Author: Justin Loye

Target Audience:

This could be done as a case study in any high school U.S. history class. It is a niche time, location and demographic but it is very emblematic of the struggle of hyphenated-Americans and U.S. migrant communities throughout history. If you make connection to the big picture issues of nativism and comparisons to other migrant groups, this can be a impactful lesson. This lesson has an added weight and meaning for students in the Pacific Northwest.

Lesson Context:

In fall of 1885, in the wake of the Chinese Expulsion Act, a mob composed of several hundred men expelled the Chinese community of Tacoma, Washington. The small population of the Chinese-American’s that lived in the northern waterfront of Tacoma, in an area called ‘Little Canton’, were forced south on trains headed toward Portland. A majority of them ended up in Portland and faced similar nativist acts of hatred and prejudice.

Historical Document 1 – The Chinese Expulsion Act https://web.archive.org/web/20140505105756/http://librarysource.uchastings.edu/library/research/special-collections/wong-kim-ark/1858%20Cal.%20Stat.%20295.pdf
Close Reading Prompts: What were the motives and reasons behind such an a Act? What language does the author use to ‘other’ or dehumanize these Chinese-Americans. What are some of the most punitive and absurd rules set forth in the document?

Historical Document 2 – The Chinese Reconciliation Park https://www.tacomachinesepark.org/about/the-history-of-the-foundation/
Close Reading Prompts: Before 1991, what had been done to reconcile with Tacoma’s troubled past with Chinese-Americans? What is the purpose of this article? Who is the target audience for this article and where might this information be found?

Historical Document 3 – Excerpt of Essay on Chinese Americans in Oregon https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/chinese_americans_in_oregon/#.X59d69BKhPY
Close Reading Prompts: Why was the experience so different for Cantonese residents in Portland as apposed to Cantonese residents in other west coast American cities? What prejudices did Portland Chinese-Americans experience in the 20th century? Who wrote this and what is there connection to the history?

Teacher’s guide:
Source 1:
I would expect students to talk about jobs and land usage. I think they would essentially lay out the manifestation of nativist thought. For the second question they would go on to describe the words the administration used to make Chinese-Americans seem less than human. For example, in Section 3 they use the verb ‘reshipped’ to describe the migration of Chinese-Americans. The last question is more open ended but I think stripping these migrants of the use of their native language as it outlines in Section 4 is absurdly punitive.
Source 2:
With question one, I am hoping students realize that nothing was done in terms of reconciliation or reparations for over 100 years. The purpose of this article is mostly to inform park goers of this history and what is being done to reconcile. It’s less a history of the event and more of an outline of what will be done to fix this forgotten history. The target audience would be people that stumble upon the Chinese Reconciliation Park and wonder about its history and what can be done for reparations. This information would ideally be posted at the park to inform visitors.
Source 3:
As it says in the second paragraph, the migrants weren’t walled off in the same way Cantonese migrants were walled off in other cities. They later experienced prejudicial discrimination in housing, jobs, commercial opportunities, education, and medical and social services. The author is an Asian-American scholar and professor at UC Berkeley who lived in Portland named Douglas Lee.

Featured Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Tacoma%27s_27.png
They are 27 of the men who forced the Chinese-Americans out of Tacoma.

I have embedded a video of me showing students how to perform an activity I planned that creatively assesses their understanding of market equilibrium. They act as a real estate speculator that has to collect information in a custom google map and then plug that into a google form and make a supply and demand graph to prove their claim on the location of the equilibrium point. This is an informal assessment that would happen midway through a unit.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Downtown_view_from_Mount_Tabor_Park_-_Portland_Oregon.jpg

Target Audience and Setting: 11th grade US History in a distance learning setting

Content: While much of the American public presumed that the Vietnam War would be brief, the conflict persisted for over 10 years, making it the longest war that the United States had ever waged. Moreover, American troops were faced with the physical and emotional scars of a brutal war that killed nearly 50,000 American troops. Domestically, the conflict produced a massive anti-war movement that was embraced by a wide range of groups. In urban centers and college campuses around the country, Americans protested the savagery of the war and demanded that the conflict come to an end. Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ captures the domestic toil that Americans endured during the Vietnam era. His 1971 album tells the story of what it was like to be an inner-city black man in this era.

Process: Student’s will use a PDF that complies lyrics and YouTube videos from Marvin Gaye’s 1971 album What’s Going On as a sources to analyze the domestic toil that the war produced. We will do a think-pair-share arrangement. I will ask groups of 3 to find lyrics and analyze them and place them in the context of the history. They will report back with the significance of the lines and answer the following questions: How does Gaye’s album reflect the domestic unrest that existed during the war? Substantiate your arguments and use additional sources to contextualize your arguments. What themes or lines from Gaye’s lyrics are still applicable today?

Resources: I am going to link a PDF that will compile lyrics from some of the more relevant songs in terms of conceptualizing. I have linked 3 videos below of songs and visuals that go with the record.

Delivery Considerations:  I will be doing a bit of direct instruction before putting my class in Zoom breakout rooms for students to work in small groups on the analyzing and contextualization of the lyrics. I will give them access to a Google Jamboard that I will simply share in the chat at the beginning of class. They will put their group’s brainstorms in the Jamboard and share what they found before class and together determine what parts of the album stood out and best answer our main question. Then I will close the rooms and we could discuss as a class our respective findings.

Citation for image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/SOS_%28Stop_Our_Ships%29_Anti-Vietnam_War_Button.jpg

Target Audience & Setting: 11th or 12th grade U.S. History class preferably in person.

Content: The Vietnam War was one of the most contentious wars in the history of the United States. Militarily, the conflict quickly descended into a quagmire. While much of the American public presumed that the war would be brief, the conflict persisted for over 10 years, making it the longest war that the United States had ever waged. Moreover, American troops were faced with the physical and emotional scars of a brutal war that killed nearly 50,000 American troops. Domestically, the conflict produced a massive anti-war movement that was embraced by a wide range of groups. In urban centers and college campuses around the country, Americans protested the savagery of the war and demanded that the conflict come to an end. Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On captures the domestic toil that Americans endured during the Vietnam era.

Process: Student’s will use the lyrics (and maybe even the tone and melody if students feel the songs convey a message sonically) of Marvin Gaye’s 1971 album What’s Going On as a sources to analyze the domestic toil that the war produced. We will do a think-pair-share arrangement. I will ask groups of 3 to find lyrics and analyze them and place them in the context of the history. They will report back with the significance of the lines and answer the following questions: How does Gaye’s album reflect the domestic unrest that existed during the war? Substantiate your arguments and use additional source to contextualize your arguments.

Resources for Lessons: I will provide links to listen and as well as read the lyrics of the album. I am assuming this class would have already read a book about the Vietnam War earlier in the unit and could draw from that knowledge.

Delivery Considerations: I wrote this considering distance learning and the use of Zoom breakout rooms for students to work in small groups on the analyzing and contextualization of lyrics. Then I would close the rooms and we could discuss as a class our respective findings.

Source for featured image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Marvin_Gaye.jpg