Land of (Unequal) Opportunity

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While many are familiar with the 1957 Little Rock High School integration crisis, far fewer students of U.S. civil rights history may be aware of the longer history of that struggle in Arkansas. This website includes more than 460 documents and images, including cartoons, court decisions, photographs, newspaper articles, letters, and essays related to that history. For example, an essay on the meaning of relocation written by a high school student at Arkansas's Jerome Relocation Center in 1943 brings a more personal perspective to the story of internment, as the student describes the ways in which members of her community have struggled between the "fighting spirit" and the "giving up spirit." Users new to civil rights history in Arkansas may want to begin with the extensive timeline that describes events from the arrival of slaves in Arkansas in the 1720s to a 2006 State Supreme Court ruling that struck down a ban on gays serving as foster parents. The website also includes 10 lesson plans geared for middle school students that make use of the website's resources—such as a speech given by Governor Oral Fabus in 1958. An extensive bibliography of secondary sources related to many aspects of civil rights, including African American, gay and lesbian, and women's issues, Japanese relocation, religious intolerance, political rights, and anti-civil liberties groups and issues, is also available.

Promise of Gold Mountain: Tucson's Chinese Heritage

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This is a collection of material about the history of Chinese-Americans in Tucson, Arizona. It is one of five sections in an exhibit about ethnic diversity in Tucson. The site includes four 600-1,200-word biographies of Chinese-Americans in Tucson. Chinese-American history in the Tucson area is discussed in three 600-word essays about the railroads, farming and small business, and the development of Chinatowns in Tucson. Highlighted text in each essay links to three to ten photos. There are seven video clips of interviews of 20 seconds to two and a half minutes with and about a Chinese-American woman who grew up in Tucson in the 1940s. A page of sources lists eight books and articles about Chinese settlement in the west. The site will be useful for research about Asian-Americans, the west, and ethnicity in general.

The Annexation of Hawaii: A Collection of Documents

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Thousands of pages of documents concerning the U.S. plan to annex Hawaii, realized in 1898, have been digitized and presented in searchable form, with more material promised in the future. One section contains the 1,436-page Blount Report of 1894-95, initiated by President Grover Cleveland on the history of relations between the U.S. and Hawaii and the planned annexation. Another section offers Congressional debates on the Hawaii Organic Act, passed in 1900 to establish a territorial government in Hawaii. Hawaiian anti-annexation petitions from 1897-98 are available as are 10 anti-annexation protest documents, including six written to American officials by Queen Liliuokalani from 1893 to 1897. The site provides search capabilities within each section and across all materials. Although the site provides little context beyond the documents, the texts offer a rich resource for exploring the diplomatic history of early American imperialism, debates within Congress, and resistance in Hawaii.

Life Interrupted: The Japanese American Experience in WW II Arkansas

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This compelling, well-designed site offers a rare glimpse into the World War II experiences of Japanese Americans in two Arkansas internment camps. A series of 30 photographs illuminates the daily lives of inmates at school, in a clinic, working at a sawmill. Physical conditions in the camp are captured effectively by several aerial views. Three QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) images that allow for 360-degree ground-level views are equally impressive. These photographs are supported by an in-depth timeline of events, an interactive map, and an extensive education section providing links to resources hosted by other sites.

Korean American Digital Archive

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Thousands of primary materials, including documents compiled by Korean American organizations, personal papers, more than 1,900 photographs, and around 180 interviews, address the experiences of Koreans in the United States between 1903 and 1965 on this website. The materials run the gamut from organizational memos and other official documents to personal letters, wedding programs, birth certificates, and social security check stubs.

This material allows users to piece together the life histories of individual Korean Americans. They will find individuals like Soon Hyun, an activist in the Korean resistance movement against Japanese colonialism in 1919, who later moved to the United States and became a minister in Hawaii. Or Florence Ahn, a Korean American who became a prominent singer in Los Angeles. These personal biographies, in turn, allow users to examine the human dimension of the history of Asian Americans, and place individuals within a larger history.

