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The Scottsboro Boys (key stage 4)
Respect for all: The Scottsboro Boys
This activity was used with pupils in key stage 4, year 11.
Context
There are 910 pupils in this urban, mixed comprehensive school. Approximately 40 per cent of the pupils are from minority ethnic groups and 38 per cent have English as an additional language (most are Urdu speakers).
Curriculum planning in the school's English department has a strong anti-racist and multicultural thrust. This is seen as supporting the school's firm stand on equal opportunities issues, an important dimension of the ethos of this ethnically diverse school.
Currently, at least one of the six units of work in each year group has a multicultural focus, but the intention in the long term is to introduce these issues into all units of work. The school believes that it is essential for its scheme of work to address issues of similarity and difference between cultures, as well as to include materials that empathise with a wide range of viewpoints.
The pupils' sense of pride in their own culture, as well as their acceptance of other cultures, is clearly evident in lessons and around the school.
Aim
- To help pupils explore connections and contrast between different texts dealing with racial discrimination.
Activity objectives
- To explore the depth and nature of prejudice in southern USA in the 1930s.
- To relate these feelings to an extract of Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D Taylor.
Activity description
After the class had read two-thirds of their GCSE text Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the teacher introduced a mini-unit entitled 'The trials of the Scottsboro Boys' to help the pupils understand more about the historical context of the novel.
Lesson 1
The teacher started the first lesson of the unit by asking the pupils to brainstorm incidents of racial prejudice encountered in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. The pupils quickly came up with a wide range of examples, such as black pupils not being allowed to ride in the school bus, black people being ignored in shops, the burnings and the killing of Uncle Hammer's brother.
They were then asked, in groups, to read accounts of the trials of the Scottsboro Boys (nine young black males aged 13 to 21 were falsely accused in the 1930s of raping two white girls on a train). The teacher asked the pupils to highlight the points in the accounts that suggested the boys did not receive fair trials and to discuss why they thought this had happened.
Lesson 2
Next, the pupils were asked to read a second text: 'Why the boys were hated'. This article was written by a journalist who conducted a series of interviews with local people. The journalist revealed two sides to the white Scottsboro community: the inhabitants appeared charming and gentle-mannered, and yet had a blind, unreasoning antipathy to black people.
The pupils, armed with information from the two contrasting texts, prepared, in groups, a series of questions that they wanted to put to the trial judge, Judge Hawkins. A hot-seating activity followed, with the class directing questions at a pupil playing the role of Judge Hawkins. Some interesting questions emerged. For example:
What do you think the term 'racist' means?
Do you think the boys got a fair trial?
Why didn't you release the boys when one of the girls denied she had been raped?
Why were you so offensive to the 'negroes'?
Did you decide on a retrial because of the town's views?
To conclude the work, the teacher briefly evaluated what had been achieved in the lesson.
Commentary
The two texts studied in this lesson were challenging, but the pupils were clearly keen to make sense of them and relate the information to their study of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. The questions they asked the judge were relevant (in some cases even 'probing') and showed a good understanding of the issues under discussion. They were enjoying the novel (not all the pupils were avid readers), and many were 'reading ahead'. They recognised that the issues raised in the book were relevant for them today in Britain's multicultural society.
Alternative activity
In another year 11 class, the pupils studied Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry alongside a focused research activity on race issues in Britain. In small groups, the pupils researched (among other topics):
- groups that are involved in racist or anti-racist activities in the UK;
- how post-war immigration to Britain has influenced cultural choices, including fashion and food preferences;
- how equal opportunities legislation has developed in order to protect minority groups;
- how conflict between minority ethnic groups and the police has been presented in the media.
The pupils produced striking posters summarising their findings, which were displayed in the English department. They then explored how their discoveries related to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Points to note
Resources for the writing skills unit in the department's scheme of work include examples of work that reflect social and cultural diversity, and provide a positive image of race, gender and disability.
The department has produced an information booklet to accompany the study of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. The contents, which include information on the Triangular Trade, Olaudah Equiano, slave life on the farms and plantations, and the Civil War, help pupils gain an understanding of the events in history that are referred to in the book.
Resources
Linder, D O, Famous American Trials: 'The Scottsboro Boys' Trials, 1931–1937', is available online from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School: www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm
Taylor, M D, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Puffin, UK, 1995
Scottsboro: An American Tragedy (American experience series), PBS/WGBH television documentary co-production, 2001. A website of background materials to support the award-shortlisted television documentary is available online at PBS: www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/scottsboro/+guide/index.html
The online national curriculum can be found at www.nc.uk.net