Content Objectives
The culminating objective of this unit will be for students to be able to see the connections between “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” “Strange Fruit,” “This is America,” and the images that correspond to each text, to see how these works reveal the reason why the Black Lives Matter7 movement was created. The texts and images were selected to reveal continuities across American history from slavery, to the Jim Crow segregation era, to modern times with racism and injustice. These texts and images will attempt to help students understand why the Black Lives Matter movement was created and how our history of enslaving people in this country still affects our current society. The projected time period for this unit is 5 weeks.
The unit will begin by analyzing “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”8 and the images that portray what enslaved peopled and what slavery looked like. The images include:
“Peter (formerly identified as ‘Gordon’)1863” Mathew Brady Studio9
“Renty, an elderly field hand who lived on B.F. Taylor's plantation, ‘Edgehill’10
“Types of Mankind 1854” Not and Glidden11
“Portrait of Frederick Douglass 1879”12
“Portrait of Phillis Wheatley 1773”13
The next text and related images the students will analyze is, “Strange Fruit.”14 The images that help visualize this period for students are,
“Lawrence Beitler, Lynching photo, [Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith] Aug. 7, 1930”15
“Zip Coon 1820-1860”16
“Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956 [Buying ice cream]” Gordon Parks17
“Department store, Mobile, Alabama, 1956” Gordon Parks18
“At Segregated Drinking Fountain, Mobile, Alabama, 1956” Gordon Parks19
“Untitled, Alabama, 1956 [Boys playing with toy guns]” Gordon Parks20
“The Van Der Zee Men, Lenox, Massachusetts, 1908” James Van Der Zee21
“Beautiful Bride,” c. 1930 James Van Der Zee22
The last major work will be a deep analysis of Childish Gambino’s song, video, and accompanying images from “This is America.” The images include:
“Then & Now” 2016 Lorna Simpson23
“Black America Again” 2016 Lorna Simpson24
“Madame Beauvoir’s Painting” 2016 Fabiola Jean Lewis25
“Rest in Peace” Fabiola Jean Lewis26
“If perhaps I find myself encaged,” 2016 Sedrick Huckaby27
“Another Fight For Remembrance,” 2015 Titus Kaphar28
“Image of Donald Glover and Frederick Douglass”29
All of these works and images correspond to the topics covered in the YNI seminar Histories of Art, Race, and Empire: 1492-1865. They portray imagery from the end of slavery, through segregation, and modern society. They are meant to give students a refresher course on the atrocities of slavery, the racial injustice and discrimination during segregation, and how that history still affects and connects to the racial injustice in the present. Some images can be difficult to look at and should be previewed before teaching them to students. Teachers should omit those images they feel will not be suitable for their students.
“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” by Frederick Douglass
It is important students understand the background of Frederick Douglass so that they get a full understanding of his powerful speech when they analyze it. Frederick Douglass was born in Maryland into slavery in 1817 or 1818; he did not know his birthday. His mother was a Black enslaved person and his father, a white man. During his time as an enslaved man, he suffered all the tortures of slavery; hunger, flogging, and hard labor. Douglass writes in his memoir of suffering such immense hunger that he would pick up crumbs off the floor. By the age of 20, he had escaped slavery and became an anti-slavery activist. He wanted to dispel the myth that slave owners would perpetuate at the time, “their slaves enjoy more of the physical comforts of life than the peasantry of any country in the world.”30 Douglass also writes about how slave owners often divided enslaved people by having better treatment and food for select enslaved people who were loyal and had better appearance.31 This inspired him to speak about the truth and barbarisms of enslaving and owning human beings.
This text was selected because it highlights how when things don’t immediately affect oneself, one may not realize it’s a problem. Frederick Douglass was asked to give a speech at a Fourth of July freedom celebration in 1852, to celebrate freedom. Those who invited him failed to realize they had invited a Black, formerly enslaved man, to celebrate freedom when slavery was still in existence in the United States. Slavery didn’t end in the U.S. until 1865. Douglass used his speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” to call attention to how wrong and unjust it was to enslave and keep humans as property.32 He also called out those in attendance for inviting him; he asks the audience if they invited him to make a mockery of him and mock enslavement. The speech was dangerous for its time but Douglass knew it was a message he needed to send.
