Teacher’s Guide to Accompany The Story Trunk:
Civil Rights Heroines in the Northwest
Top row from left: Beatrice Morrow
Cannady; Vivian Caver; Dorothy
Hollingsworth; bottom row from left:
Margaret Carter; Rosa Franklin;
Nettie Asberry
Made possible with generous support from Qwest, Wells Fargo and 4 Culture
Table of Contents
What this Teacher’s Guide includes
1
How to Use this Story Trunk
1
Objectives for this Story Trunk
2
Relevant EALRS & CBA
2
Objects and Corresponding Activities by Theme
3
Biographical Information for Teachers
Nettie Asberry 4
Beatrice Morrow Cannady
5
Margaret Carter
6
Rosa Franklin
7
Vivian Caver
8
Dorothy Hollingsworth
9
Biographical Summaries for Students
Nettie Asberry 10
Beatrice Morrow Cannady
10
Margaret Carter
11
Vivian Caver
12
Rosa Franklin
12
Dorothy Hollingsworth
13
Activities
Intro Discussion
14
Activity 1 Beatrice Morrow Cannady newspaper article
15
Activity 2 Beatrice Morrow Cannady films
16
Activity 3 Civil Rights in the Pacific Northwest Timeline
17
Activity 4 Civil Rights in the Pacific Northwest and Beyond
18
Activity 5 Rosa Franklin: How a Bill Becomes Law
20
Activity 6 Why History? CBA
20
Activity 7 Vivian Caver and Dorothy Hollingsworth Interivews
21
Closing Discussion
21
Teacher’s Guide to Accompany The Story Trunk:
Civil Rights Heroines in the Northwest
This teacher’s guide includes:
1. A brief how-to description for using the Story Trunk including learning objectives and related Washington State learning requirements.
2. A list of objects found inside the trunk and corresponding activities.
3. Background information for teachers and students on the lives of Nettie Asberry, Beatrice Morrow Cannady, Margaret Carter, Rosa Franklin, Vivian Caver and Dorothy Hollingsworth
4. Activities
5. Recommendations for closing discussion How to Use this Story Trunk
Nearly all students are familiar with the heroes of the national Civil Rights struggle such as Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Thurgood Marshall. Yet how much exposure do students receive to the local heroes
who championed equal rights in their own city? And in particular, how often do students in this area have
the opportunity to learn about some of the remarkable African American women who have lived and worked
in Washington and Oregon to make life better for all citizens living in the Northwest? We would not have the
opportunities or quality of life we have today if it were not for their efforts.
The following materials highlight the lives of six local Civil Rights Heroines: Nettie Asberry, Beatrice Morrow
Cannady, Margaret Carter, Rosa Franklin, Vivian Caver and Dorothy Hollingsworth. Included are detailed
biographies for teachers and shorter biographical summaries for students. The profiles are accompanied by
EALR-aligned activities that will teach students about these women and their incredible accomplishments. Handson materials are provided in the trunk to support the activities and also to provide context for the women’s lives.
The curriculum is designed to provide a week’s worth of lessons for your classroom. You are welcome to choose
the activities that are most suited to your needs or teach the unit as a collective whole. Civil Rights Heroines in
the Northwest will teach your students about some of the amazing women who have worked in our area to create
better lives for all, while also providing an overview of how their lives fit into the timeline of the national Civil Rights
Movement.
1
Objectives for this Story Trunk:
1. Students will examine the lives and work of six African American women who have championed equal rights in the Pacific Northwest.
2. Students will use historical objects, articles and pictures to put the lives of these women into the context of the national Civil Rights Movement.
3. Students will learn how the women featured in this trunk fought for Civil Rights in the Northwest and how their efforts fit into the national Civil Rights Movement.
4. Students will complete EALR-aligned activities that will provide opportunities to synthesize the information and reflect on the contributions these women made to life in the Northwest.
5. Students will be provided with resources for further research and additional “Extend the Experience” activities.
Relevant EALRS & CBA
EALRs addressed in Intro Discussion (page 14)
1.4 Understands civic involvement.
4.4 Uses history to understand the present and plan for the future.
5.1 Uses critical reasoning skills to analyze and evaluate positions.
5.3 Deliberates public issues.
5.4 Creates a product that uses social studies content to support a thesis and presents the product in an
appropriate manner to a meaningful audience.
EALR addressed in Activities 1 Beatrice Morrow Cannady newspaper article (page 15)
and 5 How a Bill Becomes Law (page 20):
Grade Level 5
ALR 5.
E
Social studies skills The student understands and applies reasoning skills to conduct research, deliberate, form, and evaluate positions through the processes of reading, writing, and communicating.
Uses critical reasoning skills to analyze and evaluate positions.
Component
5.1 EALR addressed in Activities 2 Beatrice Morrow Cannady PBS Film Questions (page 16),
3 Civil Rights in the Pacific Northwest Timeline (page 17) and 4 Civil Rights in the
Pacific Northwest and Beyond (page 18)
Grade Level 5
ALR 4. History The student understands and applies knowledge of historical thinking, chronology, eras,
E
turning points, major ideas, individuals, and themes in local, Washington State, tribal, United States and world
history in order to evaluate how history shapes thep resent and future.
Component
4.1 Understands historical chronology.
2
EALRs addressed in Activities 6 Why history? CBA (Middle School: Recommended for 6th Grade)
(page 20) and 7 Vivian Caver and Dorothy Hollingsworth Interviews (page 21)
Studying history can be useful in understanding current issues. You will develop a position on how the
knowledge of history helps you understand a current issue by analyzing historical events related to that
issue.
1.4 Understands civic involvement.
2.1 Understands that people have to make choices between wants and needs and evaluate the outcomes of those choices.
4.1 Understands historical chronology.
4.2 Understands and analyzes causal factors that have shaped major events in history.
4.3 Understands that there are multiple perspectives and interpretations of historical events.
4.4 Uses history to understand the present and plan for the future.
5.1 Uses critical reasoning skills to analyze and evaluate positions.
5.2 Uses inquiry-based research.
5.3 Deliberates public issues.
5.4 Creates a product that uses social studies content to support a thesis and presents the product in an appropriate manner to a meaningful audience
Objects
Objects available in the trunk are used to represent the featured women and time periods in the history of Civil
Rights in the Northwest. The articles can stand alone as teachable objects, or be used in conjunction with the
timeline activity, or both.
