Teacher’s Guide to Accompany The Story Trunk:
Jacob Lawrence and James Washington Jr.
Grades K–5
Top left: Travelers Rest Church; bottom left: Bird with Covey,
both by James Washington Jr. Photos courtesy of the James W.
Washington, Jr. and Janie Rogella Washington Foundation. Right:
Builders by Jacob Lawrence
Made possible with generous support from Qwest, Wells Fargo and 4 Culture
Table of Contents
What this teacher’s guide includes
1
EALRS Addressed in this curriculum
2
How to Use this Story Trunk
3
Objectives for this Story Trunk
3
Objects and Corresponding Activities by Theme
4
Background Information for Teachers
5
Migration of Jacob Lawrence and James Washington Jr. 7
Artistic Inspiration
8
Civil Rights in the Pacific Northwest
9
Artists as Activists: Civil Rights in the Lives of Jacob Lawrence
and James Washington Jr.
Section I: The Great Migration
11
14
Understanding the Great Migration
14
Our Story
15
My Migration
16
People on the Move CBA
17
Section II: Artistic Style and Inspiration
18
What Do You See?
18
I Paint My World
19
Inspired by Nature
20
Section III: Civil Rights in the Pacific Northwest
21
Activity: Your Community, Your Rights
21
Online Resources
22
Print References
22
Teacher’s Guide to Accompany The Story Trunk:
Jacob Lawrence and James Washington Jr.
This teacher’s guide includes:
1. A brief how-to description for using the Story Trunk in a K-5 classroom including learning objectives and related state learning requirements.
2. A list of objects found inside the trunk and corresponding activities.
3. Background information for teachers on
— the lives of artists Jacob Lawrence and James Washington Jr.
— the Great Migration
— Artistic Style and Inspiration for Jacob Lawrence and James Washington Jr.
— the Civil Rights Movement in the Pacific Northwest
4. Activities corresponding to objects in trunk
5. Recommendations for extended learning
6. Resources
7. References
1
EALRS Addressed in this curriculum:
3.2.3 Understands that movement of people was influenced by geographic features of the Pacific Northwest
3.1.1 Constructs maps to show information about people and places in Washington State
5.4.2 Prepares a list of resources including the title, author, type of source, date published, and publisher for each source. (4th Grade)
HISTORY The student understands and applies knowledge of historical thinking, chronology, eras,
turning points, major ideas, individuals, and themes in local, Washington State, tribal, United States, and
world history in order to evaluate how history shapes the present and future.
4.1 Understands historical chronology.
4.2 Understands and analyzes causal factors that have shaped major events in history.
Component for grades 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
4.3 Understands that there are multiple perspectives and interpretations of historical events.
Component for grades 4, 5, 6
4.4 Uses history to understand the present and plan for the future.
Component for grades 1, 4, 5, 6
COMMUNICATION The student uses communication skills and strategies to effectively present ideas
and one’s self in a variety of situations.
3.1. Uses knowledge of topic/theme, audience, and purpose to plan presentations.
3.2. Uses media and other resources to support presentations.
3.3. Uses effective delivery.
2
How to Use this Story Trunk
Through the stories and artwork of local artists Jacob Lawrence and James Washington
Jr., the objects and corresponding activities in this Story Trunk are intended to teach students
about three themes: The Great Migration, Artistic Style, and the Civil Rights Movement.
Each object in the trunk corresponds to a related activity that is aligned with current Washington State EALRs
and CBAs. You may elect to teach only one theme, teach individual activities across themes, or complete
activities for the whole trunk and extend the learning experience through our recommendations for activities
beyond the trunk called “extending the experience”. The goal is to increase interest in African Americans
in the Pacific Northwest and learn about the three themes through the lives of Jacob Lawrence and James
Washington Jr.
Objectives for this Story Trunk:
1. Students will examine the lives and work of two African American Pacific Northwest Artists, Jacob Lawrence and James Washington Jr.
2. Students will understand the Great Migration in the United States and how and why African Americans moved from the South to the North.
3. Students will research their own family histories and learn methods to assist them in their search.
4. Students will demonstrate artistic inspiration modeled after James Washington Jr. and create their own works of art.
5. Students will examine the Civil Rights movement in the Pacific Northwest and how Jacob Lawrence and James Washington, Jr. were involved in the movement. 3
Objects and Corresponding Activities by Theme
The Great Migration
Opening object and Activity: Migration Map and Opening Discussion
1. Object: Book, The Great Migration illustrated by Jacob Lawrence
Activity: Understanding the Great Migration
2. Object: Artist Portraits
Activity: Our Story
3. Object: James Washington Family Portraits
Activity: Family History
Artistic Style
4. Object: Artists Tools
Activity: Discussion
5. Object: Print of Jacob Lawrence’s Builders.
Activity: What do you see?
6. Object: Picture of Space Needle
Activity: I Paint My World
7. Object: Stone
Activity: Inspired by Nature
Civil Rights
8. Object: James Washington, Jr.’s Tie
Activity: Your Community, Your Rights
9. Object: Civil Rights Short Movies on DVD
Activity: Discussion
10. Object: Timeline
Activity: Ordering Events in History
4
Background Information for Teachers
Artist’s Biographies
Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000)
Jacob Lawrence was a world-renowned painter who used bold primary colors and strong
geometric figures to create striking visual narratives that explored the history and culture of the
African American experience.
