March on Washington Hidden History Quiz
Labor and Land Allison Acosta Labor and Land Allison Acosta

March on Washington Hidden History Quiz

Quiz by Teaching for Change
When most people think of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, what comes to mind is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic statement, “I Have a Dream.” In truth, there was much more to this historic event than these four words in King’s speech. Teaching for Change designed this quiz about the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to challenge assumptions, deepen understanding, and inspire further learning.

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March for Jobs and Freedom: Calculating the Crowd
Labor and Land Josh Davidson Labor and Land Josh Davidson

March for Jobs and Freedom: Calculating the Crowd

Lesson by Louise Bock, Susan Guengerich, and Hope Martin
In this lesson, students use representations and computations to estimate the crowd at the 1963 March on Washington. Students strengthen critical thinking and mathematical skills through investigation and problem solving, and gain a deeper understanding of the issues related to protest demonstrations and media representations of events.

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Call to Negro America to March on Washington for Jobs and Equal Participation in National Defense, 1941
Labor and Land Josh Davidson Labor and Land Josh Davidson

Call to Negro America to March on Washington for Jobs and Equal Participation in National Defense, 1941

Primary Document by A. Philip Randolph
In 1941, A. Philip Randolph, the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, issued a call to African Americans to fight the unjust conditions in the workforce with a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The threatened mass protest forced President Franklin Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 8802 in June 1941, banning discrimination in the federal government and the defense industry. On June 28, A. Philip Randolph postponed the march.

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The Role of Black Landowners in the Civil Rights Movement
Labor and Land Josh Davidson Labor and Land Josh Davidson

The Role of Black Landowners in the Civil Rights Movement

Teaching Idea by Tiferet Ani
Black landowners provided an indispensable support base for the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, as documented in the 82-minute Emmy Award-winning documentary Dirt and Deeds in Mississippi. Find teaching ideas for use in conjunction with film: a Socratic Seminar, a textbook revision project, and ideas for further research.

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At the River I Stand: The 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike and the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Labor and Land Josh Davidson Labor and Land Josh Davidson

At the River I Stand: The 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike and the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Reading by California Newsreel
The documentary film At the River I Stand skillfully reconstructs the two eventful months that transformed a strike by Memphis sanitation workers into a national conflagration, and disentangles the complex historical forces that came together with the inevitability of tragedy at the death of Martin Luther King Jr.

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Our House Divided: What U.S. Schools Don’t Teach About U.S.-Style Apartheid
Labor and Land Josh Davidson Labor and Land Josh Davidson

Our House Divided: What U.S. Schools Don’t Teach About U.S.-Style Apartheid

Reading by Richard Rothstein
The widespread belief that our continued residential racial segregation, North and South, is “de facto,” not the result of explicit government policy but instead the consequence of private prejudice, economic inequality, and personal choice to self-segregate is false. In truth, our major metropolitan areas were segregated by government action.

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The Case for Reparations
Labor and Land Josh Davidson Labor and Land Josh Davidson

The Case for Reparations

Interview of Ta-Nehisi Coates by Audi Cornish
Ta-Nehisi Coates describes how the legacy of slavery extends to geographical and governmental policies in the United States and calls for a "collective introspection" on reparations.

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The Unknown Origins of the March on Washington: Civil Rights Politics and the Black Working Class
Labor and Land Josh Davidson Labor and Land Josh Davidson

The Unknown Origins of the March on Washington: Civil Rights Politics and the Black Working Class

Reading by William P. Jones
“The very decade which has witnessed the decline of legal Jim Crow has also seen the rise of de facto segregation in our most fundamental socioeconomic institutions,” veteran civil rights activist Bayard Rustin wrote in 1965. The March on Washington addressed the economic crisis facing working-class African Americans more effectively than any other mobilization since the Second World War.

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Southern Tenant Farmworkers: Black and White Unite?
Labor and Land Josh Davidson Labor and Land Josh Davidson

Southern Tenant Farmworkers: Black and White Unite?

Lesson By Bill Bigelow
This lesson examines efforts by Black and white workers to overcome the deep divisions and suspicions of racial antagonism in 1934 Arkansas. Students are faced with a “What would you do?” assignment that helps them understand many of the difficulties in achieving some degree of racial unity. At the same time, they realize the importance of confronting and overcoming racist attitudes.

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César Chávez on How It Began
Labor and Land Josh Davidson Labor and Land Josh Davidson

César Chávez on How It Began

Interview with César Chávez by Luis Torres
In an interview just before his death in 1993, César Chávez related the story of how the fledgling National Farm Worker Association (NFWA) union became involved with Filipino workers belonging to the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and the strike against major grape growers.

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