1. Object: Teacup
Beatrice Morrow Cannady used teacups like this one for the interracial tea parties she hosted in her house (see picture) in Portland, Oregon in the early 1900’s.
2. Object: Black and white heeled shoes
Dorothy Hollingsworth would have worn shoes very similar to these when she began working at Frederick and Nelson department store in downtown Seattle in the 1940s.
3. Object: Pink hat
Nettie Asberry would have worn a hat similar to this one when she protested the segregation of African American troops at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington in the early 1950s.
4. Object: Chanel-inspired pink jacket
Vivian Caver would have worn a jacket very similar to this one on August 28th, 1963 when the Seattle Public School District became the first major school system in the country to initiate a voluntary desegregation plan. On the very same day, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C..
5. Object: Ladies’ pink scarf
Margaret Carter would have worn a scarf very similar to this one when she was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1984.
6. Object: Rosa Franklin’s legislative manual
Rosa Franklin used this manual during her service in the Washington State Senate in the 1990s.
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Biographical Information for Teachers
Dr. Nettie Craig Asberry (1865–1968)
Born on July 15, 1865 in Leavenworth, Kansas, just three months after the Civil War ended, Nettie Craig Asberry
would go on to be an important, yet often overlooked, figure in the history of the Civil Rights Struggle in Tacoma,
WA. Asberry was the only free-born child of Violet Craig, a slave on the Kansas plantation of William Wallingford,
who was also her father. A very bright and energetic student, Asberry displayed an amazing talent for music,
learning to play the piano at age eight and composing her own music. In addition to her musical talent, Asberry
understood quite early how important it was that she struggle and fight for her own beliefs. In 1878, she joined
the Susan B. Anthony Club, an organization fighting for the right for American women to vote and hold office-this
struggle was also called the suffrage movement. Asberry attended the University of Kansas, which was free to all
residents of the state, and eventually received her Ph.D. from the Kansas Conservatory of Music in 1883. She is
believed to be the first African American woman to receive a doctorate degree in the United States, and she was
only 18 years old.
After graduation, Asberry served as the music instructor and teacher in the all-Black town of Nicodemus, Kansas.
Nicodemus was one of many African American towns that sprouted up after the Civil War, as ex-slaves sought
to realize the American dreams of promise and opportunity. Around the time Nettie Asberry was teaching in
Nicodemus, the town was home to 200 families and boasted a bank, two barbershops, four general stores and
a host of other businesses to serve its residents. Now a National Historic Site of the U.S. National Park Service,
Nicodemus is the only remaining community west of the Mississippi founded by African Americans after the Civil
War. She also worked as a music teacher in Denver and Kansas City, before marrying Albert Jones and moving
to Seattle in 1890. When Jones and Asberry arrived in Seattle, the African American population was very small
and most of the Black men worked the lumber, mining and service jobs available to them at this time. As was her
nature to support institutions that enrich the African American community, Nettie Asberry joined the newly founded
First African Methodist Episcopal Church, serving as its first organist and musical director.
Unfortunately, Albert Jones died in 1893 and Asberry moved back to Kansas to be close to her family. Lured by
her description of Tacoma as a land of opportunity, Asberry and her family moved to the Northwest, settling in
Tacoma. She met and married Henry Joseph Asberry, a very successful barber, land owner and community leader.
Asberry continued her work in Tacoma as a music teacher, becoming the organist and choir director for the Allen
AME Church. She was one of the most popular music teachers in the city, and it is estimated her students, both
Black and White performed in over 45 recitals per year.
In addition to sharing her musical talents, Asberry also continued her life’s work advocating for African American
Civil Rights. Asberry was a founder of the Tacoma Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) in 1913. This branch was the first chapter founded west of the Rockies, and Asberry
was heavily involved as regional field secretary and later as the local branch secretary. One of the first actions of
the Tacoma Branch was a multi-racial protest in opposition of an inter-racial marriage bill working its way through
the state legislature. As Asberry described the protest, “We had an underground worker there who let us know
and overnight we got together a caravan of several cars of people of several races, whites, colored, Filipinos, and
others. We descended on the powerful rules committee as a surprise and defeated the measure.”
Her work as a civil rights advocate for the Black community in the Pacific Northwest included her protest of the
segregation of African American troops at Fort Lewis, her challenge to segregated seating at local movie theatres,
and her work to curb the verbal insults local Tacoma merchants would level at Black patrons.
In 1908, Nettie Asberry heard that there would be a world’s fair to be called the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in
Seattle in 1909, and that there would be a women’s building. She got busy and organized the Clover Leaf Art Club
to foster an interest in needlework and handicraft and also to bring about a closer relationship among members,
give assistance to those in need, and to bring about, ultimately, the formation of a state federation of colored
women’s clubs. These clubs were important social and civic outlets for African American women and included
4
the Dorcas Charity Club, Victoria Freeman’s study club and the Clover Leaf Club. These clubs would eventually
organize under the larger umbrella of the Washington State Federation of Colored Women in 1917. Many of these
clubs still exist in Tacoma and Seattle today.
Asberry’s influence and impact on the civil rights struggle in Tacoma was amazingly broad and deep. Later in life,
she would found the Allen Red Cross Group and volunteer for this organization into her eighties. Asberry died in
1968 at the age of 103.
Beatrice Morrow Cannady (1890–1974)
Beatrice Morrow Cannady was the most noted civil rights activist in early twentieth-century Oregon. Born in
Litig, Texas, on January 9, 1890, she reportedly graduated from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas in 1908, worked
briefly as a teacher in Oklahoma, and then enrolled in the University of Chicago, where she studied music. She
moved to Portland in 1910, where she met her first husband, Edward Daniel Cannady, a waiter at the Portland
Hotel and the editor and co-founder of the Advocate, Portland’s only African American newspaper at the time.
Beatrice Cannady soon became an active member of the city’s small African American community. In 1914, she
helped found the Portland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
and quickly became one of the state’s most outspoken African American civil rights activists.
In 1922, at the age of thirty-three, Cannady became the first African American woman to graduate from
Northwestern College of Law in Portland. She was one of only two women in a class of twenty-two.
Cannady helped craft the state’s first civil rights legislation, which would have mandated full access to public
accommodations without regard to race. Though this piece of legislation failed, in 1925, Cannady worked on the
successful campaign to repeal Oregon’s notorious “black laws.” Those laws prohibited African Americans from
settling in Oregon and denied voting rights to people of color.