He was born in 1917 in Atlantic City, New Jersey and moved to New York City at the age of 13. During this time
he began art classes with artists in his Harlem Neighborhood. His passion and skill for painting continued into
his adulthood and when Lawrence was 23 years old, he painted one of his most famous series, The Migration of
the Negro. The paintings portray the great migration of African Americans from the South to larger cities in the
North and Midwest. After public exhibitions of his work, he becomes a well-known artist. Lawrence continues
to paint in New York City until 1971 when he was invited to become a tenured art professor at the University of
Washington in Seattle. He lived and worked in the Northwest for the rest of his life, exploring new themes in his
art relating form and content to create a pictorial language.
James Washington Jr. (1909–2000)
James Washington Jr. was a renowned painter and sculptor who spent the majority of his
career in Seattle.
Washington migrated to Seattle in 1944 to work in the Bremerton Naval Yard during WWII. He painted in
his spare time and exhibited his work in Seattle, where he was introduced to Northwest artist Mark Tobey.
Washington became known as a member of the “Northwest School” of artists where he shared influences with
other painters. In the mid–1950s he travelled to Mexico and found inspiration to begin sculpting. His sculptures
were shown in galleries and the success from these shows allowed him to become a full-time artist in 1960.
Washington’s artworks reflect his deep spirituality and his inspiration from nature. Many of his stone sculptures
are of birds, animals, and symbols. He was continually on a quest to find what he called “the spirit in the stone.”
The Great Migration
In 1910, seven million of
the nation’s eight million
African Americans lived in the
southern states. But between
1915 and 1960, about six
million African Americans
moved north. This mass
movement is known as The
Great Migration.
The first half of the migration
occurred in 1910 and continued
to 1930. During this time over
a million people moved from
the South to the North to escape discrimination, and to seek more lucrative jobs in industrial cities such as
Chicago, Detroit, and New York City. In 1927 this new work force stepped in the place of five million men who
left to serve in World War I.
5
The Second Great Migration was also driven by a need for workers in the North during World War II. In addition
to big cities on the East Coast, people moved to Texas, California, as well as Washington and Oregon. Industrial
jobs were created in these states by the military and other manufacturers, such as Boeing, to supply equipment
needed for the war. By the end of World War II, more African Americans lived in larger cities rather than rural
areas.
In the Pacific Northwest, the period following World War I was one of slow but steady growth for the African
American community. African American workers fought black union prejudice to work on the docks in Seattle,
and challenged Oregon’s discrimination laws. Dramatic growth, however, occurred in the 1940’s, as thousands
of African Americans migrated to this area to work in defense industries related to World War II. In 1940,
Seattle’s black population was 3800; by 1943, it had jumped to 7,000. In Portland, the African American
population grew from 1,931 in 1940 to 3,000 in 1943.
In Washington State, the wartime migration brought thousands of African Americans to work in shipyards
and airplane factories, to build the Hanford Engineer Works, to serve in the armed forces, and to work for
government agencies. New communities of African Americans also grew up in Tacoma, Bremerton, Spokane,
Pasco and other towns. Tensions sometimes arose between recent arrivals and old-time settlers in Washington.
Newcomers often had less education and fewer skills, and the settlers worried that this might upset the racial
accommodation reached between blacks and whites in pre-war Seattle. On the other hand, newcomers
often saw the settlers as snobbish and “too accommodating” of whites. Nevertheless, World War II opened
up employment opportunities that had never existed before in both Seattle and Portland. By 1950, Seattle’s
population had grown to 15,700 and Portland’s to 9,500.
The migration of the 1940s altered the racial configuration of Seattle, making blacks the
largest nonwhite racial group for the first time in the city’s history.
~Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community
The African American migration to Seattle was part of a much larger regional transformation
stimulated by the growth of World War II defense industries.
~Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community
After World War II, better jobs remained generally available to African Americans in Seattle, even though some
defense-industry jobs dried up. In Portland, however, there were less opportunities than in Seattle after the war,
and the African American population dropped dramatically (this was largely because Portland did not retain as
many defense-related jobs after the war as Seattle did). That population trend has continued: today, Seattle’s
African American population exceeds 38,000, and Portland’s is about 21,500.
6
Migration of Jacob Lawrence and James Washington Jr.
Both artists, Jacob Lawrence
and James Washington Jr.
had their own migration
stories.
Lawrence’s family originated
in South Carolina and Virginia,
and in 1919 his family moved to
Easton, Pennsylvania. In 1924,
Lawrence’s parents separated
and Lawrence moved with his
mother to Philadelphia. At that
time, his mother had to leave
Lawrence and his brother and
sister in foster care while she
worked in Harlem, New York and
when Lawrence was thirteen
years old, he moved to Harlem
to be with his mother. At that
Shoe shop, Fort Lawton by James Washington Jr. Photo courtesy of the
James W. Washington, Jr. and Janie Rogella Washington Foundation.
time Lawrence began his art
training that would prepare him
to become one of the most well known African American artists. Lawrence was a vital part of the art scene
in New York until 1971 when he accepted a teaching position at the University of Washington in Seattle. He
spent the remainder of his life Seattle and passed away in 2000.
