Evaluating African
American Educational Opportunities in St. Louis
Overview
Students will be assigned to a team
of newspaper reporters. They will "time travel" through the St.
Louis Virtual City website and report on the educational opportunities available
to African American Children in 1850 and 1950. The students will then report
their findings in a newspaper format. The newspaper should include the following:
(1) a news story(s); (2) a human-interest story(s); (3) an editorial; (4)
a letter to the editor; (5) a political cartoon.
Objectives
After completing this lesson, students will:
Show Me Standards 1.2, 1.4,
2.1, 2.7, 3.1, 3.4, 3.6, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6
Process
- Establish the roles for each member
of the group. These roles include news writers, social or feature writers,
an editorial writer, a reader of the newspaper, and a political cartoonist.
- Visit the St. Louis Virtual City
website. Make sure to take notes as you would if you were a newspaper reporter.
- In the 1850 decade site, gather
information about the following:
- Meachum's Church - learn
what you can about his life, his church and his school.
- Steamboat - learn about
the story of the secret school. Click on perspectives to learn
about Meachum and the importance of education. Look at the 1847 Missouri
Law on the education of African American children.
- In the 1950 decade site, research
the following:
- School bus - Click
on "going to school". Research the story behind Josephine
Baker's 1952 concert. Also click on the students riding the school
bus to get first person accounts about African Americans' educational
experiences.
- Click on the Board of Education
link to learn about how St. Louis' Board of Education reacted to the 1954
Brown decision that ended segregation in public schools.
- Once you have gathered your information,
meet with your group and decide upon some of the stories that will be featured
in your newspaper. Some suggestions for your stories include:
- Challenges faced by African
Americans seeking an education.
- Whether or not there has been
satisfactory progress in educational opportunities for African Americans.
- The subjects that were taught
in the different decades and how these subjects related to societal expectations
during that time.
- Human interest stories about
African Americans and their experiences with and views about public education.
- How current public education
policy in the St. Louis area has succeeded or failed in meeting the needs
of African American children.
- Write your articles and cartoons.
- Proofread and edit the articles
and cartoons.
- Publish your newspaper. If possible
utilize Microsoft Publisher, but other traditional formats would also be acceptable.
Learning Tips
- In writing your articles, make
sure to remember that news stories should remain objective without any inclusion
of your own personal feelings. The human-interest stories, editorials, letters
to the editors, and political cartoons are areas where you can inject your
own opinions or feelings about the subject.
- Make sure to use all the talents
of your group. Divide tasks but share your ideas.