Read this excerpt from The Spirit of Alcatraz.Demonstrators first started coming to Alcatraz after the US government closed the prison in 1963 and declared the property "surplus federal land.” Officials wanted to sell the island to a private developer, but some American Indian leaders had other ideas. They pointed out that a treaty between the United States and the Sioux said all abandoned federal land should be returned to Native people.The first group of American Indian protestors arrived in March 1964 and occupied Alcatraz for four hours. The small group of Sioux demonstrators offered to pay the US government $9.40 for the island, or 47 cents per acre – the same amount the government was paying to use tribal lands.Activists decided to state a larger action five years later, after the federal government offered to turn Alcatraz into a national park. On the morning of November 20, 1969, seventy-nine American Indians, many of them college students, set off for the island and began their occupation.
Read the following excerpt from Jackie Robinson’s letter to President Eisenhower.As the chief executive of our nation, I respectfully suggest that you unwittingly crush the spirit of freedom in Negroes by constantly urging forbearance and give hope to those pro-segregation leaders like Governor Faubus who would take from us even those freedoms we now enjoy. Your own experience with Governor Faubus is proof enough that forbearance and not eventual integration is the goal the pro-segregation leaders seek. To which specific historic event is Jackie Robinson referring to in the letter?
Read this excerpt from "Painting Freedom on the Walls."California was first settled by Native Americans and, later, by Spanish and Mexican explorers and missionaries. In fact, California was once part of Mexico, and Mexican cultural traditions were very strong. But after California became a part of the United States, those traditions were deliberately ignored and neglected.Murals have been the perfect way to make the Mexican history of California visible again. Chicano Park in San Diego and Balmy Alley in San Francisco are places where murals bloom like wildly colored cactus flowers against the grey background of the city. And each of these places has a story.
Read this excerpt from "Painting Freedom on the Walls."The murals of Balmy Alley in San Francisco celebrate two heritages at the same time. The first murals in this alley were painted by Mexican women. Patricia Rodriguez, Graciela Carillo and other women artists had not been able to get any support from the men who were painting freedom murals in the city. They wanted to show that women could create great murals, too.The women chose to paint about the lives of women and children, to celebrate nature and beauty. "We had the freedom to paint whatever we wanted,” says Patricia Rodriguez, "and we chose the beauty of women and their Mexican and Latino cultures.” A neighbor gave them permission to paint the back of a garage. The only paint they had was outdoor house paint they got from neighbors. To get some brighter colors, they went to other artists and traded for what they needed.
Read this excerpt from "Painting Freedom on the Walls."When a wave of Mexican settlers began to come to San Diego in the 1890s, many of them made their home in an area known as Logan Heights. Soon that area was called Barrio Logan. (In Spanish, a barrio is a neighborhood.) At first, Barrio Logan was a neighborhood of homes and shops that stretched from well inland all the way to San Diego Bay, and the people had access to the beach. Then, during World War II, the beach was closed. In the 1950s, the city changed the zoning of the area so that industry could move into the neighborhood. Soon, the barrio was spotted with noisy, dirty junkyards. In the 1960s, Interstate 5 and ramps for the San Diego-Coronado Bridge cut Barrio Logan in half. About 5,000 homes were destroyed in the process.By this time, the residents were very angry about the terrible damage to their barrio. They protested loudly. Finally, the City Council of San Diego promised them a park to help make up for the damage. The council set aside land for that purpose. And then, in 1970, bulldozers arrived to turn the land into a parking lot. A student, Mario Solis, saw them, asked what was going on, and started spreading the word. Within a few hours, there were 250 people in the park, blocking the bulldozers.The people of Barrio Logan won their battle and got their park. They planted cactus and other native plants, but there was something missing. An artist named Salvador Torres came up with the idea of putting murals on the concrete pillars that supported the freeway. Chicano Park was born.
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Read this excerpt from We’ve Got a Job.What they cooked up was a scheme to intensify pressure on the city by increasing both the number of demonstrations and the number of demonstrators. While watching one of these events, Audrey saw an incident that shocked her. "I was standing on the steps of the Sixteenth Street [Baptist] Church, watching an elderly black man walking in the park across the street with other people, two-by-two," she remembered. "A policeman allowed a dog to attack that man—[just] because he was walking. It was unbelievable."At that moment, nine-year-old Audrey made a decision. She would no longer just attend meetings. Somehow, she would act on her own.What makes Audrey decide to “act on her own”?
Read the topic sentence.In "I Have a Dream,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. cleverly uses repetition and allusion to make his argument for equality.
Read the excerpt from Brown v. Board of Education.In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.Why does the Supreme Court assert this fact?
Lauren has written this paragraph about Dr. King’s speech.(1)"I Have a Dream” is the most clever speech I’ve ever read. (2)Dr. King uses allusions to history in his writing. (3)Reference to American songs and history adds depth to the argument. (4)King also refers to the Bible in his speech.
Which phrases from Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Dream” speech contain strong emotional connotations? Select 3 options.
Read the excerpt from “Pakistan’s Malala.”"I was in a bad mood," Malala blogged.Vacation was normally fun but no one was in the mood to celebrate.But what do you do when you're 11? You go to the playground and you play, so that's what they did.Some of the girls said they thought everything would work out. They'd be back, they said.Malala wanted to be hopeful, too. But before she left, she turned around and took one long look at the building.Malala was right about the edict and what it meant.Which statement best describes Malala’s viewpoint?
Which of these student responses to We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March is an example of a text-to-text connection?
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