Artist James Washington Jr. moved to the Northwest during the Second Great Migration. Washington
was born in Gloster, Mississippi and spent his childhood in the south. His talents as an artist led him to an
apprenticeship as a shoe repairman. Later he wrote, “The word art as I use it can apply to any vocation or
avocation; if a high degree of proficiency is achieved the word “art” can be applied.” He worked various other
jobs during his time in the South; as a gardener, field hand, fruit salesman, and teacher through the Works
Progress Administration. In 1940 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas and found work at Camp Joseph T.
Robinson, making orthopedic adjustments for soldiers’ shoes—one of the highest paying jobs on the army
base. He met his wife, Janie Rogella Washington there and moved to Bremerton when he was offered a job
at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyards in 1944. Washington hoped that life in the Northwest would be different
from the segregated South. Although race relations were slightly better here, Seattle was not a place free
from racism and discrimination. Although not perfect, life in Seattle did allow him to pursue his artwork.
Resources:
n
www.blackpast.org
n
http://www.epals.com/projects/info.aspx?divid=diaspora
n
http://www.inmotionaame.org/home.cfm
7
Artistic Inspiration
James Washington, Jr.
Washington studied under renowned abstract painter Mark
Tobey and would become a central figure in the “Northwest
School” of artists, which included Guy Anderson, Kenneth
Callahan, Morris Graves and Helmi Juvonen.
Drawing inspiration from his contemporaries, including George
Tsutakawa, Washington’s sculptural pieces are characterized by the
Bird with Covey by James Washington Jr.
Photo courtesy of the James W. Washington,
use of symbols, drawn from the nature of Western Washington, which
Jr. and Janie Rogella Washington Foundation.
are a design hallmark of the Northwest School. Contemporaneously,
Washington exposed this artistic collective to his enduring commitment
to social justice, deeply spiritual nature and belief in the universality of art and all life. This relationship resulted
in a symbiotic exchange of experiences, mores and worldviews that elevated Washington and the artwork of
the Northwest School to a national stage.
Washinton’s sensitivity to beauty is intuitively perceived in his sculpture—especially the bird
formes of granite in which the texture of the stone seems an inevitable part of the form,
appearing as if rendered by intelligent erosion.
~George Washington Carver
Jacob Lawrence
Lawrence’s decision to leave New York was spurred by an offer of tenure from the University of
Washington’s Art Department in 1971.
This overture came at time when the opportunity and stability offered by tenure were generally withheld from
African American professors. In a show of appreciation, Lawrence introduced the Pacific Northwest to his
unique narrative storytelling style of painting. It was a style honed under the informal tutelage of Claude McKay,
Charles Alston and Augusta Savage, and which aptly captured the story of movement, struggle and survival
central to the African American experience. Yet, during his time in Seattle, this region would also leave its
imprint on the way in which Lawrence went about the creation of art. Lawrence noted a subtle difference in the
quality of light in the Northwest and how he responded to it. This difference altered his color palette and was
expressed in his concern for prismatic rather than tonal color. This alteration to his artistic process will be seen
in gallery in a Lawrence series depicting the life of early African American pioneer George Washington Bush.
Jacob Lawrence used bold primary colors and strong geometric figures to create striking visual narratives
that explored the history and culture of the African American experience. Lawrence called his style “dynamic
cubism,” though it wasn’t notably dynamic, except when he used flame like forms and pushy oppositions of
structure; generally the paintings tend to an Egyptian stillness, frieze like even when you know the subject
was moving. His debts to Cubism and to Matisse are obvious: the flat, sharp overlaps of form, the reliance on
silhouette, and a high degree of abstraction in the color.
Today, his work is represented in almost two hundred museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the
Seattle Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
I paint the things I know about and the things I have experienced. The things I have
experienced extend into my national, racial and class group. So I paint the American scene.
~Jacob Lawrence
8
Civil Rights in the Pacific Northwest
The civil rights era was a time of social unrest throughout the U.S. During this time, Seattleites
reacted to events that occurred across the nation and made strides toward increasing racial
equality, particularly in housing, employment, and schools.
The beginning of the Civil Rights Era was marked in 1954 by Brown vs. Board of Education: the U.S. Supreme
Court banned segregation in public schools. In 1955 a bus boycott was launched in Montgomery, Alabama,
after an African-American woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested December 1 for refusing to give up her seat to a
white person. It was not until December 21, 1956, after more than a year of boycotting the buses and a legal
fight, that the Montgomery buses were desegregated. In 1957, Garfield High School became the first Seattle
high school with a more than 50 percent nonwhite student body. Meanwhile, at a previously all-white Central
High in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1,000 paratroopers were called in by President Eisenhower to restore order and
escort nine black students. In February of1960, the sit-in protest movement started at a Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro, N.C. and spread across the nation.
