Your
Task Learn about the Scottsboro
Boys by exploring the links on this page.
Then choose a character from Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry. You will pretend you ARE that person
to write a letter in that character’s voice
(as if they were writing). Your task is to write a
letter to the editor in the form of a persuasive essay
to convince readers of the newspaper that your character's
point of view about the case of the Scottsboro Boys
is valid.
Letter
Template This is a Microsoft Word template
you can use. Just replace the text (which will help
you write a persuasive essay) with your own writing.
Why do people write letters to the editor of a newspaper?
Newspapers were a very important
public forum for news and ideas in the 1930s. Remember
there was no television and no Internet!
People write letters to the editor
to express their opinion about a current issue that
they feel strongly about.
It is a way of sharing your opinion
with many people and trying to convince people to
feel the same way you do.
WEB SITES
Remembering
Jim Crow Jim Crow is the name given to laws
enacted by the southern states to prevent black Americans
from achieving equality. One of the Jim Crow laws
stated that black and white children must be educated
separately. This site has many photos plus interviews
you can listen to. Examples
of Jim Crow Laws.
The
Scottsboro Boys An example of "southern justice"
in the 1930's. This was a real case that took place
at approximately the same time as the events in Roll
of Thunder, Hear My Cry. How the boys are treated
may remind you of how the character T.J. Avery
was treated.
To
the Members of the Anti-Lynching Bureau An appeal by Ida Wells-Barnett
to African Americans to support the Anti-Lynching
Bureau via membership and money at a time when lynchings
were rising and newspaper accounts and interest declining.
Mary
McLeod Bethune Like the character Mary
Logan, Mary McLeod Bethune was a teacher
in the south. During the time of Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry, Mary McLeod Bethune worked tirelessly
to influence President Franklin D. Roosevelt on civil
rights issues. Read her speech, "What Does American
Democracy Mean to Me" and listen online, too!
Ossian
Sweet In 1925, a black doctor named Ossian
Sweet purchased a house in an all-white neighborhood
in Detroit, which is where the character Uncle
Hammer lived. Ossian Sweet's story will help
you understand what life was like for black people
in the north.
SUBSCRIPTION DATABASES
Biography
Resource Center For information about a person,
try the Biography Resource Center, one of the InfoTrac
databases. Here are links to specific articles about
people who lived during the time of Roll of Thunder,
Hear my Cry. These links will only work
from Fay School--if you're at home, enter your library
card number in the box below and search the name of
the person.
Your
Task
To use Biography Resource Center
at home, enter a library card number from Fay School
(see the Library PASSWORDS email on the FirstClass INFO FOR STUDENTS & PARENTS folder) or any public library in Massachusetts
in the box below.