Growing Up Black

NAME
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Growing Up Black
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As a child, Daisy Bates was told by her stepfather to “hate discrimination that
eats away at the soul of every black man and woman. Hate the insults and then
try to to do something about it or your hate won’t spell a thing.” As an adult,
Mrs. Bates followed her stepfather’s advice. She became president of the
Arkansas National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and
fought successfully for school integration.
In the reading below, Daisy Bates recalls her childhood in the 1 920s and her first
encounter with racial discrimination.
was born Daisy Lee Gatson in the little
sawmill town of Huttig, in southern Arkansas.
The owners of the mill ruled the town. Huttig
might have been called a sawmill plantation for
everyone worked for the mill, lived in houses
owned by the mill, and traded at the general store
run by the mill.
The hard, red clay streets of the town were
mostly unnamed. Main Street, the widest and
longest street in town, and the muddiest after a
rain, was the site of our business square. It con
sisted of four one-story buildings which housed a
commissary and meat market, a post office, an ice
cream parlor, and a movie house. Main Street also
divided “White Town” from “Negra Town.” How
ever, the physical appearance of the two areas
provided a more definite means of distinction.
The Negro citizens of Huttig were housed in
rarely painted, drab red “shotgun” houses, so
named because one could stand in the front yard
and look straight through the front and back
doors into the back yard. The Negro community
was also provided with two church buildings of
the same drab red exterior, although kept spotless
inside by the Sisters of the church, and a two-room
schoolhouse equipped with a potbellied stove
that never quite succeeded in keeping it warm.
On the other side of Main Street were white
bungalows, white steepled churches and a white
spacious school with a big lawn. Although the
relations between Negro and white were cordial,
the tone of the community, as indicated by outward
appearances, was of the “Old South” tradition.
As I grew up in this town, I knew I was a
Negro, but I did not really understand what that
meant until I was seven years old. My parents,
as do most Negro parents, protected me as long
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Chapter 21 Primary Source Activity
as possible from the inevitable insult and humilia
tion that is, in the South, a part of being “colored.”
I was a proud and happy child—all hair and
legs, my cousin Early B. used to say—and an only
child, although not blessed with the privilege of
having my own way. One afternoon, shortly after
my seventh birthday, my mother called me in
from play.
“As I grew up in this town, I knew
I was a Negro, but I did not really
understand what that meant until
I was seven years old.”
“I’m not feeling well,” she said. “You’ll have
to go to the market and get the meat for dinner,”
I was thrilled with such an important errand,
I put on one of my prettiest dresses and my moth
er brushed my hair. She gave me a dollar and
instructions to get a pound of center-cut pork
chops. I skipped happily all the way to the market.
When I entered the market, there were several
white adults waiting to be served. When the
butcher had finished with them, I gave him my
order. More white adults entered. The butcher
turned from me and took their orders. I was a lit
tle annoyed but felt since they were grownups it
was all right. While he was waiting on the adults,
a little white girl came in and we talked while we
waited.
The butcher finished with the adults, looked
down at us and asked, “What do you want, little
girl?” I smiled and said, “I told you before, a
pound of center-cut pork chops.” He snarled,
“I’m not talking to you,” and again asked the
© Prentice-Hall, Inc.
NAME
CLASS
DATE
(continued)
white girl what she wanted. She also wanted a
pound of center-cut pork chops.
“Please may I have my meat?” I said, as the
little girl left. The butcher took my dollar from the
counter, reached into the showcase, got a handful
of fat chops and wrapped them up. Thrusting the
package at me, he said, “Niggers have to wait ‘til
I wait on the white people. Now take your meat
and get out of here!” I ran all the way home crying.
When I reached the house, my mother asked
what had happened. I started pulling her toward
the door, telling her what the butcher had said. I
opened the meat and showed it to her. “It’s fat,
Mother. Let’s take it back.”
“Oh, Lord, I knew I shouldn’t have sent her.
Stop crying now, the meat isn’t so bad.”
