Wednesday, March 5
"PULLMAN PORTERS: CIVIL RIGHTS RISING FROM THE RAILS"
Register online at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
Series: Black History Month
Presenter: Jane Marshall
Date: WEDNESDAY, March 5, 2008
Target Audience: Students in grades 5 -12
Time: 9:00 and 10:00 AM (CENTRAL time zone)
Format: 45-minutes segmented into 30-minute presentation and 15-20 minute Q & A
Cost: $75 per site
Registration: Register online at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
Questions: Chandra Allison, at (615) 322-6511 or email Chandra at chandra.allison@vanderbilt.edu
Pre-Activities:
1) Students should listen to these NPR interviews with Larry Tye, author of
Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class.
FreshAir: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3049156
Tavis Smiley Show: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3384066
2) Read segments from Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class by Larry Tye.
Register online at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
Series: Black History Month
Presenter: Jane Marshall
Date: WEDNESDAY, March 5, 2008
Target Audience: Students in grades 5 -12
Time: 9:00 and 10:00 AM (CENTRAL time zone)
Format: 45-minutes segmented into 30-minute presentation and 15-20 minute Q & A
Cost: $75 per site
Registration: Register online at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
Questions: Chandra Allison, at (615) 322-6511 or email Chandra at chandra.allison@vanderbilt.edu
Pre-Activities:
1) Students should listen to these NPR interviews with Larry Tye, author of
Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class.
FreshAir: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3049156
Tavis Smiley Show: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3384066
2) Read segments from Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class by Larry Tye.
DESCRIPTION:
Rising from near-servitude in the years following the Civil War, Pullman Porters became the backbone of the rail industry and ambassadors of black middle class culture. The story of the Pullman Porters is a relatively unknown story about black America, but it's a great American success story. The Pullman porter as a social force shows the importance of this nearly forgotten group of workers who almost single-handedly created the black middle class out of poverty-stricken ex-slaves. They embraced the necessity of education and experience, worked hard at their jobs and left a strong legacy in their descendents, and helped to organize and fund the civil rights movement. The porters' story is one of courage and fortitude in the face of racism.
A. Philip Randolph, formed the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters which was the first recognized Black union. These unheralded porters rose from a life of servitude aboard the trains to producing an immense legacy that really affects the social, political and economic fabric of the United States today.
Because the porters were exposed to the rich and successful and traveled widely, they acquired previously undreamed ambitions for their children. Descendants of Pullman Porters include former big-city mayors Tom Bradley and Willie Brown, jazz great Oscar Peterson, former Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, musicians the Neville Brothers, and Olympic athlete Wilma Rudolph.
The courage and commitment of the Pullman porters to creating justice and equality before the modern civil rights movement did not develop in isolation, but rather through struggles deeply grounded in black community life. By the time the porters had reached their greatest unified commercial strength, their profession was coming to an end. Road and airplane travel took passengers away.
At their height, porters were 0.1% of blacks in America, and yet for any black American excelling in any field in the last half century, there is an odds-on chance that there was a Pullman porter in that person's family. They did it by the same means: "sacrificing for their children, and deferring dreams of self-improvement for a generation or even two generations, but never abandoning their dreams."
Post-Activity:
Dramatization:
Have members of the class play the roles of members of a family trying to decide whether to move from Mississippi to Chicago in the 1920s or the 1940s. Make sure the students don't all hold the same opinion about moving north.
Suggest that students consider the following in determining whether to stay in Mississippi or to move to Chicago:
* Geography (including climate)
* Economic opportunities
* Schools
* Social and political opportunities
Register online at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
***************
Videotaping of Virtual School videoconferences is not allowed due to legal issues such as informed consent, jurisdiction, confidentiality, standards of practice, and supervision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Patsy Partin, M.Ed
Director, Virtual School
Vanderbilt University
2007 Terrace Place
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 322-6384
Email: patsy.partin@vanderbilt.edu
Web: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool
Have members of the class play the roles of members of a family trying to decide whether to move from Mississippi to Chicago in the 1920s or the 1940s. Make sure the students don't all hold the same opinion about moving north.
Suggest that students consider the following in determining whether to stay in Mississippi or to move to Chicago:
* Geography (including climate)
* Economic opportunities
* Schools
* Social and political opportunities
Register online at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
***************
Videotaping of Virtual School videoconferences is not allowed due to legal issues such as informed consent, jurisdiction, confidentiality, standards of practice, and supervision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Patsy Partin, M.Ed
Director, Virtual School
Vanderbilt University
2007 Terrace Place
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 322-6384
Email: patsy.partin@vanderbilt.edu
Web: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool
