he Negro plaintiffs had, after all, won the case.”

Prince Edward saw themselves as Davids to the Goliath NAACP and the federalgovernment.

he schools that had closed started integrating. And, in May, the FourthCircuit overturned the district judge’s ruling and ordered Prince Edward to integrate itsschools by that fall

hich gave the governor the power to close any school that integrated andstipulated that school districts that integrated would lose state funding.

close the public schools should they be ordered to desegregate.

No matter who starts it, thewhites will be blamed. We must not have it.

We submit thatVirginia has not abandoned public education; the Supreme Court has abolished it

is the most seriousblow that has yet been struck against the rights of the states in a matter vitally affectingtheir authority and welfare. .. . In Virginia now we are facing a crisis of the firstmagnitude.”

but it gave nodeadlines

However, supplies such as books and scienceequipment were still scarce.

litigating

The NAACP expected this ruling and continued preparation for an appeal tothe Supreme Court.

A few acts of intimidation went beyond the “civilized” code. On Sunday, May 6, someoneburned a cross in the Moton schoolyard. The Ku Klux Klan was not active in the area,however, and most people—black and white—agreed it was the action of a few. Griffinreceived death threats, and a crude homemade bomb fizzled on the steps of his house.The Johns family began to fear for Barbara’s safety after receiving several threats againsther. They sent her to live with her uncle Vernon in Montgomery, Alabama, and finish highschool there.

therblack families began to have problems with their credit too.

So white leaders asserted their power through “official” channels. The school board firedMoton’s principal and a teacher who was aunt to a student and whose husband was anNAACP member. They also fired Moton teacher Vera Allen, whose daughter Edwilda wasinvolved in the strike. Eventually, the county abolished John Lancaster’s job as Negrocounty farm agent, ostensibly because of his support of the strike and his efforts as theMoton PTA president to build a new school.

White elites wholeheartedly supported segregationand disfranchisement but shunned vigilante violence as a threat to social stability.”

ld Dominion,

White residents’ reactions were mixed.

Anybody who won’t fight against racial prejudice is not a man.”

But | should have realized the white authorities would know about it.

f the NAACP was to take their case, the lawyers said, thegoal would have to be desegregation.

NAACP

e were thinking that the school would be improved, or atbest, that we would get a new school.

To strike until they got what they wanted. Moststudents were on board immediately. That afternoon they stayed on the school grounds,carrying placards with demands such as “We are tired of tar paper shacks—we want anew school.”

“Why don’tyou do something about it?’

This frustrated Barbara Johns,

Classes also met in several tar-paper shacks,which county officials had constructed instead of a new school.

Despite all this, it was a tight-knit school community, and the teachers had highexpectations for their students and their futures.

School supplies were secondhand and spread thin, and more than 450students were packed into a facility originally built for 180.

ard has tried hard to challenge the idea that a civil rights museum is inevitably a blackhistory museum.

Since it opened in 2001, it has hosted events and discussions about the civil rights era.

he Prince Edward story is not so well known because it doesn’t have “the essentialingredients of a standard civil rights story,”

During that time, most white children attended the new private schoolcreated by segregationist leaders and funded by state tuition grants and privatedonations.

Prince Edward County refused to integrate andlocked its doors.

Moton High School

constructed in 1939 to house an all-black highschool, reminds them of an era they’d rather forget.

Near thecenter of town stands a bronze Confederate soldier, a monument to Civil War veterans.Up the hill on the edge of town, past historic storefronts and churches, past LongwoodCollege, sits the Robert Russa Moton Museum, Virginia’s only National Historic Landmarkof the civil rights movement.

A mixed school withpoor and unsympathetic teachers,with hostile public opinion, and noteaching of truth concerning blackfolk, is bad

I came toAtlanta University to teach history in1897, without the slightest idea frommy Harvard tuition, that Negroesever had any history!

but there isno doubt but what the tremendouspsychic history of the American andWest Indian groups has made it possi-ble for the present generation to ac-cumulate a wealth of material which,with encouragement and training,could find expression in the drama, incolor and form, and in music. Andno where could this training betterbe pursued than in separate Negroschools under competent and intelli-gent teachers?

congenital

Beyond this, Negro colleges oughtto be studying anthropology, psychol-ogy, and the social sciences, from thepoint of view of the colored races.

