence around
all of South America to keep you people out of it.
Called it the Era of Good Feelings but they're wrong.
White men getting richer than Enron, they're steppin' on
Indians, women, and blacks. Era of Good Feelings doesn't cover the facts.
Andrew Jackson thinks he's a tough guy,
killing more Indians than there are stars in the sky.
Illegal wars in Florida, killing the Seminole.
Saying "hello" then putting the Creek in hellholes.
Like Adolf Hitler, he had a Final Solution.
"Go away Indians! I don't want you to live here anymore!"
Cherokee at the Supreme Court appealed.
They got the boot, they had to walk down the Trail of Tears.
O.D.W.M.
O.D.W.M.
O.D.W.M.
We're talking 'bout some Old Dead White Men.
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8. Frederick and Abraham (Interlude)
TEXT
Frederick Douglass:
"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation . . . want crops without
plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning, they want the ocean
without the awful roar of its many waters. . . . Power concedes nothing without a
demand. It never did, and it never will."
Abraham Lincoln:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure
permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not
expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one
thing or all the other."
Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
9. Ghosts of the Civil War
LYRICS
Nat Turner:
They call me Mr. Nat Turner, I'm reppin' the South.
It's nothing to set a four-alarm blaze to your house.
I'm being honest, my owner, Travis, he treated us fair,
but I ain't nobody's slave. I'm getting out of this here.
As God says, so soon the first should be last, the last should be first.
I put my soul in the verse.
I saw blood upon cornstalks, the sun eclipsed,
and it was time to get it cracking like a thousand whips.
All out terror! Forty slaves on horses,
killing every pale face and carrying torches.
My rebellion got squashed in a few short days.
They executed me easy, the South in a rage.
Nat Turner's gonna get you, so please behave,
I'm a whisper in the wind, I'm gonna rise from the grave.
In the South they went crazy by lynching blacks.
I'm telling you the real, 'cause truth should be a part of the facts.
John C. Calhoun:
I'm John C. Calhoun, and I love the South,
the Senator from South Cakalak, reppin' the South.
They don't know me in the North, but they try to play me,
states' rights best thing since grits 'n' gravy.
I believe firmly in the goodness of slavery.
Northerners who hate it, I think they have rabies.
Never before have Africans been so civilized,
never before have they found the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Northerners don't pay workers enough to eat,
we don't pay slaves, at least they have a place to sleep.
We must maintain the status quo for whites and blacks
'cause if we ever let them free, they're going to attack!
Dred Scott decision was right, what belongs to me,
whether slave or mule, is my property.
We're chivalrous but don't mess with us, abolitionists,
we'll cane you on the Senate floor.
We won't take no or maybe,
We're gonna end this slavery . . .
Harriet Tubman:
Children: I'm Harriet Tubman, born into slavery.
In history I'm noted for my bravery.
I'm a runaway slave, followed the North Star,
to take me from the South parts, and I was never scared of the dark.
Like Dead Prez, boy, I'm an African,
more slaves down south, boy, I'm going back for them.
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
Nineteen trips and not one a disaster,
like I told Frederick, I never lost a passenger.
Reward for my capture: forty Gs.
Wanted posters all around saying I can't read.
Still I slipped through the cracks of that Fugitive Slave Act,
with so many freed, I never lost my way back.
Jack-of-all-trades and you'd be surprised,
I was a cook, a nurse, and even a spy for the North,
and this was during the Civil War.
Follow me while I'm following the drinking gourd.
I did it all, and it really wasn't a choice for me,
I only had two options, die or be free.
Abraham Lincoln:
I'm Abraham Lincoln, what y'all thinking?
I'm from Illinois, you illin' boy, North rich like cha-ching.
All slave states think that they're going to secede?
Like the Fugitive Slave Act, running away ain't easy.
A house divided against itself cannot stand,
like Betsy Ross trying to climb on Uncle Sam's hands.
I said I wasn't gonna mess with your slavery,
but the South didn't buy it, they were hating me.
I switched reasons to fight from Union to slavery
like Bush, Iraq's empty of WMDs.
Emancipation Proclamation made France like me.
Who needs friends, Jefferson Davis? You have me as an enemy.
Who do you have? Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee?
I've got U.S. Grant and Sherman's March to the Sea.
I wanted to be soft on the Confederacy like Huggies,
but after Booth shot me, nobody wanted to hug me . . .
We won't take no or maybe,
We're gonna end this slavery . . .
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
10. Big Ballin’ (in the Gilded Age)
LYRICS
John D. Rockefeller:
I don't even need a beat. I could kick it a cappella.
Doo-wop, shoo-wop. I'm John D. Rockefeller.
I'm bigger than Big Pimpin', I'm bigger than Jay-Z.
He named his record company after me.
I'm the O.G. with more oil than Valdez.
Standard Oil? That's just one of my companies.
I formed the trust, yes I did.
Now I'll gobble up these Colonel Sanders like they're chicken feed, see?
J. P. Morgan:
Who's next? That'd be me, J. P. Morgan,
vital organ, fire people like they're orphans.
Yeah, you heard about me,
Age is Gilded. Banks: I built it. Towns: I filled it.
This robber baron is hotter than most of these wack cats,
I'm a real hustler putting trains on rail tracks.
Kicking those real facts, little homey pay attention:
the only one to use the law to bring me my position.
Andrew Carnegie:
Pass the mic, I'm Andrew Carnegie,
the one all these U.S. senators want to be.
The opposite of poverty, Carnegie Steel,
yeah we have a whole monopoly.
Like Horatio Alger, I'm rags to riches.
I used to have no dough, now my paper's vicious.
Social Darwinism, yeah, I can't be stopped,
like that metal after it pop, I'm h-h-hot . . .
I'm the boss, I'm livin' large,
I'm a tycoon, and I'm big ballin'. . .
