StoryBoard
One Crazy Summer
By Rita Williams-Garcia
One Crazy Summer
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Set during one of the most tumultuous years in
recent American history, One Crazy Summer is
the heartbreaking, funny tale of three girls who
travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 in search of
the mother who abandoned them.
The path taken by these three little girls in no
coincindence. The following Google LitTrip will
take the reader on a journey through the
political and social unrest of the late 1960's, with
a focus on events that played a pivotal role in
the history of the United States.
This LitTrip will be used to build appropriate
background knowledge related to the racial
climate of the 1960’s, as well as the Black
Panther Party and its contributions to this
decade.
http://apathwaytonewworlds.file
s.wordpress.com/2012/07/onecrazy-summer.jpg
Bedford-Stuyvesant is a neighborhood in the central
portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
For decades, it has been a cultural center for
Brooklyn's black population. Following the
construction of the subway line between Harlem
and Bedford in 1936, African Americans left an
overcrowded Harlem for more housing availability
in Bedford-Stuyvesant. From Bedford-Stuyvesant,
African Americans have since moved into the
surrounding areas of Brooklyn, such as East New
York, Crown Heights, Brownsville and Fort Greene.
Brooklyn contains dozens of distinct neighborhoods,
representing many of the major ethnic groups
found within the New York City area.
Bedford-Stuyvesant is home to one of the most
famous African-American communities in the city,
along with Brownsville and East New York. "BedStuy" is a hub for African-American culture, often
referenced in hip hop and African-American art.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/t
humb/d/d3/Greenpoint_Houses.JPG/800pxGreenpoint_Houses.JPG
Sisters Delphine, Vonetta and Fern call Herkimer
Street home. They live here with Big Ma (their
grandmother) and their father, Papa.
Six and a half hours had passed since we’d
hugged Big Ma and kissed Pa at John F. Kennedy
Airport. The clouds had made peace with our
Boeing 727. It was safe to breathe. I stretched as
far as my legs could go. (p.8)
Reading Strategy Practice: Synthesizing
Point-of-View is a method the author uses to tell
a story. Sometimes an author tells a story in
third-person, which means that the story is being
told by a narrator explaining the characters
thoughts, feelings and actions.
When an author uses first-person point-of-view,
the sotry is being told by one of the characters
and the pronoun ‘I’ is used.
Which point of view does the author use to tell
this story?
http://www.panynj.gov/photo/airports/jfkhistory-c.jpg
How did you decide? Use examples from the
book to support your opinion.
Cassius Clay Clouds
Reading Strategy Practice: Making Connections
Good thing the plane had seat belts and we’d
been strapped in tight before takeoff. Without
them, that last jolt would have been enough to
throw Vonetta into orbit and Fern across the aisle.
Still, I anchored myself and my sisters best as I
could to brace us for whatever came next. Those
clouds weren’t through with us yet and dealt
another Cassius Clay–left–and–a–right jab to the
body of our Boeing 727. (p. 1).
Who is Cassius Clay?
Which literary device is being used in the
paragraph? Why?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
thumb/8/89/Muhammad_Ali_NYWTS.jpg/478pxMuhammad_Ali_NYWTS.jpg
The video montage illustrates visually the events of
the Detroit Riots of 1967.
The 1967 Detroit riot, also known as the 12th Street
riot, was a civil disturbance in Detroit, Michigan, US
that began in the early morning hours of Sunday,
July 23, 1967. The precipitating event was a police
raid of an unlicensed, after-hours bar then known as
a blind pig, on the corner of 12th (today Rosa Parks
Boulevard) and Clairmount streets on the city's Near
West Side. Police confrontations with patrons and
observers on the street evolved into one of the
deadliest and most destructive riots in United States
history, lasting five days and surpassing the violence
and property destruction of Detroit's 1943 race riot.
To help end the disturbance, Governor George
Romney ordered the Michigan National Guard into
Detroit, and President Lyndon B. Johnson sent in
Army troops. The result was 43 dead, 467 injured,
over 7,200 arrests, and more than 2,000 buildings
destroyed. The scale of the riot was surpassed only
by the New York City Draft Riots, which took place
during the U.S. Civil War, and the 1992 Los Angeles
riots. The riot was prominently featured in the news
media, with live television coverage, extensive
newspaper reporting, and extensive stories in Time
and Life magazines. The Detroit Free Press won a
Pulitzer Prize for its coverage.
Reading Strategy Practice: Questioning
Do you think the extensive media coverage of the
riots and other similar events played a role in the
Civil Rights Movement?
http://youtu.be/OZMCTQSVReM
Do you think the coverage had a positive or negative
effect in advancing the movement?