In 1927, Cannady was invited to participate in the fourth Pan African Congress in New York City organized by
William DuBois, president of the NAACP. It was a great honor for Cannady and illustrated her national prominence
in the field of race relations. Her white and black friends organized teas in Portland to help defray the cost of the
trip. Cannady returned to Portland and decided to organize a miniature Pan African Congress at Central Library.
The local newspapers called the two-day event a “tremendous success.” She quickly emerged as its most
powerful voice when she directed the local protest against the controversial anti-black film, The Birth of a Nation.
Cannady and other community leaders carried on a fifteen-year campaign to limit the showing of the film. In 1928,
NAACP Executive Secretary James Weldon Johnson invited her to address the association’s convention in Los
Angeles. In her speech, which followed the keynote by DuBois, she said, “It is the duty of the Negro woman to see
that in the home there are histories of her race written by Negro historians…. The Negro mother has it within her
power to invest less in overstuffed furniture…and more in books and music by and about the Negro race so that
our youth my grow up with a pride of race which can never be had any other way.”
Cannady regularly challenged racial discrimination in public talks and in the pages of the Advocate, Oregon’s
largest, and at times the only, African American newspaper. She became assistant editor of the paper in 1912,
taking over as chief editor and owner in 1929. She wrote scathing editorials about the routine discrimination
practiced in Portland and elsewhere in Oregon during the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, noting that “not even the
pulpit has been as effective for the advancement of our Group, and for justice as the press.” Using her position
as editor of the Advocate, Cannady launched numerous efforts to defend the civil rights of the approximately
2,500 African Americans in the state (in 1930) and to challenge racial discrimination in its varied forms. Through
the pages of the Advocate Cannady confronted the racial discrimination routinely practiced by restaurants, hotels,
and movie theaters in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. She successfully challenged the exclusion of African
American children from public schools in Longview, Washington, and Vernonia, Oregon, and kept her readers
informed of Ku Klux Klan activity throughout the state
Cannady also assumed the role of unofficial ambassador of racial goodwill, writing articles, giving lectures, and
using the new medium of radio to promote African American history and racial equality. Maintaining a collection
of over three hundred volumes on African American history and literature, as well as a complete file of leading civil
5
rights organization publications such as the NAACP’s Crisis magazine, Cannady transformed her living room
into a reading and lending library about African Americans. In 1929, her efforts were recognized nationally
when she was nominated for the Harmon Award in Race Relations, given by the Harmon Foundation in New
York City.
Cannady’s activism also extended beyond U.S. race relations issues. She served as a member of the Oregon
Prison Association and the Near East Relief Organization and used her affiliation with the Oregon Committee
on the Cause and Cure of War to warn Oregonians about the dangers of war and militarism. Cannady also
joined the Pan African Congress and in 1927 represented Oregon at its national convention in New York City.
In 1932, she ran unsuccessfully for the office of state representative from District 5, Multnomah County. Six
years later Cannady left Portland for Los Angeles, where she lived a quiet life until her death in 1974.
Sources:
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http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ ID=157052FF-D3DD-1D8B-701B7FABCC173E81
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http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/entry/view/cannady_beatrice_morrow/
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http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonexperiencearchive/cannady/cause.php
Margaret Carter (1935– )
Margaret L. Carter is a Democratic member of the Oregon State Senate, representing the 22nd District since
2000. She currently serves as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, is Vice Chair for Ways and Means, and is
a member of both the Health and Human Services and Oregon State Hospital Patient Care Committees.
Born Margaret Hunter in Shreveport, Louisiana, on December 29, 1935, her parents were Hilton and Emma
Hunter. She was raised there in a family of nine children by her father, a Baptist minister, and her mother, a
cook at the school cafeteria. After earning the honor of salutatorian in high school, she received scholarships
to Grambling State University which she briefly attended before meeting her first husband. After getting
married, she had five daughters by the age of 28, but moved to Oregon to escape her husband’s abuse. She
arrived via train on December 1, 1967, and began working odd jobs. In Oregon, she re-married, adding four
stepchildren, but divorced after a few years. In 1970, she enrolled at Portland State University from which she
graduated in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in education. Carter then earned a Masters of Education
in Psychology from Oregon State University in 1973. That same year, she began working for Portland
Community College as a counselor.
Republican leaders recruited Carter to run for a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives in 1983. They
hoped to unseat the incumbent in a heavily Democratic district in Northeast Portland. Carter won as a
Democrat in 1984 and began serving at the 1985 legislative session, representing District 18. She became
the first African-American woman elected to the Oregon Legislative Assembly. In the House she worked to
pass legislation that ended state controlled investments in Souath Africa during apartheid and legislation to
observe Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a state holiday.
In 1998, she was a candidate for the office of Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction, although she lost.
Carter was a member of the Oregon House until January 1999 when term limits prevented her from seeking
additional terms. In November 1999, she became the president of the Urban League of Portland, serving
until May 2002. She was then elected to the Senate in November 2000. In 2005, she became President pro
tempore of the Oregon State Senate and was unopposed in the 2008 election. The first African American
woman elected to the Oregon State House of Representatives, Senator Carter served in the State legislature
for 25 years.
An inspiration and role model for young women across Oregon, Senator Carter’s career was defined by a
relentless fight for equality, and courage in speaking out for underrepresented residents across the state.
6
Senator Carter advocated for mental health parity, environmental protection, consumer education, health reforms,
and human dignity for every Oregonian. She announced her resignation from the Senate effective August 31,
2009 and has taken a post as Deputy Director for Human Services Programs at the Oregon Department of Human
Services. “It is my desire in life to make a difference for our children, our seniors and the disabled,” Carter said.
“Those are the areas that I worked on in the Legislature. That is what I want to continue to do.”
Sources:
n
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Carter
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http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/longtime_state_legislator_marg.html
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http://www.saferoutesportland.com/fish/index.cfm?a=278249&c=47686
Senator Rosa Franklin (1927– )
Senator Rosa Franklin was the first African American woman elected to the Washington State Senate in 1994.
After a long career in nursing, she ran for the Washington State Legislature in 1990 and served as a representative
for two years before becoming a senator in 1993.