J. P. Morgan:
Yeah, you know who it be . . . J. P., Morgan that is. . . .
Here's the situation: the U.S. government needed money,
asking for help, now something here sounds funny.
My mamma said good deeds don't ever come back,
so they hit me with Sherman Antitrust Act.
It's got to be a gimmick, you saying if I'm too rich,
they make a law to tell me how I've got to spend it?
The laissez-faire economy saved me.
The rest can't touch 'cause I'm higher than Marley.
Jo Pulitzer:
I'm Jo Pulitzer. I'm 10 on the Richter.
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
I'm how they set the standard for all prize winners.
U.S. goes to war, I use news to divide us.
In Cuba, Teddy Roosevelt's screaming Rough Riders!
So tell me who's in control of your worldview.
The man with paper in hand, Pulitzer’s the truth.
I don't need no facts, this is yellow journalism.
Exaggerate the truth, Sensationalism.
John D. Rockefeller:
Rockefeller eats shrimp dipped in caviar,
I don't need a car, I ride on real jaguars.
I keep the prices high, the wages low,
so the Knights of Columbus know who’s in control.
I own 90 percent of oil, keep it greasy.
These machine politics are getting kind of sleazy.
Me and Boss Tweed, yeah we own the vote,
Tammany Hall, playa. That ain't no joke!
I'm the boss, I'm livin' large,
I'm a tycoon, and I'm big ballin'. . .
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
11. Jazz Age
LYRICS
Twenties came in like a lion;
by the end, that lion was dying,
couldn't even pounce.
Jazz Age, Dukes and Counts,
big-band swing time make you bounce.
You know what this is: Prohibition,
no liquor sipping,
no-oh, we're bootlegging.
Like Al Capone, running Chicago,
organized crime, making the dough,
moving more booze than Busch is,
ladies for the first time, shaking their tushes.
Flappers happening, fellows looking dapper,
old folks cheeks turning red like the snapper.
Big business is back in business,
big business is good for US, idn't it?
Fundamentalist Tennessee trying evolution,
the Scopes Monkey.
KKK wearing their sheets,
as if they weren't white enough, those dumb junkies.
Black leader Marcus Garvey packs it up,
thinks blacks should return to Africa.
My favorite poet loves the blues,
king of the Harlem Renaissance, it's Langston Hughes . . .
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12. F.D.R. (Interlude)
TEXT
"This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor
need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great nation
will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.
So first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself:
nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert
retreat into advance."
—Franklin D. Roosevelt, from the first inaugural address, March 4, 1933
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13. Would You Drop It?
LYRICS
Hitler's not the only fascist, only the most famous,
Mussolini in Italy, and Franco's Spanish.
Rose in the thirties, thanks to their people's pain and anguish,
Depression era inflation raising prices and panic.
Hitler makes Germans feel good by puffin' them up,
like "It's not you, it's the Jews that are messing us up."
So called "work-camps" for Catholics, Gypsies, and Jews,
and any woman or man who dared question his views.
America on another tip, isolationist,
don't want to get involved in one of y'all big wars.
We're trying to recover from our own depression,
FDR leading us, New Deal, new direction.
German U-boat, submarines, and you know what I mean,
sink British ships, Americans get uneasy.
While European is falling to Hitler, Americans are like, "tweedle-dee . . ."
It's peaceful, hot Hawaiian sun rising in the morning,
America's navy stretching and yawning.
Low on the horizon, hundreds of planes are rising.
Someone sees something, "eh, that's probably nothing."
But those are Japanese fighters and bombers, dropping some bombs upon us, harm us
with preemptive strikes, breaking the dam and the dyke.
It's a date people remember like 9-11,
Pearl Harbor, 1941, December 7.
Would you drop-drop it?
Would you drop-drop it?
Would you drop-drop it?
Drop the bomb?
Would you drop the bomb?
Fast forward—rushed the beaches, D-day’s done,
liberated France and Italy, blazing guns.
Germany surrenders, Hitler commits suicide,
he couldn't stand to die in front of the world's eyes.
Southeast Asia, war's still raging,
we're island hopping like hopscotch, boys with bloody faces.
Spring 1945, FDR dies. In steps Truman, big man, but only human.
Here's the situation: you're about to invade Japan.
U.S. soldier deaths might number a million.
The Japanese fight with code of the Samurai,
fight to the death, it's honorable to die.
Secret new weapon you've got and you're not telling,
split atoms like a sledge hammer splits watermelons.
Test it in July, desert of New Mexico,
it blows and you know mushroom clouds fill the sky.
Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
The Russians might declare war, and if they do,
the Japanese might have no choice, but to lay down their troops.
That's a chance. You've got the bombs. You've got the planes.
This is war: the moral dilemma drives you insane.
120,000 civilian lives on the line.
Clocks ticking, tic-tock, you're running out of time.
What would Jesus do?
What would Buddha do?
What would Abraham do?
What would Muhammad do?
What would you do?
Would you drop-drop it?
Would you drop-drop it?
Would you drop-drop it?
Drop the bomb?
Would you drop the bomb?
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
14. Let Freedom Ring
LYRICS
So even though we face the difficulties
of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
It is a dream deeply rooted
in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation
will rise up and live out
the true meaning of its creed:
We hold these truths to be self-evident
that all men are created equal. I have a dream . . .
It would take a nation of millions to hold us back.
Brown v. Board opened some doors.
Back then they called all blacks Negroes,
we kick it off the top sort of like cerebrals.
Separate isn't equal, when in practice.
My school's a shack. Mine is a palace!
Do I have to sit in the back of the bus? That's wackness.
Second-class citizen on account of my blackness.
They say to change the world, you've got to take a stand.
Rosa Parks took a seat, changed the face of the land.
Martin had a plan that even if you want to change the world
that don't mean you've got to kill another man.
