Theme: A Look Into the Past

Purpose: To explore how events in North Carolina, as well as the Nation as a whole affected evolution of St. Augustine’s College from an academic home for slaves to its current status as an HBCU (Historically Black College and University) trying to diversify its student body.

Objectives:

• Language Arts; Grades 6 – 8; Competency Goal 2
  • The learner will explore and analyze information from a variety of sources.
    
• Information Skills Curriculum; Grades 6 – 8; Competency Goal 4
  
  • The learner will EXPLORE and USE research processes to meet information needs.
    
• Information Skills Curriculum; Grades 6 – 8; Competency Goal 5
  
  • The learner will COMMUNICATE reading, listening, and viewing experiences.
    
• Computer/Technology Skills; Grades 6 – 8; Competency Goal 3
  
  • The learner will use a variety of technologies to assess, analyze, interpret, synthesize, apply, and communicate information.
    
• Social Studies; Grade 8; Competency Goal 9
  
  • Impact of the Progressive Period: The learner will judge the effects of progressivism, war, and religious controversy on North Carolina.
    

Materials: Internet sources; American History textbooks; North Carolina History textbook

Lesson Plan: Teacher’s will need to provide students with background information about the evolvement of slavery and its effects on St. Augustine’s College. This will allow students to have an opportunity to explore and be active participants in an open forum discussion.

1. Students will be divided into groups. Their task will be to create a time line from 1867 (the establishment of St. Augustine’s School) until the present. We recommend that this time line be broken down into decades.
   
2. Students will present their findings to their peers. Students should be encouraged to use creativity in designing their timeline.
   
3. Students will participate in an open discussion. Here are some suggested open-ended questions to initiate the forum.
   • Charles Drew was a physician and a blood plasma researcher. He set up the first blood bank in England. He was appointed the Director of the American Red Cross Blood Donor Project during World War II. He was Chief Surgeon at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, DC. He was in a car crash in Burlington, North Carolina in 1950 where he needed a blood transfusion. The nearest hospital that would treat African Americans was St. Agnes Hospital on St. Augustine’s Campus. Unfortunately Dr. Drew never made it to the hospital. He died in route to Raleigh, North Carolina. How would you feel after being the founder of blood banks and denied treatment because of the color of your skin?
     
   • Jack Johnson, a famous African American boxer, won a heavy weight championship in the early 1900s. He was in a car accident with a Caucasian female in 1946. She was taken to Rex Hospital and he was taken to St. Agnes Hospital on the campus of St. Augustine’s. Keep in mind that segregation was taking place during this time period and was justified by the idea of separate but equal. Think about how this idea affected African Americans living in the United States, primarily in the South.
     
   • Imagine if St. Agnes Hospital was never established. How would this have affected the Black community in North Carolina and the South?
     
   • How has slavery in the United States evolved over time? What about around the world?
     
   • The Jim Crow laws were established to keep African Americans in an inferior position in society. What happened to the Jim Crow laws?
     
   • What is the significance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities?
   • Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was a professor at St. Augustine's College. She began her education in 1867 at St. Augustine's Normal and Collegiate Institute. In 1881 she entered Oberlin College in Ohio where she earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees. In 1925, she earned her Ph.D. from the Sorbonne Universite in Paris, France. Dr. Cooper was daughter of slave Hanna Stanley and her master, George Washington Haywood. Nonetheless, she was born a slave. How do you think being the daughter of a slave owner and a slave affected Dr. Cooper? How many other African Americans have this type of ancestral pattern?
     • You can learn more about Dr. Cooper's father at the Haywood Hall site on this Great Adventure.
     • Or you can explore how Dr. Cooper contributed to the suffrage movement in the 1920's in North Carolina at the Raleigh City Museum site on this Great Adventure.
4. Students should be encouraged to research other HBCU’s. Here is a list of suggested questions that students can research.
   
   • Where are most of the HBCU’s located?
     
   • Just as public colleges are putting funding into diversifying their student body, HBCU’s are doing the same. Why do you think that HBCU’s have decided to diversify their student population?
     
   • Name three HBCU’s famous for their law programs.

Evaluation and Assessment:
Here is a suggested rubric to help guide formal and informal assessment of student knowledge and abilities.

 

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