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Black History Month Program for Elementary and Middle Schools in Utah By Margaret Blair Young With excerpts from the original words of Black heroes from the past The program should last about 1/2 hour, though if individual schools choose to add to it, they are certainly free to. It might be beneficial to have all students learn “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and to have various classes learn the songs – one song per class. The songs are: Amazing Grace Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child Swing Low, Sweet Chariot O Freedom! Follow the Drinking Gourd Nobody Knows the Troubles I’ve Seen Lift Every Voice and Sing Set requirements: One roving microphone (though two would be better) and either chairs or blocks for all actors. Narrators can turn microphones over to the actors at the appropriate times. Lighting can be general or, preferably, spot-lit. Narrators may dress in contemporary dress, though actors should be costumed in clothes fitting the times in which their characters lived.
Characters: 4 women, 6 men Narrator 1 (black male) Narrator 2 (black female) Nat Turner Frederick Douglass Sojourner Truth Harriet Tubman Green Flake Booker T. Washington Rosa Parks Martin Luther King, Jr. We recommend that upper grades (or preferably the whole school) learn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” for the conclusion. Prelude music should be traditional “Negro Spirituals” “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” is a good possibility.
Program Narrator 1 (black man): We were here. Before the pilgrims came on the Mayflower, we were here. Before the first cannons fired in the Revolutionary War, we were here. Some of us were slaves and some of us were free, but we were here. Many of our people fought in that Revolutionary War for the issues stated in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Narrator 2 (black woman): Most of our names have been forgotten by now, for the majority of us were slaves. We were listed only as property, not people. We could not write our own names, because we didn’t know how to write.
And now, it seems time has forgotten our names. Yet we have a great history in this country. Ours is the heroic history of survival. Our history travels the length of a whip and the vastness of a dream. It spans oceans and centuries. It is the history of the human spirit’s quest for freedom. It is the history of our souls.
Narrator 1: We began in Africa, though most of us don’t know where our ancestors were when they were kidnaped and brought across the ocean as slaves. We know the slave ships were overcrowded and our people were abused. The sight was terrible.
One man who worked as a slave ship captain knew the sight well. He grew to hate the slaving business, and wrote a song we still sing today. His name was John Newton, and the song is “Amazing Grace.” He wrote it one stormy night when it seemed the ocean would swallow him and all his ship–with hundreds of slaves–whole. Song: Amazing Grace Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found Was blind but now I see Narrator 2: The names of the slaves on Mr. Newton’s ship were African. Most received new names once arrived at their destination.
Their own children did not have African names, and were raised speaking English. They had names like “Frederick.” or “Harriet” or “Nathaniel.” Perhaps you have heard of Nathaniel–Nat–Turner, who led his fellow slaves in a dangerous and bloody rebellion. Nat Turner: I was born the property of Benjamen Turner.
I had a vision, and I saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle. The sun was darkened, the thunder rolled in the Heavens, blood flowed in streams, and I heard a voice saying, “Such is your luck, such you are called to see, and let it come rough or smooth, you must surely bear it.” Narrator 1: Nat Turner and many other slaves were executed after this rebellion, but many people, white and black, were listening anew to the message of slaves and former slaves. Many people wanted to abolish slavery–to get rid of it. They were called “Abolitionists.” One of the most important men of our race was Frederick Douglass. Like Nat Turner, he was born a slave. But he ran away from his master and became a great speaker for the Abolitionists. Standing before large audiences like this one, he would tell about his childhood, and about the evil of slavery.
Frederick Douglass: My mother’s visits to me were few, brief, and mostly made in the night. Yet I shall never forget her expression when I told her I had had no food since morning and that the mistress meant to starve the life out of me. There was pity in her glance at me. She gave me a large ginger cake.
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That night I learned that I was not only a child, but somebody’s child. The sweet cake my mother gave me was in the shape of a heart. On my mother’s knee, I was a king upon his throne. But my triumph was short. I dropped off to sleep, and waked in the morning only to find my mother gone. I do not remember to have seen her after this.