Inspired by the people like Thoreau and Gandhi,
a pacifist in the war without an army.
'Cause they can't harm me, no matter how the end seems.
I wonder if Mr. King is still having dreams . . .
Let freedom ring . . .
I have a dream . . .
This must become true.
So let freedom ring . . .
MLK had a dream, took it mainstream.
Civil Rights Bill, Voting Rights Act, they passed.
A modern-day Jesus, turning the other cheek,
some blacks like "dawg, that's weak."
I'm not looking to get beat deep into next week,
"my everyday life is police brutality."
Malcolm picked up X and dropped his slave name,
radical change, "defense by any means."
Went on hajj to Mecca, said "let God protect ya.
Whites and blacks, yeah, we're in this together.”
But there are race riots, people are dying,
warfare in Watts, tear gas, bullets are flying.
So JFK?
He got assassinated.
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Flocabulary Site License Manual – Hip-Hop U.S. History
MLK?
He got assassinated.
Malcolm X?
He got assassinated.
So it's up to us to keep that dream alive . . .
Let freedom ring . . .
I have a dream . . .
This must become true
So let freedom ring . . .
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom,
by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
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VII. A Teacher’s Guide to the Songs
This Teacher’s Guide to the Songs explains each of the cultural references and
potentially confusing phrases or words on Hip-Hop U.S. History.
1. Who Discovered It?
Back before buffalo wings at Domino’s . . .
Dominos is a fast-food restaurant chain serving pizza, chicken wings, and other
food items.
Buffalo roamed . . . the range, home of the free, land of the brave . . .
These lines combine phrases from the "Star Spangled Banner" and "Home on
the Range," the state song of Kansas.
Hut to hut like quarterbacks . . .
The quarterback in a game of football receives the ball from the snapper by
shouting "hut, hut, hike" or another combination of prearranged words.
Putting holes in enemies' domes like the ozone . . .
Dome is a slang word for someone's head.
The ozone layer is located in the upper part of the Earth's atmosphere and
helps protect the planet from ultraviolet radiation. In the past sixty years, the
amount of ozone in the atmosphere has noticeably decreased. There is now a
large "ozone hole" over Antarctica.
2. I Want America
Sipping Henny. JK LOL BRB TTYL! :-)
Hennessey (or Henny) is a cognac that makes occasional appearances in rap
videos. JK is instant messenger speak for "just kidding." LOL means "laughing
out loud." BRB means "be right back." TTYL means "talk to you later."
Supplies shorter than Dora the Explorer . . .
Dora the Explorer is an animated character in a TV show of the same name
aimed at preschoolers. While Dora's exact height is a mystery, a guesstimate
would be that she is three feet tall.
Saw land calling "Hoo-Ah!" like Scent of a Woman . . .
Scent of a Woman is a 1992 film starring Chris O'Donnell and Al Pacino. Pacino
plays Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a blind ex-marine who likes yelling, "hooah!" "Hoo-ah" is a common affirmative yelled by soldiers in the U.S. military.
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3. This Ain't Working
Like rubberneckers . . .
Rubbernecker is a slang term for someone who cranes his or her neck to see
something while passing by. Typically this term is used for motorists passing an
accident who slow their cars to get a better look.
"Let's Twist Again," uh-uh, like Chubby Checker . . .
Chubby Checker's single "Let's Twist Again" was the first record to go platinum.
The idea here is that the Boston Tea Party actually was a party. With large
crowds gathered to watch and applaud, it was much more of a Chubby Checker–
style gathering than a covert military operation.
Hands be twitching more than Muhammad Ali's
Muhammad Ali is probably the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. After an
amazing life in the ring, he developed Pugilistic Parkinson's disease (aka Boxer's
Syndrome), which restricts his speech and causes his hands to shake. He was
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.
Putting medal on them like they're honored . . .
A typical, official way of honoring someone is by giving him or her a medal. (See
Muhammad Ali above.) Musket bullets were not shaped like today's bullets; they
were round, lead balls.
Ducking out of trees like some Vietnamese . . .
The Vietcong (North Vietnamese sympathizers operating in South Vietnam) later
perfected the very basic guerilla-fighting style used by the Minutemen. During the
Vietnam War, the Vietcong avoided large-scale encounters with American troops.
They developed hit-and-run and sniper tactics instead. After the initial skirmishes
at Lexington and Concord, the American forces rarely used guerilla tactics in the
Revolutionary War.
5. It's the U.S. (Bust the A)
Time for states to form up like Megatron . . .
Megatron is the robotic leader of the Decepticons from the TV show and comic
book, Transformers. Megatron could transform from a gun into a humanoid robot.
It didn't have power like Masons . . .
Masons are members of the fraternal organization of Freemasons. Formed in
Europe in 1717, this semisecret society took hold in America and became
popular among the American elite. Many of the Founding Fathers were Masons,
including John Hancock, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, and George
Washington. Washington, the first of fourteen U.S. presidents who were Masons,
even wore a Masonic apron when he laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol
building.
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In 1831 some citizens formed the Anti-Masonic Party to
protest the perceived Masonic control of the government and the fact that an exMason who wanted to publish Masonic secrets had recently been abducted and
disappeared. The Anti-Masonic candidate for president received a respectable
seven electoral votes in 1832, marking the first fairly successful third party in
American politics.
It was too weak, like brittle bones on bubble boys . . .
The bubble-boy phenomenon comes from the stories of two boys in the
seventies who really did live in bubbles within sterile hospital rooms: David Vetter
and Ted DeVita, both of whom suffered from immune deficiences. Since then,
the bubble boy has become a kind of American trope featured in a Seinfeld
episode, a Paul Simon lyric, and a recent movie staring Jake Gyllenhaal.
Break your government up like a Kit-Kat Bar . . .
