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Jim Crow and Literature
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Author
Langston Hughes
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Jim Crow and the environment it created have played instrumental roles in a broad spectrum of significant American writing from both the 19th and 20th centuries. Teachers have begun to send in their ideas on the literature that addresses the Jim Crow years. Humanities teachers have combined literature and history for years, and the thematically driven curriculum standards are now falling in line behind the theory that combining the two curricula makes for meaningful learning experiences for students. If you'd like to create a lesson combining a work of literature with Jim Crow history, please Join Us! All teachers are paid for the work they contribute.
Lesson Plans: (Many more lesson plans are in development, if you would like to contribute for pay, Join Us.)
 All lesson plans are available to print as Adobe PDF files. If you don't have the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here.
The Color Purple: A Unit Plan
This interdisciplinary unit centers on Alice Walker's novel, The Color Purple. Providing lessons for students to research the history, learn about the author's background, develop their geography skills, and interact in discussion sessions, this unit is a complete course of study that you can use either as a whole or in parts. Because of the book's subject matter, this unit is recommended for high school students
Target grade levels: Upper high school
For use with: PBS series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, and the Jimcrowhistory.org Web site
A Raisin in the Sun: Jim Crow Travels North
Lorraine Hansberry's play offers many interdisciplinary connections to history, specifically the migration of African Americans from the Jim Crow South to the North. This unit offers activity ideas for a six-week study on the play and the historical period that sets the scene for the characters.
Target grade levels: Middle School Levels Grade 6-9
For use with: Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun, Jimcrowhistory.org Web site
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: A Unit Plan
This language arts/social studies unit combines a study of the Jim Crow era with a close reading and analysis of Mildred Taylor's novel. The unit culminates in a WebQuest in which the students apply the knowledge they have gained from the previous lessons to create an investigative television report.
Target grade levels: Middle School Levels Grade 6-9
For use with: The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Three: Don't Shout Too Soon (1918-1940), and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
To Kill a Mockingbird: Parallels to Jim Crow America
This integrated American Literature and U. S. History unit focuses on Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, framed within the context of real life Alabama in the 1930s. A variety of student-centered learning activities are woven throughout the reading of the novel.
Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels
For use with: The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Three: Don't Shout Too Soon (1918-1940), and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved: A Unit Plan
This 7-Lesson interdisciplinary unit focuses on Toni Morrison's book, Beloved, which delves back into the days of Middle Passage, all the way through to the mid 20th century.
Target grade levels: High school or College Undergraduate Levels
For use with: Jimcrowhistory.org Web site
Black Like Me: Outside Voices Examine Jim Crow
This post-reading lesson offers students a variety of paths for research stemming from Griffin's Black Like Me, as well as James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and George Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant."
Target grade levels: High school or College Undergraduate Levels
For use with: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and the PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Four: Terror and Triumph (1940-1954)
Understanding History Through the Literary Reviews of Invisible Man:
Intended for students with a knowledge of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, this lesson focuses on learning about the outlook in Ellison's time through reviews written about his novel.
Target grade levels: Advanced high school, college
For use with: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and the PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Two: Fighting Back (1896-1917)
Zora Neale Hurston: Fighting Jim Crow through the All-Black Community
Through a study of Zora Neale Hurston's life and her works, students learn about another attitude about segregation in the Jim Crow years.
Target grade levels: Advanced Middle School or High School Levels
For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Two: Fighting Back (1896-1917)
Literature Resources on the World Wide Web
Explore teacher and student evaluated Web sites on a wide variety of topics pertaining to Jim Crow literature. The Sites in this section have been recommended for their quality and resource value to teachers and students.
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