Unit2: A Brief History of the USA and the Race Issue in America:
Intro: Recap:
In this Unit, we will study American history through the lens of the race issue AND art. After revising a few landmarks in American history and culture, we will
try and see what the situation is like for African-Americans (and other communities) today. In other words, we will reflect on the following question: has MLK's dream come true at last?
The documents below will help you go further into the theme and practice (translation, reading or listening comprehension, ....). Feel free to ask questions and/or post a comment if need be.
Download this file and add whatever you find essential.
Here are 20 key dates in US History. Try and note them down in chronological order.
Useful Links:
- US History resources and timeline:
Survival Kit on the USA (BBC)
- MLK and the Civil Rights Movement:
MLK's biography (Biography.com)
MLK's 'I have a dream' speech (Transcript, AmericanRhetoric)
Civil Rights Movement Timeline (History Learning Site)
Civil Rights Movement Timeline (InfoPlease)
- From Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown:
"The Trayvon Martin case: interactive timeline" (USA Today)
"Racism and the Trayvon Martin case" (The Washington
Post) "A Mother's grief: from Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown" (The
Washington Post)
"Anger flows at acquittal of George Zimmerman" (The Washington Post)
"Ferguson curfew extended" (USA Today""The Guardian view on the Ferguson riots" (The Guardian)
"Ferguson riots timeline" (CBS St Louis)
"Four unarmed black men have been killed by police in the last month"
(MotherJones)
- A few other key notions we will come across:
Affirmative action : Wikipedia,
Affirmativeaction.org, Vox
American Civil Liberties Union
NY Stop and Frisk policy (ACLU)/ NY Times1/ NYTimes: Omnipresence (Stop and Frisk by
another name)
Videos:
Translate! Practice!
Practice your vocabulary and grammar on the following articles to be translated into English... or French!
Translate into French:
"Ferguson and the end of post-racialism in America", ABC
News
"Trayvon Martin's Mom Writes Heartbreaking Letter to Michael Brown's
family", (USA Today)
Translate into English:
"Ferguson, ou la terrible réalité de l'Amérique noire",
Courrier International
"Occupy Wall Street célèbre son deuxième anniversaire à New York", , Le Monde
"Steve Jobs, ou le rêve américain", Les Echos
-Reading comprehension (CE):
Read this article and try and recap the main ideas (theme: gated communities)
Here is another article for you to practice (theme: MLK's dream)
-Listening comprehension (CO): Here is a podcast from NPR dealing with the American dream : download it, make down notes and recap the document. When you are done, have a look at the script.
-Videos (CO):
For President Obama's speech on the Trayvon Martin case: (English Blog)
1) Watch the mute video and focus on what you see, imagine the topic of the document
2) Watch the video three times and make down notes
3) Get ready to recap the main ideas of the video.
4) Have a look at the script when you are done.
Do the same with this video dealing with a racist American sorority (USA
Today)
Cartoons:
Go further:
- General knowledge:
- Key organisations or concepts:
The KKK (History.com)
The NRA (Wikipedia)
Occupy Wall Street (Wikipedia)
People power Wikipedia
The American dream: link 1, link 2 and link 3 (with a very mindful mindmap)
2. Michael Moore's committed movies:
Michael Moore's official website
Michael Moore and gun control (lien en français sur les films engagés de Michael Moore)
Bowling for Columbine (autre lien en français sur les grandes thématiques du film, niveau lycée)
3. The race issue through the lens of art:
Joseph Rugolo: (1937) Mural of Sports
Aaron Douglas: Murals
Billie Holiday: (1939) Strange Fruit
Norman Rockwell: (1964) The Problem we all live with
Gordon Parks: Color
Photographs of segregation
Ron English: (2008)
Abraham Obama
- Movies about segregation:
Cara Mengobati Ambeien Tradisional (Saturday, 12 December 2015 04:03)
Cara Mengobati Ambeien Tradisional
Olivier Chuiton (Wednesday, 05 November 2014 20:39)
The movie hit " The Help" could have also been mentioned and is available for borrowing from the school resource center. So is the novel.