A Kit-Kat Bar is a candy bar of chocolate-coated wafers. It comes in four
individual pieces that you can break off. The current jingle used to promote the
candy bar in America goes, "Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a
piece of that Kit-Kat Bar."
Picks judges like Sam Alito . . .
In 2005 George W. Bush nominated Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court after
Sandra Day O'Connor retired. Earlier that year, Bush nominated John Roberts
who replaced the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. Both nominees were
approved by the Senate.
6. Bill of Rights
Sorry Alex, there's no Double Jeopardy . . .
Alex Trebek is the host of the popular televion game show Jeopardy!. Once
contestants pass the first round, they move on to Double Jeopardy, in which
point values are doubled.
7. O.D.W.M.
Some lines from this track are based on lines from Outkast's "Skew It on the BarB" and Young MC's "Bust a Move."
He wanted people to choose their religion like dim sum . . .
Dim sum is a type of light Chinese meal consisting of a variety of choices that are
typically wheeled around on a cart for customers to choose from.
Thought the Pres was too powerful like King Kong . . .
King Kong is a big gorilla with a big heart and the star of numerous movies,
including King Kong (1933) and King Kong (2005).
Buy Louisiana with bonds. We're rich like Häagen Dazs . . .
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Häagen Dazs makes creamy, rich ice cream. The company is from
New York, but it took the name Häagen Dazs to make its ice cream sound exotic.
We’re the Hekawi like F-troop . . .
F-troop was a television comedy show from the 1960s. The Indian tribe in the
show often got lost and would say, "Where the heck are we?" The original name
of the tribe, the Fugawi, was changed after sponsors complained.
Guides them through Rockies like MapQuest . . .
MapQuest is a free online mapping software that outlines travel paths for trips.
Hamilton missed the mark like Crystal Pepsi . . .
In 1992 Pepsi unveiled Crystal Pepsi, the first mainstream clear cola. It was a
total commercial failure. In 1993 Saturday Night Live parodied Crystal Pepsi with
a fake advertisement for Crystal Gravy. The voiceover said, "Finally you can see
your meat."
Levez les mains . . .
French for "raise your hands."
Free OJ, like Johnny Cochran . . .
Johnny Cochran was one of O. J. Simpson's "Dream Team" defense lawyers in
the famous murder trial. Cochran actually used rhymes to help convince the jury
that O. J. was innocent: "if it [the glove] doesn't fit, you must acquit." O. J.
Simpson was found not guilty.
Men getting richer than Enron . . .
Enron Corporation is an enormous energy company based in Houston, Texas. In
2001, company officers used accounting fraud to make an enormous personal
profit at the expense of shareholders.
Like Adolf Hitler, he had a Final Solution . . .
The "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" is a phrase coined by Adolf
Eichmann, a top Nazi official under Hitler. The phrase refers to the German
Nazis' plan to systematically kill the Jewish population of Europe during World
War II.
9. Ghosts of the Civil War
The Senator from South Cakalak . . .
Cakalak is a slang word for "Carolina." Calhoun was from South Carolina.
States' rights best thing since grits 'n' gravy . . .
Grits are a traditional Southern breakfast food made from cornmeal. Grits are
often eaten with butter, sugar, or gravy.
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Like Dead Prez, boy, I'm an African . . .
Dead Prez is a politically conscious hip-hop group. Its 2000 album, Let's Get
Free, features "I'm a African," a song that connects American blacks to their
African roots.
I wanted to be soft on the Confederacy like Huggies . . .
Huggies are a brand of disposable diaper for babies.
10. Big Ballin' (in the Gilded Age)
I'm bigger than Big Pimpin', I'm bigger than Jay-Z. He named his record
company after me . . .
Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) is a popular rapper from New York. He collaborated with
Houston rappers Bun B and Pimp C on 2000's Big Pimpin'. He founded Roc-AFella Records in 1996. In 1999 Jay-Z launched Rocawear, a hip-hop clothing
label.
I'm the O.G. . . .
O.G. is street slang for "original gangster." The term initially referred to the
founder of a street gang but now commonly refers to any older gang member. It
also stands for "Oil and Gas."
With more oil than Valdez . . .
The Exxon Valdez is the name of an oil tanker that, in 1989, hit a reef off of
Prince William Sound and spilled eleven million gallons of crude oil into the
ocean. Exxon (now ExxonMobil) is a descendant of John D. Rockefeller's
Standard Oil Trust.
Gobble up these Colonel Sanders like they're chicken feed . . .
Colonel Sanders founded Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1952. Sanders (who was
not actually a military colonel) invented the original recipe. After he sold his
business, he became Kentucky Fried Chicken's spokesman, but he didn't
hesitate to speak up against the company when he thought that quality was
waning. In 1975 Kentucky Fried Chicken sued Harlan Sanders for calling the
gravy "sludge" and "wallpaper paste."
The rest can't touch 'cause I'm higher than Marley . . .
Bob Marley was a popular reggae musician from Jamaica. Marley often appears
on dorm-room posters, smoking marijuana.
11. Jazz Age
Moving more booze than Busch is . . .
Anheuser-Busch is the world's third-largest brewing company. It is based in St.
Louis, Missouri. It produces Budweiser, Michelob, and Bacardi.
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Old folks cheeks turning red like the snapper . . .
Red snapper is a reef fish found off America's coast in the Atlantic Ocean. It is
healthy and delicious.
13. Would You Drop It?
We're island hopping like hopscotch . . .
Hopscotch is a game played on sidewalks, streets, and playgrounds throughout
the world in different forms. The game involves throwing a stone or marker and
then hopping on different squares. The game was originally developed in
England as endurance training for British soldiers, who played hopscotch in full
body armor.
14. Let Freedom Ring
It would take a nation of millions to hold us back . . .
The popular and political rap group Public Enemy released one of the most
important hip-hop albums in 1988: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us
Back. The album pitted Chuck D's lyrics (which explored institutional racism,
police brutality, and American greed) over sample-heavy beats.
