postwar America..."a culture of joblessness" for urban African Americans

A film and a jazz performance - both available via YouTube. And excerpts from two historical readings. These were the tools before the class today as we sat down to learn more more about the hurdles of working class African Americans after World War II. To make the lesson more meaningful and to help the students see some of the things expected in their final papers, which are due on May 3, the class was split into two teams and asked to juxtaposed Thomas Sugrue's study on Detroit and Clarence Lang's research on St. Louis against the 1964 film "Nothing But a Man," which is partly set in 1960s Birmingham, Alabama. The goal: Write a thesis statement for a paper that analyzes the movie against the readings, which reveal the structural and social impact of failed New Deal initiatives on postwar African Americans. They were given the option to focus on one of the readings if it helped them to sharpen the ideas before them. To further push their thinking, the students were also asked to consider the life of jazz singer-actress Abbey Lincoln who stars in the movie. Lincoln's real-life political views and her early 1960s performances demonstrate, among other things, how black artists were aware of the postwar challenges facing African Americans  (Ivan Dixon, who stars opposite Lincoln in the film, was also a Civil Rights activist). While the theses revealed room for improvement (for example, the students failed to engage Abbey Lincoln's black freedom politics, something they have the option of exploring by next Monday for extra credit), I was pretty impressed with the results given how much they had to review and digest before writing in a two and a half hour class.  The thesis for Group A (Roosevelt, Aaron, Alexis and Lauria) went as follows: "Detroit's postwar urban crisis emerged as the consequence of two  important interrelated and unresolved problems in American history: 1)[the ways in which] capitalism generates economic inequality [and] 2) the ways in which African Americans ...[bear] disproportionately the impact [of this] inequality."

The thesis for Group B (Tiffany, Christin, Raven, Shariyah and Shanece): "Set in Jim Crow South during the postwar era, "Nothing But a Man" unveils the marginalization of blacks. Like the [Thomas] Sugrue and [Clarence] Lang readings, it demonstrates how behavior and values of poor or 'working class' [African Americans] manifest in a culture of joblessness...It does so in the following ways: 1) status ([Duff (Ivan Dixon), the protagonist] is a railroad worker; 2) social[ly] (He refuses to abide by Jim Crow laws, which leads to his joblessness [and] 3) mental[ly] (His inability to keep a job because of his attitude and behavior affect his marriage and self worth." To  read and hear what the students read and heard, click the links and clips above. Pay close attention to the lyrics in Lincoln's performance of "Driva Man" and consider them while watching "Nothing But a Man." The entire movie is available on YouTube.

Powerpoint used in today's class