In 1961, freedom rides began from Washington, D.C: Groups of black and white people rode buses through the
South to challenge segregation. Martin Luther King made his only visit to Seattle. He visited numerous places,
including two morning assemblies at Garfield High School. In 1962, blacks became the majority at Garfield
High, 51 percent of the student population—a first for Seattle. The school district average was 5.3 percent.
Meanwhile, two were killed and many injured in riots as James Meredith was enrolled as the first black at the
University of Mississippi.
In 1963, Police arrested Martin Luther King and other ministers demonstrating in Birmingham, Ala., then turned
fire hoses and police dogs on the marchers. Medgar Evers, NAACP leader, was murdered on June 12, as he
entered his home in Jackson, Miss. About 1,300 people marched from the Central Area to downtown Seattle,
demanding greater job opportunities for blacks in department stores. The Bon Marche promised 30 new jobs
for blacks. About 400 people rally at Seattle City Hall to protest delays in passing an open-housing law. In
response, the city forms a 12-member Human Rights Commission but only two blacks are included, prompting
a sit-in at City Hall and Seattle’s first civil-rights arrests. 250,000 people attend the March on Washington, D.C.
urging support for pending civil-rights legislation. The event was highlighted by King’s “I have a dream” speech.
The Seattle School District implements a voluntary racial transfer program, mainly aimed at busing black
students to mostly white schools. Four girls killed Sept. 15 in bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Ala.
In 1964, the Seattle City Council agreed to put together an open-housing ordinance but insisted on putting it
on the ballot. Voters defeated it by a 2-to-1 ratio. It was four more years before an open-housing ordinance
became law. Three civil-rights workers were murdered in Mississippi. On July 2, President Johnson signed the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. Out of 955 people employed by the Seattle Fire Department, just two were African
American, and only one was Asian—0.2 and 0.1 percent of the force, respectively. By the end of 1993, the
department was 12.2 percent African American and 5.6 percent Asian
Malcolm X was murdered on Feb. 21, 1965. Three men were convicted of his murder. On August 6, President
Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act, which King had sought, authorized federal examiners to
register qualified voters and suspended devices such as literacy tests that aimed to prevent African Americans
from voting. On August 11–16, Watts riots left 34 dead in Los Angeles.
In 1967, Sam Smith was elected Seattle’s first black city councilman.
In 1968, Aaron Dixon became the first leader of Black Panther Party branch in Seattle. The Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., unleashing violence in more than 100 cities. In response to King’s
death, Seattle residents hurled firebombs, broke windows, and pelted motorists with rocks. Ten thousand
people also marched to Seattle Center for a rally in his memory. There was a rally at Garfield High in support
9
of Dixon, Larry Gossett, and Carl Miller, sentenced to six months in the King County Jail for unlawful assembly
in an earlier demonstration. Before the speakers were finished, firebombs and rocks were flying toward cars
coming down 23rd Avenue. Sporadic riots in Seattle’s Central Area continued during the summer.
In 1969, Edwin Pratt, executive director of the Seattle Urban League and a moderate and respected African
American leader, was shot to death while standing in the doorway of his home. The murder has never been
solved.
In 1977, Seattle School Board adopted a plan designed to eliminate racial imbalance in schools by fall 1979.
Then in 1978, Seattle became the largest city in the United States to desegregate its schools without a court
order; nearly one-quarter of the school district’s students were bused as part of the “Seattle Plan.” Two months
later, voters pass an anti-busing initiative that was later ruled unconstitutional. (From http://www.africanaonline.
com/civil_rights_timeline.htm)
10
Artists as Activists:
Civil Rights in the Lives of Jacob Lawrence and James Washington Jr.
Jacob Lawrence was not an activist in the traditional sense of the word but did important civil
rights work throughout his career by portraying the lives and struggles of African Americans.
Lawrence joined the faculty at Pratt Institute in Manhattan in October of 1958 and continued to paint and
develop his distinctive style, painting scenes from everyday life. Some of these paintings contained greater
political content than others. Disturbed by lack of progress in the desegregation of the schools made legal
in 1954 by the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka, Lawrence created the painting The
Ordeal of Alice (1963). Aware of the harsh realities Black children were suffering, he depicted arrows piercing
Alice as she walks to school carrying her books, the blood from her wounds dripping down her white dress.
Grimacing and taunting heads surround her as she tries to move forward on her journey (Hills, in Nesbett &
DuBois, 2000, p. 179).
He was not merely reflecting current events and how he felt about them, According to Lawrence “he was
painting a nightmare,” the nightmare of a Black existence in America (Hills, in Nesbett & DuBois, 2000, p. 181).
This painting, as well as American Revolution (1963), was created as a cover for the magazine Motive. Depicting
a man surrounded by vicious dogs. It served as a reminder of civil unrest and a particular event in May, 1963,
in Birmingham, Alabama,4 where non-violent protesters to civil rights abuses were set upon by police dogs.
This painting created a stir among art critics who were used to less obvious imagery (Hills, in Nesbett & DuBois,
2000).
