Chicago History Project
Lesson and Unit Plan
Jennifer Johnson
Remembering Lynching Lesson Plan
LESSON PLAN ANALYSIS
1. Subject: United States History
2. Grade Level: Regular-tracked sophomores
3. Topic: Lynching, Reconstruction/Jim Crow
4. Goal: The goal of this lesson is to make students aware of the horrific reality of life for
African Americans after the Civil War and after the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments. Students should be shocked by the extent of the brutality free blacks faced
and should try to compare and contrast the mindset of different Americans after the Civil
War. Students should question both the success of Reconstruction and the response to
the practice of lynching among citizens and politicians.
In preparing my original lesson involving the Power Point presentation of images of
lynching and the audio of Billie Holiday singing “Strange Fruit,” I really did not take a
lot of time to think about how well I was explaining the context of and the consequences
of lynching. I became very passionate about presenting the images to my students with
the emotional vocal rendition and probably left my students without a full understanding
of why analyzing the pictures and song was important. The CHP summer institute has
really reminded me that history is complex and helping students digest it is difficult
considering that as teachers we often do not have enough time to digest it ourselves.
In this revised lesson, I have expanded the discussion to include more voices, other than
just Holiday’s, in order to guide my students through all the nuances of this topic. In five
years, I hope that students remember the visceral images of men and women murdered
and recognize the song and its singer upon mention or play. But more than that, I want
my students remember that freedom for blacks came with a price--the promises of Union
victory and Reconstruction could only be fulfilled in name, but not in practice. My
reading primary sources from a variety of voices, I want my students to understand how
political (strong southern Democrats and WWI) and economic (recession and Great
Depression) circumstances collided with racial fear and hatred to cause this regular and
extrajudicial outpouring of violence. I want my students to remember that the period
between Civil War and Civil Rights was not stagnant, that blacks moved and advocated
for themselves, that allies did appear and that the horror of lynching was a matter of
public discussion and debate from the early writings of Wells to the advocacy of Johnson.
Finally, the lesson is framed by the concept of memory and remembering. I hope that in
showing my students what others suffered to make gains, they will remember to
appreciate and use the voice and agency they have today.
1
Chicago History Project
Lesson and Unit Plan
Jennifer Johnson
5. Objectives:
 Students should first think about the elements of memory. Why do we remember
certain events? What is the role of photography in aiding memory? Students
should use the unit to think about how they want to be remembered personally.
 Students should analyze and evaluate the causes, practice and significance of and
the response to lynching through images, music, and written sources. Through
these documents, students should understand the different American perspectives
in the debate over lynching in the past and how Americans differ in how they
remember lynching today. Students should understand how national events and
circumstances impacted the treatment of blacks after Reconstruction and through
to the Civil Rights Era.
 Students should react physically and emotionally to the images and song
presented to them.
 Students should practice their writing, critical thinking, graphing, reading
comprehension, presentation and listening skills.
6. Materials:
 Power Point on Photography
 Power Point on Lynching
 CD/MP3 of Billie Holiday’s version of the song “Strange Fruit”
 CD player
 Laptop
 LCD projector
 VHS/DVD of Ken Burns’ “Jazz” Episode 6
 TV/VCR/DVD
 Worksheet Packet (Including Project Assignment, All Discussion & Reading
Questions & Grading Rubrics)
 Reconstruction to Civil Rights Reference Timeline
 Lynching by Year Statistics
 Primary Source Packet (See Bibliography)
 Construction Paper/Printer Paper/Computers/Glue/Scissors/Writing Utensils
2
Chicago History Project
Lesson and Unit Plan
Jennifer Johnson
7. Activities: (Numbers in parentheses refer to page number in Unit Worksheet Packet)
DAY 1
1. Intro to Unit: Remembering Lynching
a. Show Zoom In-Out Power Point
i. Begin with Discussion Questions in Power Point
ii. Analyze the purpose of taking each picture until reaching final photo of
the Shipp/Smith lynching
iii. Preview Remainder of Unit
b. Introduce & Assign “Remember Me” Picture Project (100 points) (1)
i. Pass out Unit Worksheet Packet
1. Review Project Questions (3-4)
2. Review Project Grading Rubric (2)
3. Due Date is Last Day of Unit (1)
4. Discuss Presentations
ii. Assign Homework: Bring in 1 picture of yourself tomorrow (1)
DAY 2
2. Strange Fruit
a. Show Lynching Power Point while song “Strange Fruit” plays
i. Students Complete Initial Reaction Writing Prompt in Unit Worksheet
Packet (5)
ii. Show & Discuss Remaining Slides using Notes/Discussion Page in Unit
Worksheet Packet (5-6)
iii. Students Work on Rough Draft of Project Questions #1 & #2
DAY 3-4
b. Play 6-7 minute Ken Burns “Jazz” video clip
i. Discuss Movie Questions in Unit Worksheet Packet (6)
3. Complete Post Reconstruction Timeline (25 points)
a. Students Fill-In Blank Graph (Students graph the number of lynchings each year
and choose the most important events to place on timeline below graph.) (7)
i. Students should be given copies of the reference materials
1. “Lynching by Year Statistics”
2. “Reconstruction to Civil Rights Events List”
ii. Students Complete Timeline Questions in Unit Worksheet Packet (8)
b. Students Work on Rough Draft of Project Question #3
DAY 5
4. Primary Source Analysis (50 points)
a. Divide students into 3 or 6 groups.
