Ken Burns Classroom

Staging a Double V Campaign in the Classroom

Ken Burns Film: The War

Collections: The Great Depression and WWII (1929-1945)

Subject: American History Civics Language Arts

Grade Level: 7-12

Run Time: 2-3 class periods

Background

During World War II, African Americans found themselves with conflicting feelings about supporting the war effort, since their own country did not offer them the freedom America was fighting for overseas. The Double Victory — Double V—campaign, begun by the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper in 1942, helped to address this issue. It encouraged African Americans to participate at every level in winning the war abroad, while simultaneously fighting for their civil rights at home.

Objectives

Students will:

  • Examine the role African Americans played in the war effort at home and abroad during World War II.
  • Discuss the civil rights barriers that African Americans faced during the war.
  • Research and create a Double V campaign in the classroom.

Reference materials for student projects:

Lesson Procedure

  1. 1. Read students the following quote from Daniel Inouye, one of the people interviewed in The War.
    1. “One of the most important results of this war was to begin the process of integration. One must recall that in that war, you had the Japanese, like my regiment, the 92nd division, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo code talkers. The Filipino Americans in Manila, the Puerto Rican regiment, the 65th Regiment. And all of them, in their way, fought bravely and made a heroic chapter of their lives… And so I think the war played a major role in civil rights. Not realizing that that was the purpose, but, so after that, who will tell us, no, you’re not worth to be considered Americans? No one can tell us that to our face.“
  2. Now ask students to think about the Double V campaign as a catalyst for the civil rights movement. As a class discuss:
    • How did the experience of fighting, even in segregated units, empower African Americans and others to come home and fight for their civil rights?
    • When did the armed forces finally become integrated? What was the effect?
    • How long would it take from the end of the war to abolish segregation in the South? What were the next steps in the civil rights movement?
  3. Activity: Mounting a Double V Campaign in Your School
    • Tell the class that they are going to mount their own Double V campaign, through which they will inform their entire school community about how African Americans contributed to World War II while fighting for their civil rights. Note that you can adapt the plan below to include raising awareness of how prejudice affected other Americans during World War II, including Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans, Jewish Americans, American Indians and other ethnic and religious groups.
    •  Consider asking for space on bulletin boards to post news articles, display exhibitions and hang banners throughout your school. Ask for permission to broadcast radio programs on the school P.A. system and for students to wear items of clothing with the Double V insignia.
    •  Consider asking students to create a before-the-campaign questionnaire for the school community to test “What I Know About African Americans in World War II.” Students can compare answers on the questionnaire before and after they wage their Double V campaign.
    •  Consider holding an insignia design contest: Before your class breaks down into committee work for the campaign, either show them the Double V insignia or hold a Double V insignia contest of your own in which students submit their designs to a committeethat judges which is the most effective in terms of boldly conveying the meaning of Double Victory.
  4. Now divide the class into committees like those suggested below. Note the way in which the committees tap into students’ “multiple intelligences.” Each student on a committee should be responsible for completing one (or more) of the assignments on the committee lists.
    • Consider setting the mood of the war years while students work in their committees. Screen the recommended segments from Ken Burns: The War with the sound turned low, or play a selection of radio broadcasts from the war years as background music to committee work.  
    • Consider adapting the following instructions by asking students to create 21st century media projects that use technology not yet available during World War II, such as creating video programs, podcasts, and PowerPoint presentations. 

News Committee 1 writes articles about the home front from a black perspective.

  • History and impact of Executive Order 8802.
  • Segregation in the Alabama Dry Dock workforce and its outcome.
  • The status of lynching in America and the anti-lynching bills submitted to congress.
  • The role of black organizations in fighting for rights during the war: Urban League, the NAACP, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, etc.
  • Race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois and elsewhere.
  • Port Chicago Mutiny (1944): After a huge explosion at a munitions depot, black enlistees stand up for safety on the job.
  • Contributions of African American women to the work of civilian defense, selling war bonds and other work on the home front.

News Article Committee 2 writes articles about the armed services in the European, North African, and Pacific theaters of war from a black perspective.

  • Tuskegee airmen, the only black pilots trained to fly in the war.
  • Black engineers and soldiers in the Pacific; their role in building landing strips, etc.
  • Black men (1942) and black women (1944) admitted to the U.S. Navy, and black males to the Marines (1942).
  • Black anti-aircraft battalion’s a critical role in the D-Day invasion of France.
  • Blacks fighting in integrated units during the Battle of the Bulge (1944)  under General George Patton. Photography Exhibit Committee 1 creates an exhibition about African Americans on the Home Front.
  • Create and display a photography exhibit about African Americans on the home front. Accompany the displayed images with student-written captions and short essays that help the viewer interpret the photographs. Alternatively the committee members can become docents who give visitors a tour of the exhibit.