This speech ties into the question my students asked me during the pandemic, “What is the difference between Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter?” As in the speech, it should be obvious why a formerly enslaved person like Douglass shouldn’t have been invited to a freedom celebration. It should be obvious that all lives don’t matter until Black (and minority) lives matter. Until we can achieve that, all lives don’t matter.
The images to be analyzed to further enhance understanding and comprehension are the following:
“Peter (formerly identified as ‘Gordon’) 1863” Mathew Brady Studio
“Renty, an elderly field hand who lived on B.F. Taylor's plantation, ‘Edgehill’
“Types of Mankind 1854” Not and Glidden
“Portrait of Frederick Douglass 1879”
“Portrait of Phillis Wheatley 1773”
The first two images are difficult but important for students to see because they depict truthful images of enslaved people. Many textbooks have started writing a reimagining of how enslavers treated those who were enslaved. The images of Peter and Renty will help students understand why Frederick Douglass was angry and confrontational in his essay. Students should look at the two images and consider if the men in the photos would have been happy to give a speech at a 4th of July celebration celebrating freedom.
The third image listed, “Types of Mankind,” will help students understand how White people created pseudoscience to justify the atrocities they were committing against other humans. This chart gives a visualization of how White people created a classification system to feel justified in their inhumane treatment of captured and enslaved people.
The last two images of Frederick Douglass and Phillis Wheatley will give students a visualization of the writer of the text they’re analyzing but also allow students to see the contrasts of how free Black looked when allowed more opportunities. Although Phillis was an enslaved person most of her life, she was educated and became a poet. Her image portrays her as a scholar in contrast to the photos of the enslaved men who have been wiped and beaten.
Additional resources:
“We Built This” performed by the cast of Black-ish video and lyrics33
“I’m Just a Slave” by The Roots video and text34
“Negroes for sale. Will be sold at public auction, at Spring Hill, in the County of Hempstead, on a credit of twelve months, on Friday the 28th day this present month” … Spring Hill, [Ark.] Jan. 6th, 1842.35
“Strange Fruit” by Abel Meeropol and recorded by Billie Holiday
Students should understand the importance of the poem and song, “Strange Fruit,” because it was written in the mid-thirties, about 70 years after slavery was abolished in the U.S. and brutality and racism like lynchings were still occurring. Abel Meeropol was a high school English teacher who wrote the poem “Strange Fruit” after seeing a photo of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith lynched in Marion, Indiana.36 The image left him horrified and inspired him to write the poem, “Strange Fruit.” He later added music and had a few different artists sing it. It was Billie Holiday’s rendition that popularized the anti-racial injustice song. It made Billie Holiday a “protest singer.”37 Something important for students to know about the inspiration for this text, the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, is that it was in Marion, Indiana. It is important for students to know that the lynching did not happen in a Southern state, it happened in the Midwest. The photo of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith will be the first image students will analyze to have a full understanding of this text. Students should know that lynchings weren’t just happening in southern states, they were happening all over the U.S.
The images to be analyzed to further enhance understanding and comprehension are the following:
“Lawrence Beitler, Lynching photo, [Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith] Aug. 7, 1930”
“Zip Coon 1820-1860”
“Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956 [Buying ice cream]” Gordon Parks
“Department store, Mobile, Alabama, 1956” Gordon Parks
“At Segregated Drinking Fountain, Mobile, Alabama, 1956” Gordon Parks
“Untitled, Alabama, 1956 [Boys playing with toy guns]” Gordon Parks
“The Van Der Zee Men, Lenox, Massachusetts, 1908” James Van Der Zee
“Beautiful Bride”, c. 1930 James Van Der Zee
The first image students will analyze, before analyzing the lyrics, is the photo of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith’s lynching in Marion, Indiana. This image will allow students to visualize the lyrics and fully understand what “Strange Fruit” is and what message the author and performer wanted their audience to grasp; it will help students understand the brutality and injustice of the image.
The next image, “Zip Coon,” an image of Blackface, will show the students how White people mocked and mimicked Black people. It will allow students to understand how White people at that time did not see Black people at the same level of “human” as themselves.
