D2.His.3.6-8: Asking Questions to Explain Why People and Groups Are Historically Significant

Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-70 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Think of a person from history whom people should still remember 100 years from now. Write one sentence: why should they be remembered? Then answer: is being famous the same thing as being important to history?"

   Collect a few names and reasons. Sort the reasons on the board into two piles: reasons about fame ("everyone knows her," "he was on TV") and reasons about impact ("she changed a law," "they made people see things differently"). Tell students that historians use the word significant for the second pile. A person can be famous without being very significant, and some significant people were forgotten for a long time. Today they meet one of them.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Part 1: Words for today. Historically significant means worth remembering and studying because of what a person or group did, what changed, and what their story shows. A development is a large change that unfolds over years. Segregation is the forced separation of people by race; desegregation ends it. An individual is one person; a group is many people who acted together or shared an experience.

   Part 2: The question kit. Show Diagram 1 and the table below. Stress that the questions come first: a good question tells you what evidence to look for. A strong question is open (it cannot be answered with yes or no) and can be answered from sources.

   The four question types used on this page (an SVHS teaching tool)

   Question type	Starter questions	Where to look
   1. Actions	What did this person or group do? What choices did they make, and what risks did they take?	The person or group, at the time
   2. Change	What developments did they shape? Who was affected, how many people, and for how long?	Before and after
   3. Window	What does their story show about the time and place they lived in?	The world around them
   4. Memory	Who remembers them, when, and why? Who forgot them, and why?	Later people

   Part 3: An individual. Read Source 1 aloud. Words to know: enslaved (held in slavery, owned by another person by law); a ship's pilot (the person who steers a ship through a harbor); the Confederacy (the Southern states that broke away from the United States); a blockade squadron (a group of U.S. Navy ships placed outside a port to stop ships going in or out). Then read Source 2. More words: a delegate (a person chosen to speak and vote for others at a meeting), a boycott (refusing to use or buy something as a protest), Reconstruction (the National Park Service describes the Reconstruction era as the time when the United States "grappled with the question of how to integrate millions of newly freed African Americans" into the nation's social, political, economic and labor systems), and the Lost Cause (the name of a version of Civil War and Reconstruction history that spread after the war; paragraph 3 of Source 2 describes its effect).

   1By the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Robert Smalls was an enslaved crewmember on a ship called the Planter, operating in the Charleston Harbor. The owners of the ship contracted the vessel out to the Confederate army as a transport ship, and Smalls found himself as a pilot on board the ship. In early 1862, the Confederacy had achieved numerous battlefield victories, and it seemed as if the quest to create an independent slaveholders’ republic might succeed. Robert Smalls decided not to wait and find out. He devised a plan to free not only himself, but his family as well.

   2On the night of May 12, 1862, the white crewmembers of the Planter went ashore in Charleston, leaving Smalls and the enslaved crewmembers unattended. Around 3 am, Smalls and his fellow freedom seekers fired up the ship’s boilers and sailed to a wharf to pick up their waiting family members. From there, the sixteen enslaved people passed the Confederate forces at Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie. Being a pilot, Smalls knew the proper signals to give, and even donned a captain’s hat to help disguise his identity as they steamed past the unsuspecting rebels. Smalls sailed the group out to the naval blockade squadron and turned the Planter over to the United States Navy. Robert Smalls and his family were free.

   1It was later in 1864 that Smalls began his career in politics. While in Philadelphia he was arrested for riding in a segregated streetcar. In response, he organized a boycott that ultimately led to the desegregation of Philadelphia’s transit system in 1867. Also in 1864, Robert Smalls served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention - the start of his decades long political career through the Reconstruction.

   2Shortly after the Civil War ended, Smalls went into business with Richard Gleaves, and they opened a store for Freedmen. Smalls became an advocate for public education, including for himself. In 1868, he served as a delegate to the South Carolina state convention that wrote a new state constitution. Smalls lobbied for public education to be a key component of the new document. That same year he was elected to the state House of Representatives, and was elected to the state Senate in 1872. In 1874, as most areas of the South were falling back under white Democratic control, the citizens of Beaufort elected Robert Smalls to serve in the United States Congress. He eventually served five terms in the House of Representatives between 1875 - 1887.

   [...]

   3By the time Robert Smalls died in February 1915, southern Democrats had completely retaken the political landscape of the south and instituted harsh segregation policies. The rise of the Lost Cause rewrote the history of Reconstruction, and the successes of men and women like Robert Smalls disappeared from the mainstream narrative. In the 2000s, community members in Beaufort began to lobby for the creation of a national park site to tell the story of Smalls and the importance of Reconstruction. In January 2017, President Barack Obama issued an executive order establishing Reconstruction Era National Monument in Beaufort County, noting the significance of Robert Smalls to our national story. In 2019, the park was renamed Reconstruction Era National Historical Park with a visitor center located just a few blocks away from both Robert Smalls’s home and his final resting place at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Beaufort.