We kick it off the top sort of like cerebrals . . .
To "kick it off of the top (of the dome)" means to freestyle: make up rap lyrics in
real time off the top of your head.
The word cerebral means "of, or relating to, the brain." Cerebrals are
members of an obscure group with high IQs (“The Cerebral Society”), like the
much more famous Mensa.
A modern-day Jesus, turning the other cheek . . .
"I say to you, do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your
coat, let him have your cloak as well . . . I say to you, love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you . . ." (from Matthew 5:38–45).
Who Discovered It?
Hip-Hop U.S. History
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www.CrosswordWeaver.com
ACROSS
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1 Tribe that mysteriously abandoned their sophisticated
civilization in America's southwest
3 Waterway between Russia and Alaska that, when frozen,
was crossed by early inhabitants coming to North America
7 Corn
8 Spanish explorer looking for a new route to India
12 Center city for the Aztecs
13 and Inuit Northern tribes that developed kayaks and
dogsleds
15 The year Columbus sailed for India- and discovered North
America for Spain
18 Tribe that was one of the first to cultivate squash
19 A term for Central America, ruled by three major civilizations
20 Indian tribe that first greeted Columbus, and later extorted
and pushed to near extinction
2 Expansive civilizations in Mesoamerica that practiced
human sacrifice
4 Agricultural technique
5 Style of survival where bands constantly relocate when their
food supply runs out
6 Popular ball game played by the Aztecs
9 Denotes the groups of tribes descended from the Anasazi
10 Something the Spanish sought
11 The largest tribe native to Hispaniola that was wiped out by
Europeans
14 Ruler of the Aztec
16 Powerful South American civilization in today's Chile
17 A civilization in Mesoamerica that developed sophisticated
astronomy
WORD BANK: Anasazi, arawak, aztec, beringstrait, columbus, eskimo, fourteenninetytwo, gold, inca, iroquois,
maize, maya, mesoamerica, montezuma, nomadic, pueblotribes, slash&burn, taino, tenochtitlan, tlachtli.
Who Discovered It?
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
B E
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F O U
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L
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M A I Z E
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I Want America
Hip-Hop U.S. History
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ACROSS
1 European workers that signed a contract to work for
many years in America to pay for their voyage
4 Tobacco entrepreneur, and husband of Pocahontas
6 Colony founded by the Puritans
7 Englishman who landed at Jamestown in 1606 and lead
the colonists through their winters of starvation
9 Company that footed the bill for the voyage to
Jamestown and could overrule the House of Burgesses
10 Piece of legislature that severely limited colonial trade
and benefited the British
11 Ultra religious group that wanted to purify the Church of
England
13 Pilgrims who wanted to separate from the Church of
England
15 Both the name of a tribe in Virginia, and the name of its
chief
16 Indian tribe that helped the pilgrims
17 Name of the Pilgrims' settlement
DOWN
2 Trade that ran from the colonies, West Africa, and the
West Indies
3 1st European legislative body in North America
5 The group that landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620
8 Important document establishing self-government in
present day New England.
12 Disease that wiped out major portions of the Indian
population
14 Famous Wampanoag Indian who helped the pilgrims
WORD BANK: Houseofburgesses, indenturedservants, johnrolfe, johnsmith, massachusettsbaycolony,
mayflowercompact, navigationacts, pilgrims, plymouthplantation, powhatan, puritans, separatists, smallpox,
squanto, triangulartrade, virginiacompany, wampanoag.
I Want America
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
J
M A
J
N A V I
H
O
U
S
E
O
F
B
U
R
G
E
S
S
E
S
H
S
H
A
E
W A M P A
P L Y M
I N D E N T U R E D S E R V A N T
R
N R O L F E
P
I
I
A
A C H U S E T T S B A Y C O L O N
G
G
N S M I T H
R
U
A
I
L
Y
V I R G I N I A C O M P A
F
S
R
L
T
T I O N A C T S
R
W
P U R I T A
E
D
P A R A T I S T S
E
C
S
P O W H A T A N
Q
M
U
P
A
N O A G
N
C
T
O U T H P L A N T A T I O N
S
Y
N Y
N S
M
A
L
L
P
O
X
This Ain't Working
Hip-Hop U.S. History
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ACROSS
5
2 Other riders that banded with Revere
11 Meeting of prominent colonial figures to discuss the
revolution; they named congressman Washington head
of the army and issued the Declaration of Independence
13 Famous battle in which the British won, but sustained
heavy losses
DOWN
1 Actions in response to the Boston Tea Party that
severely limited democracy in the colonies
3 British general who planned the march on Concord and
Lexington
4 An event during which British soldiers killed 5 men, who
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
were throwing snowballs and rocks at the soldiers
Famous event where $70,000 worth of tea was
destroyed in protest to the British monopoly on the trade
Revolutionary ring leader and prominent signer of the
Declaration of Independence
Silversmith and horse-rider responsible for alerting the
townspeople of the approaching British
War in which the French and a confederacy of Indians
fought against Britain and her colonies
Radical colonial political group headed by Samuel
Adams
Informal group of farmers ready to fight at a moment's
notice
Colonial revolutionary and American icon
Thomas Paine's passionate pamphlet urging for
independence from Britain
WORD BANK: Battleofbunkerhill-, bostonmassacre, bostonteaparty, commonsense, dawes&prescott,
french&indianwar, generalgage, intolerableacts, johnhancock, minutemen, paulrevere, samadams,
secondcontinentalcongress, sonsofliberty.