The next four images by Gordon Parks of Southern Alabama will allow students to visualize what segregation looked like and how people lived during that period. These images can also convey to students how racism can be taught. The photo, “Untitled, Alabama, 1956 [Boys playing with toy guns],” shows 3 boys, 2 Black and 1 White, smiling and playing with toy guns together. These images can give students a visualization of what segregation looked like and help them understand that segregation only ended about 60 years ago and we’re still suffering the consequences of both slavery and segregation in the present.
The last two images by James Van Der Zee can help students visualize how people looked like during segregation in Harlem, NY during the Harlem Renaissance, to contrast the images from the same time period in segregated Alabama. These images of successful Black people can show students that society didn’t have to be brutal, deadly, and segregated during this time period; Black people were flourishing in certain communities during the great migration as they left the segregated South in search of better lives and freedom.
Additional Resources:
Aperture “Vision and Justice Guest Editor’s Note” by Sarah Lewis38
Season 1 Episode 1 of Lovecraft Country “Sundown”39
Season 2 Episode 19 of Cold Case “Strange Fruit”40
“This is America” by Childish Gambino (Donald Glover)
This last text will pull all the images and texts they’ve learned in this unit together. “This is America” was released in 2018 under Donald Glover’s alter ego, Childish Gambino. Gambino released this song and video as a critical criticism of the current state of affairs in the U.S.; in particular, the current state of affairs for Black people in the U.S. Gambino highlights the U.S.’s obsession with guns, using Black people as entertainment, mass shootings (in particular, the massacre at a Charleston church), bondage and enslavement, violence against Black people, how the history of capturing Black people and enslaving them is still affecting us today, and the lack of enough progress.41 He is sending a message that the U.S. needs to fully acknowledge and address the issue of racism and racial injustice. Students will analyze the lyrics and video to find all of Gambino’s hidden “Easter eggs.”
The images to be analyzed to further enhance understanding and comprehension are the following:
“Then & Now” 2016 Lorna Simpson
“Black America Again” 2016 Lorna Simpson
“Madame Beauvoir’s Painting” 2016 Fabiola Jean Lewis
“Rest in Peace” Fabiola Jean Lewis
“If perhaps I find myself encaged,” 2016 Sedrick Huckaby
“Another Fight For Remembrance,” 2015 Titus Kaphar
“Image of Donald Glover and Frederick Douglass”
The first two images from Lorna Simpson show a scene of police violence from the segregation era and the second image shows bullet holes. These images correlate with “This is America” because they are modern images that are asking its audience to think about how much progress the U.S. has made with racial issues and violence. These images will help students understand that it’s not just Childish Gambino making this commentary, it’s other artists as well. These images will help students think about what progress has been made and what more needs to be done.
The images from Fabiola Jean Lewis are from her collection, “Rewriting History.” Her first print, “Madame Beauvoir’s Painting,” is a reference to the image, “Peter (formerly identified as "Gordon) 1863.” We see how Lewis has re-envisioned the image of a brutal flogging for a re-interpretation in the present. Her print, “Rest in Peace” is of a lynching that students can make connections to “Strange Fruit” and the lynching image from Marion, Indiana. Students can use Lewis’s work to help them further connect and understand how the past is still present in our society. Students can think about why Lewis has rewritten history and the message she is sending with her work.
The images “If perhaps I find myself encaged,” 2016 Sedrick Huckaby and “Another Fight For Remembrance,” 2015 Titus Kaphar show students modern interpretations of protest, violence, and mass incarcerations. These images will help tie in the present-day racial injustice that spurred the creation of the The Black Lives Matter movement. These images connect to my students’ original question during the pandemic when they wanted to know why people were rioting after the George Floyd killing.
The last image was featured in an article “This Is America: Race, Revolution, and Resistance.” The image is a juxtaposed digital image of Frederick Douglass in the background and Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) in the foreground.42 This image will be the final connection between America’s past and how it still affects America’s present. Students will consider why this article chose to create this image with Douglass and Gambino, what their connection is, how it connects to the texts, and what message the image is sending.
Additional Resources:
Jill Scott’s version of The Pledge of Allegiance, “Home of the Slaves”43
The Twilight Zone (2019) Season 1 Episode 3 “Reply”44
Comments: