*I have a dream - a must-read before Monday

One of the things you will be asked to discuss during the writing session on Monday is Martin Luther King Jr.'s world-known speech "I have a dream". Read the excerpt below, make sure you understand it and that you know what the "March on Washington" was. This text will also be handed out in class today. You should also see the video clip above - Martin Luther King Jr. was known for his great speeches and the way he delivered them. If the video does not work - click here!

"I have a dream"  

Speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. at the "March on Washington", 1963 (abridged) 

"[…] 

I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."  

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.  

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream . . . I have a dream that one day in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.  

I have a dream today . . .  

[…] 

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning. "My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountain side, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.  

But not only that. Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountain side. Let freedom ring. 

When we allow freedom to ring—when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, We are free at last." 

*How to prepare for Monday!

Rules of thumb when it comes to writing sessions:

1. Come prepared!
   1. Read through the timeline you made in the beginning of the semester. Look at the blog, notes from class and homework, and the compendium "American History".
   2. Read the excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech "I have a dream". See blog post above.
2. Read the tasks thoroughly! Make sure that you understand the tasks and that you know what the task is asking you to do.
3. Show your knowledge, but make sure that you stick to the topic.
4. Show that you have expanded your vocabulary by using words such as civil rights, independence, abolition, declaration, constitution, segregation, freedom fighter, equality, emancipation correctly.
5. Use connecting words and various ways to express your opinion. Avoid using the words VERY and REALLY! 
6. Read through your text thoroughly before you hand it in. Check for errors, typos, and verb conjugations. Your message must be clear – rewrite sentences if you are unsure. Make sure you don’t do the same mistakes as you have done earlier.
7. Remember:
1. That you can bring all the aids you need - but you cannot use the Internet. 
2. That you only have two school hours to complete the task - so come prepared.
3. Check this out. It´s just a hint.

*Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement sparked off with events such as the death of Emmett Till. And it truly sparked off when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. She stood up against an unfair system and government by sitting down! It has been said that the death of Emmett Till and the trial afterwards had made Rosa Parks especially angry, and that he was in the back of her mind when she refused to move.

Read about the Civil Rights Movement in your compendium at page 20 - 21. Then write a summary of the text where you include the most important events and facts.

10EF: This is homework for Wednesday September 23. 

*Meet Malcolm X

Not everyone shared Martin Luther King's thoughts on gently and non-violently asking for civil rights.

Read the following text about Malcolm X.

Answer the following questions carefully in your book:

1. Why do you think young Malcolm was angry at the American Society?
2. Why did he take X as hs last name?
3. Why did he convert to Islam?
4. How did the pilgrimage to Mecca change his views?

If you like, you may watch this short film of Malcolm.

This is homework for Wednesday 23rd of September.

Cinema Nordseter

This week's film showing at Cinema Nordseter is "The Help". The film is based on a novel written by Kathryn Stockett. The setting is in Jackson, Mississippi (you know, one of those beautiful Southern states), the year is 1963 (in the midst of the Civil Right era and movement), and we meet white Southern ladies and their help/maids.

Seeing the film is a great way to get an insight on how the period of the 1950's and 60's was in the U.S.A., especially in the Southern states. This was an era where Black Americans started to speak up against the unfair government and their laws. They were fed up. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to understand that the term "separate but equal" is a contradiction...

The film has won several awards, including an Oscar. It is a warm, sad, interesting and, at times, a quite funny story. Come and see it - you will not regret it :)

*American History essay

This week you are going to finish parts of your essay on American history. Your essay should include:

An introduction, with a clear thesis statement.

Three body paragraphs with clear topic sentences.

The three body paragraphs should be about

• The first settlers
• The War of Independence (and the Declaration of Independence)
• The Civil War and the abolition of slavery.

Feel free to include other paragraphs, and feel free to finish the essay. 

NB! Vary your language, use connecting words and use some of the new words you have learned while working with this topic:

civil rights, independence, abolition, declaration, constitution, segregation, freedom fighter, equality, emancipation

HW: For 10CDEF for Wednesday 16th. Upload the text on "itslearning" - go to Fag -> Engelsk skriftlig -> Essay American History

*The Death of Emmett Till

After the Civil War and the abolition of slavery there was a century in U.S. history where black Americans were free but far from equal. In the Southern states blacks were treated particularly bad. One event that partly sparked the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 60's was the death of a black boy named Emmett Till. The young artist Bob Dylan even wrote a song about it. Listen to the song and read the lyrics below. Then write a summary of what the lyrics are about. 

10CDEF: This is homework for Wednesday September 16th

The Death of Emmett Till 

’Twas down in Mississippi not so long ago
When a young boy from Chicago town stepped through a Southern door
This boy’s dreadful tragedy I can still remember well
The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up
They said they had a reason, but I can’t remember what
They tortured him and did some things too evil to repeat
There were screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds
out on the street

Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a bloody red rain
And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain
The reason that they killed him there, and I’m sure it ain’t no lie
Was just for the fun of killin’ him and to watch him slowly die

And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial
Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till
But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this
awful crime
And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind

I saw the morning papers but I could not bear to see
The smiling brothers walkin’ down the courthouse stairs
For the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free
While Emmett’s body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea

If you can’t speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that’s so unjust
Your eyes are filled with dead men’s dirt, your mind is filled with dust
Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood
it must refuse to flow
For you let this human race fall down so God-awful low!

This song is just a reminder to remind your fellow man
That this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan
But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we gave all we could give
We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live

Copyright © 1963, 1968 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1996 by Special Rider Music