Senator Franklin settled in Tacoma, Washington with her husband James Franklin in 1967. The next year she
graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and English from the University of Puget Sound. In 1974 she
completed her education with a Master’s degree in social sciences and human relations from Pacific Lutheran
University. She served as a nurse at Madigan Army Hospital, the Alice Hamilton Women’s Clinic, the Hilltop
Children’s Clinic, Upjohn Healthcare Services and also as an independent contractor.
The next phase of her career began in 1990 when she came out of retirement to run for the Washington State
Legislature. She won the election in 1991 and the seat of Representative No. 1 in the 29th District in South
Tacoma. Franklin served as a representative from 1991-1993. In 1992, the State Senator for the 29th District
passed away, and Franklin was appointed to replace him. She won the election for the same senate seat the
following year, and then ran without an opponent for the next three re-elections.
Her advocacy and sponsorship of bills directly affected people’s civil rights. At the beginning of her career in
politics, Senator Franklin introduced the 1993 Washington Housing Policy Act. The bill reduced housing costs and
improved housing quality for people in all income groups. Other initiatives Senator Franklin has pushed include:
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In 2009 year she ensured that $10 million was allocated to develop the Pierce County Skills Center, which will provide high school students with vocational training near Frederickson.
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In 2002 her efforts helped sponsor a law that would require training and reporting on racial profiling.
Other legislation she advocated dealt with low-income housing, disparities in health care treatment, discrimination
based on genetic traits and immunity for people who report drug overdoses.
She also served as President pro tempore of the Senate, which meant that she presided over the Senate when the
Lieutenant Governor was away. Senator Franklin is also the recipient of numerous awards for her work in civic and
community organizations, including:
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Stafford Study Club
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Outstanding Volunteer, Pierce County Government
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Honorary Citizen, Citizen of Tacoma
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Washington Assn. of Community College Women’s Programs
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Pierce County Nurses Association
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2007 Seattle Storm Woman of Inspiration
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Inducted into the WSNA Hall of Fame, 2002.
7
Senator Franklin announced her resignation in May 2010. She plans to encourage young people to influence their
government, and even run for office. She stated “Everybody should do it once.”
“I want our government to be open and responsive to everyone—not just a select few. That is
one of the things that I worked on before I became a legislator. “
—Rosa Franklin
Sources
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www.blackpast.org
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http://senatedemocrats.wa.gov/senators/franklin
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http://www.mrsc.org/publications/textadu.aspx
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http://senatedemocrats.wa.gov/the-hopper/longtime-sen-rosa-franklin-to-retire
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http://blog.thenewstribune.com/politics/2010/05/04/franklin-retiring-from-legislature
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http://www.tvw.org/capitolrecord/index.php/2010/05/this-weeks-qa-sen-rosa-franklin
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http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/05/06/1176088/even-her-failures-were-sweet.
html#ixzz0oK82Wimb
Vivian Caver (1928– )
Vivian Leona Caver is a civil rights activist in Seattle, Washington. She was born Vivian Leona Mead in 1928, in
Jackson, Tennessee. Her mother, Christine, was a social worker for the YMCA, YWCA, and USO. Her father,
Kenneth, who pursued a Ph.D. at the University of Washington, was a high school principal and a college dean.
Vivian Caver moved to Seattle with her family as a middle school student in 1939. She graduated from Garfield
High School in 1946, and then attended Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland, and the University of
Washington in Seattle. While she was a student at UW in the late 1940s, she worked for the Seattle Urban League
as it sought to integrate the workforce of Seattle department stores. Through the League, she became the second
black woman on the sales floor at Frederick and Nelson’s. Active in women’s civic groups since the 1940s, Caver
became increasingly involved in civil rights education and organizing campaigns in the 1960s, particularly related
to the Open Housing movement. From 1968 to 1978, she served as Vice Chair of the Seattle Human Rights
Department, and from 1978 to 1981, she served as the Department’s Chair.
While working for the City, Caver oversaw the implementation of nondiscrimination laws, enforcement of
affirmative action programs, and the expansion of the growing “rights revolution” to protect women and sexual
minorities from discrimination. In the 1980s, Caver worked with the national Girl Scouts to help them reach out to
girls of color. In recognition of Caver’s distinguished career, each year the Seattle Girl Scouts honor one of their
girls with a “Vivian Caver Diversity Award.” Caver was also a member of the Washington State House of Representatives in 1993, serving the 37th Legislative
District. She is a member of numerous organizations and boards in Seattle including Pioneer Human Resources,
Planned Parenthood, the Seattle Chapter of Links, Inc., the NAACP, The Urban League and is Chair of the Women
of Unity.
NOTE: Vivian Caver agreed to share memories of a lifetime of activism in a videotaped interview conducted by
Trevor Griffey on February 24, 2005. At this link: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/caver.htm are streaming-video
excerpts of the interview, each about a minute in length, in windows media format. A high-speed connection is
recommended for viewing them.
Sources
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http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/caver.htm
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http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/caver-vivian-leona-1928
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Dorothy Hollingsworth (1920— )
Dorothy Hollingsworth was the first Black woman in the state to serve on a school board. She was elected in 1975
to the Seattle School Board and was elected its president in 1979. She served a six year term and successfully
guided the Board during the tense era of school desegregation.
Dorothy Hollingsworth was born in Bishopville, South Carolina on October 29, 1920 and moved at an early age to
Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She attended Paine College in Augusta, Georgia, graduating in 1941. She came to
Seattle in 1946 with her husband, who had earlier been stationed at Fort Lewis. Through her involvement with the
YWCA and her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, Hollingsworth quickly became involved with open housing discussions
sponsored by the Christian Friends for Racial Equality (CFRE). She worked as a social worker throughout the 1950s and 1960s, focusing in particular on education issues in
Seattle’s Central District. Hollingsworth began to take on increasingly active civic responsibilities in the 1960s:
as the first director of Seattle’s Head Start program, as a consultant to “Sesame Street,” as a participant in the
Central Area Civil Rights Committee (CACRC), and as Deputy Director of Planning for the Seattle Model Cities
Program, a position she held from 1969 to 1972. Officials of the federal government hailed that particular program
as one of the best in the nation. When the Model Cities Program ended, she set up day care programs and
facilities for children as Director of Early Childhood Education for the City of Seattle. Her background, experience,
and managerial skills later led to her appointment as Director of Family, Women and Children’s Services for the
City. In 1975 she was elected to the Seattle School Board. In the early 1980s, she served as Deputy Director
for the Department of Human Resources for the City. She was elected to the State Board of Education as
representative from the 7th District and served from 1984 until 1993. In this capacity she set policy and worked
with the legislature. She is currently on the Board of Seattle Central Community College.
