Learning Target: We can name the critical factors that led to emancipation. As we're in the section of the project where we're talking about change I want to start today with this video about the passing of Grace Lee Boggs, a legendary changemaker from Detroit. She passed away last week at the age of 100. She was a remarkable women, an Asian-American activist who worked in the Black Power movement. Here is a short profile. She's featured in the film American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs. The first half of today we're going to go right into project time. You'll continue working on your presentations. I am most interested in substance for your presentation. I want to see engagement from each person and the development and understanding of a rationale among everyone in your group. This should be the focus of your presentation. Try to identify a visual--an image, an example, a diagram that will complement what you want to say. Your classmates are your primary audience. During the second half of the class, we'll finish watching The Abolitionists. The video will take us from 1854 all the way through the Civil War and the end of slavery. One of the things I want you to take note of is how Lincoln really followed the lead of Douglas, Garrison, Stowe, and the other abolitionists. It were these regular citizens who pushed the government to act. |
Two more paragraphs to write for homework in response to The Abolitionists. Good paragraphs, topic sentences, sharp grammar. Notice how all the questions I'm asking you wind back to our essential question. These paragraphs will be important once you sit down to write the script for your digital story.
People credit Dr. Martin Luther King with the quote that, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." But the original person to use those words was the 19th century abolitionist and Unitarian minister Theodore Parker. If you agree with this quote, what causes history to bend toward justice? What role do you see for yourself in this endeavor?
At the end of the film, Lincoln admits that rather than being a leader in the battle to end slavery, he was following the lead of the abolition movement. For example, Theodore Parker, the abolitionist minister, also originated the saying, “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” which Lincoln used in the Gettysburg Address. What lesson do you take away from learning about the abolition movement? How does this apply to today’s struggles to form a more perfect union?