HIS-114: Assignment 2: 1968 Convention Speech Due by 11:59 pm Sunday, November 8, 2020 Purpose:

This assignment focuses on two key learning objectives:

1) Analyzing primary sources and using them to make a historical argument 2) Using historical empathy to imagine someone else’s point of view

Objective:

By completing this assignment, you will show that you can use multiple, sometimes conflicting, sources to construct a historical argument. You will feel more confident about your ability to situate primary sources into historical context. You will gain graded feedback about how well you are mastering historical thinking and writing.

Assignment:

You are Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist and delegate to the 1968 Democratic convention. You will be giving an approximately five minute speech on the floor of the convention arguing that the Democratic platform should call for an end to the Vietnam War, which you believe is racist and not in America’s interest. Write the script for your speech (about 2.5-3 double spaced pages) drawing on at least THREE of the primary source documents in the source bank provided – – you must directly quote the sources you use (i.e. “As Robert Kennedy has recently said, “…xyz,” which means that…”). Your script should be written as you would speak it – conversational and not overly formal.

Your goal with this speech is to convince the Democratic delegates at the convention to vote to make the party platform anti-war and pro civil rights. You want them to agree with you that the Vietnam War is more complicated than just holding back Communism – there is racism at play, important issues to tackle at home, and a moral argument about America’s role in the world all tangled up in the question of the war.

In your speech, you will want to walk through several questions:

1) Who are you? Why should people listen to you? 2) What is your position on the Vietnam War and how did you come to hold it? 3) What do Johnson and “the establishment” say about why America is fighting this war, and why

are they wrong? 4) What should America be focusing on instead of the war? What is life like for Black people in

America and/or for Black men fighting in Vietnam?

HINT: You have a definite opinion not only on the ideas that the author of each document presents, but on the author himself. So consider: do you take Johnson’s words at face value? What about MLK’s? You do not agree with or support all of the positions in the source bank documents, so before you use a quote, make sure you know who’s saying it and what you’d think of them! This is a tricky thing.

HINT: You can take time in your speech to talk about your own biography and how that shapes your approach to the issues. The other delegates are listening, but also Americans watching on TV at home, so use this as an opportunity to connect with them.

A step by step approach to the assignment in case you feel overwhelmed:

The first thing you should do is read the background information on Hamer and try to understand what her position on the Vietnam War would be and why. Where did she come from? What did she experience? How did that shape her views?

Next, look at the source bank and the source grid side by side. Look at the titles, authors, and introductory notes (in italics) at the top of each document to help you guess what they might talk about. Pick which ones you want to pay the most attention to.

As you read each source, fill out the grid (it’s the SOCC steps again!). The most helpful part of the grid is stopping to think about who wrote each source and what Hamer thinks of them and the argument they present. Mark any quotes that you think might be particularly valuable.

Write the speech, referring back to your grid as you pick out sources to quote. When using quotes in your speech try not to just dump them into a sentence and move on – give a little context! (For example: “As Robert Kennedy so wisely said in his speech in Kansas a few months back, “we must begin to end the disgrace of this other America,” the America where my people live.”)

Evaluation:

I know that this is not an easy assignment, but it’s one that I am confident you all can do based on your work with primary sources so far. There is not one right answer.

What am I looking for when I grade?

1) Historical analysis and interpretation: Are you able to use historical knowledge and quotes from the primary sources to make a convincing argument to support Hamer’s views? Did you use meaningful quotes from at least three of the sources provided?

2) Context: How well can you relate Hamer’s story to the information we have covered in the textbook and Moodle lessons?

3) Understanding the source: Did you choose appropriate quotes from the sources to support your argument? Did you offer some explanation of the meaning of the quote or its relevance to the source’s larger argument?

4) Mechanics: Are your responses clear and understandable? Does it seem like you proofread the assignment before you sent it in?

Resources:

I am happy to answer questions over email. If you would like to set up a time to meet on Zoom or by phone, contact me as soon as possible.

Look back at your notes, the online material from the class, and the textbook to help you. You may do other internet research, but you should not need to in order to complete the assignment.

Background information sheet:

You are Fannie Lou Hamer.

As a Black woman in Mississippi you have experienced the worst that America has to offer to is citizens. Your parents were sharecroppers, indebted to a white land owner; you attended school until the age of twelve when you had to start picking cotton full time to help support your family; you were involuntarily sterilized by a white doctor. You grew up surrounded by racism, oppression, hopelessness, and ignorance.

You relied on your faith in God. In 1962, Rev. James Bevel, an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a civil rights organization dedicated to registering black people to vote, gave a sermon in Ruleville, Mississippi. You were the first to volunteer. Reflecting back on this, you said, “I guess if I’d had any sense, I’d have been a little scared – but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do was kill me, and it kinda seemed like they’d been trying to do that a little bit at a time since I could remember.” You became an enthusiastic volunteer, and often led groups of activists in song.

In 1963, on your way home from a literacy workshop, you were arrested and jailed. The police then beat you nearly to death. You recovered in time to host out-of-state volunteers for the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964.

In 1964 the Democratic Party of Mississippi selected only whites as delegates to the National Convention. Outraged, you helped organize the Freedom Democrats, also known as the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), and sent your own delegates to the convention. Leading the group in the singing of hymns, you drew a great deal of media attention and outraged Lyndon Johnson.

The Convention’s Credentials Committee met to try to decide what to do. Frustrated, you explained,

“All of this is on account we want to register to become first-class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings – in America?”

President Johnson called an emergency press conference in an effort to divert press coverage away from your testimony; but many television networks covered you instead. Boxed in, and risking the wrath of white southerners, Johnson responded by sending Hubert Humphrey (now the vice-president) and several others to suggest a compromise: the MFDP would get two non-voting seats at the convention. You rejected the offer. Things would be different in 1968.

Despite unsuccessful runs for Congress in 1964 and 1965, you remained active in Mississippi politics. You now proudly represent your home state as an official delegate to the Convention. In addition to persuading the party to continue to the fight for civil rights, you support the growth of grassroots anti- poverty programs like Head Start. You also support Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign, which seems in danger of foundering. You also, in recent years, have become an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War – a war that is being disproportionately fought by poor black men.