I learned, after my mother’s death, that she could read. That a “field hand” should learn to read, in any slave state, is remarkable. But the achievement of my mother, considering the place, was extraordinary. Song: Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child A long ways from home A long ways from home Sometimes I feel like I’m almost gone Sometimes I feel like I’m almost gone Sometimes I feel like I’m almost gone A long ways from home A long ways from home Frederick Douglass (Continued): Still, the dark night of slavery fell upon me. I languished–until I felt a resurrection from the dark tomb of slavery to the heaven of freedom. I was not afraid to die.
Bruises I did get, but this spirit made me a free man. Narrator 2: Mister Frederick Douglass sometimes took off his shirt during his speeches and showed the deep whip marks on his back. Sometimes, this caused some women in the audience to faint. And sometimes another former slave, a woman, joined him in speaking of human rights. Meet Sojourner Truth. Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a woman? I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man.
I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed. Can any man do more than that?
I tell you, the meanest child of glory outshines the brightest sun! Narrator 1: Another great woman of color did not make many speeches, but she did make many journeys. She herself had run away to where freedom was, but returned time and again to the slave world to rescue other slaves. She took them from one hiding place to another, using what we call “The Underground Railroad.” (Note: The song “Follow the Drinking Gourd” can be sung here if desired.) The Underground Railroad was not a real railroad with tracks and trains. It consisted of many safe houses where runaway slaves could stay on their way to freedom. Some called Harriet Tubman “Moses.” Like Moses of Old, she led slaves to a promised land. Harriet Tubman: I was only seven years old when I was sent away to take care of a white baby.
One morning, I stood by the table waiting till I was to take it. Just by me was a bowl of lumps of white sugar. I never had nothing good, and that sugar did look so nice, and my Missus’s back was turned to me so I just put my fingers in the sugar bowl to take one lump, and she turned and saw me.
The next minute she had the raw hide down. I just flew, and they didn’t catch me. I run and I run and I run, and when I was clear tuckered out, I come to a big pig pen.
I stayed from Friday till the next Tuesday, fighting with those little pigs for the potato peelings and other scraps. By Tuesday, I was so starved I knowed I’d got to go back to my Missus. I hadn’t got no where else to go. But: years later, I did have someplace to go. Freedom land.
And I took others with me. You see, there was one or two things I had a right to: liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive. Song: Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Comin’ for to carry me home Swing low, sweet chariot Comin’ for to carry me home I look over Jordan and what do I see Comin’ for to carry me home A band of angels comin’ after me Comin’ for to carry me home Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, Comin’ for to carry me home Swing low, sweet chariot Comin’ for to carry me home Narrator 2: You may not know that there were slaves even here in Utah. When the pioneers came, they brought three “colored servants” with them in the very first company: Hark Lay, Oscar Crosby, and Green Flake. Green Flake was probably driving Brigham Young’s wagon. Years later, at a Pioneer Recognition Day, Green was honored.
There, a little girl asked him a question. (Narrator turns to Green Flake) “Mr.
Flake, what was it like to be a slave?” Narrator 1 (standing up abruptly): You don’t have to answer that, Mister Flake! Green Flake: No, I want to answer it. Being a slave is all right, if you just want to be a slave, that is. But many of us colored folk wanted a better life, if we could find one. I was raised a slave and had a master to tell me what to do. He gave me a place to sleep, fed and clothed me, worked me, and told me what to do each day. Sometimes I got whipped, and my master would give me a big kick in the pants if I sluffed off or made a mistake or if I was lazy.
Slavery’s been around for a long time, and the colored folks got sold like they was a horse, a cow or some other animal. They become the owner’s property, and they work long and hard for the master. Most everyone don’t want to be a slave and be in bondage to another, because you can’t have even your own thoughts and dreams.
You can’t plan for the future when all decisions gets made by someone else. Narrator 2: You see, that need for freedom is deep in all of us. We sang about it often.