This Ain't Working
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
D
S
A
M
A
D
A
M
S
I
N
A W E S & P R E S C O T T
O
G
L
E
B
B
E
J
N
P
F
O
O
R
O
E
A
R
S
S
A
H
R
U
S
E
T
T
B
N
A
L
O
N
O
O
M
L
H
L
R
N
E C O N D C O N T I N E N T A L C O N G R E S S
H
M
O
T
N
A
N
A
V
O
&
A
M
E
U
C
C
G
E
F
I
S
M
A
T
T
O
E
R
L
N
S
O
P
E
S
C
E
I
D
A
N
A
M
K
B
I
C
S
R
E
E
A
R
E
T
N
R
N
E
N
Y
T
W
S
Y
B A T T L E O F B U N K E R H I L L R
It's the U.S. (Bust the A)
Hip-Hop U.S. History
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ACROSS
1 System in which each branch of government keeps
the other in line
6 Branch of government that includes the law-making
bodies: the House and Senate
7 Famous 1787 convention where delegates
discussed what to do about the Articles of
Confederation, and ultimately drafted the
Constitution
9 System for electing the President
10 Place where the colonists defeated the British
11 Two chamber
12 Treaty that ended the revolutionary war in 1783
13 Gorvernment-forming document that favored states'
rights and left the federal government virtually
powerless
DOWN
1 Agreement that created a bicameral legislature
2 Plan for representation where each state sent
representatives based on population
3 The branch of government that includes the
president and her administration
4 Branch of government made up by the courts
5 A power of the president to reject a bill passed by
Congress, can be overturned by a 2/3 majority in
Congress
8 Plan for representation where each state sent the
same number of representatives
WORD BANK: Articlesofconfederation, bicameral, checks&balances, connecticutcomprise,
constitutionalconvention, electoralcollege, executive, judicial, legislative, newjerseyplan,
treatyofparis, veto, virginiaplan, yorktown.
It's the U.S. (Bust the A)
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
E
X
V
L
E
E
C O N S T I T U
U
O
T
I
V
E L E C
E
Y O R K T
T R E A T Y O F
A R T I C L E
C
O
N
N
E
C
T
I
C
U
T
C
O
M
P
R
I
S
E
H E C K S & B A L A N C E S
G I S L A T I V
I O N A L C O N
O R A L C O L L
W N
B I C
A R I S
O F C O N F E D
V
I
J
R
E
U
G
D
I
V E N T I O N
E
C
I
W
I
A
J
A
P
E G E
L
L
R
A
S
N
A M E R A L
Y
P
L
E R A T I O N
N
O.D.W.M.
Hip-Hop U.S. History
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ACROSS
DOWN
1 A slave of Jefferson's with whom he had a lasting
relationship and children
6 British frigate that fired on the American U.S.S.
Chesapeake, boarded her and hanged four Americans
7 A tough, non-aristocratic president who achieved celebrity
fighting Native Americans and the British in the War of
1812.
9 British practice of force American sailors to fight them,
sparking the war of 1812
10 Conflicts between Britain and France that pulled America in
by seizing its ships
12 Policy that stated America should dominate the Western
Hemisphere, and Europe should stay out
14 Passed in 1830, this law gave the U.S. power to forcefully
move Indians west
15 Tax that led to the whiskey rebellion
2 Business deal that more than doubled the size of America
3 Initiative that banned all ships departing from a U.S. port to
a foreign port, ending all imports and exports to and from
the colonies
4 Iconic ruler of France who sold Jefferson the Louisiana
Territory
5 Indian tribe that attacked an Alabama fort massacring its
inhabitants in response to white encroachment
8 Path the Cherokee were forced to walk from Georgia to
Oklahoma between 1835-8, during which a quarter of the
population died.
11 Famous Indian leader who tried to rally disparate tribes
together against the American government
13 Vice President to Jefferson, and killer of Hamilton in a duel
WORD BANK: Burr, embargoact, hmsleopold, impressment, indianremovalact, jackson, louisianapurchase,
monroedoctrine, napoleon, napoleonicwars, redstickcreeks, sallyhemmings, tecumseh, trailoftears, whiskeytax.
O.D.W.M.
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
E
M
B
J A
R
G
O
A
C
T
I N
S A L
O
U
I
C K S
I
A
N
N A
P
U
R
C
H
D I A
S
E
L Y H E M M I N G S
H M
O N
I M P
P O L E O N
M
B
U
N R E M O V
R
W H I
T
R
A
I
L
O
F
T
E
A
R
S
E S S M
C W A R
N R O E
L A C T
K E Y T
N
R
A
S L E O P O L D
D
O
S
L
E N T
E
I
O
S
C
N
K
T
D O C T R I N E
R
C
E
U
E
M
K
S
S
E
A X
H
Ghosts of the Civil War
Hip-Hop U.S. History
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ACROSS
DOWN
1 Tariff passed in 1828 which helped the North but
hurt the South, and particularly angered states right
advocate Calhoun
4 Loose connection of abolitionists who helped
escaped slaves flee north
5 Slave who led an uprising that killed 55 white
southerners
7 First and only president of the Confederacy
8 Grisly southern general who ironically was killed by
one of his own soldiers
9 Lincoln successor and the first of only two
impeached presidents in history
11 The most important man to the Confederacy
15 1863 doctrine that abolished slavery in the
Confederacy.
2 Law that required citizens of any state to assist in the
capture and return of escaped slaves
3 Slave who petitioned for his freedom when his
owner died because he had lived in territories where
slavery was illegal
6 Allowed the army to forcefully collect the tariff
garnered by the Compromise of 1833
10 Union general who led a notoriously destructive
march through the South
12 Racist Supreme Court chief justice who ruled
against Dred Scott
13 Important union general who led a successful
offensive at Vicksburg
14 Lincoln assassinator
WORD BANK: Booth, dredscott, emancipationproclamation, forcebill, fugitiveslaveact, grant,
jeffersondavis, johnson, lee, natturner, sherman, stonewalljackson, taney, tariffofabominations,
undergroundrailroad.