A member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, First African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the NAACP, she was also
organizer and charter member of the Les Dames Bridge Club, formed in 1947. Many awards and honors have
been given to this woman of extraordinary energy and talent. Among them are the Matrix Table Award, 1976;
Edwin T. Pratt Award, 1986; Nordstrom’s Cultural Diversity Award, 1992; and the Isabel Colman Pierce Award,
1994.
Note: Dorothy Hollingsworth described her long history of Seattle activism in a videotaped interview conducted
by Trevor Griffey in March 2005. Here is the link: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/hollingsworth.htm. Streamingvideo excerpts of the interview appear, each about a minute in length, in Windows Media Format. A high-speed
connection is recommended for viewing them. Featuring six powerful women from Seattle, this article might also
be interesting: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2004/0509/cover.html
Other Sources
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http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/hollingsworth.htm
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http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?Displaypage=output.cfm&File_Id=291
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Biographical Summaries
for Students
Dr. Nettie Craig Asberry (1865–1968)
Nettie Craig Asberry was a true groundbreaker in the history of Tacoma’s
civil rights struggle. In addition, she was a talented and accomplished
musician, who created an extraordinary career for herself, working as a
music teacher, organist, choir director and church musical director at various
times during her long life.
Born in 1865, just three months after the Civil War ended, Asberry attended
the University of Kansas and received her doctorate from the Kansas
Conservatory of Music in 1883, at the age of 18. She is believed to have
been the first African American woman to receive a doctorate degree in the
United States.
Nettie Asberry (1865–1968), portrait
in Colored Women’s Federation of
Washington and Jurisdiction Club
Journal, 1922–1925, Tacoma, ca. 1925
Courtesy
After serving as a music teacher in Nicodemus (a famous all-Black town,
one of many that were founded after the Civil War) and Kansas City, Kansas,
Seattle, and Denver, Colorado, Asberry eventually moved to Tacoma. There
she became the organist and musical director for the Allen AME Church. In addition, her piano students, both
Black and White, performed in over 45 recitals per year.
Asberry’s work in the Civil Rights area was equally impressive. In 1913, she was a founder of the Tacoma Chapter
of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the first chapter founded west of
the Rockies. She protested the segregation of African American troops at Fort Lewis, fought against segregated
seating in movie theatres, and founded the Clover Leaf Art Club, which brought African American women together
around a shared interest in crafts. She was instrumental in creating other civic and social clubs for African
American women that were eventually brought together under the umbrella of the Washington State Federation of
Colored Women in 1917.
Asberry died in 1968 at the age of 103.
Beatrice Morrow Cannady (1890–1974)
Beatrice Morrow Cannady was the most famous civil rights activist in
Oregon at the turn of the century. Born on January 9, 1890, she attended
college in Texas and later enrolled in the University of Chicago where she
studied music. She moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1910 where she married
Edward Daniel Cannady, a waiter at the Portland Hotel and the editor and
co-founder of the Advocate, Portland’s only African American newspaper at
the time.
Beatrice Morrow Cannady photo Courtesy
Oregon Historical Society
In 1914, Cannady helped found the Portland Chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and quickly
became an outspoken civil rights activist. In 1922, when she was thirtythree, she became the first African American woman to graduate from
Northwestern College of Law in Portland (one of only two women in her
class). She later worked on the successful campaign to repeal Oregon’s
infamous “black laws” which prevented African Americans from settling in
Oregon and denied them the right to vote.
Cannady spent her entire life fighting for civil rights for African Americans.
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For over fifteen years, she and other community leaders carried on a campaign to protest the showing of the
controversial anti-black movie “Birth of a Nation” wherever it was screened. In 1928, she was asked to speak at
the NAACP’s national convention in Los Angeles, where she urged African American mothers to invest in “books
and music by and about the Negro race so that our youth may grow up with a pride of race…”
In 1929, Cannady became the owner and editor-in-chief of the Advocate, Oregon’s largest Black newspaper. For
years, she wrote scathing articles in the paper about the discrimination practiced in Oregon’s restaurants, hotels
and schools, and she kept her readers informed of Klu Klux Klan activity in the state.
Cannady also advocated racial goodwill, using what was the new medium of radio to promote African American
history and equality. She turned her living room in to a library, where she kept over 300 books on African American
history and literature. She was also a member of the Oregon Prison Association, and an anti-war activist. This
remarkable woman died in 1974.
Margaret Carter (1935– )
Margaret L. Carter was a Democratic member of
the Oregon State Senate, representing the 22nd
District from 2000 to 2009. She was on several Senate
committees, and was also President Pro Tempore
(which means, in Latin, “president for the moment”) of
the Senate.
Carter was born in 1935 in Louisiana. She attended
college briefly but left when she married. She had five
daughters by the age of 28. She moved to Oregon in
1967 to escape her abusive first husband and began
to work odd jobs. She enrolled at Portland State
University, graduated, and then got her masters’
degree in psychology from Oregon State University.
She became a counselor for Portland Community
College.
In 1984, Carter won a seat as a Democrat in the
Oregon House of Representatives, the first African
American woman to be elected to that branch of
government. In the House, she worked to pass laws
ending financial investments by Oregon in South Africa
during apartheid, and to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a state holiday. Carter remained in the Oregon
House until 1999 when term limits prohibited her from running again. Later that year she became President of the
Urban League, and in November 2000 she was elected to the Senate. In her career, Carter fought for many worthy
causes, including equal treatment for those with mental illness, environmental protection, health reform and
human dignity for every Oregon citizen.
Margaret Carter pictured during the 2007 dedication of the Margaret
Carter Skill Center with, from left, then-Sen. Gordon Smith, his wife
Sharon and Peter Courtney, Oregon Senate president.
Photo by James Hill
Carter resigned from the Senate in 2009 and became Deputy Director for Human Services Programs at the Oregon
Department of Human Services. She said:
“ It is my desire in life to make a difference for our children, our seniors and the disabled. Those are the areas that I worked on in the Legislature. That is what I want to continue to do.”
