Attached Documents
The first document below is a table of lynching statistics over the 75 year period between 1882 and 1968. Immediately following the statistical table are two maps. The first map depicts the total number of lynchings in each states. The second map shows the lynchings in which the victim was black for each state.
The first photograph below shows the body of Willie Brown. On 28 September 1919, Willie Brown, accused of sexually assaulting a white woman, was lynched outside of the Douglas County Courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska. Brown was hanged and shot repeatedly. When the mayor attempted to intervene, he was hanged from a tree, though a policeman was able to cut him down before he was seriously injured. Brown’s body was dragged behind an automobile through downtown Omaha and, eventually, burned at the intersection of 17th and Dodge Streets.
The second photograph shows the aftermath of the lynchings of three black circus workers were accused of raping a local teenage white girl from Duluth, Minnesota in 1920. Although no evidence of rape was found, rumors spread and by the end of the day a mob formed outside of the Duluth jail. The police, who were not allowed to use guns, unenthusiastically resisted the mob, which easily broke through their ranks, drug out Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, convicted them of rape in a false trial, and lynched them in the street.
The third photograph shows the body of Lige Daniels surrounded by his murderers. The 16 year old boy was accused of killing an elderly white women. He, like the others, had been in jail, but not protected by the police and was drug to the edge of town where he was strung up in a tree. The citizens of Center, Texas had a photograph taken of their smiling faces beneath his body turned into a postcard.
The final photograph is of the NAACP headquarters in New York displaying a banner, as they did after every known lynching in order to raise awareness.

Questions to consider
1. Why are people smiling in these photos?
2. Does the mood strike you as being particularly somber?
3. Were lynchings an effective means to terrorize a community?

Attached Documents
The 1921 article by Rollin Lynde Hartt, a white Congregational minister and journalist, captured well what was perceived as “new” in the New Negro: an aggressive willingness to defend black communities against white racist attacks and a desire to celebrate the accomplishments of African-American communities in the North.
The second document is the forward to Alan Locke's 1925 book The New Negro: An Interpretation, in which he expresses his views of the newly found spirit of the African American population.
The photograph captures a parade in Harlem, the heart of the "New Negro" spirit.

Questions to Consider
1. What do these writers believe is the root of the "New Negro"?
2. What is the atmosphere surrounding this new ideal? Does the parade convey a sense of pride?

Chicago Race Riot (July-August 1919)
On July 27, 1919 a young black boy unintentionally floated into the white area of the beach on a scorching hot afternoon and was drowned for the offense. Rioting ensued, spurred on by the segregation, racism, and actions of local white gangs that made life for blacks in Chicago nearly unbearable. The race riot in Chicago lasted until August 2, 1919 when 38 people were dead, another 537 were injured and nearly one thousand were left without homes. The first photograph below is from a Chicago newspaper. The man seen in the picture was, it is said, pursued by a mob and ran to the mounted policeman shown at the left, who kept the mob at bay until other officers arrived on the scene. This Negro was armed for defense ; the policeman at his side is shown in the act of taking a weapon from his hip pocket. The second document is a political cartoon describing the frustration of the country at the rioters, both black and white.

Omaha Race Riot (September 28, 1919)
The Omaha riot began with the arrest of Willie Brown, a black man accused of raping a white teenage girl, that quickly escalated to mob violence on the steps of the city's courthouse with citizens, police, and the armed forces fighting for control of the jail. The third document below is a photograph of rioters on the south side of Douglas County Courthouse, Omaha, Nebraska, September 28, 1919. The fourth item is a headline in the Omaha World-Herald, September 29, 1919. The fifth document is of Soldiers on guard at 24th and Lake streets, the heart of black Omaha, following the 1919 riot.

