NAME CLASS DATE Growing Up Black C H ‘ T E R 21 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 I 26 • 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 • 27 C H A p T E R 21 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 UNIT 6, 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). ti 0) U, ci) (I) ‘C 0 C 0) -J cci 0 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? cc:, C) C) C) Cd, C I 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 Ph... lt% t. t), 0,.. C D.i,.., P.,., 01dm. 0,, W,,,. F.,..y H.i., .1 Vit.-P,. 0kt.6.,n. C.y, Q4,1. p,,,1, j. R. B.,,.,. 2,d Vi,..P.... 06].. 064.6..,.. J.d, J,, 4. Ph,4p., 4,4 VI,..Pr.. (1.6..,... Ca... 064.. P,..(. E...4.W,n... C,,,.1.., 06].. 0,. F,..4 M...h S,Uh..t., 064.. M,. Ed L Kk., “ ..; . 0th., 4- 9226 . 49.... L. 14. 4... ‘. 4 C, “ A o ‘ - 5 Mr. L A. C..p.g.. T,r... C)k4.1...,,. C.y. 04,4.. 49,. 0. .0 ......,..g, 5...y. 064.6.,,. Cdy. Oki.. P...4. F,.,.. C. 5.....,, A,,.46.,, C,.,,...,..h., 0]d.. G.. 0,,. j. (-4..lk,..y. C..,..,..,1. 4...,,, Old.. ).. 9. V,.,..h.. ),,rt, 014.. Mr. 0. M. Bauhma’, May, 25, 8I,.h,.rIJ. 014.. P...4. C. W.C.th..,.. 061.6..’... C,ry. 064.. P,..t. . .. 04,0k..,,,. cay. Old... 0J.. 0I.I.h.,,. C... J,d .h,uo. A.d...k., 064.. .... 49. 23 0.6.,... C,.y 064.,. M,. j,,,. A. S.,,tp..... 0k1.h,.. C,,, 0]d.. 49,. J..... W. I 061.6.,...,, C4y, 064,, 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 Ii 0 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? (14 I 9) C) C 11) 3. Why do you think so many young Americans became cigarette smokers in the 1920s? 0 © 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. . ‘V C’, 0 U, .c C) a) _J a) 0) D 0 C) 0’) 0 C,) a) cC) . 8 UNIT 6, CHAPTER 20 PRIMARY SOURCE If L/ /
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