—Margaret Carter
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Vivian Leona Caver (1928– )
Vivian Leona Caver is another early civil rights heroine who has fought
discrimination of every kind since she was a young woman.
Born in 1928, she moved to Seattle while she was in middle school, graduated
from Garfield High School, and attended college in Baltimore, Maryland before
returning to the University of Washington in Seattle. While a student at UW in the
late 1940’s, she worked for the Seattle Urban League as it worked to integrate
Seattle’s department stores. In fact, she became the second Black woman
to work in sales at the Frederick and Nelson’s—a department store much like
Nordstrom today.
Caver began working for the Seattle Human Rights Department in the 1960’s,
acting first as the Vice Chair of the Department from 1968 to 1978, and then
as the Chair from 1978 to 1981. While there, Caver implemented laws against
discrimination, affirmative action programs, and assisted in programs to protect women and sexual minorities from
discriminatory treatment.
Vivian Caver; Courtesy Seattle Civil
Rights and History Project
In the 1980’s, Caver began to work with the national Girl Scouts to help them reach out to girls of color. Today, the
Seattle Girl Scouts honor one girl each year with the “Vivian Caver Diversity Award.”
Caver still lives in King County today. Although retired, she remains active in many organizations, including Pioneer
Human Resources, Planned Parenthood, the Links, Inc., the NAACP and the Urban League. She remains a true
civil rights pioneer.
Rosa Franklin (1927– )
Senator Rosa Franklin was the first African American
woman elected to the Washington State Senate, in 1994. This
remarkable woman had already worked as a nurse for many
years and retired before deciding to run for an elected office.
In 1990 she decided to run for the Washington State House of
Representatives and won, serving as a representative for two
years before becoming a senator. Franklin, age 83, announced
her resignation from the Senate in May 2010, having served in
government for 20 years.
Senator Franklin settled in Tacoma, Washington in 1967. She
graduated from the University of Puget Sound and went on to
get a Master’s Degree in social sciences and human relations.
She also worked as a nurse at several clinics and hospitals in
the area.
Rosa Franklin speaks to the Rosa Parks resolution on
January 20, 2006 5643 WaSenate rvm
As a senator, Franklin was always interested in people’s civil
rights. Some of the laws she introduced and supported were
the 1993 Washington Housing Policy Act, which reduced housing costs and increased housing quality for people
of every income group; a bill (in 2002) requiring training and reporting on racial profiling; and a provision ensuring
$10 million in support for the Pierce County Skills Center, to provide high school students with vocational skills
training. She also worked to be sure people received equal health care, and against discrimination based on
genetic traits.
Franklin won many awards during her career, including the 2007 Seattle Storm Woman of Inspiration Award;
Honorary Citizen, City of Tacoma, and induction in to the Washington State Nurse’s Association Hall of Fame.
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Dorothy Hollingsworth (1920– )
Dorothy Hollingsworth is a woman with a passion for children and for
education. She was the first Black woman in Washington State to serve on
a school board.
She was elected in 1975 to the Seattle School Board and was elected its
president in 1979. She served for six years and helped guide the Board
through the difficult period of time when schools in Seattle were being
desegregated so that Black and White students could attend the same
schools.
Hollingsworth was born in 1920 in North Carolina. She came to Seattle in
1946 with her husband who had been a soldier at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma.
She was a social worker throughout the 1950’s and 60’s, focusing on
education issues in Seattle’s Central District. She was the first director of
Seattle’s Head Start program, consulted for the television show “Sesame
Street,” and was Deputy Director of Planning for Seattle’s Model Cities
Program. Based on her talent, experience and skills she was elected to
Dorothy Hollingsworth
Seattle’s School Board in 1975. After that, Hollingsworth continued her work
for Seattle as the Director of Family, Women and Children’s Services for the
City, and as Deputy Director of Seattle’s Department of Human Resources, which helps people who are homeless
or disabled or struggling financially.
As you might expect, Hollingsworth has received many awards for her work. She is also a member of the First
African Methodist Episcopal Church and the NAACP, and she founded a bridge club in 1947! She is currently on
the Board of Seattle Central Community College. She is another amazing civil rights heroine in Seattle.
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Intro Discussion
Use these discussion questions to introduce the topic of Civil Rights to your students and discuss what they
already know about Civil Rights in general and in the Pacific Northwest.
n
What are some words that we use when we’re talking about Civil Rights? e.g. African Americans, segregation, Civil War, voting, prejudice, racism, slaves, the South, protest, nonviolence, minority, democracy, sit-ins, equality, unfair, etc.
n
What Civil Rights Heroines have you heard of before?
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Do you know any Civil Rights Heroines from the Pacific Northwest?
n
Introduce your students to a local advocate for Civil Rights: Dr. Nettie Craig Asberry, an important figure in the Civil Rights struggle in Tacoma, WA.
Dr. Asberry founded the first chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
west of the Rocky Mountains in 1913 in Tacoma, WA. The NAACP is an organization that tries to “ensure the
political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race
prejudice. The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through the democratic processes”
(www.naacp.org).
With Dr. Asberry, the Tacoma Chapter’s first action was to gather together blacks, whites, Filipinos, and others
to protest an unfair law being proposed in the state government about interracial marriage. During her life, Dr.
Asberry also protested the segregation of African American troops at Fort Lewis and also the segregation of
audiences in movie theatres. After talking about Dr. Asberry’s life, discuss these questions about Civil Rights issues today:
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Are Civil Rights issues still around today?
n
What are some current Civil Rights issues?
n
How are they different from Civil Rights issues in Dr. Asberry’s time?
n
What Civil Rights issue would you like to help change?
If you want to extend the activity, break your students up into small groups to pick their own current Civil Rights
issue and come up with ways that they could help make a change in this area. Have the groups present their
ideas to one another at the end.
n
What current Civil Rights issue would you like to work to change?
n
How would you support Civil Rights in your town or in your school?
n
Would you start an organization like the NAACP?
n
Would you use protests? Write letters? Hold marches?
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Activity I
Read the following article and identify what language caused this report of Ms. Cannady’s 1931 talk on the Reed
College campus to sound biased. How do you think the editors of the Reed College Newspaper perceived the
activism of Beatrice Morrow Cannady? How could you change this article to make it sound more neutral?