Temperatures were rising amongst civil rights movements and the case of Brown v. Board of Education in
Topeka served to mark a new era. The establishment of Black Nationalism in the 1920s and 30s, under the
guidance of Marcus Garvey and the subsequent rise of Black Power and the Black Panther party, led by
Malcolm X in the 1960s, created the right moment for Black artists to be included, indeed embraced in the
struggle for equality (Hills, in Nesbett & Du Bois, 2000).
In the September 1963 edition of Ebony, (a magazine for African American readers), Lawrence was “hailed by
many as the dean of current Negro painters” (Hills, in Nesbett & Du Bois 2000, p. 182). Shortly afterwards he
was approached by a Civil Rights group, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, (founded in 1960),
to chair a fund raising art committee. He followed this path for a short while but in April 1964, Lawrence took a
break from his teaching and political tensions by traveling on a preplanned trip to Nigeria (Hills, in Nesbett & Du
Bois, 2000).
Visiting Nigeria for eight months with his wife Gwendolyn, Lawrence produced a series of eight tempera
paintings by the same name. The rich imagery he encountered appears in this work: the busy market place with
its animals, stalls selling food, fabric and variety of items. His work is filled with vibrancy of color and pattern,
typical of his style and earlier work (Hills, in Nesbett and Du Bois 2000, p. 183).
Returning to the United States, Lawrence again became aware of the constant political upheaval around him—
the assassination of Malcolm X on February 25, 1965, the ongoing protest against U.S. military involvement in
Vietnam, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968, and a continuation of urban rioting. Aware not
only of his position as a Black artist with a social conscience but of a growing ambivalence and somewhat
antagonistic attitude towards him amongst students at Pratt Institute, Lawrence made his position clear.
He explained in an interview in 1982 that although he felt he was seen in a position of authority, as if he had
escaped the difficult issues they had to face, he had in fact experienced a great deal himself:
What I found is that you could accept this rebellion intellectually, but emotionally you couldn’t. You’d want to tell
people, “Look I’ve been through something too, and so have the people before my generation, and they’re the
ones who made it possible for you to have this kind of protest (Lawrence quoted by Hills, in Nesbett & DuBois,
2000, p. 186). 11
Unlike many African Americans who were demonstrating and fighting for a Black separatist and nationalist
ideology, Lawrence believed in what he described as “the American experience.” In an interview with Carroll
Greene Jr. in 1968, he said:
I like to think that I’ve expanded my interest to include not just the Negro theme but man
generally and maybe if this speaks through the Negro I think this is valid also…I would like
to think of it as dealing with all people, the struggle of man to always better his condition
and to move forward…I think all people aspire, all people strive towards a better human
condition, a better mental condition generally.
(Lawrence interview with Greene, Oct. 28, 1968) (from http://www.storiesthroughart.com/images/research/Jacob%20Lawrence%20Essay%20for%20STA.doc)
James Washington Jr. was a working artist but spent a great deal of time during the sixties
and seventies working toward equal rights for African Americans through his involvement in
multiple organizations including CORE, the NAACP, and Mt.
Zion Baptist Church.
CORE was founded in Chicago in 1942 by James L. Farmer, Jr., George
Houser, James R. Robinson and Bernice Fisher. Bayard Rustin, while not
a father of the organization, was, Farmer and Houser later said, “an uncle
to CORE” and supported it greatly. The group had evolved out of the
pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, and sought to apply the principles
of nonviolence as a tactic against segregation. The group’s inspiration
was Krishnalal Shridharani’s book War Without Violence (1939, Harcourt
Brace), which outlined Gandhi’s step-by-step procedures for organizing
people and mounting a nonviolent campaign. Shridharani, a popular
writer and journalist as well as a vibrant and theatrical speaker, had been
a protege of Gandhi and had been jailed in the Salt March. Gandhi had, in
turn, been influenced by the writings of Henry David Thoreau.
At the time of CORE’s founding Mohandas Gandhi was still engaged in
non-violent resistance against British rule in India; CORE believed that
nonviolent civil disobedience could also be used by African-Americans
to challenge racial segregation in the United States. CORE was founded
in Seattle in 1961. CORE activists adapted civil rights movement tactics
Chaotic Half by James Washington Jr. Photo
popularly associated with the South to solve social problems in the
courtesy of the James W. Washington, Jr.
Pacific Northwest. They followed a rigorous program to identify problems
and Janie Rogella Washington Foundation.
through intensive research, negotiate to solve them, and utilize direct
action to demand results if negotiation failed. While its commitment to
direct action set Seattle CORE apart from more moderate local organizations, it worked in coalition with the
NAACP, the Urban League, and black churches through an umbrella organization, the Central Area Civil Rights
Committee. (from http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/CORE.htm)
The NAACP opened a chapter in Seattle in 1913. The 1960s and 1970s were rife with movement and change
brought on in part by the efforts of the NAACP. In 1961, after a statewide rally in Olympia for an open housing
bill, which eventually failed, the association’s newsletter suggested that license plates should be made which
read “Washington—State of Segregated Housing and Schools.” In 1968, a Seattle City Ordinance for open
housing was passed. Washington State finally passed an open housing law in 1969. The branch assisted
African Americans to gain employment in the department stores, Nordstrom, the Bon Marche, and Frederick &
Nelson; in grocery stores including Safeway, Albertson’s, and Tradewell; and in municipal agencies including the
12
Fire Department. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the branch was kept busy in court defending all
the people who had been jailed in the marches and had created disturbances on the University of Washington
campus and at other sites in the city while protesting discrimination.