“But it is. Why can’t we take it back?”
“Go on out on the porch and wait for Daddy.”
As she turned from me, her eyes were filling with
tears.
When I saw Daddy approaching, I ran to him,
crying. He lifted me in his arms and smiled. “Now,
what’s wrong?” When I told him, his smile faded.
“And if we don’t hurry, the market will be
closed,” I finished.
“We’ll talk about it after dinner, sweetheart.”
I could feel his muscles tighten as he carried me
into the house.
Dinner was distressingly silent. Afterward
my parents went into the bedroom and talked.
PFNMARYSOURCEACTIVITYJ
My mother came out and told me my father want
ed to see me. I ran into the bedroom. Daddy sat
there, looking at me for a long time. Several times
he tried to speak, but the words just wouldn’t
come. I stood there, looking at him and wonder
ing why he was acting so strangely. Finally he
stood up and the words began tumbling from
him. Much of what he said I did not understand.
To my seven-year-old mind he explained as best
he could that a Negro had no rights that a white
man respected.
He dropped to his knees in front of me,
placed his hands on my shoulders, and began
shaking me and shouting.
“Can’t you understand what I’ve been say
ing?” he demanded. “There’s nothing I can do! If
I went down to the market I would only cause
trouble for my family.”
As I looked at my daddy sitting by me with
tears in his eyes, I blurted out innocently,
“Daddy, are you afraid?”
He sprang to his feet in an anger I had never
seen before. “Hell, no! I’m not afraid for myself,
I’m not afraid to die. I could go down to that mar
ket and tear him limb from limb with my bare
hands, but I’m afraid for you and your mother.”
That night when I knelt to pray, instead of my
usual prayers, I found myself praying that the
butcher would die. After that night we never
mentioned him again.
From THE LONG SHADOW OF LITTLE ROCK by Daisy
Bates. Copyright © 1987 by the University of Arkansas Press.
Reprinted by permission of the University of Arkansas Press.
1. How did Daisy’s father view the racial attitudes of white people? Why
wouldn’t Daisy’s parents take the meat back to the butcher?
2. Why was Daisy satisfied to let the butcher wait on adult customers before
filling her order?
3. While
waiting, Daisy Bates and a little white girl talked to one another.
might
What
this situation reveal about race relations?
4. Recognizing Cause and Effect Assuming that this episode was not an
isolated occurrence, what can you generalize about the effects of Jim Crow
laws on both white and African Americans?
© Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter 21 Primary Source Activity
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Name
Date
PRIMARY SOURCE
from
“When the Negro Was in Vogue”
by Langston Hughes
Section 4
Poet Langston Hughes was one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance,
What different aspects of life in Harlem does Hughes capture in this excerpt
from his autobiography?
he 1920s were the years of Manhattan’s black
Renaissance
White people began to come to harlem in
droves. For several years they packed the expensive
Cotton Club on Lenox Avenue. But I was never
T
there, because the Cotton Club was a Jim Crow
club for gangsters and momed whites. They were
not cordial to Negro patronage. unless you were a
celebrity like Bojangles. So Harlem Negroes did
not like the Cotton Club and never appreciated its
Jim Crow policy in the very heart of their dark
community. Nor did ordinary Negroes like the
growing influx of whites toward Harlem after sun
down, flooding the little cabarets and bars where
formerly only colored people laughed and sang,
and where now the strangers were given the best
ringside tables to sit and stare at the Negro cus
tomers—like amusing animals in a zoo.
The Negroes said: “We can’t go downtown and
sit and stare at you in your clubs. You won’t even
let us in your clubs,” But they didn’t say it out
loud—for Negroes are practically never rude to
white people. So thousands of whites came to
Harlem night after night, thinking the Negroes
loved to have them there, and firmly believing that
all ilarlemites left their houses at sundown to sing
and dance in cabarets, because most of the whites
saw nothing but the cabarets, not the houses.
