Volume 1, Issue 1

Newsletter 1

“The Great Migration”by Samantha Boardman, PhD.

Summary“From the South to Newark” describes the time period from 1910 to 1970, when over 6 million African Americans migrated from the Southern states to cities in the North like Newark.

This mass migration revitalized and redefined cities in the Northeast. The Newark Public Library has many oral histories of many individuals from this time period recollecting their journey and resettlement in Newark. The panel includes images of roles these migrants played in changing the face of Newark.

Zaundria Mapson is a young girl who migrated with her family from Florida to Newark in 1947 at the young age of 10, making her journey part of the Great Migration.

Mapson lived in and attended school in Newark during segregation and recounts instances where she was excluded as an African American and what it was like to grow up in Newark.

Zaundria Mapson shared her story with the Newark Public Library in 1996 along with countless others.

Becoming a Newark HistorianWhat is a historian? Historians collect stories about events, times, and places. One way historians learn about these stories is by asking or interviewing people who experienced or remember those events, times, and places to tell them the story. This process is called oral history.

Much like Zaundria Mapson, every Newarker has their own unique history, their own “Newark Story.” And your Newark Story is just as important as the histories Newark’s most famous residents like Shaquille O’Neal, Queen Latifah, and Whitney Houston, to name a few. Individual experiences, or different perspectives, of events are necessary to write an accurate historical account, making the need to document as many our individual experiences to recording the true history of Newark.

How can you be a historian?By doing the work of historians. Conduct an oral history. Interview a classmate about an event. Remember: Before historians can interview another person, they need to prepare for the interview and choose what questions that they want to ask, like what information you think is most important to learn from these interviews and what questions will allow you to acquire that information.

Believe it or not? People are recounting their histories more than ever. How? Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, just to name a few. Historians are already using social media posts to understand major world events.

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T H E G R E A T M I G R A T I O N

My Newark Story has created an Oral History Lesson Plan (Grades 1-6) with upper grade level extensions to be used with the Great Migration Exhibit.

LESSON PLAN SAMPLE

Summary:Students will utilize a Newark oral history as a tool for learning about people, places, and events related to Newark. As students explore the interview process by developing interview questions, conducting interviews with their classmates, and retelling the stories they collect, they gain an understanding of the way their oral histories help us to learn about Newark and its residents.

Objectives:Students will:Understand that oral history is a way of gathering detailed information that helps us understand a specific time, place, person, or event.Understand what an interview is.Experience what it is like to participate in the interview process.Understand that all of us have important stories to share.

Essential Questions:How do historians learn about the Newark?How can oral histories help us to understand Newark’s past?

What Else?The lesson includes Vocabulary, Worksheets, and lesson extensions for upper grade levels.

O T H E R L E S S O N P L A N S ?

My Newark Story has created various lesson plans, games, and other learning activities during the 2017 school year. All are available on our website http://npl.org/mynewarkstory/

Customized Lessons and Events

If you would like My Newark Story to create a lesson, game, or other learning activity that relates to the Newark Public Library’s digital archive collections from the Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center and the New Jersey Hispanic Research and Information Center, please email Karl Schwartz kschwartz@npl.org.

* All lessons are created by NJ certified K-12 Language Arts and Social Studies teachers.

W A N T T O P L A N A S P E C I A L E V E N T ?My Newark Story has created numerous Community History Days at our branch libraries and a series of summer lessons that can be adapted to your classroom. Please contact My Newark Story for more information or to book a Community History Event for your class or school.

FOR TEACHERS

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T H E G R E A T M I G R A T I O N Q U E S T I O N SDIRECTIONS: USE THE PANEL TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.

1. Who provided African Americans a taste of home when they migrated to Newark?

2. According to the map, what states did many African Americans migrate from during the Great Migration?

3. According to the panel, what modes of transportation did people use to move to Newark during the Great Migration?

4. What was the Green Book? Why do you think it was important for the migrants to have the information contained in this book?

Z A U N D R I A M A P S O N Q U E S T I O N SDIRECTIONS: USE THE PANEL TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.

1. How did Zaundria Mapson and her family travel to Newark?

2. What Newark schools did Zaundria Mapson attend?

3. Did Zaundria Mapson participate in any activities in Newark during her childhood? Can you name them?

4. What were some of the things Zaundria Mapson experienced growing up in Newark? Are some her experiences the same yours? Are some different?

If you could interview Zaundria Mapson what questions would you want to ask her?

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q: Do you know what segregation is?

A: The policy and practice of imposing the separation of races. In the United States, the policy of segregation denied African Americans their Civil Rights and provided inferior facilitates and services from them, including public schools, housing and in industry.

Q: Can you define the word migration?

A:  Movement of people to a new area or country in order to find work or better living conditions. The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million African-Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that occurred between 1916 and 1970.

Q: What are civil rights?

A: The rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality guaranteed to US citizens under the Constitution.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q: What is oral history?

A: It is one way historians gather information that helps us understand a specific time, place, person, or event.

Q: What is an interview?

A: An interview is a formalmeeting in which one or more persons question, consult, or evaluate another person.

Q: Why would a historian conduct an oral history of Zaundria Mapson? A: From her interview we learn first-hand (or from a primary resource) what it was like to live through the Great Migration.

Newsletter 4