Pursuing Justice

Proposal is attached:

Gender and Racial Passing

Cheers
Jen

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Jen Martin
Brookline High School
History Department

In case the file doesn't download properly, here it is:

Jennifer Martin
Memo

1--Describe project:

•    I am exploring the phenomenon of  racial and gender “passing” that existed in the early 20th century.
•    I am interested in how people access liberty if their original identity prevents them from accessing all of the rights granted to a full citizen. (i.e. women and people of color).
•    I am also interested in the motives for passing and how they might relate to issues of liberty beyond civil rights.  For example, in the examples of long-term gender passing, I suspect that the women may also have wanted to “freely” practice their love for same-sex partners. – not sure how to do this in class though.

a)      An overview of the lesson
•    I think that I will fit this into my unit on urbanization.
•    The lesson could fit into 2 themes that I usually stress in my class:
o    American Identity is a theme that I carry through the year and this obviously fits in an interesting way because it deals with people rejecting (or embracing?) their biological identity and adopting a false one.
o    The anonymity/invasiveness of city life and the opportunity to start a new life.  These cases are often discovered in cities which does not mean that they don’t occur in rural areas but cities offered people the opportunity to start new lives and yet, the interconnected nature of the city also reveals their true identity.

b)    A description of the student learning activity you contemplate designing.

•    Students would read several primary and secondary source documents that I have found including:
o    Newspaper reports (with pictures) of gender passing women→ men.
•    Case of Murray Hall (1901) and Cora Anderson (1917)
o    Excerpt from Nella Larson’s novel, Passing. (1929)
o    Excerpt from Mark Kittrell’s book, Love on Trial: an American Scandal in Black and White (2005) about  the Alice Jones and Leonard Rhinelander case of 1924.
o    Video excerpt from “African American Lives 2” about Bliss Broyard discovering her father “passing” and her African American ancestory. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/profiles/broyard.html


2--Research Question/Essential Question:
•    What conditions bring people to try and pass as someone they are not?
•    What justice issues do racial and gender passing raise?
•    What civil rights do people gain by passing?  What personal liberties do people gain by passing?
•    Is passing a radical or conservative way of dealing with injustices?
•    What similarities and differences exist between racial and gender passing in the 20th century?
•    What connections can be made between these cases and “passing” today?  How does this relate to the lives of my students?

3--Scale of project:
•    2 days in class
•    3 nights of HW
(much can be done outside because this is an AP US class of Juniors)

4--Performances of understanding:
•    Document analysis of all primary sources that is written up and checked (I have a format for this that I will attach to the lessons, which I use all year).
•    Class discussion
•    Journal response to the class discussion

5—Resources:
•    Most of these are listed earlier but:
o    Murray Hall and Cora Anderson’s newspapers accounts come from Jonathan Katz’s collection of primary docs called: “Gay American History”: Lesbians and Gay Men in the USA
o    The excerpt from Passing is at the national humanities center website:
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/segregation/text6/text6read.htm
o    The excerpt from Mark Kittrell’s book is on a professor’s website from the University  of Dayton School of Law:
http://academic.udayton.edu/RACE/04NEEDS/sex05.htm
o    The video clip is on the PBS site:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/profiles/broyard.html


6--Other questions/problems/concerns:
•    I really would like an academic article I could give my students on “passing” that might raise some of the issues we will discuss in class.  I have been unsuccessful on JSTOR but will continue to look- suggestions are welcome.

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Jen Martin
Brookline High School
History Department

Here are the materials for Jennifer Martin's lesson:

Lesson Plan on Passing

Worksheet on Passing

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Chris Macek
Pursuing Justice Technical Support
413-239-3564