It was a period when, at almost every Harlem
upper-crust dance or party, one would be intro
duced to various distinguished white celebrities
there as guests. it was a period when almost any
Harlem Negro of any social importance at all would
be likely to say casually: “As I was remarking the
other day to Heywood—,” meaning Heywood
Broun. Or: “As I said to George—,” referring to
C;eorge Gershwin. it was a period when local and
visiting royalty were not at all uncommon in
28
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CHAPTER
21
Harlem. And when the parties of A’Lelia \Vaiker,
the Negro heiress, were filled with guests whose
names would turn any Nordic social climber green
with envy, it was a period when Harold Jackman. a
handsome young Harlem schoolteacher of modest
means, calmly announced one day that he was sail
ing for the Riviera for a fortnight, to attend
Princess Murat’s yachting party. It was a penod
when Charleston preachers opened up shouting
churches as sideshows for white tourists. It was a
period when at least one charming colored chorus
girl, amber enough to pass for a Latin American,
was living in a penthouse, with all her bills paid 1w
a gentleman whose name was hamiker’s magic’ on
Wall Street. It wa a period when every season
there was at least one hit play on Broadway acted
by a Negro cast. And when hooks by Negro authors
were being published with much greater frequency
and much more publicity than ever before or since
in history It was a period when white writers wrote
about Negroes more successfully (commercially
spealdng) than Negroes did about themselves. It
was the period (Cod help us!) when Ethel
Barrymore appeared in blackface in Scarlet Sister
Alan1! It was the period when time Negro was in
vogue.
from Langston Hughes, The Big Sea: An Autobiography
(New York: Hill & Wang. 1940).
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Discussion Questions
0
1. How would you describe Harlem of the 1920s
based on your reading of this excerpt?
2. Why do you think white America sudden iv
became fascinated by Harlem?
3. ‘What is ironic about the situations described in
this excerpt?
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NAME
CLASS
DATE
PRIMARY SOURCE ACTIVITY
Teens and Cigarette Smoking
From 1918 to 1928, ciga
rette production more
than doubled in the
United States. Part of
this increase was due
to the number of
American women of
all ages who took up
smoking and the
increasing numbers of
men who replaced their
cigars and chewing
tobacco with cigarettes.
In the letter to the right,
the superintendent of
the National Cigarette
Law Enforcement
League asks President
Herbert Hoover to
study the problem of
cigarette smoking,
especially among
American youth.
As you read the letter,
think about the assump
tions Superintendent
Jones is making. Then
answer the questions that
follow on a separate sheet
of paper.
National Cigarette Law Enforcement League Inc.
EXECUTIVE CC)MMITTEE
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To The Tmnvrab].e Rerbert oover, reaident,
7nited *dat5S of .imeriea,
iaahington, 14. 1.
Dear Mr. )‘Deaident2
I md.eratam& th.at while yo were acratary of the Interior you
gave out a. statenent saying, ‘There is no a.geney in the world today
that is so seriously affecting the health, education, efficiensy
and character of boys and girls as the cigarette habit. .Nea.rly evei
5
&elin.Quent i a cigarette smoker.
4 former Preau&ent of the Meiiico—Thysica2.. Research
Dr. C. L. arber
rest wave of crime is due to the
‘lasOciatiGS of America said, ‘Thi
a
.e a
use of cigarettes and. moth
an1
any other 14roduct that baa &
c
kick, is due to the use of cigarettes and. nothing else.” That, “YOU
say legislate all, the Vol.mtea.d. lets, or any other aett you bave a aiM.
to, but you never will atop this wave of crime and. demoraJ.izaiOfl until.
yen step the manufacture and aale3?Thiga7tTs.’
Concerning ‘icrolein,’ ane of the 20 different poisons in the
smoke of a cigarette, Mr. Edison says, ‘Ireally believe acrolein often
makes boys insane.
5 A.ud. Dr. P’orbea inalow says, ‘Cigarette smoking
is one of the chief caes of insanity.’