Ghosts of the Civil War
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
S
T
A
N
E
Y
T A R I F
D
U
R
U N D E R G
E
I
D
N A T
S
F
I
C
O
V
O
R
J E
T
C
S
T O N E W A L L
B
A
I
V
L
E
L
A
C
M A N C I P A T
F O F A B O M I N A T I O N S
R O U N D R A I L R O A D
T U R N E R
F F E R S O N D A V I S
J A C K S O N
J O H N S O N
H
L E E
G
B
R
R
O
M
A
O
A
I O N P R O C L A M A T I O N
T
H
Big Ballin' (in the Gilded Age)
Hip-Hop U.S. History
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16
www.CrosswordWeaver.com
ACROSS
1 Man who created a media empire (primarily through
his newspaper)
4 Big tycoons who used deception and bribery to
bypass laws and working standards
8 Essay arguing for social Darwinism
10 One of the first big unions
14 Journalists who thrive on exposing government and
business corruption
15 Named given for the period of time where a few
tycoons became insanely rich at the expense of
everyone else
16 Ineffective act aimed at curbing giant trusts
DOWN
1
2
3
5
6
7
9
11
12
13
"Rags to riches" author
With enough drive, anyone can make it in America
Stock market crash of 1869
Violent protest in Chicago in which a bomb was
thrown at police officers
When politics are controlled through doling out jobs,
contracts and other benefits in exchange for votes
Era marked by a series of environmental, social, and
economic reforms
Head of the Standard Oil Company which
monopolized the oil industry
Created banks so huge they loaned money to other
banks and the government
Voluntary calvary that rode with T. Roosevelt in the
Battle of San Juan Hill
Steel tycoon
WORD BANK: Blackfriday, carnegie, gildedage, gospelofsuccess, gospelofwealth, haymarketriot,
hearst, horatioalger, knightsofcolumbus, machinepolitics, morgan, muckrakers, progressiveera,
robberbarons, rockefeller, roughriders, shermanantitrustact.
Big Ballin' (in the Gilded Age)
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
H E A R S T
B
O
L
R
M
A
A
A
G O
C
T
C
R
K N I G H T S O F C
F
O
I
C
R
A
N
K
I
L
E
E
D
G
P
F
A
E
O
E
Y
R
L
L
I
L
T
E
I
R
C
S H E R M A
G
R O B B E R
S
S P E L O F
E
O L U M B U
O
O
F
R
S
G
U
A
C
N
C
E
S
G I L
S
B A R O N S
W E A L
S
R
O
M U C
G
H
R
I
D E D A
E
R
N A N T I T R U S T
H
A
P
T H
Y
R
M
O
A
G
C
R
R
A
K
E
K R A K E R S
N
T
S
E
R
I
G
I
V
I
O
E
G E
T
E
R
A
A C T
Jazz Age
Hip-Hop U.S. History
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ACROSS
DOWN
1 Religious fundamentalist who defended Christianity during
the Scopes Monkey Trial
3 Ineffective attempt at outlawing alcohol
5 Famous black integrationist and early leader of the NAACP
9 First prominent black rights organization
12 White supremacist group marked by ghostly sheets and
burning crosses
13 Period of U.S. history marked by crippling recession
15 Period of resounding artistic black cultural output in New
York City
16 Watchdog organization dedicated to upholding civil rights.
17 President who saw the beginning of the Great Depression,
and did little to stop it
18 Famous black leader who advocated a return to Africa for
blacks
19 Underground drinking venues that replaced bars during
prohibition
2 Famous 1915 film BY D.W. Griffith that exploited racist
stereotypes and glorified the Klan.
4 Name given to the fateful day in 1929 when the stock market
crashed
6 Popular large ensemble jazz groups
7 ACLU lawyer who defended evolution during the Scopes
trial
8 President who boasted of a post-war "return to normalcy"
10 Renowned poet of the Harlem renaissance who later wrote
communist poems
11 A cultural icon; a female who loves cold booze and hot beats
14 Famous mob boss who capitalized on prohibition, got
busted for not paying taxes
WORD BANK: Aclu, bigbands, birthofanation, blackmonday, capone, clarencedarrow, dubois, flapper,
greatdepression, harding, harlemrenaissance, hoover, kukluxklan, langstonhughes, marcusgarvey, naacp,
prohibition, speakeasies, williamjenningsbryan.
Jazz Age
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
W I L L I A M J E N N I N G S B
I
P R
T
D U B O I S
C
H
H
I
L
A
O
G
A
R
F
B
R
D
A
G R E A T D E P R E S S I O N
N
N
N
A
D
C
G
T
S
E
I
C
D
O
H A R L E M R E N A I S S A N
P
R
H O O V E R
M A R C U S G A
N
O
E
W
R Y A N
O H I B I T I O
L
N A A C P
C
K U K L U X K
M
O
N
D
A
Y
C E
A
N
L
F
A
L A N
A
G
P
S
P
T
E
O
R
N
H
C L U
G
R V E Y
H
E
S P E A K E A S I E S
F.D.R.
Hip-Hop U.S. History
1
2
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ACROSS
DOWN
1 Longest sitting president in U.S. history,
and instigator of the New Deal
5 Social program created during the
depression to help Americans save for
retirement
6 Organization that helped pump 11 billion
dollars back into the US economy
1 Roosevelt's routine radio broadcasts
that harnessed the political power of the
media, and boosted morale
2 Group of angry WWI vets who
demanded their war bonus
3 Roosevelt's ambitious attempt to fix the
economy
4 Philanthropic first lady Roosevlet
WORD BANK: Bonusarmy, eleanor, fdr, firesidechats, newdeal,
socialsecurity, wpa.
F.D.R.
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
B
O
N
U
S
A
R
M
Y
F D R
I
N
R
E
E
W
S
E
D
O C I A L S E C U R I T Y
D
E
A
E
A
L
C
N
H
O
W P A
R
T
S
Would You Drop It?
