Lesson Overview:
In this lesson, students will learn about the migration of African Americans to Harlem, beginning with the original migration of blacks to North America. Students will explore paintings by Jacob Lawrence to understand the experience of blacks who migrated from the South. Then students will take a closer look at Harlem and its place in African American history and make a travel brochure of Harlem’s historic landmarks. Finally, students will create a mural representing one period studied in the lesson, such as the migration from Africa, life in the South, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, or the Great Depression.
Length of Lesson:
Ten 45-minute classes, including time for homework and Visual Art project, as assigned.
Notes:
This lesson is particularly suitable for grades 3-4.
Instructional Objectives:
Students will:
- analyze how the migration to Harlem represented a new way of life for African Americans.
- create a mural representing one period studied in the lesson, such as the migration from Africa, life in the South, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, or the Great Depression.
- create their own maps to learn about the migration of African Americans to the American South and then to northern cities and neighborhoods such as Harlem.
- explore paintings by Jacob Lawrence to understand the experience of blacks who migrated from the South.
- learn about the significance of Harlem in African American history.
- make a travel brochure highlighting historic landmarks of Harlem.
- write a journal entry as if they were African Americans migrating from a southern state to a northern city in 1900.
Supplies:
- Red markers or pens (one for each student)
- Blue markers or pens (one for each student)
- White paper
- Paint
- Yarn
- Brushes
- Crayons or markers
- Magazines (to cut out images)
- Scrap magazines
- Glue
- Scissors
- Scraps of fabric
- Other collage materials
Instructional Plan:
Before you begin the lesson, familiarize students with the following words:
migration, abolish, segregate, voluntary.
Introduce the concept of migration. (Migration is the movement of a group
of people from one country, region, or place to another.) Ask students, Why
do people migrate? Why do they go where they go? Is migration always voluntary?
Compare the early migration of blacks and whites to America. For example, Why
did early white settlers, such as the Pilgrims, come to America? (Answers may
include: religious freedom, new opportunities, escaping problems in their own
countries.) What about the millions of African Americans who came to America
in colonial times? What brought them here? (They were forced to come here as
slaves, captured in their home countries, and sold here in the America as "goods"
or property.)
You may choose to discuss slavery in general terms with your class.
What is slavery? (When someone is owned by another person and thought of as
property.) Explain that Africans were not the only people in history to be enslaved.
The ancient Romans and Egyptians captured and used slaves. (Some believe the
pyramids were built primarily by slaves.) During the Middle Ages, tribes from
northern Europe and Asia raided other lands, took captives, and sold them as
slaves throughout Europe. Even today, slavery still exists in parts of the world,
where, for example, women and children are forced to work in factories, in homes,
or elsewhere. (For more information, visit the Anti-Slavery International site
at www.antislavery.org/index.htm,
or the Amnesty International site at http://www.amnestyusa.org/).
Hand out photocopies of the world map to each student. Explain
that they are going to mark the migration of blacks on their map with a red
marker. Tell students to find Africa on the map. Explain that many blacks were
captured on that continent. They were forced onto slave ships and taken to South
America, Central America, the Caribbean, and North America. Have students find
those places on the map. Next, have them use their red marker to draw arrows
showing the routes of slave ships from Africa, across the Atlantic, to the Americas
and the Caribbean. Point out that slaves brought to North America were sold
in ports along the coast, such as Charleston, South Carolina. Most of these
slaves were then taken to work on plantations in southern slave states, such
as Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana. Have students
use their markers to show the migration of blacks into the southern states.
Tell students that until 1900, nine out of ten blacks in the United States lived
in the South.
During the days of slavery, many blacks escaped Southern slave states through
the Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses and other places that served
as havens where slaves could hide on their way to seeking freedom in the northern
states and beyond. To learn more about the Underground Railroad, have students
take a virtual journey along the Underground Railroad routes at the National
Geographic Web site. Then have students think about the Underground Railroad
in terms of African American migration. Show them the online
map from National Geographic. From this map, name some of the slave states.
(Slave states included: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.) Have students name some of the places to which
the Underground Railroad led. (Answers will vary: Northern states from New York
to Minnesota; also Canada, the Caribbean, and Mexico.)