In vl.ew of these and like statements, from other eminent authorities,
istS
would it not be a fine idea for your crime commission of eminent
to make a oareful. at’uil.y of the bearing of cIgarette smoking upon the
of
states
orimina.uI And eeeoially ICr. Koover, since there are forty
our t3niou which are trying to protect their fure citizens from the
cigarette evil y passing laws prohibiting the sale of cigarettes and.
cigarette papers to their youths?
If cigarette smoking hel.ps to produce criminals, it may be
necessary to prohibit this evil before our crima wave can be ultimately
salved. (t
With great faith is the success of your administration, I am,
-..,
4
Most eor’iial,
Lrzt
Superistenlant,
Eatiosal Cigarette Law hforeenent League.
NATIO1’(AL. ARCHIVES
Th, 4920’.—Ooc.ment 61
QUESTIONS TO
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Discuss
1. Identifying Assumptions What possible assumptions about cigarette
smoking are reflected in Superintendent Jones’s letter? About young people
who are cigarette smokers?
2. On what evidence, if any, might these assumptions be based?
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3. Why do you think so many young Americans became cigarette smokers
in the 1920s?
0
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Chapter 21 Survey Edition
Chapter 11 Modern American History Edition
Primary Source Activity
•
27
Date
Name
PRIMARY SOURCE
Section 1
Bartolomeo Vanzetti’s
Speech to the Jury
from
When Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested for murder and robbery in Braintree,
Massachusetts, many observers believed the men were convicted because of
their radical political views and Italian immigrant backgrounds. What does this
excerpt from Vanzetti’s last statement to the jury reveal about the trial?
\Vhat I say is that I aiii innocent, not oniy of
the I3raintree clinic but also of the
l3ridgewater crime. That I am nut 0! liv innocent of
these two crimes, but in all mv life I have miever
stole and I have never killed and I have never
spilled 1)100(1. That is what I want to sin And it is
not all. Not only am I innocent of’ these two crimes,
not only in all my life I have never stole, never
killed, never spille(l blood, but I have struggled all
mv life, since I began to reason, to eliminate crime
from the earth.
Everybody that knows these two arms knows
very well that I (lid not need to go in hebveemi the
i can live
street and kill a man to take the
with my two arms and live well. But besides that, I
other
can live even without work with my arm
I have hiid plenty of chance to live inde
pendently and to live what the world conceives to
be a higher life than not to gain our bread with the
sweat of our brow.
Wll, I want to reach a little point flirther, amid it
is this—that not only have I not been trying to steal
in Bridgewater. riot only have I not been in
Braintree to steal and kill and have never steal or
kill or spilt 1)100(1 in all my life, not only have I
struggled hard against crimes, hut I have refused
myself the commodity of glory of life, the pride of’
life of a good position because in my consideration
it is not right to exploit man,
Now. 1 SlmUllI(1 Say that I am not oniy imitioceut
of au these things, not only have I never committed
a real crime in my life—though some sins, bit not
crimes—not only have I struggled all my life to
eliminate (‘runes that the official law and the of fm—
cial moral condemns, but aio the crime that the
official moral and the official law sanctions and
sanctifies,—thie exploitation and the OppreSSioti
time man by the man, amid if’ there is a reason why I
am here as a guilty man, if’ there is a reason why
you in a few minutes can doom me, it is this reason
an(l none else.
Y
eS
money.
for
of’
I beg your pardon. There is the more good man
I ever cast my eves upon since I lived, a man that
will last and will grow always niore near and more
(fear to the people. as lir as into the heart the
people, so long as admiration for goodness and for
He
sacrifice will last. I mean Eugene I)ebs.
know, and not only he but every man of under
standing in the world, not only in this countr but
also in the other countries, men that we have pro—
vmde(l a certain amount of’ a record of the times,
they all stick with us, the flower of’ mankind of
Emim’ope, the better writers, the greatest thinkers, of’
Europe, have pleaded in our favor. The People of
foreign nations have pleaded in our
Is it possible that only a few on the Jury, only
two three men, who \Volmld condemn their moth
er for worldly honor and for earthly f’ortune; it
possible that they are right against what the world,
the whole world has say it is wrong and that I know
that it is wrong? If there is one that I should know
it, if it is right or if it is wrong, it is I and this man.
