Unit 11 9-12: Desired Results
Objectives
The students will be able to:
- explain the purpose of “President Harding and Social Equality.”
- discern the most critical point of the document.
- articulate the differences between political equality, occupational, educational, and social equality.
Key Terms
Amalgamation – is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form.
Bastard – a person born to parents who are not married to each other.
Demagogue – a leader who obtains power using impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace.
Lugard – Baron Frederick Lugard, as governor of the British colony of Nigeria taught, “the typical African … is a happy, thriftless, excitable person, lacking in self-control, discipline, and foresight, naturally courageous, courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little of veracity; in brief, the virtues and defects of this race-type are those of attractive children.”
Miscegenation – sexual relationships or reproduction between people of different races. Now, a purgative term.
Mulattoes – a racial classification that refers to people of mixed African and European ancestry only. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in America but not in other Anglophone countries and languages, such as British, Caribbean, West Indian countries, or Dutch. It does not have the same associations in Spanish and Portuguese. For instance, the term can be a source of pride among Latin Americans in the U.S.
Penumbra – a partial shadow, as in an eclipse, between regions of complete shadow and illumination.
Placate – to make someone less angry or hostile
Skulking – moving in a stealthy or furtive manner
Social Equality – a state of affairs in which all individuals within society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and social services.
Big Ideas
- African Americans and Africans were denied political, educational, occupational, and social equality in Western society.
- Social equality was considered beyond political and civil equality and supported by the accepted science of the early 20th century.
Enduring Understandings
- We must always question the narrative, including science.
- The Wilson Administration enacted inimical racist policies that were kept in place through the early 20th century.
- The Harding Administration worked to alleviate racist federal policies and laws.
Essential Questions
- Was President Harding courageous enough to go to heavily Democratic and segregated Birmingham, Alabama, six months into his presidency in 1921, demanding electoral, educational, and occupational equality for Blacks?
- Was W.E.B. Du Bois correct in saying President Harding failed to demand social equality for blacks because of the flawed science of the time?