Photography Exhibit Committee 2: African Americans at War

  • Create and display a photography exhibit about the African American experience in the armed forces. Accompany the displayed images with student-written captions and short essays that help the viewer interpret the photographs.
  • Alternatively, the committee members can become docents who give visitors a tour of the exhibit.

Visual Publicity Committee produces banners, posters, stickers, buttons, and articles of fashion to publicize the campaign.

  • Design two posters for the Double V campaign, one about African Americans on the home front and another to encourage blacks to enlist in the armed forces.
  • Produce two banners that convey the patriotic message of the Double V campaign and what it means to America and African Americans.
  • Manufacture buttons or stickers for people to wear that show the wearer’s support for the Double V campaign and what it means.
  • Design two items that someone can wear to demonstrate theirsupport of the Double V campaign (caps, headbands, watchbands, bracelets, etc.)

Standards

National Standards for History, National Center for History in the School at (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs)
Era 8 Standard 2A The student understands the New Deal and the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Analyze the involvement of minorities and women in the New Del and its impact upon them.
Era 8 Standard 3C The student understands the effects of World War II at home. Evaluate how minorities organized to gain access to wartime jobs and how they confronted discrimination.

Center for Civic Education, National Standards for Civics and Government. (http://www.civiced.org)

Standard I.B. 3. Civil Society and government. Explain how civil society makes it possible for people individually or in association with others to bring their influence to bear on government in ways other than voting and elections.

Standard II.B. 4. Diversity in American society. Describe conflicts that have arisen from diversity and explain the means by which some have been managed and explain why some conflicts have persisted unabated.

National Council for the Social Studies, Curriculum Standards for Social Studies.

Standard II d. Systematically employ processes of critical historical inquiry to reconstruct and reinterpret the past, such as using a variety of sources and checking their credibility, validating and weighing evidence for claims, and searching for causality.

Standard IV Individual Development & Identity g. Compare and evaluate the impact of stereotyping, conformity, acts of altruism, and other behaviors on individuals and groups.

Standard VI Power; Authority, & Governance h. Explain and apply concepts such as power, role, status, justice, and influence to the examination of persistent issues and social problems.

Language Arts, Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McRel) at (http://www.mcrel.org)

Standard 1 The Writing Process

  • Uses prewriting strategies
  • Drafts and revises; redrafts for readability, style, content and linguistic structures.
  • Edits own and others’ writing
  • Uses strategies to address different audiences
  • Writes expository compositions; synthesizes information from different sources
  • Writes fictional, biographical, autobiographical and observational narrative compositions.
  • Writes persuasive compositions; develops thesis statement; backs up assertions.
  • Writes descriptive compositions; reflects on personal experience.
  • Writes in response to literature; analyzes and interprets

Standard 2: Uses Stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing

  • Uses precise and descriptive language
  • Develops effective paragraphs in logical sequence; uses supporting detail
  • Varies sentences structures
  • Uses a variety of transitional devises
  • Develops personal styles and voice

Music:
Understands the relationship between music and history and culture.

Art:
Understands the relationship between music and history and culture. Understands and applies media, techniques, and processes related to the visual arts.

Language Arts
Viewing Standard 9
Grades 6-8

  • Understands the use of stereotypes and biases in visual media, e.g., distorted representations of society; imagery and stereotyping in advertising; elements of stereotypes such as physical characteristics, manner of speech, beliefs and attitudes.

Standard 9 Grades 9-12

  • Uses strategies to analyze stereotypes in visual media, e.g., recognizes stereotypes that serve the interests of some groups in society at the expense of others; identifies techniques… that perpetuate stereotypes.

Language Arts Media
Literacy Standard 10
Grades 6-8

  • Understands the ways in which image-makers carefully construct meaning, e.g., idea and word choice by authors, images created by photographers, television programs created by groups of people

Standard 10 Grades 9-12

  • Understands the influence of media on society as a whole, e.g., influence in shaping various governmental, social, and cultural norms; influence on the democratic process; influence on beliefs, lifestyles, and understanding of relationships and culture; how it shapes viewer’s perceptions of reality; the various consequences in society of ideas and images in media.

About The Authors

Joan Brodsky Schur

Joan Brodsky Schur is Social Studies Curriculum Consultant for the Village Community School in New York City where she has taught Social Studies and English for over 20 years.

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