in Jail. What
You see it is seven years that
no human
those
years
we have suffered during
you, not
me
bef’ore
von
see
and
vet
tongue can sac
eyes
in
your
you
looking
inc
trembling, you see
not
color,
not
changing
straight, not blushing,
ashamed in fea
W’e have pro’ed that there could not have been
another Judge on the face of the earth mom’e preju—
(hiced amid more cruel than you have been against
)roVe(I that. Still they refuse the new
115, \vC have 1
We
know, and you know in your heart, that
trial,
have been against us f’rom the very beginning,
us you already
before you see us. Before von
know that we were radicals, that we were under—
(logs, that we were the enemy of’ the institution that
their goodness—I
oii can believe in good fnith
(lout want to condemn that—and that it was easy
on the time of the first trial to get a verdict of
guiltiness.
of’
.
,
or
is
we are
or
see
in
Polities
of
the Roaring Twenties 7
Name
Bartolomeo Vanzetti ‘s Speech continued
We know that you have spoke yourself and have
spoke your hostility against us, and your despise
ment against us with friends of yours on the train,
at the University Club, of Boston, on the Golf Club
of Worcester, Massachusetts. I am sure that if the
people who know all what you say against us would
have the civil courage to take the stand, maybe
your Honor—I am sorry to say this because you are
an old man, and I have an old father—but maybe
you would be beside us in good justice at this time.
When you sentenced me at the Plymouth trial
you say, to the best part of my memory, of my good
faith, that crimes were in accordance with my prin
ciple,—something of that sort—and you take off
one charge, if I remember it exactly, from the jury.
The jury was so violent against me that they found
me guilty of both charges, because there were only
two....
We were tried during a time that has now
passed into history I mean by’ that, a time when
there was hysteria of resentment and hate against
the people of our principles, against the foreigner,
against slackers, and it seems to me—rather, I am
positive, that both you and Mr. Katzmann has done
all what it were in your power in order to work out,
in order to agitate still more the passion of the
juror, the prejudice of the juror, against us.
Well, I have already say that I not only am not
guilty of these crimes, but I never commit a crime
in my life,—I have never steal and I have never Idli
and I have never spilt blood, and I have fought
against the crime, and I have fought and I have sac
rificed myself even to eliminate the crimes that the
law and the church legitimate and sanctify.
This is what I say: I would not wish to a dog or
to a snake, to the most low and misfortunate crea
ture on the earth—I would not wish to any of them
what I have had to suffer for things that I am not
guilty of. But my conviction is that I have suffered
for things that I am guilty’ of. 1 am suffering
because I am a radical and indeed I am a radical; I
have suffered because I was an Italian, and indeed
I am an Italian; I have suffered more for my family’
and for my beloved than for myself; but I am SO
convinced to be right that if you could execute me
two times, and if I could be reborn two other
times, I would live again to do what I have clone
already. I have finished. Thank you.
from Osmond K. Fraenkel, The Sacco-Vauzetti C’Ls’ (New
York: Alfred Knopf, 1931). Reprinted in Henry Steele
Conimager, ed., Documents of American Historij, 7th ccl.,
Vol. II (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1963),
218—219.
Discussion Questions
1. What crimes did Vanzetti maintain that he did
not commit?
2. Did Vanzetti believe that Judge Thaver had been
fair and impartial? Give evidence to support
your response.
3. What accusation did Vanzetti make against the
prosecuting attorney. ‘Mr. Katzmann?
4. Vanzetti said he had suffered for his guilt. What
“crimes” did he mention?
5. Some people likened tlie execution of Sacco and
Vauzetti to the executions during the Salem
witch trials in the 17th century I)o you agree
with this comparison? Explain your reasons.
.
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CHAPTER 20 PRIMARY SOURCE
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