1896: (Not) Always What It Seems
1896: Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision upholds the legality of “separate but equal” Jim Crow laws. Homer Plessy was chosen for the planned civil disobedience that would bring the case before the court because he was an African American man who could pass as white.
Actions for Self-Determination:
Actions for Self-Determination:
- 1894: Demonstrating the construction of race, Mark Twain publishes "Pudd’nhead Wilson," a story about black and white babies switched at birth in Missouri.
- 1901: W.E.B Du Bois publishes the essay (later included in The Souls of Black Folk), "The Freedman’s Bureau," in which he states, “THE problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” After traveling to Warsaw, Poland, in 1949, he expands on this: “the race problem in which I was interested cut across lines of color and physique and belief and status and was a matter of cultural patterns, perverted teaching and human hate and prejudice, which reached all sorts of people and caused endless evil to all men."* Note: To view this citation, click 'Remove this header.'
- Have someone ever assumed you were a race, ethnicity or gender that you are not? What happened?
- Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning a different race, ethnicity or gender. Without looking in the mirror or at yourself, how do you know?
- Create your own calling card based on Adrian Piper's piece. Where would you use it, what does it focus on?
- Black Self, White Self [Teaching Activity, Art project]
- The Color Line looks at laws about race in U.S. history [Teaching Activity]
- The Souls of Black Folk [Online Book]
- Racial Propositions: Ballot Initiatives and the Making of Postwar California [Book]
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