WRA Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement

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This site contains 6,834 digital images related to Japanese American internment during World War II. The War Relocation Authority exhibited these photographs to present the camps in a positive light.

Users can view the site three ways: "Standard" provides a collection summary; "Entire Finding Aid" lists the series descriptions in more detail; "Online Items" lists all 6,834 images complete with a thumbnail and brief description for each image.

Visitors can also search by keyword, though the search works differently depending on which view is being used. The easiest way to use the search is to choose the "Online Items" view, in which a search for "school" will list images with "school" in the description.

Images in the collection come from a number of relocation centers throughout the country, including ones in Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, and Arkansas.

"Scope and Content" is a 250-word explanation of the site's contents with a brief paragraph about the historical significance of the photographs.

Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems

Teaser

Learn about the experiences of immigrants detained at Angel Island and how this impacted their opinion of the US.

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Description

Students explore the immigrant experience at Angel Island through the analysis of poetry written by immigrants during detention at the San Francisco Bay island.

Article Body

Many U.S. history classrooms devote significant time to understanding the immigrant experience. In teaching the immigrant experience, however, many classrooms focus exclusively on European immigration through Ellis Island. This lesson, The Story Behind the Poems, provides students with an excellent opportunity to learn about Asian immigration through Angel Island, and the ways in which the Asian immigrant experience differed from the European immigrant experience. The topics covered in this lesson would be an excellent addition to a unit on immigration, and would couple nicely with lessons on Chinese Exclusion and nativism in the West. The lesson first provides students with excellent historical background through an on-line video about Angel Island. The lesson then positions students to better understand the Asian immigrant experience through an analysis of poetry left by Asian immigrants on the cell walls of Angel Island. The poetry analysis allows students to connect with the words of the immigrants and hone the skill of analyzing the perspective of an author in a literary piece from the past. The lesson is highly structured and provides plenty of guidance for teachers who are not experienced in using poems as primary historical documents. The lesson includes sample questions to pose with students while analyzing the poems and also provides students with a graphic organizer to help them organize their thoughts as they prepare to write a reflection on a poem.

Topic
Immigration; Asian American history; western settlement
Time Estimate
1-2 50-minute periods
flexibility_scale
4
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes The background and resources are historically accurate and contain links to supplementary materials.

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes A high-quality video introduces students to the immigrant experience at Angel Island and is also a great resource for teachers who are teaching about Angel Island for the first time. Comparative immigration timelines are also excellent resources.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes Students interpret poems and write a reflection on the meaning of the poem and the perspective of the author.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes The poetry analysis requires close attention to meaning and intent.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes This lesson is appropriate for the students in late elementary to early middle school.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes Materials include teacher guidelines for helping students analyze the poems and a graphic organizer to help students organize and focus their thoughts about the poems.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No Students are assessed based on in-class discussion and a written reflection about the poems. However, the lesson does not provide specific criteria for assessing performance on the reflection.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes The lesson-plan is clear and can be easily adapted to a wide variety of classroom settings.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes The lesson aims to 1) teach about the Angel Island experience, and 2) provide opportunities to analyze and interpret poetry. The lesson progresses logically to these goals.

Reading and Thinking Aloud to Understand

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This 11th-grade honors U.S. history class, using Reading Apprenticeship techniques developed by WestEd, shows students engaged in the process of reading primary source documents as a means of better understanding the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The students in this video are in an honors classroom. The class is in an ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse school in a high immigrant, rural community. This video provides examples of two promising practices:

  • Putting students in pairs to conduct "read aloud/think aloud" work
  • Providing students with strategic vocabulary for reading primary sources
Content

Students in this lesson are in the middle of a week-long unit on Japanese American internment. Focusing on the question of the constitutionality of relocating and interning these citizens, students read several primary source documents, including the Constitution and opinions from Korematsu vs. the United States, a 1944 Supreme Court case challenging the internment.