   Part 4: A group. Read Source 3. Words to know: the Army Air Corps (the part of the U.S. Army that flew airplanes; it was later renamed the Army Air Forces); a cadet (a student in military training); civil rights groups (organizations that worked for equal rights under the law). Model the four question types with the worked examples below. Each one starts with a question a student could write and ends with an answer built from evidence.

   1The Tuskegee Airmen and the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site are significant for several reasons:

   [...]

   2(2) In the early 1940s, key leaders within the United States Army Air Corps (Army Air Forces) did not believe that African Americans had the intellectual capacity to become successful military pilots. After succumbing to the pressure exerted by civil rights groups and African American leaders, the army decided to train a small number of African American pilot cadets under special conditions. Although prejudice and discrimination against African Americans occurred throughout the nation, it was more intense in the South where it had hardened into rigidly enforced patterns of segregation. Such was the environment that the military chose to locate the training of the Tuskegee Airmen.

   [...]

   3(6) The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American soldiers to successfully complete their training and enter the Army Air Corps . Almost 1000 aviators were produced as America's first African American military pilots. In addition, more than 10,000 military and civilian African American men and women served in a variety of support roles.

   4(7) Although military leaders were hesitant to use the Tuskegee Airmen in combat, the airmen eventually saw considerable action in North Africa and Europe. Acceptance from Army Air Forces units came slowly, but their courageous and, in many cases, heroic performance earned them increased combat opportunities and respect.

   5(8) The success of the Tuskegee Airmen proved to the American public that African Americans, when given the opportunity, could become effective military leaders and pilots. Modeled on the professionalism of Chief Alfred Anderson, Benjamin O. Davis, and Daniel "Chappie" James, their performance helped pave the way for desegregation of the military, beginning with President Harry S Truman's Executive Order 9981 in 1948. It also helped set the stage for civil rights advocates to continue the struggle to end racial discrimination during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Consequently, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen constitutes a powerful and seminal metaphor for the struggle of African American freedom in America.

   • Actions question about an individual (Source 1, paragraph 2)

     Student question: "Who went with Robert Smalls on the Planter, and where did they pick up the rest of the group?"

     Result: Smalls and "his fellow freedom seekers" first sailed "to a wharf to pick up their waiting family members," and then "the sixteen enslaved people" sailed past the forts together (Source 1, paragraph 2). The answer shows that this was not one man's escape: Smalls planned it so that a whole group of families could reach freedom.

   • Change question about an individual (Source 2, paragraph 2)

     Student question: "What offices did Robert Smalls hold after the war, and for how long?"

     Result: He was "elected to the state House of Representatives" in 1868, "elected to the state Senate in 1872," and served "five terms in the House of Representatives between 1875 - 1887" (Source 2, paragraph 2). A man who had been enslaved in 1862 was making laws for his state within six years and for the nation within thirteen. That change, from enslaved to lawmaker, is one reason he is seen as significant.

   • Window question about a group (Source 3, paragraph 2)

     Student question: "What does the training of the Tuskegee Airmen show about how the military saw African Americans in the early 1940s?"

     Result: Key leaders "did not believe that African Americans had the intellectual capacity to become successful military pilots," and the training was placed in the South, where discrimination "had hardened into rigidly enforced patterns of segregation" (Source 3, paragraph 2). The group's story is a window on the prejudice of the time: the pilots had to prove something that white pilots were never asked to prove.

   • Change in how a group was seen (Source 3, paragraph 4)

     Student question: "How did military leaders' view of the Tuskegee Airmen change during the war?"

     Result: At first leaders "were hesitant to use the Tuskegee Airmen in combat." Later the airmen "saw considerable action in North Africa and Europe," and their performance "earned them increased combat opportunities and respect" (Source 3, paragraph 4). The change happened slowly: the source says "Acceptance from Army Air Forces units came slowly."

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs read Source 7, two lists of questions a student wrote about Robert Smalls. For each question in List A, pairs decide why it is weak (a yes-or-no question, a trivia question that does not help explain significance, or a pure opinion question) and rewrite it as an open question. Then they label each question in List B with its type from the kit.

   List A (written by a student before reading)

   1. Was Robert Smalls brave?
   2. What color was the Planter?
   3. Did Robert Smalls like ships?
   4. Is Robert Smalls famous?

   List B (written by a student after reading Source 1)

   1. What choice did Robert Smalls make in May 1862, and what risks did he and the other freedom seekers take?
   2. What changed for Smalls, his family and the United States Navy after the Planter reached the blockade squadron?
   3. What does his escape show about the Civil War in Charleston in 1862?
   4. Who remembers Robert Smalls today, and why do they think he matters?

   Teacher model for one question: "Was Robert Smalls brave?" can be answered "yes" and the conversation stops. Rewrite: "What risks did Smalls and the others take when they sailed past Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie?" Now students have to find evidence about the risks and explain them. List B labels: question 1 Actions, question 2 Change, question 3 Window, question 4 Memory.