On December 4th, 1969, Chicago police
raided Fred Hampton's apartment and shot
and killed him in his bed. He was just
twenty-one years old. Black Panther leader
Mark Clark was also killed in the raid. While
authorities claimed the Panthers had opened
fire on the police who were there to serve a
search warrant for weapons, evidence later
emerged that told a very different story:
that the FBI, the Cook County States
Attorneys office and the Chicago police
conspired to assassinate Fred Hampton.
This article, from the Chicago Tribune,
describes the events that lead to the death
of Fred Hampton, a prominent leader in the
Black Panther Party for Self Defense.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chichicagodays-pantherraid-story,0,3414208.story
http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/200809/42086758.jpg
Click the link for a video detailing the
government conspiracy against Fred
Hampton, the Black Panther Party and other
civil rights organizations throughout the
1960's.
"http://youtu.be/5Ds7NDC2-SM
Rachel Noel was the first African-American woman elected to
public office in Colorado and the first African-American
elected to the seven-member school board of the Denver
Public Schools. Motivated by her own experience with
discrimination, she seized the opportunity to work toward
desegregating Denver’s schools.
She introduced what became known as the Noel Resolution,
which set a goal for total integration by December 1968. The
method used to desegregate the schools was known as
'Desegregation busing' This method, also known as forced
busing or simply busing, is the practice of assigning and
transporting students to schools in such a manner as to
redress prior racial segregation of schools, or to overcome the
effects of residential segregation on local school
demographics.
Public opposition, including hate mail and angry phone calls,
did not discourage her. Although the new school board
overturned the resolution in 1969, the suit to integrate
Denver schools was eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme
Court.
Similar events occurred across the nation, some ending in
violence. This was the case when 'bussing' was implemented
in Boston in the early 1970's. View the video below, then
answer the questions.
Reading Strategy Practice: Making Connections
List the reasons given by those on both sides of the issue (i.e.
pro-bussing vs. anti-bussing).
http://youtu.be/jRHbLS-6JNg
Do you think 'bussing' is an effective tool to integrate schools?
Why?
Those clouds weren’t through with us yet and
dealt another Cassius Clay–left–and–a–right jab
to the body of our Boeing 727…it’s just the
clouds bumping…Like they bumped over Detroit
and Chicago and Denver.
**Reading Strategy Practice: Inference
Why do you think the author chose to mention
those cities along the route to Oakland?
http://www.historycentral.com/aviation/airports/national.jpg
Secret Agent Mother/Green Stucco House
It could have been the way the woman was dressed.
Big black shades. Scarf tied around her head. Over the
scarf, a big hat tilted down, the kind Pa wore with a
suit. A pair of man’s pants… Cecile looked more like a
secret agent than a mother. (p.18)
There was something uncommon about Cecile. Eyes
glommed onto her. Tall, dark brown woman in man’s
pants whose face was half hidden by a scarf, hat, and
big dark shades. She was like a colored movie star.
Tall, mysterious, and on the run. Mata Hari in the
airport. Except there weren’t any cameras or spies
following the colored, broad-shouldered Mata Hari.
(pp.19-20)
Reading Skills Practice: Monitor Learning
Do you know who Mata Hari is? If not, click the link
below.
Reading Skills Practice: Visualizing
http://www.huduser.org/rbc/newsletter/images/o
bispo.GIF
http://www.biography.com/people/mata-hari-9402348
Can you get a mental picture of the girls’ mother?
Draw a picture of what you think she might look like?
Reading Skills Practice: Synthesizing
Why do you think their mother seems so mysterious?
Inseparable
“If you girls want breakfast, go’n down to the
People’s Center.” We said all together, “The
People’s Center?”…Nothing but black folks in
black clothes rapping revolution and a line of
hungry black kids. (pp. 56-57)
In January, 1969, the Free Breakfast for School
Children Program was initiated at St.
Augustine's Church in Oakland by the Black
Panther Party. The Panthers would cook and
serve food to the poor inner city youth of the
area. Initially run out of a St. Augustine's Church
in Oakland, the Program became so popular that
by the end of the year, the Panthers set up
kitchens in cities across the nation, feeding over
10,000 children every day before they went to
school.
At the street level the Black Panther Party
began to develop a series of social programs to
provide needed services to black and poor
people, promoting thereby, at the same time, a
model for an alternative, more humane social
scheme. These programs, of which there came
to be more than 45, were eventually referred to
as Survival Programs, and were operated by
Party members under the slogan "survival
pending revolution.“
http://youtu.be/RuDncGcURzA
http://www.jetcityorange.com/blackpanther-party/breakfast-program.jpg
According to the interview, what were some of
the other “Survival Programs” that the Black
Panther Party implement in the community?
This is the site of one of many rallies held
by the Black Panther Party to spread their
message of Black Pride and empowerment
for Black people.
In this speech, Bobby Seale outlines the
“basic platform” of the Black Panther
Party.