b. Assign each group to one set of primary sources with the same cover page.
i. Cover Page (9)
ii. Anti-Lynching Group (10)
iii. Women Against Lynching Group (11)
3
Chicago History Project
Lesson and Unit Plan
Jennifer Johnson
iv. Political Response Group (12)
c. Students read their own group’s documents and answer the questions about the
cover page and their documents in the Unit Worksheet Packet.
DAY 6
d. Students form new groups of three, one from each primary source group.
e. Students report what they found in their documents to each other so that all
students will have answers to all document questions.
f. Full class discussion using questions in Unit Worksheet Packet (13)
g. Students Work on Rough Draft of Project Questions of the Day #4 & #5
DAY 7
5. Senate Apology Articles
a. Copies of 2 articles to read aloud as full class
i. “Why an Apology from the Senate Can’t Make Amends”
ii. “Deep South’s response to a lynching apology”
b. Students write down initial thoughts in Unit Worksheet Packet (13)
c. Full Class Discussion using Questions in Unit Worksheet Packet (13)
DAY 8-10
6. Student “Remember Me” Project Workday (Library or Computer Lab)
a. Students type responses to project questions
b. Students assemble Final Project
7. Project Presentations
8. Evaluation:
 Student Assessments:
o Student Worksheet Packets=100 points (25 discussion points, 25 points for
Timeline Activity, 50 points for Primary Source Document Analysis)
o Student Unit Projects=100 points
 Teacher Reflection upon class discussion
4
Chicago History Project
Lesson and Unit Plan
Jennifer Johnson
UNIT PLAN ANALYSIS
1. What is the central topic or theme of the unit?
The central theme of the unit is Discrimination. Discrimination is Unit 7 out of the 8
units in our thematic curriculum. (The units in the curriculum are as follows: Unit
1=What is History?/Why & How do we study it?; Unit 2=Immigration & Migration; Unit
3=Protest & Rebellion; Unit 4=The Constitution; Unit 5=The Role of Government; Unit
6=Business & Technology; Unit 7=Discrimination; Unit 8=War/Conflicts & Resolutions)
2. What is the essential content or knowledge addressed in the unit?
Students are asked to grapple with the overall Unit 7 question, “Has the United States
reached the ideal of ‘All men are created equal’?” To answer this question, students
begin Unit 7 by taking a multicultural awareness quiz about discrimination and prejudice
today. Then students study discrimination in the context of the following topics:
American Indians (Columbus Day, Trail of Tears, Wounded Knee), slavery, women’s
roles, discriminatory American laws (Missouri Compromise, Wilmot Proviso,
Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Fugitive Slave Act), W.E.B. DuBois v.
Booker T. Washington, lynching & Jim Crow, genocide & the Holocaust, WWII
discrimination (Zoot Suit Riots, Japanese internment, Sacco & Vanzetti), the Civil Rights
Movement and affirmative action. The unit ends with a final project.
3. What are the essential skills developed by the unit?
The unit addresses many skills through a variety of activities, largely to promote critical
thinking. The activities in the unit are designed to encourage students to practice
participating in discussion, reflecting upon personal opinions, reading primary sources for
content, listening and understanding to videos, discussions and teacher directions,
analyzing political cartoons, note-taking, and completing a major research project.
Students do not take an objective test over Unit 7. Instead, they examine discrimination
in the United States up to the Civil Rights Movement as a class and then produce verystructured individual research posters about specific events and people of the Civil Rights
Movement. Students must first write describe the basic information about their person or
event by answering 5 questions and then analyze how successful their person or event
was at fighting discrimination in the United States by answering another 5 questions.