Explain that slavery was abolished in the United States when the Civil War
ended in 1865, but life was still very difficult for blacks in the South. Many
lived in poverty, they were not allowed to vote, and they were often threatened
(and even killed) by angry whites. Many public places, such as restrooms and
schools, were segregated, or separated, for whites and blacks. Those challenges
forced many blacks to leave the South in the early twentieth century. Over the
next several decades, more than one million blacks moved out of the South. This
mass movement was called the Great Migration.
Tell students that one way to learn about the Great Migration is through the
paintings of an African American artist named Jacob Lawrence. His parents were
from the South and had migrated North during World War I. As an adult living
in Harlem, he used his art to tell the stories of the African Americans who
migrated North. He painted a series of 60 paintings called The Migration
of the Negro.
Show the class the selected images from The Migration of the Negro,
available online (under Series,
select "The Migration of the Negro, 1941"). As you click through the
paintings in the order they're presented on the Web site, ask students to briefly
discuss what each painting tells about the migrants' experience. How do these
images portray the Great Migration? Have students look at the composition of
the paintings and describe the mood or emotion that each conveys. (Lawrence
uses dark colors, heavy brush strokes. His black figures look weary but determined.)
Discuss symbolism in selected paintings. (For example, the migrating birds flying
overhead in painting No. 3, the laborer with no face in painting No. 4, or the
white judge in painting No. 14.) After viewing the images, have students use
what they've learned to answer the following questions:
- What are some of the reasons African Americans left the South? (Answers include poverty, lynchings, mistreatment by whites, failing crops, unfair criminal systems.)
- What did you learn about the actual journeys of these migrants? How did
they travel? What did they carry with them (see Extension II: The Mind's Suitcase)?
(Many traveled in crowded trains. They carried few material possessions.)
- What was life like for African Americans in Northern cities? Encourage
them to describe the positive aspects (new job opportunities) as well as the
difficulties (i.e., poor living conditions, segregation and discrimination in the
North, race riots).
Next, hand out a photocopy of the U.S. map to each student. Explain that they
are going to make their own map of the Great Migration. Have them use a blue
marker to show the migration of blacks out of the slave states. Explain that
some blacks moved south to Mexico, some moved West, but most moved to Northern
states. Many headed to cities in the North, such as Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio; and New
York City, New York. Help students find and mark these cities on their maps
and have them draw blue arrows to show the direction of the migration.
As a class, revisit the question of migration. Discuss how the Great Migration
was unique for African Americans. How was it different from their migration
to America? Was the Great Migration voluntary? Why were African Americans migrating?
(They were in search of a better life.) Explain that although this migration
was voluntary, it may have been a painful decision to leave behind their homes
and families. Ask students to talk about what people may have left behind in
both the migration from Africa and the Great Migration, and keep a list on the
board. For example:
| Migration from Africa |
Great Migration |
| Tribes |
Unemployment |
| Freedom |
No education |
Language |
Poverty |
| Climate |
Hard manual labor in the fields |
| Family/traditions |
Family/traditions |
Finally, ask students: What was gained during these migrations? What was lost?
(See answers above.)
Activity:
Have each student write a journal entry as if he or she were an African American
migrating from a Southern state to a Northern city in 1900. Encourage the students
to think about what would be exciting or scary about this journey, as well as
what was to be gained or left behind.
Tell students that many blacks who migrated to New York City congregated in
a neighborhood called Harlem. Harlem, which became known as the "Negro
Capital of America," is an important place in the history of African Americans.
Have students use the Great Migration map to name the states and countries that
made up Harlem's growing population.
Use maps to show students where Harlem is located. Present a map of Manhattan and explain that the island is part of New York City. Next, point out the
neighborhood of Harlem on the map (north of Central Park).
Ask students to think about the effect that a group of migrants can have on
a place. How might a group of migrants change the place where they've moved?
How might the migrants themselves change in the new place? Explain that when
New York City was first founded, most people and businesses were located downtown
(the southern tip of Manhattan in what is now called the Financial District).
In the early days of the city's history, the area where Harlem is today was
still rural. New York was first settled in the 1600s by Dutch farmers from the
Netherlands. It was then called New Amsterdam (after the capital of the Netherlands;
Harlem is also named after a city in the Netherlands, called Haarlem.)
