Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller and Gregory Christie, Ill. NY: Lee & Low Books, 1999. ISBN-13: 978-1880000885, Q5/P5.

            A powerful book showing how much the human spirit yearns for knowledge. This book tells of how black people in America went to great lengths to be able to read and to learn – something many of us take for granted. Illustrations are done in acrylic and colored pencil. Excellent for a 5^th-6^th grade history class.

Jim Crow

Grade Level: 5-6

Subject Area: History

Duration: 2 class periods

Objectives: Students will learn about the “Jim Crow laws” in the United States.

Books:

Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney, Ill.  Greenwillow Books, 2008 ISBN-13: 978-0060821180

Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller and Gregory Christie, Ill. NY: Lee & Low Books, 1999. ISBN-13: 978-1880000885

Discussion: Open-discussion with the class about how African Americans were treated in the US well into the 20^th century. Explain that the Jim Crow laws were rules that people followed after the slaves were freed and although they were supposed to be “separate but equal” it was not a good situation for African Americans. What ways were they treated unfairly? Prompt them to think of Rosa Parks being asked to move on the buss, and Richard Wright and his struggle to read.

Free write: Talk to the class about a time in their life when they felt they were not being treated fairly. Tell them to write about it in their journal. Where they afraid to speak up? Why? What happened?

-Christina Gendron, 8/2/09

Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller and Gregory Christie, ill. New York: Lee & Low, 1997.

ISBN: 1-880000-57-1

Based on a story from Richard Wright’s autobiography Black Boy, this picture book tells how, in a time when blacks weren’t allowed to have library cards, Richard found a way to check out books and begin his journey toward becoming a writer.

Media: acrylics and colored pencils

Rating: 5Q/5P

Posted by LA 4/9/8

Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller and Gregory Christie, ill. New York: Lee & Low Books, 1997.

1-8800-0088-1

Annotation: Based on a scene from Black boy, in which the seventeen-year-old Richard Wright borrows a white man's library card.

Media: Acrylic, colored pencil

Rating: 5th-8th 5Q/5P

Curriculum Connection: Upper elementary; For use in a history class to bring an example of a personal experience with Jim Crow

Lesson Plan 4 – Taken from Five Lesson Plan Unit "Learning history through picturebooks about people who lived it". See The Bracelet.

•    A fun, relaxed day. Students construct posters. Teacher puts them up and conducts a “Gallery Walk”.

•    Each group gets two minutes to describe what they did for their project.

lvanburen/6-09