Struggle of Negroes Told by Mrs. Cannady: Difficulties Met in Fight for Legal Rights Related by Oregon’s Crusader
From Reed College Quest, December 9, 1931. Courtesy of Reed College, Special Collections and Archives
Mrs. Beatrice Cannady-Franklin, Oregon’s outstanding crusader for negro rights, addressed
a large gathering of the Social Science club last Wednesday evening. Mrs. Franklin is a firm
believer in the ability of the negro to contribute something to American culture. She is bitterly
opposed to those who think the negro has nothing to offer and that he should only absorb
American culture.
Mrs. Franklin maintains that the only way that we are able to change people’s thoughts or
attitudes is to change the conditions which create these thoughts. In accordance with that
conviction she has been attempting to impress upon the high school students of Portland the
accomplishments of the negro when he is given a chance to develop himself. Several papers
written after these talks proved to be most interesting reading.
Mrs. Franklin gave statistics to prove that negroes were quite frequently lynched for crimes which
they did not commit. She stated that more whites were convicted for the crime of rape in New
York County alone in one year than negroes charged with that crime in the whole of the United
States in a five-year period.
The negro, so the speaker claims, finds it impossible to be dealt with justly in Southern courts.
They are falsely accused of being vagrants and pay the fine and imprisonment imposed by hiring
out as workers on the plantations or a certain period; frequently these unfortunate victims of
circumstances are never released from this form of bondage. Another method of suppressing
the negro is prohibiting him from getting out of debt; this is done by claiming that his produce is
never quite enough to pay his back grocery bill.
In reply the question of the negro’s attitude toward the mulatto who is pale enough to pass as a
white, Mrs. Franklin stated that, if the “passing” is done for economic reasons, most negroes will
praise the person so doing; if it is done for other reasons, they will frequently give the “passer”
away by accusing him of being a negro.
Mrs. Franklin is the editor of the Advocate, the only negro paper in the Pacific Northwest.
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Activity 2
Beatrice Morrow Cannady PBS Film Questions
Running time: 29 minutes
As a newspaper publisher, lawyer and active citizen, Beatrice Morrow Cannady was a leading civil rights activist
in Portland, Oregon during the early 1900s. Her bravery and ability to stand up for equal rights changed race
relations in Oregon and the Northwest 40 years before the national Civil Rights Movement got underway. This film
details Cannady’s battle for equality in Portland and beyond. Read the questions below before the film starts
so you can listen for the answers to the questions.
Where did Cannady live before she came to the Northwest? Did she attend college before she moved?
What was Cannady called the Ambassador of? Why?
What were the black exclusion laws?
Of what newspaper was she the associate editor?
What year were the black exclusion laws finally overturned?
What type of events did Mrs. Cannady host in her home that brought the community together? Do you
think they accomplished what she wanted to achieve?
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Activity 3
Fill in the timeline blanks below. The names of our Civil Rights Heroines and their artifacts are listed at the end of
the timeline, but for some answers you will have to go back to the biographies themselves!
Timeline of Civil Rights Events in the Pacific Northwest
1844
On June 25, the Legislative Committee of the Provisional Government of Oregon enacts the first of a series of black exclusion laws.
In the summer, George Bush, a free African American, travels with a party of Missouri emigrants on the Oregon Trail. When Bush reaches Oregon City in November, he decides to move to the sparsely populated area north of the Columbia to avoid the exclusion law. His decision encourages other settlers to follow. Eventually they petition Congress to create Washington Territory.
1887
A ban on interracial marriages in the Washington Territory is lifted.
1889
Washington gains statehood. The state constitution includes a ban on racial discrimination in schools.
William Owen Bush becomes the first African American to serve in the Washington State Legislature.
1914
The Portland chapter of the NAACP, the oldest continually chartered chapter west of the Mississippi River, is founded with the help of _______________. This woman was also the editor and co-founder of ____________, Portland’s only African American newspaper. She also held tea parties in her home to encourage people of all races to get to know each other.
Artifact: ____________________
1927
Oregon repeals its exclusion law, or “black laws” that prohibited ________________ from settling in Oregon and denied voting rights to ___________. The state constitution was amended to remove these laws from the Bill of Rights.
1940s While a student at the University of Washington, ____________ ___________ worked with the Seattle Urban League to integrate the workforce of Seattle. She later became the second black woman to work on the sales floor at Frederic and Nelson’s, a major department store in Seattle.
Artifact______________________
1944
On August 14, African American soldiers at Ft. Lawton in Seattle riot because they believe Italian POW’s are receiving better treatment and facilities. One Italian POW is lynched during the riot prompting an investigation that results in the court martial and conviction of 23 black soldiers.
1949
The state of Washington enacts the first fair employment practices law in the West.
1951
Oregon repeals its law prohibiting interracial marriages.
1959
Oregon voters ratify the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
1963
On August 28, the same day as the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, the Seattle Public School District becomes the first major school system in the country to initiate a voluntary desegregation plan.
1975
__________ ___________ becomes the first black woman elected to Seattle’s School Board and helped oversee the implementation of Seattle’s busing program.
Artifact _______________________________
17
1978 Seattle chapter of the Black Panthers disbanded.
In September Seattle becomes the largest city in the United States to institute a program of mandatory busing to desegregate its public schools without a court order. Nearly 25 percent of the district’s students are bused as part of the Seattle Plan to promote school desegregation. The school district ends the mandatory busing program in October 1997.
1984
In Oregon _____________ _______________ is elected to the Oregon House of Representatives. She is the first African American woman elected to the Oregon Legislative Assembly. In the House she worked to pass legislation that ended state controlled investments in South Africa during apartheid and legislation to observe ________ _______ ________ birthday as a state holiday.
Artifact _____________________________
1994
Senator ___________ _____________ is the first African American woman elected to the Washington State Senate after serving as a state Representative and following a decades-long career in nursing.
Artifact______________________________
Heroines
Objects
Nettie Asberry
Pink hat
Beatrice Morrow Cannady
Teacup
Margaret Carter
Ladies’ pink scarf
Rosa Franklin
Legislative manual
Vivian Caver
Chanel-inspried pink jacket
Dorothy Hollingsworth
Black and white shoes
Activity 4
Civil Rights in the Pacific Northwest and Beyond
Organize the achievements in the lives of our Civil Rights Heroines according to dates along the horizontal timeline
that is attached at the end of this packet. Make sure you have at least one achievement for each heroine: Nettie
Asberry, Beatrice Morrow Cannady, Margaret Carter, Rosa Franklin, Vivian Caver and Dorothy Hollingsworth.