Song: O Freedom O Freedom, O Freedom O Freedom over me! And before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave And go home to my Lord And be free No more weepin’, no more weepin’ no more weepin’ over me! And before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave And go home to my Lord and be free. Narrator 1: Freedom came, but not easy. It came with blood. It cost this nation the Civil War to free its slaves.
Many of our race fought in that war, too. After it was over, we were emancipated, but we had new challenges. Most who had been slaves still couldn’t read or write. We didn’t have good schools, and we sure didn’t have money. Some still farmed the ground they had farmed as slaves, though now they could sell the crops they raised. Others moved elsewhere in search of a better life. Some found it, and some found only sorrow and trouble.
Song: Nobody Knows the Troubles I’ve Seen Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen Nobody knows my sorrow Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen Glory hallelujah. Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down Oh yeah, Lord Sometimes I’m almost to the ground Oh yes, Lord. Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen Glory hallelujah. Narrator 2: We knew we needed education. We needed a vision of what we could be, not just the memory of what we’d been.
There were many who built schools to educate the freed slaves and their children. One of the great ones was Mr. He founded Tuskeegee Institute. He laid a foundation others would build on. Good people are still working and building to ensure that opportunities for education will be equal for white and black alike, and that all races will have equal say in the government. Washington: I do not believe that any state should make a law that permits an ignorant and poverty-stricken white man to vote, and prevents a black man in the same condition from voting.
It will become apparent that the white man who begins by cheating a Negro out of his ballot soon learns to cheat a white man out of his. Narrator 2: Booker T.
Washington was famous in his day, and respected. But full freedom was still a long ways off for us.
So there came a time when it was necessary to stand up for Civil Rights–or in one case, to refuse to stand up. Meet Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks: December 5, 1955, was one of the memorable and inspiring days of my life. History records this day as the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement that transformed America and influenced freedom revolutions around the world. I had been arrested four days earlier in my hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to get up and give my seat on a city bus to a white man, which was a much-resented customary practice at the time.
Martin Luther King said of me and others, “When the history books are written in the future, somebody will have to say, ‘There lived a race of people, a black people, fleecy locks and black complexion, a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization.” Song: Reprise (3rd verse) “O Freedom” There’ll be singin’ There’ll be singin’ There’ll be singin over me And before I’ll be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave And go home to my Lord And be free Narrator 1: These are only a few names from our history, and a few words. There are so many others now–poets, musicians, artists, doctors, politicians, lawyers, professors. We call ourselves African Americans because we cherish our heritage–in its completeness. African and American. We were here, and we still are, building lives and legacies. Perhaps no one helped us realize our worth and our dreams quite like the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. I am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhereI have a dream that some day my four little children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!
Narrator 2: I have a dream today, too. I hope each of you has a dream. And I hope each of you has the knowledge that your dreams can come true. So dream high. Lift up your heads and dream high.
And lift every voice and sing. Song: Lift Every Voice and Sing Negro National Anthem–audience should be standing. 'Since I joined the Church, I desire to be more and more obedient to God. As I do so, many people say to me, 'I see a light in you more than ever before.During one performance at Disney world.a member of the audience asked, 'Could you please tell us.how you got that light?' ' – Gladys Knight 'At the age of 15, I considered myself a seeker of truth and a spiritual person. I discovered THE BOOK OF MORMON while doing research on Muslims at my high school.
I had every intention of uniting myself to that religion in some form. Assuming Muslims had some affiliation with Mormon specified on that strange sky-blue edition of the BOOK OF MORMON; I removed it from the shelf and read it.
That book converted me to Jesus Christ.' – Rodric Johnson Search for: Links. Meta.
The beginning of the twentieth century was a critical time in African-American history. Segregation and discrimination were on the rise. Two seminal African American figures began to debate on ways to combat racial problems. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois developed different strategies for racial uplift as they actively competed for the support of the black community. In the process, Washington and Du Bois made a permanent mark on the debate over how blacks should achieve equality in America. Although other books address the WashingtonDDu Bois conflict, this text provides a detailed overview of the issues in a brief yet thorough narrative, giving students a clear understanding of these two influential leaders.