The Ten Point Program was the foundation
for the work of the Panthers throughout
the United States.
Click the link to view the Ten Point
Program
Reading Strategy Practice: Inference
http://youtu.be/LPP0hiLuxdQ
http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/131
2902177_BlackPantherParty10pointPlatfor
mand.jpg
After listening to the speech and gaining
insight as to the goals of the party, is the
Black Panther Party portrayed accurately
in the media?
Rally For Bobby
When Sister Pat pinned the picture of Bobby Hutton
to the wall next to the other revolutionaries I
learned who he was. I finally read about him in the
Black Panther newspaper. The article reported how
the people wanted to name the park after Bobby.
The article also retold what had happened to him. I
kind of remembered having watched the news with
Big Ma a few months ago and hearing about the
shooting in Oakland. Now the shooting seemed
closer. More real. Bobby Hutton was the first
member of the Black Panthers, other than the
leaders. He was so young, the Black Panther
leaders—Huey Newton and Bobby Seale—made him
get his mother’s permission to join. He was also the
youngest Black Panther to die for the cause. He was
only six years older than I was. (pp.126-127)
View the video below for insight into the life and
contributions of 17-year-old, Black Panther, Bobby
Hutton.
http://youtu.be/axhhXJqJJ-U
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thum
b/2/2d/Bobby_Hutton.jpg/220pxBobby_Hutton.jpg
It didn’t make sense to fly three thousand miles
to the land of Mickey Mouse, movie stars, and
all-year sun and not see anything but Black
Panthers, police cars, and poor black people.
Instead, I planned that we would spend our
nearly last Saturday in California traveling
across the bay to San Francisco to ride a cable
car and see Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf, and
the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, that was an
excursion worthy of a back-to-school essay. Even
if we didn’t have a camera to take pictures of
us on our adventure, we would know we’d been
there. (pp.153-154)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lJaeF4G-qgM/T5tGRuKofI/AAAAAAAADWk/IL-tC5Uvhg/s1600/San+Francisco+CA+1960s+Chinatown+China.png
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/Ymvk5TJceFo/T57c9kOXw1I/AAAAAAAAGa4/ho1PmhAvqU/s1600/golden-gate-bridge.jpg
San Francisco Treat
Why had the police arrested Cecile? She wrote “Send us
back to Africa” poems and “Movable Type” poems. She
didn’t write “Off the Pig” poems and “Kill Whitey”
poems, that is, if writing poems were a crime...It was
just as Sister Mukumbu and Crazy Kelvin were trying to
teach us. In Oakland they arrested you for being
something. Saying something. If you were a freedom
fighter, sooner or later you would be arrested. (pp. 169170)
By 1968, the Black Panther party had become the target
of hostility by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
and other law enforcement agencies. The head of the FBI,
J. Edgar Hoover, proclaimed the Black Panthers the
"single greatest threat to the internal security of the
United States.”
Reading Strategy Practice: Inference
Why do you feel that J. Edgar Hoover thought that the
Panthers were such a threat?
In order to attempt to discourage continued growth of the
Panther Party, Local police watched the Panthers closely
and made numerous arrests on whatever charges they
imagined might be plausible -- arrests that could not be
sustained by the courts. Panthers were harassed with high
bail and with heavy fees in retrieving their cars from
police impoundment.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Q5lBi7y0_OQ/ScmT3ZIOZ_I/AAAAAAAABI8
/tjPi9IKc3BE/s400/pirkle+jones1.jpg
Reading Strategy Practice: Determine Importance
Click the link below, according to the timeline which
prominent Black Panthers were arrested or imprisoned in
1968? Why?
 This
Google Lit Trip of Rita Williams-Garcia’s
One Crazy Summer has taken readers on a
journey from Brooklyn, New York to Oakland,
California.
 Both the novel and Google Lit Trip illustrate
a coming-of-age tale where political and
social unrest are the backdrop to a story of a
girl coming to terms with her relationship, or
lack thereof, with her mother.
 The One Crazy Summer Google Lit Trip also
served as an opportunity for students to
practice the Super 7 Reading Comprehension
Skills (see slide 15)
 CCSS correlations (see slide 16)
This Google Lit Trip is to be incorporated into the US History Curriculum, it satisfies the
following standards:
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Key Ideas and Details
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Craft and Structure
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RH.9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
RH.9-10.5. Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or
analysis.
RH.9-10.6. Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar
topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
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RH.9-10.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources,
attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
RH.9-10.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an
accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
RH.9-10.3. Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events
caused later ones or simply preceded them.
RH.9-10.7. Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative
analysis in print or digital text.
RH.9-10.8. Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author’s
claims.
RH.9-10.9. Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary
sources.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
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RH.9-10.10. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 9–
10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.