CONNECT WITH YOUR GRANDCHILDREN: LESSON #6

CONNECT WITH YOUR GRANDCHILDREN: LESSON #6

 

I heard that you were doing some work on human rights.

 

The next two poems are written by famous black American poets (one female, one male) who are speaking about human rights in their country. You will eventually learn that America does not have a very envious historical beginning. First, the Europeans who settled (invaded) there, drove all of the natives out and killed most of them. (genocide) And they used slaves stolen from Africa to work their plantations, which eventually led to a civil war in the United States, from which Americans have never really been “united” especially when it comes to race relations.

 

What you need to know -

 

“Black suffrage” refers to black people's right to vote. Black men in the United States did not gain the right to vote until after the Civil War. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified to prohibit states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude." It should be reiterated that "black suffrage" in the United States in the aftermath of the American Civil War explicitly referred to the voting rights of black men only. Black women still had many hurdles to face before obtaining this right.

 

The passage of the 19th Amendment, which was ratified by the United States Congress on August 18 and then certified as law on August 26, 1920 technically granted women the right to vote. However, the 19th Amendment did not initially extend to women of African American, Asian American, Hispanic American and American Indian heritage because of widespread enduring inequality and racism from within the ranks of the women's suffrage movement. It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act was passed nearly a half century later, on August 6, 1965 that black women were officially allowed to exercise their right to vote.

 

Amazing eh !

 

let me know when done

Read aloud once and then again more slowly.

 

STILL I RISE

 

By Maya Angelou - 1928-2014

 

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

 

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I’ll rise.

 

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

 

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don’t you take it awful hard

’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own backyard.

 

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

 

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I’ve got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

 

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

 

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

 

What is the meaning of the title?

 

 for sure

 

she is a black woman who did not get to vote until the 60s

 

rise is a good word

 

what also rises?

 

She compares herself to forces of nature that indicate rising movement so she will move from a lowly state to that of a free and powerful (and sexy) woman.

 

 Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I’ll rise.

 

 

get it?

 

How does she emphasize her prosperity or wealth?

 

 

yes she is sassy indeed, not allowing anyone to keep her down

 

but she uses images to indicate prosperity

 

’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

 

 

 

’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own backyard.

 

get it?

 

 

Pick one other image she uses that you think was effective and tell me why. (simile or metaphor)

 

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I’ll rise.

 

This emphasizes that she will never take judgements or insults harshly, and that she will be free and joyful.

 

 

Yes indeed, I will pick another one for you -

 

“Out of the huts of history’s shame”

 

What is shameful about her black history and how blacks were treated?

 

Who lives in a hut?

 

So a great image, right? She will rise above all this that will not keep her down & oppressed.

 

 

Another poem by an African-American, this time a male.

 

Read aloud first and then slower a second time

 

MOTHER TO SON

 

By Langston Hughes

 

 

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

 

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

 

It’s had tacks in it,

 

And splinters,

 

And boards torn up,

 

And places with no carpet on the floor�"

 

Bare.

 

But all the time

 

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

 

And reachin’ landin’s,

 

And turnin’ corners,

 

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

 

Where there ain’t been no light.

 

So boy, don’t you turn back.

 

Don’t you set down on the steps

 

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

 

Don’t you fall now�"

 

For I’se still goin’, honey,

 

I’se still climbin’,

 

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

 

 

let me know when done

 

 

Watch -

 

Mother to Son by Langston Hughes - Narration by Viola Davis

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L-kKxePGqA

 

let me know when finished.

 

 

She uses “I rise” and he uses “climbin’” to suggest what?

 

 

 

This is a long description of civil rights in the U.S., much of it taking place when I was your age - try reading as much as you can or that interests you. You will see the poems differently now!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_rights_movement

 

 

 

See you tomorrow!

 

GM