• JOURNAL WRITE: What was it like to be black in America in the 1940's and 1950's?

• SELECT A TOPIC, RESEARCH IT, SUMMARIZE AND POST YOUR INFORMATION TO NICENET

• Select one of the topics :
• Jim Crow Laws
• Negro Baseball Leagues
• Jackie Robinson
• Supreme Court Decisions (Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education)
• A. Phillip Randolph
• Television in the 1950's
• Family life in the 40's and 50's
• Another topic of your choosing

• Write a summary of what you read.
• What did you like about the site you found?
• Why did you choose this particular one?

• What was the search process like for you? What was easy? Hard? Confusing?
• What would you differently next time?
• Why did you think the information was reliable?

• Choose a picture from the "Black in America" picture portfolio. Use the following grid to respond to the image.

• When you have finished this exercise, write a response about your image on nicenet.org.

TITLE OF IMAGE

• Read and annotate "Reese and Robinson�Baseball's Finest Hour."

• Post a response to the text on Nicenet

Reese and Jackson�Baseball's Finest Hour

. . .portions from an interview. . .

Pee Wee Reese; the great Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop is being treated for lung cancer in Venice, Florida. Wish him well. He's 78 and has already had to fight off prostate cancer. He is also recovering from a broken hip. He's battling like hell, said a friend, but those late innings can be tough.

Back in the 1940's and 50's, when major league baseball began tiptoeing into the chilly waters of racial integration, Pee Wee Reese was one of the guys willing to take a stand against the inhumane behavior of narrow-minded _____ and racial degenerates, both on and off the field.

He was an unlikely supporter of integration of any kind. He had grown up in the Jim Crow atmosphere of Louisville, Kentucky. He signed with the Dodgers at a time when many ballplayers thought black people had been especially designed by the Almighty to shine their shoes and carry their bags. He served in the Navy, which was ultra-white during World War 11. Everything in Reese's early environment told him that Black people were alien and lesser beings. He had never shaken hands with a black person in his life.

On his way back from service in the South Pacific, Reese was informed that the Dodgers had hired a "n-----" ballplayer, and not only that�the "n------" was a shortstop. The writer, Roger Kahn, who would later become a close friend, noted that Reese had plenty of time aboard ship to ponder this issue. Reese wondered what would happen if he lost his job to this new player, Jackie Robinson. How would his friends react if he were beaten out by, you know, a colored guy?

There was nothing about the situation to like. But, Reese decided, before the ship docked in San Francisco, that in his mind, at least the issue would be strictly about playing ball and not about race.

During the spring of 1947, when it was obvious that the Dodgers were planning to bring Robinson up from their Montreal farm club, several of Reese's teammates circulated a petition. As Kahn recalled, in a conversation, "If you bring up the 'n-----,' trade us. We won't play." Reese, a Southerner, was considered a lock to sign. But, he declined. He didn't make a big deal of it. He just refused to sign.

The momentum for the petition stopped right there. As it turned out, when the Dodgers brought Robinson up later in the year, they put him at first base (he would later play second). Reese was secure at short. But, Robinson wasn't secure anywhere. The black man in the bright white Dodgers uniform was a full-time target of all manners of abuse. Pitchers ignored the strike zone and threw directly at his head. Base runners tried to gouge him with their spikes. People spit at him, threw garbage at him. Fans and opposing ballplayers tried to outdo one another with their epithets.

One day in Cincinnati, when the abuse had reached a fever pitch, Reese decided he had had enough. The Dodgers were on the field and the players in the Reds' dugout were shouting abscenities at Robinson. Fans were booing and cursing Robinson, who was standing at first and trying amide the chaos and the rising heat of his own anger, to concentrate on the game. Reese called time and in a gesture that has become famous, he walked across the infield to Robinson, placed a hand on his shoulder in a very public display of friendship and offered him a few words of encouragement.

"It gets my vote," said Kahn, "as baseball's finest moment."

Reese and Robinson eventually became very close. So close, in fact, that Reese could needle Robinson in ways that others didn't dare try. Robinson was often difficult to get along with, and Reese once told him "You know, Jack, some of these guys are throwing at you because you're black. But, others are doing it because they just don't like you."

Kahn remembered another time when someone had threatened to shoot Robinson if he played in an exhibition game in Atlanta. Robinson took the field anyway. Reese sidled over, in the midst of tremendous tension, and said, "Do me a favor, Jack?" Robinson said, "Yeah, what?" Reese said "Don't stand too close to me. We don't know what kind of a shot this guy is."

Harold Henry "Pee Wee" Reese. When a guy needed a friend, he was right there.

(from: African American Literature; Hold, Rinehart, Winston)

1. The first line talks of "a dream deferred." What does deferred mean? How do you react when something you want is postponed or put off?
2. What dream is Hughes referring to?
3. Although the poem is phrased as a series of questions, Hughes is actually making a statement. What statement is he making? What happens to dreams that are deferred? What are the specific words that tell you?
4. What do you think the last line means?

Responding to the language in the Langston Hughes poems.

Poets rely on the connotative or suggestive meanings of words as well as on their denotative, or literal, meanings. For the poem, "Harlem," Hughes has chosen words with strong emotional associations. The phrase "dry up" in line 2 has a negative connotation, as does sags in line 9. The word sugar usually has a positive connotation, but in the poem it suggests something unpleasant. Choose five words in the poem that convey strong feelings. In a dictionary, find the exact meaning of each word and tell what connotations it has as used in the poem, "Harlem."

1. What advice does this poem offer?
2. Why do you think Hughes uses the metaphor of the bird and the field for broken dreams? Write your interpretations of the two metaphors from the poem.
3. Diction refers to a writer's choice of language. How does the diction of "Dreams" compare with that of "Harlem"?
4. How is the language in each poem suitable for its subject?

• Who is August Wilson? (on nicenet.org link sharing) What stands out for you about his life and writing?

• What images and ideas come to mind when you think of fences? Why do people build fences�literally and symbolically? Brainstorm and write your ideas.

• Your thoughts . . .what is the importance of a father? How might relationships change particularly during adolescence?

• Respond with a journal entry at the conclusion of each scene. The journal entry should include:
• Vocabulary words unfamiliar to you
• A reflection about what happened and what you thought
• A direct quote/or summary of a portion of text which you found intriguing, puzzling or moving along with your thoughts or interpretation

• Character chart, which lists each character and their positive and negative aspects. Use evidence from the text for support.