Seattle Public Schools became the target for change when in 1962 Philip Burton, attorney for the NAACP,
threatened the School Board with a suit to force desegregation. This prompted the School Board in 1963 to
allow a voluntary transfer program. In March 1966, the NAACP supported a boycott of Seattle’s Central Area
schools to protest the lack of progress in desegregation. This resulted in the School District establishing a
community-based, black controlled approach to education, with a black administrator, Dr. Roland Patterson,
hired as assistant superintendent for the Central Area schools. The School Board adopted the Middle School
Desegregation Plan on November 11, 1970, in the first phase of a three-phase effort to desegregate the city by
1973. The plan was never completed. Again in 1976, the NAACP threatened the school district with a law suit.
This action prompted the district to adopt the Seattle Plan for mandatory desegregation in 1977. (from http://
www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=695)
Another of the many aspects of James Washington Jr.’s involvement in his community was his role as a
member of Seattle’s Mount Zion Baptist Church. Mt. Zion has the largest black congregation in the state of
Washington. The church is more than a century old. The Mount Zion Baptist Church is located at 19th Avenue
and East Madison Street. It was established in 1890 when members—some from First Baptist Church—began
meeting in homes. The First Baptist Church gave material and spiritual aid to the new church and donated the
use of a store at 14th Avenue and East Madison Street for church services. Reverend Anderson was the first
pastor for the group.
A James Washington sculpture entitled The Oracle of Truth, dedicated in 1987 to the children who are
struggling to find truth, is located near the entrance of the church and plans are underway for a bell tower
in honor of Russell Gideon (1904-1985), the Seattle businessman who was a pioneer in senior housing,
recognized by Ebony magazine as one of the nation’s 100 most influential black citizens. The Mabel Leola
Frazier Harris Educational Wing and the Jessie Shields Fellowship Hall were named for two women who had
provided extraordinary leadership in church activities.
(from http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=2048)
In the resources section of the teacher’s guide there is a photo of James Washington, Jr. with Martin Luther
King. The two met through Reverend McKinney at Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Reverend Samuel B McKinney,
pastor of Mt Zion Baptist Church, had been King’s classmate at Morehouse College. In 1961 he invited the civil
rights leader to Seattle and arranged for him to speak at First Presbyterian Church, a larger facility than Mt. Zion
Baptist. But at the last minute, First Presbyterian leaders changed their minds, offering a variety of excuses.
Civil Rights organizations denounced the decision and Rev. McKinney was forced to locate an alternative
venue. On November 9, Dr. King to spoke on the UW campus where more 2,000 people heard him talk on
“Segregation and the Civil Liberties: Implications for Students.” That night he was at Temple de Hirsch and the
next day spoke at Garfield High School and finally to a huge audience at the Eagles auditorium downtown.
13
Section I: The Great Migration
Activities in this Section:
1. Understanding the Great Migration
2. Our Story
3. My Migration
Understanding the Great Migration
Object: Book, The Great Migration
Through his paintings, this book written by Jacob Lawrence tells the story of African Americans leaving
their homes in the South to find opportunity in the North.
1. Activity: Understanding the Great Migration
Grades K-2, 3-5
Estimated time: 30-40 minutes
Vocabulary helpful for this activity:
Migration
1st World War or WWI
Factory
Industry
Boll Weevil
Cotton crop
Flood
Slavery
Landowners
Labor
Riot
Abolish
Discuss the vocabulary above and read Jacob Lawrence’s book The Great Migration: An American Story by Jacob
Lawrence to your class, or pass the book around so each student can read a page and show the image.
After you are finished reading the book ask these Discussion Questions:
n How did African Americans move to the North? What types of transportation did they use?
n Why did they move?
n Was it easy to move to a different city?
n What made it difficult?
n What does Migration mean?
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Our Story
Objects: Portraits of Artists:
James Washington, Jr., in his studio, 1980; Jacob Lawrence in his studio, ca. 1990.
2. Activity: Our Story Grades K–2, 3–5
Estimated time: 30 minutes
Show the pictures of Jacob Lawrence and James Washington Jr. Both artists came here from different places
in the United States, Lawrence from Harlem in New York City, and Washington Jr. from Arkansas by way of
Mississippi. These pictures not only show their identity, but also portray something unique about the person.
Discussion Questions:
n
What do these pictures show?
n
Who do you think these people are and when did they live?
n
When were the pictures taken?
n
What do you see in the picture that tells us about that person?
n
Have students interview their classmates about where they are from. Where they born in Seattle? Or were they born in another city in the United States or in a different country? How did they come to live in the Pacific Northwest? If they were born here, were their parents or grandparents from this same area or did they migrate here?