They ought to studyintelligently and from their own pointof view, the slave trade, slavery,emancipation, Reconstruction, andpresent economic development.

Negroesmust know the history of the Negrorace in America, and this they willseldom get in white institutions

merican Negroes have, be-cause of their history, group experi-ences and memories, a distinct entity,whose spirit and reactions demand acertain type of education for its de-velopment

I have be-come curiously convinced that untilAmerican Negroes believe in their ownpower and ability, they are going tobe helpless before the white world

Conceive a Negro teachingin a Southern school the econhicswhich he learned at the Harvard Busi-ness School! Conceive a Negro teacherof history retailing to his black stu-dents the sort of history that is taughtat the University of Chicago!

Howard, Fisk, and Atlanta arenaturally unable to do the type andgrade of graduate work which is doneat Columbia, Chicago, and Harvard

There can be nodoubt that if the Supreme Court wereoverwhelmed with cases where theblatant and impudent discriminationagainst Negro education is openlyacknowledged, it would be compelledto hand down decisions which wouldmake this discrimination impossibl&

Today, when the rJegro publicschool system gets from half to one-tenth of the amount of money spenton white schools, and is often conse-quently poorly run and poorly taught

bygiving Negro teachers decent wages,decent schoolhouses and equipment,and reasonable chances for advance-ment

just so longthe main problem of Negro educationwill not be segregation but self-knowl-edge and self-respect

If the American Negro reallybelieved in himself; if he believed thatNegro teachers can educate childrenaccording to the best standards ofmodern training; if he believed thatNegro colleges transmit and add toscience, as well as or better than othercolleges, then he would bend his ener-gies, not to escaping inescapable as-sociation with his own group, but toseeing that his group had every op-portunity for its best and highest de-velopment

We shall get a finer, better bal-ance of spirit; an infinitely more ca-pable and rounded personality by put-ting children in schools where theyare wanted, and where they are happyand inspired, than in thrusting therhinto hells where they are ridiculed andhated.

I nother cases, the result of the experi-ment may be complete ruin of char-acter, gift, and ability and ingrainedhatred of schools and men

t is difficult to think of any-thing more important for the develop-ment of a people than proper trainingfor their children

priori

but as long asAmerican Negroes believe that theirrace is constitutionally and perma-nently inferior to white people, theynecessarily disbelieve in every possi-ble Negro Institution

The otherreason is at bottom an utter lack offaith on the part of Negroes that theirrace can do anything really well

they refuse to work for their adequatesupport; and they refuse to join pub-lic movements to increase their effi-ciency

laudatory

To endure bad schools and wrongeducation because the schools are"mixed" is a costly if not fatal mis-take.

In that case, a firmand intelligent appeal to public opin-ion would eventually settle the mat-ter. But the futile attempt to compeleven by law a group to do what it isdetermined not to do, is a silly wasteof money, time, and temper

We have got to accept Negroschools. Any agitation and actionaimed at compelling a rich and power-ful majority of the citizens to do whatthey will not do, is useless. On theother hand, we have a right and aduty to assure ourselves of the truthconcerning this attitude; by carefulconferences, by public meetings andby petitions, we should convince our-selves whether this demand for sepa-rate schools is merely the agitation ofa prejudiced minority, or the con-sidered and final judgment of thetown

There can be argument asto what our attitude toward furtherseparation should be

Under such circumstances, there isno room for argument as to whetherthe Negro needs separate school$ ornot. The plain fact faces us, thateither he will have separate schoolsor he will not be educated.

And in the same way, there aremany public school systems in theNorth where Negroes are admittedand tolerated, but they are not edu-cated; they are crucified

I am no fool; and Iknow that race prejudice in the Uni-ted States today is such that mostNegroes cannot receive proper edu

just solong we shall lack in America thatsort of public education which willcreate the intelligent basis of a realdemocracy

to try to deceive ourselves into think-ing that race prejudice in the UnitedStates across the Color Line is gradu-ally softening and that slowly butsurely we are coming to the timewhen racial animosities and classlines will be so obliterated that sepa-rate schools will be anachronisms

Theyare needed just so far as they arenecessary for the proper education ofthe Negro race.