Read Aloud/Think Aloud

Students work together in pairs to summarize excerpts from the Constitution relevant to the internment. They take turns reading aloud to each other and talk through the process of reading. As they do, they verbalize their reading and thinking processes, defining terms, connecting the text to prior knowledge, analyzing the meaning of the text, and asking questions about difficult passages as they go.

Strategic Vocabulary

Before, during, and after her students read, the instructor signals key terms that need definition (e.g., ex post fact, bill of attainder, vested). While the read aloud/think aloud strategy helps students make sense of difficult texts, they still need assistance with advanced language and sophisticated concepts. By identifying and defining key terms for students, the instructor helps them decode the documents.

What's Notable?

Many teachers ask students to read primary source documents. But students often struggle with complex language and difficult concepts, often missing the connection with the material they are studying. What makes this class unique is the way the instructor structures the class in order to support student reading.

Civil Rights and Incarceration

Teaser

What were the consequences of and motivations for Japanese American removal during World War II?

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Description

Students analyze the consequences of the removal of Japanese Americans in the western United States to relocation centers during World War II.

Article Body

In this lesson students view and take notes on a 10-minute newsreel describing the evacuation and relocation of Japanese Americans from western states during World War II. Students analyze the movie using a handout. Questions focus students' attention on analyzing the government's case for the necessity of the incarceration. This newsreel activity and a set of introductory readings, pictures, and interviews make up the recommended core of the lesson. Most of the remaining eight activities, by contrast, illustrate the Japanese American perspective on the incarceration. Each activity is organized around a different type of primary source, including photographs, diaries, autobiographies, poetry, and theater. Classroom activities range from analyzing textual and visual sources to performing scripted dramatic readings. Some activities include potentially challenging reading material, but teachers can tailor the lesson to the needs of their students by choosing from the many options available. We think that teachers will appreciate the diversity, high quality, clear presentation, and emotional resonance of the materials provided by this lesson.

Topic
Japanese American Internment; World War II; Civil Rights
Time Estimate
1-6 class sessions (or longer)
flexibility_scale
5
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes Materials used in the lesson have been well researched. Content and materials on the Densho site are very thorough. Check out other resources and causes of incarceration.

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes Students are required to study an introductory section, The Incarceration Years, before beginning film analysis.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes Newsreel activity requires students write a film review. Optional activities may include reading primary sources and offer additional writing assignments.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes Constructing interpretations and evidence-based judgments about the incarceration is central to most of the activities.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes Each activity is organized around a different type of source. Much of the lesson encourages students to think critically about what can be learned from different source materials.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes The basic newsreel and introductory activities would be appropriate for any high school class. Other activities range in difficulty, including some that would challenge Advanced Placement history students.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes A variety of worksheets and suggested discussion questions are provided to scaffold student thinking.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No Not all activities include assessment strategies.

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes The lesson provides clear directions. Detailed advice on how to use the lesson in any classroom is provided on the site.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes Learning objectives are explicitly stated.

Chinese in California, 1850-1925

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These 8,000 items document the immigrant experience of Chinese who settled in California during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Materials include photographs, letters, diaries, speeches, business records, legal documents, pamphlets, sheet music, cartoons, and artwork.

Access is provided through nine galleries, each containing an introductory essay and 70 to 575 items. Four galleries present materials on San Francisco's Chinatown, including architectural space, business and politics, community life, and appeal to outsiders. Additional galleries deal with Chinese involvement in U.S. expansion westward; communities outside San Francisco; agricultural, fishing and related industries; the anti-Chinese movement and Chinese exclusion; and sentiments concerning the Chinese. Visitors may search by keyword, name, subject, title, group, and theme. The site will be useful for studying ethnic history, labor history, and the history of the West as well as Chinese-American history.