Hip-Hop U.S. History
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18
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20
21
22
23
24
25
www.CrosswordWeaver.com
ACROSS
1 Invasion of North Africa by
American troops
5 President who oversaw the end of
WWII
7 Pacific general who gave grave
estimates on an invasion of Japan
10 German controlled France
13 After Japan still hadn't
surrendered, this city was
bombed as well
16 Manipulative, captivating, and
deadly German dictator
17 Ended WWI; humiliated and
punished Germany
20 An oppressive, nationalist
government structure
21 Germany, Italy, Japan
22 African nation invaded by Italy in
1935
23 Top secret organization that
developed the atomic bomb
24 The most brilliant physicist since
Isaac Newton; also suggested the
atomic bomb
25 Famous general who led U.S.
troops first into Africa, and later
become President
DOWN
2 Prohibited arms sales to warring
nations
3 Policy that allowed arms sales to
allied warring nations if they paid
in cash
4 Fascist who overthrew the
6
8
9
11
12
14
15
18
19
Spanish government in 1936
Hitler's government
Nazi campaign to bomb Britain
Military technique used by some
Japanese pilots, who crashed
their bomb laden plane into ships
Italy's dictator who invented
fascism
Spain's struggle against fascism
Britain, France, Russia, and later
the U.S
Japanese surprise attack on
Hawaii on December 7, 1941
City that suffered the first atomic
bomb
Brutal Russian dictator who
starved millions of his own people
WORD BANK: Allies, axis, battleofbritain, cashandcarry, einstein, eisenhower, ethopia, fascism, franco,
hiroshima, hitler, kamikaze, macarthur, manhattanproject, mussolini, nagasaki, naziparty, neutralityacts,
operationtorch, pearlharbor, spanishcivilwar, stalin, treatyofversailles, truman, vichy.
Would You Drop It?
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
F
T R
R
A
N A G A
C
L
O
L
H I
E
S
H
I
R
O
A
S
E T H O P
I
M
E
A
O P E R A T I O N
E
U M A N
U
A
T
B
Z
K
R
S A K I
A
A
T
P
M
L
T
A
I
I
T L E R
K
T
E
T R E A T Y
O
Y
Z
A
F
E
C
B
T
R
F A S C I S
X I S
T
I A
M A N H A T
I
I N S T E I N
T O R C H
C
M A C A R T H U R
S
V I C H Y
M
S
A
U
P
P
N
S
A
E
D
S
N
A
C
O
I
O F V E R S A I L L E S
L
R
I
H
S
H
R
N
C
T
A
Y
I
I
M
A
R
V
L
B
I
I
O
L
T A N P R O J E C T
W
A
E I S E N H O W E R
Let Freedom Ring
Hip-Hop U.S. History
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16
17
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20
21
22
23
www.CrosswordWeaver.com
ACROSS
1 City where the famous bus boycott took
place
3 Figure who led a powerful non-violent
resistance to British colonial rule in
India, which resulted in independence
5 Landmark law passed in 1964 that
outlawed racial or sexual discrimination
in public services and employment
10 Landmark case in favor of "separate but
equal"
12 Laws that enforced segregation
14 One of the great leaders of the civil
rights movement, who advocated
Christian principles
15 Religious pilgrimage to Mecca that
Muslims are to make at least once in
their lifetime, if possible
16 Warren Chief justice of the Supreme
Court during Brown v. Board
17 Atlanta-based organization that staged
sit-ins and other non-violent protests
18 Critical thinker and American
philosopher who advocated civil
disobedience when laws are unjust
19 Assassinator of MLK
20 American religious / political
organization whose goal is to improve
the condition of black people
21 Impoverished mostly-black
neighborhood of L.A. that staged a
violent 6-day riot in 1965
22 A movement that achieved prominence
in the 1960's and 70's that advocated
generally for the improvement of the
status of black people, and fought
against cultural assimilation
23 Famous jazz singer who sang the
political tune "Strange Fruit"
4
6
7
8
9
11
13
DOWN
2 Fervent civil rights advocate who
favored segregation in order for blacks
to educated and discipline themselves,
enfranchise their own businesses and
communities to cut dependency on the
white man
Prestigious award given for great
contributions to humankind; awarded to
Dr. King in 1964
Johnson's optimistic domestic agenda,
which included a civil rights bill
Assassinator of JFK
Passed in 1965, this legislative act
helped to enfranchise black voters
Landmark case that ruled separate but
equal was unconstitutional in schools
Leader of the Nation of Islam who was
said to be the messenger of Allah.
Originally close to Malcolm X, the two
eventually grew apart.
Voluntarily abstaining from using a
product or service in protest; the
African-American community in
Montgomery did this with busses
WORD BANK: Billieholiday, blackpower, boycott, brownvboard, civilrightsact, earl, elijahmuhammad, gandhi,
greatsociety, hajj, jimcrow, malcolmx, mlk, montgomery, nationofislam, nobelprize, oswald, plessyvferguson, ray, sclc,
thoreau, votingrightsact, watts.
Let Freedom Ring
Hip-Hop U.S. History
Solution:
M O N T G O M
A
C I V I L
C
O
P L
M
X
B
O
Y
S C L C
O
T
N A T I O
E R Y
R I G H T S A C T
O
E S S Y V F
W
A
M L K
D
H
E
L
I
J
A
H
M
T H O R E A U
H
N O F I S L A
M
M
B I L L I E H O L I D A
D
R G U S
J
J J
E A
M
W A
B L
Y
G A N D H I
O
G
B
R
E
B
E
N
L
R
A
P
O
T
M C R O W
S
I
N
O
Z
V
C
L
E
B
I
O
E
A
T
R A Y
T S
D
V
O
T
I
N
G
R
I
G
H
T
S
A C K P O W E R
C
T