Jacqueline Moore incorporates the latest scholarship as she examines the motivations of Washington and Du Bois and the political issues surrounding their positions. Accompanying documents allow students to see actual evidence on the issues. Moore contextualizes the debate in the broader terms of radical versus accommodationist strategies of racial uplift.
Black History Ideas For Church Youth
Washington-an accommodationist-believed economic independence was most important to racial equality. Du Bois adopted more radical strategies, arguing that social and political equality-not just economic opportunity-were essential to racial uplift. This book traces the argument between these two men, which became public in 1903 when Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk, which included an attack on Washington, his association with Tuskegee Institute’s industrial education program, and accommodationism. The clash between Du Bois and Washington escalated over the next 12 years. Du Bois was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization that often opposed Washington’s gradualist approach.
Although the NAACP became the major civil rights organization after Washington’s death in 1915, the same issues Washington and DuBois debated surfaced in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and the debate raged once again between accommodationists and radicals. In time, both men’s ideals faded until the same issues surfaced again in the 1960s, and the debate raged once again between accom-modationists and radicals within the Civil Rights Movement. Washington, W.E.B.
Youtube Black History Church Program
Du Bois, and the Struggle for Racial Uplift is an excellent resource for courses in African American history, race relations, and minority and ethnic politics. Black History Month Display. This text follows the life and struggle of Dr. Charles Drew, black surgeon and blood plasma pioneer, who successfully fought the American Red Cross in their decision to segregate white blood from black. While in Britain in 1940, Drew became full-time medical director of the plasma project for Great Britain, the first great experiment in gross production of human plasma. His documentation of the experiment was used by the U.U. Army, and later the American Red Cross, in more ambitious blood bank projects.
This work is written in the dramatic style of the “Ideas on Trial” series from Bank Street, presenting Drew’s life and struggle in detail. It contains diary entries, letters, trial transcripts and newspapers.
The month of February is a time of reflection of history; a tribute to those who have overcome suffering and injustice; and praise for a powerful and sustaining God. From the Amistad to the presidency, the United Church of Christ is forever entwined in the history of a people who stood with courage and pushed forward with faith.
The Church House honors this rich legacy each February through worship, education and events. Use these resources to join us in celebrating an empowering history that defines us not only as people of color but as people of faith.
To get the children involved in the process, they can help write the skits that are used. Children and teenagers can also write poems and recite them. There is also the option to recite poetry from black poets, such as Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni. To enhance the presentation, the children can dress as the characters they are portraying. Part of the program can include older members of the church and community telling their experiences of growing up during the Civil Rights era. Invite them to share photographs or other memorabilia they have from their childhood. The program does not have to be limited to performance arts.
The children can also set up displays around the building featuring key moments and figures from Black history. Each child can be responsible for explaining the significance of his or her display. To add a modern twist to the program, an adult can host a game show that features facts from Black history. For instance, the children can play 'Jeopardy' with categories, such as 'Key Figures.'
Game Shows Emulate the game show “What’s My Line?” by having each person mimic a distinguished African-American physician, inventor, astronaut, engineer, actor or author, while the rest of the group tries to identify the distinguished African-American’s profession. To play Jeopardy!, one member poses as a television host who reads an answer to a question to the rest of the group.
In response, members try to provide the correct question to the answer. For example, the host might say, “An astronomer and inventor recognized for meticulous celestial bodies and eclipses computations who created the first wooden American clock.” A player would reply, “Who is Benjamin Banneker?” Special Events Host a symposium on African-American History. Form a panel of African–American historians to offer workshops for writers, ministers, civic leaders, community directors, teachers or people who want to increase their knowledge to inform others. Churches can initiate workshops to learn about African-American influence on various regions of the country. Showcase the contribution of African-Americans in such regions as the Harlem Renaissance or Memphis’s Beale Street.
Organize a church trip to experience the Freedom Walk in Atlanta, Georgia. Groups can tour the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and visit other relevant areas, such as the Joel Chandler Harris Museum.