Less than a halfmillion are in mixed schools in theNorth, where they are taught almostexclusively by white teachers.

For the truth isthat there are many very good reasons for giving up meat.

Exercises

his ability to enter complex, many-sided conversations has taken on aspecial urgency in today’s polarized red state / blue state America,

ltimately, this book invites you to become a criticalthinker who can enter the types of conversations described eloquently by thephilosopher Kenneth Burke in the following widely cited passage.

“They say that kids suing fast-foodcompanies for making them fat is a joke; but J say such lawsuits arejustified.”

but only suggest a way offormatting how you Say it.

Ultimately, then, creativity and originality lie not in the avoidance ofestablished forms but in the imaginative use of them.

n our view, the templates in this book will actually help your writingbecome more original and creative, not less.

At first, many of our students complain thatusing templates will take away their originality and creativity and makethem all sound the same.

In sum, then, while it is not plagiarism to recycleconventionally used formulas, it is a serious academic offense to take thesubstantive content from others’ texts without citing the authors and givingthem proper credit.

Again, none of us is born knowing these moves, especially when itcomes to academic writing—hence the need for this book.

in which you summarize and then answer a likelyobjection to your own central claim

Even the most sympathetic audiences, after all, tend to feel manipulatedby arguments that scapegoat and caricature the other side.

ou need to play it safeand avoid controversy in your writing, making statements that nobody canpossibly disagree with. Though this view of writing may appear logical, it isactually a recipe for flat, lifeless writing and for writing that fails to answerwhat we call the “so what?” and “who cares?” questions.

many writers use the “they say / Isay” format to challenge standard ways of thinking and thus to stir upcontroversy.

represent some wider group withwhich readers might identify

In a waywe're both right

ho uses her own daughter’scomment to represent the patriotic national fervor after the terrorist attacksof September 11, 2001.

Clearly, King would not have written his famous letter were it not for hiscritics,

Letter from Birmingham Jail,

heanswers these questions, helping us see his point that the film presentscomplex characters rather than simple sexist stereotypes.

he answer is that if you don’t identify the “they say” you’re respondingto, your own argument probably won’t have a point.

To make an impact as a writer, then, you need to do more than makestatements that are logical, well supported, and consistent. You must alsofind a way of entering into conversation with the views of others, withsomething “they say.”

f you have been taught to write atraditional five-paragraph essay, for example, you have learned how todevelop a thesis and support it with evidence.

summarizing their views in a way thatthey will recognize, and responding with our own ideas in kind.

critical thinking and writing go deeper than any setof linguistic formulas,

Less experiencedwriters, by contrast, are often unfamiliar with these basic moves and unsurehow to make them in their own writing.

STATE YOUR OWN IDEAS AS A RESPONSE TOOTHERS

templates that you can use right away to structureand even generate your own writing.

Often without consciously realizing it,accomplished writers routinely rely on a stock of established moves that arecrucial for communicating sophisticated ideas.

once you mastered it you no longerhad to give much conscious thought to the various moves that go into doingit.

I rode to Nashville in the Jim Crow car

It was empty, and theywere grown into fat, lazy farm-hands. I saw the home of the Hickmans, but Albert, with hisstooping shoulders, had passed from the world. Then I came to the Burkes’ gate and peeredthrough; the enclosure looked rough and untrimmed, and yet there were the same fences aroundthe old farm save to the left, where lay twenty-five other acres. And lo! the cabin in the hollow hadclimbed the hill and swollen to a half-finished six-room cottage.

Doc Burke saved a murder anda lynching that day

The Lawrences have gone,—father andson forever,—and the other son lazily digs in the earth to live

Josie was dead, and the gray-haired mother said simply, “We’ve had a heap of trouble sinceyou’ve been away.” I had feared for Jim

lexandria was “town,”—astraggling, lazy village of houses, churches, and shops, and an aristocracy of Toms, Dicks, andCaptains

On Friday nights I often went home with some of the children,—sometimes to Doc Burke’sfarm.