Tulsa Race Riot (May-June 1921)
In Tulsa, a young black man was accused of assaulting a white elevator operator and arrested on those charges. Like in Omaha, a mob amassed outside of the courthouse demanding swift justice at their hands leading to uncontrolled violence in Greenwood, the black area of town.
Walter White: The Eruption of Tulsa: An NAACP Official Investigates the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
The Tulsa race riot was perhaps the worst riot of this time period. In fact, white Tulsans' 24-hour rampage was one of the most vicious and intense race riots in American history before or since, resulting in the death of anywhere from 75 to 250 people and the burning of more than 1,000 black homes and businesses. Walter White, an official of the NAACP, traveled to Tulsa in disguise to survey the damage caused by the 1921 race riot. His report, one of many articles on the riot, was published in the Nation in the summer of 1921. The sixth document below gives his account.
W. D. Williams: Defending Greenwood: A Survivor Recalls the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
The African-Americans of Tulsa were not passive victims: when armed whites congregated at the Tulsa courthouse planning to lynch the young black man imprisoned for the rape they were met by a crowd of equally angry blacks determined to prevent the lynching. In this interview with historian Scott Ellsworth, W. D. Williams proudly remembered the self-assertiveness of local black citizens, including his father, who took up arms to defend home and community. The seventh document below gives his account.
Now Tulsa Does Care: A White Tulsan’s Perspective on the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
Although the city’s white leaders assured the nation’s press that restitution and reconciliation would be forthcoming, other whites denied any responsibility for the carnage. In an article in the magazine Survey, Amy Comstock, personal secretary to the editor of the Tulsa Tribune, attempted to deflect attention from Tulsa’s white citizenry by fixing blame for the 1921 riot on an ostensibly impoverished and licentious black community. Comstock argued that the responsibility for improving conditions, and for enforcing law and order, in this bustling community rested with white officials. The eighth document below gives her account.
The ninth document below is a photograph of a deceased black citizen during the Greenwood Riot. The tenth and final document below is a photograph of the Greenwood area burning as a result of the rioting.

Questions to consider
1. Why do you think this particular three year period suffered from such widespread rioting? Consider how much time had passed since the end of slavery and what institutions had arisen in its place.
2. Do you think any similar events could have precipitated the violence in these cities? What do you think were the long term causes of the race riots?

Attached Documents
In Garvey’s 1921 speech, “If You Believe the Negro Has a Soul,” he emphasized the inevitability of racial antagonism and the hopelessness of interracial coexistence.

Questions to consider
1. Why does Garvey believe the races cannot coexist peacefully?
2. How do you think this message was accepted by American blacks in the 1920's?

Attached Documents
"Harlem: Mecca for the New Negro" was a 1925 compilation of essays and poetry written by African Americans and is provided below.
Countee Cullen's "Heritage" appeared in the Survey Graphic feature. The poem appears below.
In Langston Hughes's famous 1926 essay, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," he entreats the "Norticized Negro Intellegencia" to celebrate the richness of their culture rather than try to assimilate into white society.
The final document is a selection of Hughes poems from the 1926 collection The Weary Blues.

Questions to consider
1. What thematic similarities do these selections share?
2. Link the Harlem Renaissance to other phenomena occurring in the African American community during the 1920's. What kinds of political and social movements correspond to awakening of black art and literature?

Attached Document
McDougald’s essay, originally published in the Survey, employed socioeconomic analysis to explore the particular problems, as well as contributions to society, of four groups of black women, from wealthy to working-class. Seeking to repudiate the monolithic way in which black women were perceived and represented by white America, McDougald not only focused on economics but also challenged stereotypical representations of blacks in the arts and advertising, as well as those surrounding black women’s sexuality.

Questions to consider
1. What does McDougald believe is the double task necessary for black women to contend with?
2. What other struggling points can you think of that would have made life more difficult for a black woman?

Attached Document
The following transcript is from a Fourth of July speech by Governor Calvin Coolidge to celebrate "the beginnings of a government that was to recognize beyond all others the power, and worth, and dignity of man." (3:45)

Questions to consider
1. Who does Coolidge believe equal rights extend to? What is his logic for this application?