Then look at the artifacts in the trunk. Where do they fit on the timeline? Which person does what artifact belong
to and why? Draw a picture of the artifact near the person’s name.
Finally, to learn a little more, review the history of the national Civil Rights Movement that begins on the next page,
and add at least eight national events on the timeline you have created for our heroines. Then ask yourself: What
national historical events might have shaped our heroines lives? How?
Resources:
n
http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/
n
http://historicoregoncity.orgHOC//index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100:blackhistory
timeline&catid=70:oregon-trail-history-library&Itemid=98
n
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=timelines/african-american-history-american-west-timeline
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National Timeline of Civil Rights Events
1808 The importation of slaves is banned in the U.S., though illegal slave trade continues.
1831
In Virginia, Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion during which 57 white people are killed. U.S. troops kill 100 slaves. Turner is caught and hanged.
1861
Southern states secede and form the Confederate States of America; Civil War begins.
1865
President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation freeing “all slaves in areas still in rebellion.”
1865
The Civil War ends.
The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, is ratified.
1870 The 15th Amendment, which bans racial discrimination in voting, is ratified.
1896
The Supreme Court approves a law permitting “separate but equal” segregation.
1925
In its first national demonstration the Ku Klux Klan marches on Washington, D.C.
1948 President Truman issues an executive order outlawing segregation in the U.S. military.
1954
The Supreme Court unanimously rules in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. Before this ruling in 1954, many students legally had to go to separate schools based on their race.
Thurgood Marshall was the lawyer who argued and won the case and later became the first African American judge to serve on the Supreme Court.
1955
Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger at the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her actions lead to a bus boycott, which lasts until the buses in Montgomery are desegregated more than a year later.
1957
Nine Black students are blocked from entering Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends in federal troops and the National Guard to protect the students and allow them to enter the school. 1963
About 200,000 people participate in the March on Washington where Martin Luther King gives his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
A church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, leaves four young black girls dead.
1964
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Acts prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation.
1965
A march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, is organized to demand protection for voting rights.
Malcolm X, a longtime minister of the Nation of Islam, is assassinated. Malcolm X had rejected Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s policies of non-violence and preached black pride and economic self-
reliance for blacks. He eventually became a Muslim although he broke with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.
A new Voting Rights Act, making it illegal to force would-be voters to pass literacy tests in order to vote, is signed.
1965
In August, the Watts Riots last 6 days in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. By the time the riot subsides, 34 people are dead, 2,032 injured, and 3,952 arrested. The riot is viewed by some as a reaction to the perceived record of police brutality by the Los Angeles Police Department and other racial injustices allegedly suffered by Blacks in Los Angeles.
1968
Martin Luther King is assassinated at the age of 39.
1983
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday is established.
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1992
The Los Angeles Riots are sparked on April 29, when a jury acquits four Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of African-American motorist Rodney King following a high-speed chase.
2005
Rosa Parks dies at age 92.
2008
Barack Obama is elected the first African American president of the United States.
Timeline references:
n http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html
n http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/01/31/extra.civil.rights.timeline/index.html
Activity 5
Review How a Bill becomes a Law (in the trunk), provided by the
Washington State Legislature
Discuss the following:
n
What is a bill?
n
Who can introduce a bill?
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Can you amend a bill?
n
How does it finally become a law?
Next, as a class read Digest of Senate Bill 5584 (attached), the Washington Housing Policy Act passed in 1993,
which was supported by Senator Franklin. (Note: for teachers and students interested in learning more, the entire
text of the bill is also attached, following the Digest.)
Discuss the following:
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What is this bill for?
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What do you believe are the important parts?
n
Do you agree with the points of the bill?
Activity 6
You have now read the life stories, or “histories,” of six women who were early Civil Rights Heroines in the
Northwest. How does studying their life stories help you understand the Civil Rights Movement today? Do you
think there is still discrimination against African Americans today in our area? Do you think the situation is better or
worse than it was 50 years ago, for example? Why?
In a paper or presentation, state a position on how examining the stories of our six Civil Rights Heroines helps you
understand race relations today in the Northwest.
Provide reason(s) for your position. Include an analysis of how two historical events relate to the under-standing of
race relations today. Feel free to use events that appear in the six biographies you have just read.
Make sure you refer within your paper or presentation to three or more credible sources that provide relevant
information and cite those sources within the paper. This means you may need to do additional outside research
about the historical events you choose.
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Activity 7
Interviews of a Lifetime: Vivian Caver and Dorothy Hollingsworth
Vivian Caver and Dorothy Hollingsworth agreed to share memories of a lifetime of activism in a videotaped
interview conducted by Trevor Griffey on February 24, 2005. At http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/caver.htm are
streaming-video excerpts of the interview, each about a minute in length, in windows media format. A high speed
connection is recommended for viewing them. After listening carefully to the video, see if you can answer these
questions:
Vivian Carter video prompts
Open housing
Ms. Carter explains that to see if there was racial discrimination by a housing association, they would first send
an African American couple to an interview. If they were turned down the Human Rights Civil Council would then
send a white couple. Was this an effective means to test for racial discrimination?
n
The death of what major Civil Rights leader helped give rise to the Pacific Northwest’s local struggle of segregated housing?
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How did petitioning help with a legal investigation of housing discrimination?
Reflection
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Do you agree with Ms. Carter’s ending thought? Have we taken a step back in race relations?
Dorothy Hollingsworth
Ms. Hollingsworth was first and foremost a teacher. What examples of racism did she come across in school?
Compare / Contrast
n
In their first videos, both Ms. Hollingsworth and Ms. Carter talked about the amount of segregation in Seattle. Did this surprise you? Do we see the Civil Rights Movement more as a Southern struggle?
n
Both women focused on women’s rights within the Civil Rights Movement. What ways did they differ? How did they each choose to achieve their goal for equality?
Closing Discussion
At the end of this unit, use these questions to guide your discussion with the students. You may want to lead this
discussion the day after you end the unit to review what was learned.
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How did these heroines make a contribution in their communities?
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What were their accomplishments?
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How did they affect Civil Rights?
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Do you think your world would be different if they had not made these changes in the Northwest?
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What are some current Civil Rights issues? What can you do to effect change?
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