For Students K–2
Draw a picture or create a collage that tells us something about your classmate.
For Students 3–5
Write a few sentences or a paragraph that tells us about your partner.
Activity: Family History
Grades 3–5
Estimated time: 20 minutes, plus time at home for help from a parent
Students interview a family member or someone they live with.
In class: Ask your class what information they want to find out and which questions would they ask to their
interviewees to discover that information. Suggestions: How long have you lived here? Where did you move or
migrate from, why? Where did your ancestors live? Have students write down the questions they come up with
during class for their interviews.
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My Migration
At home: Using the questions they developed in class, student can interview a family member or caregiver.
They can bring in family pictures when they come back to class, or use inspiration from their interview to create
a drawing or collage. Students can take turns sharing their information with the class or in small groups.
Personalize the experience:
After your students share information about their family members ask the students to pair up and interview each
other.
Questions:
n
Have you lived in Seattle all your life?
n
Where were you born?
n
Are your parents or family members from Seattle? If not, where did they move from and how did they migrate to the Pacific Northwest?
Do you know where your grandparents were born?
3. Activity: My Migration
Grades 3-5
Estimated time: 20 minutes
Using a world or US map, see if the students can identify their own family’s migration.
n
Has their family been here for generations or did they move here?
n
Have students write about their own migration if they are not from Seattle. If they are, ask them to write about their parent’s migration story, or their grandparents. Make sure they include why they moved and details about the journey. Ask the students to detail their experience once they arrived here.
n
What is different about Seattle than the place they came from?
n
Do they enjoy living here more? Why?
Extend the Experience.
Schedule a tour at the Northwest African American Museum to discover more stories of
migration and journey.
If students wish to find out more about their family history, encourage them to visit center with their families
where they can meet with a genealogist to guide them on their search. The newly renovated Genealogy Center
at the Northwest African American Museum is available for use free of charge during museum hours. Visitors
can obtain a pass at the front desk without paying admission to the museum.
http://www.naamnw.org/PACCAR.html To schedule an appointment with a volunteer Genealogist, please call
206.518.6000 ext. 112.
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People on the Move CBA
Understanding the Great Migration can also be used for the People on the Move CBA
recommended for the 4th Grade.
African Americans moved or migrated from the South for a variety of reasons. They were searching for better
jobs, and a part of the United States free from Jim Crow laws and segregation. However, many people moved
away from their families and the places they have lived their whole lives. They had to begin again in new cities.
Ask your students write a paper or prepare a presentation including the following:
n
Draw a conclusion about African Americans living in the South decided to move based on the costs and benefits of their move.
n
Explain where many African Americans lived in the United States before they moved, the route they chose, and the cities and states they settled in.
n
Use two or more sources including the title, author, type of source, and date of each source.
A few suggestions to get started:
The Great Migration by Jacob Lawrence included in this kit.
www.inmotionaame.org In Motion: The African American Experience. An entire website dedicated to the
migrations of African Americans in the United States. The site is hosted by Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture at the New York Public Library.
In addition to the paper or presentation, construct a map that shows four of the following points
n
The starting location with a proper name
n
The destination labeled with a proper name
n
The route
n
The geographic features that affected their route are labeled with a proper name
n
A title, captions, or symbols that describe and/or explain the movement.
Guidelines adapted are from People on the Move CBA and scoring rubric at: http://www.k12.wa.us/
SocialStudies/CBAs/Elementary/ElemGeo-PeopleontheMove-CBA.pdf
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Section II: Artistic Style and Inspiration
What Do You See?
Objects: Paintbrushes and chisel
Discussion questions: What are these objects? (It might be helpful to hold up the paintbrushes first and then the
chisel) What are they used for? How do you think the artist used them?
Object: Print of Jacob Lawrence’s Builders
Activity: What do you see? Grades K-2 and 3-5
Estimated time: 15 minutes
The Builders came from my own
observations of the human condition. If
you look at a work closely, you see that
it incorporates things other than the
builders, like a street scene, or a family.
~Jacob Lawrence
Using the print of Builders by Jacob Lawrence
ask students to analyze the painting.
Guiding Questions:
n
What is happening in this picture?
n
What colors do you see?
n
What shapes do you see?
n
Can you count how many people are in this picture?
n
What tools are they using?
VTS or Visual Thinking Strategies is a method
to engage students with artwork. The most
important three questions of this strategy are:
What do you see? What makes you say that?
What else is happening in this picture? These
simple questions are an excellent way to not only The Builders, 1980; from the Collection of Safeco Insurance Company
encourage students to look at the art work, but
also make sense of what they see. There are no wrong answers! Everybody sees something different when they
look at art.
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I Paint My World
I Paint My World introduces students to Jacob Lawrence’s unique narrative painting style.
Today, his work is represented in almost two hundred museums, including the Art Institute of
Chicago, the Seattle Art Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Working in teams, students will create a painting using the same elements of color, shape and process to depict
their lives here in the Northwest. They will be encouraged to look at their own communities—their schools,
familiar landmarks, geographic features, families and friends—to illustrate their own life experiences. Each team
will then share their paintings with the rest of the class, explaining how they see their community, who and what
it is composed of, and what is important to them.