He was a great, loud, thin Black, ever working, and trying to buy the seventy-five acres ofhill and dale where he lived; but people said that he would surely fail, and the “white folks wouldget it all.”

There was an entrance where adoor once was, and within, a massive rickety fireplace; great chinks between the logs served aswindows. Furniture was scarce. A pale blackboard crouched in the corner. My desk was made ofthree boards, reinforced at critical points, and my chair, borrowed from the landlady, had to bereturned every night. Seats for the children—these puzzled me much

for their knowledge of theirown ignorance.

The father was a quiet, simple soul, calmly ignorant, with no touch of vulgarity. The mother wasdifferent,—strong, bustling, and energetic, with a quick, restless tongue, and an ambition to live“like folks.”

gaunt

I feel my heart sink heavily as Ihear again and again, “Got a teacher? Yes.”

white teachers inthe morning, Negroes at night

I was a Fisk student then, and allFisk men thought that Tennessee—beyond the Veil—was theirs alone,

“We hold these truthsto be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowedby their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these arelife, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”EBSCOhost - printed on 8/6/2021 2:28 PM via UNIVERSITY OF LYNCHBURG. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting

Negro must strive and strive mightily to help him-self

he has spoken against lynching, and in otherways has openly or silently set his influence against sinister schemesand unfortunate happenings.

We have no right tosit silently by while theinevitable seeds are sownfor a harvest of disasterto our children, black andwhite.

Negroes mustinsist continually, in season and out of season, that voting is necessaryto modern manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and thatblack boys need education as well as white boys

Theydo not expect that the free right to vote, to enjoy civic rights, and to beeducated, will come in a moment

The education of youth according to ability.

1. The right to vote.2. Civic equality.3. The education of youth according to ability.

He advocates common-school and industrial training, anddepreciates institutions of higher learning; but neither theNegro common-schools, nor Tuskegee itself, could remainopen a day were it not for teachers trained in Negro col-leges, or trained by their graduates.

First, political power,Second, insistence on civil rights,Third, higher education of Negro youth,—

But Booker T.Washington arose as essentially the leader not of one race but of two,—acompromiser between the South, the North, and the Negro.

Self-assertion,especially in political lines, was the main programme, and behindDouglass came Elliot, Bruce, and Langston, and the ReconstructionEBSCOhost - printed on 8/6/2021 2:28 PM via UNIVERSITY OF LYNCHBURG. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use

By 1830 slaveryseemed hopelessly fastened on the South, and the slaves thoroughlycowed into submission

Nat Turner

Stern financial and social stress after the war cooled much of theprevious humanitarian ardor

The influenceof all of these attitudes at various times can be traced in the history of theAmerican Negro, and in the evolution of his successive leaders.

real progress may be negative and actual advance be relative retro-gression.

If the best of the AmericanNegroes receive by outer pressurea leader whom they had not recog-nized before, manifestly there is herea certain palpable gain.

there is among educated and thoughtful colored men in allparts of the land a feeling of deep regret, sorrow, and apprehension atthe wide currency and ascendancy which some of Mr. Washington’stheories have gained

demagogues

it is easier to do ill than well in the world

that the picture of a lone black boyporing over a French grammar amid the weeds and dirt of a neglectedhome soon seemed to him the acme of absurdities

Mr. Washington first indissolubly linked these things; he put enthusiasm,unlimited energy, and perfect faith into his programme, and changed itfrom a by-path into a veritable Way of Life

The South interpreted it in different ways: theradicals received it as a complete surrender of the demand for civil andpolitical equality; the conservatives, as a generously conceived workingbasis for mutual understanding.

In all things purely social we can be as separate as the five fin-gers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress

the nation was a little ashamed of havingbestowed so much sentiment on Negroes, and was concentrating its en-ergies on Dollars.

the Free Negroes from 1830 up to war-time hadstriven to build industrial schools