Over the next two hundred years, more and more people moved to Harlem to escape the
crowds of lower New York City. Railroads were built connecting lower Manhattan
to Harlem, homes were built, and the population kept growing. During this time
there was a very large (and rapidly growing) Jewish population in Harlem. At
one point there were only two larger Jewish settlements in the world: New York's
Lower East Side and Warsaw, Poland. It is estimated that 175,000 Jews lived
in Harlem around the time of World War I, but the population quickly diminished
over the next 20 years. Today, very few Jews live in Harlem, but there are signs
of their presence in the early part of the century. Many synagogues, adorned
with the Star of David, still exist throughout Harlem, though most serve as
Christian churches now.
Blacks began moving into Harlem in the beginning of the twentieth century. Some migrated from downtown Manhattan, but many came from the South and the Caribbean. Most whites did not welcome the newcomers, but by 1920, Harlem had become a mostly black community. Harlem quickly became famous as the center of African American culture, arts, and politics. The 1920s were the peak of a period that became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Black artists from around the country came to Harlem, where there was an outburst of music, painting, literature, and drama. Using the "Places" division of the ARTSEDGE Web site, Drop Me Off in Harlem, show students the map of "Harlem Hot Spots" during the Renaissance. What do they notice about the various places in Harlem?
In the 1930s, the Depression brought an end to the Harlem Renaissance, as both
blacks and whites struggled to find jobs and food for their families. Blacks
continued to migrate from the South into Harlem. For the next several decades,
Harlem fell into disrepair and was home to riots, drug trades, and unemployment.
But today, Harlem is turning itself around again. Professionals are moving into
Harlem and renovating the old brownstones. New businesses are developing in
Harlem. And Harlem is once again the scene of an artistic movement, which some
call the "Second Harlem Renaissance."
Activity:
As a final activity, have each child choose a period discussed during the lesson
(the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance). The student will create a mural
representing that period. The mural could be a simple collage on brown paper
or it could be painted on a wall in the hallway. If students are in a large
industrial city in the North, they could create a mural to depict the effect
the Great Migration had on their city. If the students are in a rural southern
area, they could also show the effect of the population's flight north.
Assessment:
Complete the following rubrics for assessment:
Extensions:
Extension I: The Mind's Suitcase
Explain that when Africans migrated from their homeland during the slave trade,
they could not bring material possessions with them. Then, when African Americans
were migrating from the South to the North, they often carried few possessions
with them on their trip because most were very poor and the trip was long. But
although they did not bring many material objects with them, they brought many
valuable things in their hearts and minds. Ask students to think of those things
as the "mind's suitcase." What are some things that these migrants
may have packed in their "mind's suitcase"? (Their way of talking,
their foods, their songs, dance, memories of their families and handed-down
fables and stories from their homeland, skills at crafts and arts—in short,
their culture.)
Ask students to imagine they are moving to a new country, but
they are not allowed to take any material possessions. What would they carry
in their own "mind's suitcase"? Have students create a representation
of their suitcase, through visual arts (such as a drawing, painting, or collage)
or through writing (such as a poem or story). They may also combine visual arts
and writing.
Share examples of how a group's culture is carried over through migration:
The Gullah language was spoken by blacks from the Sea Islands of Georgia
and South Carolina. Gullah was a special language that stemmed from dialects
of Jamaica and other islands of the Caribbean. Many blacks that migrated to
the cities in the North spoke this language. Even though they slowly adopted the
mainstream English, some Gullah words remained a part of their vocabulary. Some
examples of common Gullah words (some of which the students may already know)
are: goober (peanut), juju (magic), jigger (a type of flea), voodoo (witchcraft),
yam (sweet potato), and samba (dance).
Extension II: Call and Response
"Call and response" is a style of music, song, and dance that involves
repetition. In call and response, the leader sings a line from a song, accompanied
by a specific movement (such as a head pat), which is then repeated by the group.
This African tradition was brought to the Americas by black slaves and carried
on by African Americans. Lead children in a call-and-response activity using
the song "Kye Kye Kule" from Ghana. The words, pronunciation, and
accompanying motions can be found on the site, K-2 West Africa Lesson Plans: Music.
Sources:
Print:
- Isserman, Maurice. Journey to Freedom: The African American Great Migration. Library of African American History Series. New York: Facts on File, 1997.
- Lawrence, Jacob. The Great Migration: An American Story. New York: HarperTrophy, 1995.
- Low, Augustus W., and Virgil A. Clift. “Population.” Encyclopedia of Black America. New York: DaCapo Press, 1988.
- Price, Sean. "Moving North," Junior Scholastic. April 13, 1998.
Web:
Authors:
-
Scholastic Inc.
New York, NY
