Brooklyn Resists Curriculum: Section 4

Focus: Since Black people were restricted from attending civic celebrations such as the Fourth of July festivities, Black New Yorkers created a separate tradition featuring a parade, ball, and dinner on July 5th to celebrate emancipation. The first gathering occurred on July 5th, 1800, in New York State to celebrate the 1799 emancipation law.

The Black diaspora in Brooklyn and beyond, honors a diverse range of rich cultural traditions including Emancipation Day, the West Indian Day Parade, when Caribbean heritage is celebrated. Most recently, Juneteenth, the celebration of the day enslaved people in Texas were liberated from slavery in 1865 became a federal holiday. 

Activity: Emancipation Holidays

Part A

Step 1: Watch Pinkster video with the video worksheet and discuss using the following questions:

• What kind of celebrations are there? How long have they been going on? Where does the celebration take place, and what happens there?
• Who celebrates Pinkster and why?
• What is the Dutch word Pinkster derived from?

Step 2: Now, have students conduct research and compare Pinkster and Juneteenth using the following websites:

• What is Pinkster?
• June 19, 1866 CE: Juneteenth

Step 3: Have students research how their local community observes these holidays. What kind of celebrations are there? How long have they been going on for? Where does the celebration take place and what happens there?

Part B

Step 4: In groups or individually, give students the following articles to read about holidays celebrated by Black Brooklynites in the past and present. Compare and contrast them using the Venn Diagram worksheet: Online version: If teaching online, we suggest using Jamboard or Padlet to answer the questions.

• Pinkster Day or WhitSunday
• African Jubilee
• Commemoration by the Africans

Step 5: Have them share out their answers.

Part C

Step 6: As a class, review the Gradual Manumission handout. Students should understand the difference between full emancipation and the realities the enslaved faced with gradual manumission.

Step 7: Next, read the following excerpt of an August, 1865 speech delivered by Fredrick Douglass to commemorate the first Emancipation Celebration in Brooklyn. Have students record their answers in their Document Worksheet.

Step 8:  Facilitate a conversion with the full class. Review their responses.

Step 9: Using Frederick Douglass’ speech, and the celebrations students learned about, facilitate a discussion about these holidays.

• Why are these holidays/celebrations important to Black citizens of the United States? Are they relevant to the United States as a whole?
• By celebrating these holidays every year, do Black Brooklynites demonstrate how Black Americans have persisted in the face of racism? Why or why not?

Step 10: Based on everything students have learned about Pinkster, Juneteenth, and celebrating the end of slavery in New York State, have students create a blog, letter, etc discussing how we celebrate (or could celebrate) these holidays today. 

Focus: This section explores CORE’s song book for demonstrations and features buttons created by and for CORE members.    

CORE published a songbook for activities to sing during demonstrations. “We Shall Overcome” is one of the most famous songs from the Civil Rights movement that eventually became synonymous with the labor movement. The song is originally a religious song, or a spiritual song that enslaved people sang as they were forced to work. Black activists use the song to let those who try to oppress them that Black people will overcome, resist, and persist.

Activity: Demonstration Merriment

Part A

Online version: If teaching online, we suggest using Jamboard or Padlet to answer the questions.

Step 1:  Play the video “We Shall Overcome” for the class. Make sure students have the lyrics to “We Shall Overcome” so they can follow along.

Step 2: Discuss the lyrics of the song using the suggested questions:

Step 3: Using large pieces of paper, pick a theme related to the lesson you want students to expand on. Have students write the theme at the top paper, and then write words from the lyrics that connect to the chosen theme.

Step 4: In 2020 thousands of Brooklynites organized against police brutality and demanded the recognition of Black humanity. Every generation inherits the wisdom of the previous generation and carries it forward.  Build on the last exercise by adding your verse to “We Shall Overcome.”

• Two trombonists playing on plaza in front of Central Brooklyn Public Library
• Jon Batiste at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, June 13, 2020
• Grand Army Plaza entrance to the Central Brooklyn Public Library with billboard reading: Juneteenth: Freedom day

Part B

Step 5: Ask students if they have any buttons they wear, such as “Senior 2024” or “Naruto Rocks!” Discuss they types of buttons they have and why the wear them.

Step 6: Show students the images of the Brooklyn CORE buttons. Using the Image Worksheet, have them examine the buttons.

Step 7: The button on the far-left reads: “Boycott South Africa! Break all U.S. ties to Apartheid” Have students research apartheid. What do the word apartheid mean and what does it remind students of? What does the United States and South Africa have in common? (examples: settler colonialism, racial segregation, resistance to white supremacy)

Step 8: Discuss their answers.

Part C

Step 9: Review the video Brooklyn CORE. Then, have them create a list of words that best describe Brooklyn CORE.

Step 10: Using their information about CORE, have students design their own buttons using paper and, if you have one a button maker, etc. Post them on a bulletin board with a two-sentence explanation of their button.

Focus: Use the history of photography to understand the importance of authentic and empowering self-representation. 

Activity: Using photography to change the narrative

Part A

Step 1: Review the Image handout with the class. Then ask students how images were created before photography and make a list. Emphasize that before 1839, photographic technology did not exist.

Step 2: Compare and contrast the portrait of Albro Lyons Jr., the carte de visite featuring the child, and the portraits of the Lyons sisters using the Venn Diagram. Separate students into two groups. Have group 1 contrast Albro Lyons Jr. and the carte de visite featuring the child, and group 2 compare Maritcha and Pauline Lyons vs the carte de visite.

Step 3: Using the suggested questions below, encourage your students to consider the difference between a portrait taken for the individual or family compared to a photograph taken without consent of a working child:

• What are the titles of these photographs, and what do they tell us about the photographed people?
• If you had to guess, how old are the people in the photographs?
• When do you think these photographs were taken? What makes you say that?
• Before photography, how might Black people have been represented?
• List the objects you see in these portraits. What do they tell us about the photographed people?

Part B

Step 4: Watch the Nona Faustine Video, Photography and have students consider the following suggested questions: 

• What is a portrait?
• What does artist Nona Faustine say about self-portraiture?
• What do you think “being good ancestors now” means?