Supplies needed:
n
n
n
Paintbrushes
Tempera paints or watercolors
Heavy paper, butcher paper works well or
more absorbent paper if using watercolors
n
n
Butcher paper to cover desks/tables
Aprons
Working in teams or individually, ask students to create a painting using the same elements of color, shape and
process to depict their lives here in the Northwest. Encourage the students to look at their own communities—
their schools, familiar landmarks, geographic features, families and friends—to illustrate their own life
experiences. Each team or individual will then share their paintings with the rest of the class, explaining how
they see their community, who and what it is composed of, and what is important to them.
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Inspired by Nature
Object: Stone and granite sample
ctivity: Inspired by Nature A
Grades K-2 and 3-5
Estimated time: 45 minutes
Discussion Questions:
n
Do you think an artist can be inspired by this object?
n
What does it look like to you?
n
What is it? n
What can it be or become?
James Washington Jr. was inspired by nature and his environment. Use this activity to have your students think
critically about the environment they live in and the nature that surrounds them each day.
Materials
n
n
Walking shoes
Notebooks or paper with a clipboard
n
n
Pencils/Color pencils
Sculpting material (Play dough, clay)
Walk with your students around your school grounds, or if you can, to a nearby park. Ask them, what types of
trees do you see here? What kinds of flowers are here? Do you see any wildlife? Now, encourage them to make
a few sketches of what they see or take notes of things they would like to draw.
Optional: You can also use a few digital cameras and have the students take turns photographing images they
like. Download them and print the pictures, allowing each student to have an image to work from.
Back in the classroom, discuss what you saw. Is there more in your environment than you thought? What did
you see? Did you see anything that you didn’t notice before?
Using your chosen sculpting material, ask your students to create an object that is inspired from their nature
walk. They can use their sketches, or they can create something else that they saw or thought of. Students can
practice being artists: being inspired, preparing to create (sketches or photographs), and executing a finished
work—in this case a sculpture inspired by their nature walk.
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Section III: Civil Rights in the Pacific Northwest
Vocabulary
Segregation
Integration
Liberty
Rights
Community
Protest
Demonstration
Controversy
Discrimination
Activity: Your Community, Your Rights
Object: James Washington Jr.’s Tie
As it was customary until the 1970’s for men to wear ties, we suspect that this tie was worn by James
Washington to Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Sundays and to other special events and places. For the purposes of
this activity, students should make a list of all of the places and organizations that make up their communities
and think about what kinds of organizations they belong to and what it means to them. Examples of places and
organizations might include: sports teams, sports venues like the YMCA or community centers, church, scouts,
and school but could also include shops, hospitals, families, ethnicities, and outdoor spaces. Teams of students
should prepare this list of ten items then prepare to report back to the class about why these places and groups
represent their community.
The second part of the activity involves encouraging students to think about their own level of freedom within
their communities. Based on the first list, they should then make another list thinking of all of the places
members of their families go in a given week. Asking the question: “what if there were laws saying that you
couldn’t go to some of these places?” should begin a conversation about segregation, discrimination, and civil
rights that can be adjusted to any grade level.
Object: Civil Rights Short Movies on DVD
Activity: Discussion
Object: Timeline
Activity: Ordering Events in History
This is a cut-and-paste activity appropriate for grades K-5. Each student should receive a copy of the timeline
pre-cut into ten slices. After looking through the trunk, the students should attempt to reconstruct the timeline
by gluing each section of the timeline onto paper in the correct order. This is an assessment activity that should
show how students have begun to connect people and events represented by this story trunk.
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Online Resources:
n
http://www.phillipscollection.org/migration_series/index.cfm An excellent website for students and teachers with interactive content, worksheets, games, and even an opportunity for students to post their own migration stories.
n
http://www.epals.com/projects/info.aspx?divid=diaspora
n
www.blackpast.org A history search website created by Quintard Taylor, Professor of African American History at the University of Washington.
n
http://www.jacobandgwenlawrence.org/ Official website for Jacob Lawrence.
n
http://www.jameswashington.org/studio.pl Official site for James Washington Jr. Extensive biographies and resources are available here.
n
http://www.woodsidebrasethgallery.com/descrip_washingtonjr.html A Seattle gallery website with images and information about James Washington Jr. and his art. n
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/arts/lawrence.html
n
www.inmotionaame.org In Motion: The African American Experience. An entire website dedicated to the migrations of African Americans in the United States. The site is hosted by Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library.
n
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr2/slides/segregation/segregation_files/frame.htm
Print References:
n
DC Moore Gallery, Jacob Lawrence Moving Forward: Paintings 1936–1999, New York:
DC Moore Gallery.
n
Nesbett, P.T. & DuBois, M. (Eds.), Over the line: The art and life of Jacob Lawrence, Seattle: University of Washington Press. 2001
n
Karlstrom, Paul J., The Spirit in the Stone: The Visionary Art of James W. Washington, Jr., Seattle: University of Washington Press. 1989
n
Duggleby, John, Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence, San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 1998
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