This research project gives students the chance to do library research in books and on the
internet and asks them to practice written, visual and oral presentation skills.
4. What curricular resources and materials are used?
This unit incorporates a wide variety of primary sources and supplemental materials.
Students only use their textbook as a reference book for their research project, otherwise
the textbook stays a secondary sources. Some examples of resources that we use in Unit
7 are a Discrimination Awareness Quiz by Paul C. Gorski, opposing viewpoint articles on
Columbus Day (one by Berliner and one by the American Indian Movement), a section of
the movie mini-series “Roots,” the Rosie the Riveter propaganda poster, Booker T.
Washington’s Atlanta Compromise Speech and W.E.B. DuBois’ essay, Of Mr. Booker T.
5
Chicago History Project
Lesson and Unit Plan
Jennifer Johnson
Washington and Others, the texts in this lesson, Executive Order 9066, a video of the
genocide during the Holocaust, and the courtroom speech by Bartolome Vanzetti. In
terms of instructional materials, the unit requires photocopies of primary sources, an LCD
projector, a laptop, a CD player, and the supplies for completing the poster project.
5. How does the unit address the Illinois State Standards in Social Science?
Since the focus of this unit is discrimination within the United States, Unit 7 tends to best
address State Goal 16 (History). The benchmarks for this unit apply to historical analysis
which is addressed in the unit by document analysis and the research project. In order to
answer the unit question, students must also rely on their understanding of units 3, 4, and
5 so they can compare the discriminatory practices to political developments in American
history which are discussed in State Goal 14 (Politics).
This unit directly addresses the following Illinois standards:
Standards/Benchmarks: 1B4b, 1B4c, 1C4b, 3A4, 4A4a, 4A4b, 4B4a, 5A4a, 5A4b, 5B4b,
14F2, 14F3a, 14F4b, 16A4a, 16A4b, 16A5a, 16B2d (US), 16C3b (US), 16D4a (US),
16D4b (US), 18C3a
Performance Descriptors: Stage I 1B.1-10, 1C.1-10, 3A.1-3, 4A.1-7, 4B.1-7, 5A.1-5,
5B.1-5, 14F.1,4-5, 16A.4-6, 16B.1-3, 16C.1, 16D.1-4, 18C.1
6
Chicago History Project
Lesson and Unit Plan
Jennifer Johnson
Works Cited
Addams, Jane. Independent Magazine (January 1901).
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/adams.cfm>.
Ames, Jessie Daniel. “The Changing Character of Lynching.” 1942.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/ames3.cfm>.
Baker, Ray Stannard. “What is a Lynching?” McClure's Magazine (February 1905).
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/baker1.cfm>.
Brown, Charlotte Hawkins. “Speech Given at the Women's Interracial Conference in Memphis
Tennessee.” 8 October 1920.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/brown.cfm>.
Brown, William. Photograph. Omaha, Nebraska (September 28, 1919).
< http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/2000/lynching.htm>
Costigan-Wagner Anti-Lynching Bill. Political Cartoon. Pittsburgh Press. NAACP Papers.
Library of Congress. 5 May 1935.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/pittsburgh.cfm>.
Cutler, PhD., James Elbert. Lynch-law: An Investigation into the History of Lynch Law in the
United States. New York: Green & Company, 1905.
“The Dogwood Tree.” Poem on postcard (Reprinted in Litwack). Center, Texas: Harkrider Drug
Co., 1908.
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. Political Cartoon. Philadelphia Tribune. NAACP Papers. Library of
Congress. 18 December 1926.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/dryer_cartoon.cfm>.
Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd. Revolt Against Chivalry: Jessie Daniel Ames and the Women’s
Campaign Against Lynching. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Harding, Warren. Letter from his Secretary to James Weldon Johnson. NAACP Papers. Library
of Congress, 8 December 1922.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/harding_secretary.cfm>.
Harding, Warren. Letter to James Weldon Johnson. Warren Harding Papers. Library of
Congress, 18 June 1921.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/harding.cfm>.
Hentoff, Nat. “The Ghosts of Strange Fruit.” JazzTimes (October 2002).
<http://www.jazztimes.com/columns_and_features/final_chorus/index.cfm?id=36>.
Jonsson, Patrik. “Deep South’s response to a lynching apology.” The Christian Science Monitor,
15 June 2005.
“Ken Burns' Jazz, Episode 6: Swing - The Velocity of Celebration, 1937-1939.”
Videorecording. PBS Home Video, 2000. 120 min.