Attached Documents
The first document below,Starving for Women’s Suffrage: “I Am Not Strong after These Weeks”, is taken from the clandestine prison diary of NWP member Rose Winslow, described the rigors of that experience. Members of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) took some of the most militant actions in the struggle for suffrage in the early 20th century. NWP members who had been imprisoned in the Occoquan Workhouse went on a hunger strike to draw international attention to their cause. Prison authorities responded with brutal force feedings. Born in Poland, Rose Winslow (her given name was Ruza Wenclawska) started working in a Pennsylvania textile mill at age eleven, quitting eight years later when she developed tuberculosis. A photograph of Rose Winslow follows the excerpt from her diary.
The second document below, Pioneer Suffragist Casts G. O. P. Ballot (1920), from the Elizabeth Daily Journal, November 3, 1920, p. 6 is a newspaper article describing Antoinette Brown Blackwell voting in New Jersey. At the age of 95, Blackwell (1825-1921) of Elizabeth was perhaps the oldest suffragist to go to the polls in New Jersey. Blackwell, a Unitarian minister, was a founder of the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association (NJWSA) in 1867 with her close friend and sister-in-law, Lucy Stone. A photograph of Blackwell follows the newspaper article about her.
The third document below is The Equal Rights Amendment. Written in 1921 by suffragist Alice Paul. It was introduced in Congress every session since 1923. It passed Congress in 1972, but was not ratified by the necessary thirty-eight states by the July 1982 deadline. A photograph of Alice Paul follows the text of the Equal Rights Amendment below.

Questions to consider
1. How would you describe the conditions in the women's prison?
2. What reasons can you think of that caused it to be so difficult for women to earn the vote?
3. Why do you think the Equal Rights Amendment was never passed?

Attached Documents
The Seneca Falls Declaration outlined the women's rights movement of the mid-19th century. As can be seen in the opening passages, the document was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. A photograph from the Seneca Falls Convention follows below.

Questions to consider
1. Why did the suffragists chose the Declaration of Independence as a model?
2. What do the writers of this document want, or want to express?
3. How is the argument of “absolute tyranny over” women supported?

Attached Documents
The text of the 19th Amendment follows below. The second document is an image of the joint resolution proposing the amendment to the Constitution. The third document below, "The Last Few Buttons Are Always the Hardest" is a political cartoon addressing the difficulty in getting the final few states to adopt the amendment. It was published in the St. Louis Star (1920).

Questions to consider
1. Why do you think proposal that became the 19th Amendment had such trouble getting through Congress?
2. Do you see a relationship between the states that were slow to adopt the 15th Amendment and those that were slow to adopt the 19th? What does the correlation imply?

Attached Documents
The first reading, "Debating Bobbed Hair," contains some amusing selections from women's magazines of the 1920's. Two women (one of them Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart") give opposing perspectives on bobbed hair that cloak a broader discussion of the modern woman.
The light-hearted 1925 article "Flapper Jane" by Bruce Bliven addresses the shockingly revealing fashions of the day and links them to women's new independent spirit.
Margaret Sanger began her campaign for birth control after spending years as a nurse in poor communities. In 1928, she published a few of the hundreds of thousands of letters she received for women desperate for help with family planning in her book Motherhood in Bondage.

Questions to consider
1. List some of the changes in women's lives in the 1920's. What factors contributed to these changes?
2. The "Debating Bobbed Hair" and "Flapper Jane" articles, seem to be about more than women's fashions. How would you interpret the respective author's overall views on women and youth in the Jazz Age?
3. Why do you think that birth control was stigmatized in the 1920's? How do you think access to and knowledge about family planning would impact the lives of the women writing in Motherhood and Bondage?

Attached Documents
The following visual documents, from popular magazines of 1920-35, are a sample of the role models held up to women as encouragements or warnings. They represent what was included and what was not included in the depictions of the "new woman".

Questions to consider
1. How do these advertisements help create an image of the New Woman for you?
2. What market were these advertisers trying to reach?
3. How do these images differ from ad campaigns twenty years earlier?