Litwack, Leon F. Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow. New York:
Vintage Books, 1998.
Maclean, Nancy. “The Leo Frank Case Reconsidered: Gender and Sexual Politics in the Making
of Reactionary Populism.” The Journal of American History, December 1991.
Nelson, Laura. Photograph. Okemah, Oklahoma (May 25, 1911).
< http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lynching/lynching.htm>.
“The Shame of America.” New York Times, 23 November 1922.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/shame.cfm>.
7
Chicago History Project
Lesson and Unit Plan
Jennifer Johnson
Shipp, Thomas & Abram Smith. Photograph. Marion, Indiana (August 7, 1930).
< http://www.outofrange.net/blogarchive/archives/2004_11.html>.
Tuskegee Institute Lynching Statistics; Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882-1968.
<http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingsstate.html>
Wadsworth, Jr., James W. Letter to James Weldon Johnson. NAACP Papers. Library of
Congress. 9 August 1922.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/wadsworth.cfm>.
Waud, Alfred R. “The First Vote.” Harper’s Weekly, November 1867.
<http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/scripts/jimcrow/gallery.cgi?collection=crow>.
Wells, Ida B. A Red Record. 1895.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/wells2.cfm>.
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. “The White Man’s Problem.” The Arena 23.1. (January 1900): 15-24.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/wells4.cfm>.
Wexler, Laura. “A Sorry History: Why an Apology From the Senate Can’t Make Amends.” The
Washington Post, 19 June 2005.
Bibliography
Als, Hilton, Jon Lewis, Leon F. Litwack, and James Allen, ed., Without Sanctuary: Lynching
Photography in America. Santa Fe, N.M.: Twin Palms Publishers, 2000.
Apel, Dora. “On Looking: Lynching Photographs and Legacies of Lynching after 9/11.”
American Quarterly (2003): 457-478.
Cameron, James. A Time of Terror: A Survivor’s Story. Baltimore [MD]: Black Classic Press,
1993.
Chafe, William H., ed., et al., Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the
Segregated South. New York: New Press, 2003.
Dray, Philip. At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America. New York:
Modern Library, 2003.
Ginzburg, Ralph. 100 Years of Lynching. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 1997.
Goldsby, Jacqueline. “The High and Low Tech of It: The Meaning of Lynching and the Death
of Emmett Till.” The Yale Journal of Criticism 9.2. (1996): 245-282.
Katz, Joel. “Strange Fruit.” Videorecording. California Newsreel, 2002. 58 min.
Madison, James H. A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America. New York:
palgrave for St. Martin’s Press, 2001.
Perkins, Kathy A., ed., Strange Fruit: Plays on Lynching by American Women. Bloomington,
IN: Indiana University Press, 1998.
Royster, Jacqueline Jones, ed. Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching
Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900. The Bedford Series in History and Culture. New
York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997.
“Strange Fruit: The Film.” Independent Television Service & PBS, 2005.
<http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/strangefruit/film.html>.
Wells, Ida B. “Kentucky’s Crime.” Richmond Planet, 26 August 1893.
<http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/exhibits/mitchell/miller.htm>.
Wells, Ida B. Southern Horrors. Lynch Law in All Its Phases. 1892.
8
Chicago History Project
Lesson and Unit Plan
Jennifer Johnson
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/lynching/wells1.cfm>.
Additional Websites
http://www.crf-usa.org/bria/bria10_3.html#lynching (entire lesson on hate crimes)
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_lp_billie_holiday.htm (lesson plan on
“Strange Fruit”)
http://www.newsreel.org/films/strangefruit.htm (to order the documentary “Strange Fruit” by
Joel Katz)
http://www.uic.edu/educ/bctpi/greatmigration/documents320.html (document database)
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5487 (article on lynching and other US documents)
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lynching/lynching.htm (excellent anti-lynching
articles by known historians with Nelson photo)
http://www.outofrange.net/blogarchive/archives/2004_11.html (a personal blog with the
Shipp/Smith photo)
http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/2000/lynching.htm (professor’s article with Brown
photo)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2005/06/29/AR2005062900724.html?sub
=AR (an excellent article about the Senate apology and a reunion of the descendents of lynching)
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/columnists/bob_ray_sanders/11418032.htm (another Senate
apology article, but with “The Dogwood Tree” poem)
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/lynch/doc1.htm (full text of Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill)
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/lynching/end_5.html?sect=8 (history of
lynching from a criminologist’s perspective)
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html (lynching stats by
year)
9