   Next, pairs write one question of each type about the Tuskegee Airmen and answer two of them from Source 3. Circulate and push vague questions ("Were they good pilots?") toward open ones ("What did their combat record change for later African American servicemen?").

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read Sources 4 and 6. Words to know: an executive order (a written order from the President to parts of the federal government); equality of treatment and opportunity (the same rules and the same chances for everyone); a filibuster (very long speeches in the Senate used to block a vote); integrated (open to all races together). Source 4 is a primary source (a source made at the time by the people involved): the order itself. Source 6 is a secondary source, a National Archives explanation written decades later.

   Each student writes two Change questions linking the Tuskegee Airmen to the desegregation of the armed forces, answers them with evidence from Sources 3, 4 and 6, and ends with a sentence that begins "The Tuskegee Airmen are seen as significant because ...". The quiz uses Sources 1-6.

   1Establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity In the Armed Forces.

   2WHEREAS it is essential that there be maintained in the armed services of the United States the highest standards of democracy, with equality of treatment and opportunity for all those who serve in our country's defense:

   3NOW THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States, and as Commander in Chief of the armed services, it is hereby ordered as follows:

   41. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale.

   1In February 1948, President Truman called on Congress to enact all of these recommendations. When Southern Senators immediately threatened a filibuster, Truman moved ahead on civil rights by using his executive powers. Among other things, Truman bolstered the civil rights division, appointed the first African-American judge to the Federal bench, and named several other African-Americans to high-ranking administration positions. And on July 26, 1948, he issued this executive order abolishing segregation in the armed forces and ordering full integration of all branches.

   2Executive Order 9981 stated that "there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." It established the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services to recommend revisions to military regulations in order to implement this policy.

   [...]

   3There was considerable resistance to the executive order from the military, but by the end of the Korean conflict, almost all of the military was integrated.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: "Write one Memory question about Robert Smalls or the Tuskegee Airmen. Then write one sentence explaining why someone might be significant even if many people have never heard of them."

   Teacher notes. (1) These sources discuss slavery, segregation and racial prejudice. State the facts plainly, and let students react; no student should be asked to speak for a group. (2) Source 2 names political parties of the 1860s-1910s. Party names have stayed the same while their positions have changed a great deal since then, so this page does not compare them with today's parties. (3) Source 1 calls Confederate forces "rebels" and Source 5 uses the older word "Caucasian" for white officers; both are the National Park Service's words, kept exactly. (4) Source 6 quotes the order as saying "armed forces," while the order itself (Source 4) says "armed services": a small reminder that a later summary is not the document.

   For the homework: Source 5 (below) describes who the Tuskegee Airmen were. The homework uses it with Sources 1 and 2.

   1The Tuskegee Airmen gained notice and respect as the result of a test conducted by the U.S. Army Air Corps (Army Air Forces) to determine if African Americans had the mental and physical abilities to lead, fly military aircraft, and courage to fight in war.

   2The Airmen were not just pilots. They were technicians, radio operators, medical personnel, quartermasters, parachute riggers, mechanics, bombardiers, navigators, meteorologists, control tower operators, dispatchers, cooks, and others. Also included were Caucasian officers, Native Americans, Caribbean islanders, Latinos, and people of mixed racial heritage.

   3The women of the "Tuskegee Experience" worked alongside male counterparts as mechanics, gate guards, control tower operators, aircraft fuselage technicians, secretaries, and clerks. There were three permanent female parachute riggers who were responsible for training hundreds of cadets in the correct procedures for packing and maintaining parachutes. Gertrude Anderson served as assistant to G.L. Washington at Kennedy Field where Tuskegee's Civilian Pilot Training Program was based. She assumed responsibility for continued operation of the airfield when Washington was transferred to Tuskegee Army Air Field.

   4Women and men served proudly together and faced the same racial obstacles. One such challenge was the Freeman Field Mutiny.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which statement best describes what it means for a person or group to be historically significant?

   AThey are well known today and are written about in many books BWhat they did changed things or shows a lot about their time CThey were the very first people to do something new and different DThey lived a long time ago and left written records

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A student is studying the Tuskegee Airmen. Which question would best help her explain their significance?

   AWere the Tuskegee Airmen good at flying airplanes? BHow many letters are in the name Tuskegee? CWhat did their service change for later African Americans in the military? DDo you personally like the Tuskegee Airmen more than other World War II pilots?

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which question is a Memory question, in the kit used on this page?

   AWhat did Robert Smalls do on the night of May 12, 1862? BWhat does the Planter escape show about Charleston in 1862? CWhat offices did Robert Smalls hold after the Civil War? DWhy do people in Beaufort honor Robert Smalls today?

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 1, paragraph 1, explains what was happening in early 1862. Why does the source say Smalls "decided not to wait"?

   AThe Navy had offered a reward to anyone who brought it a ship BThe Confederacy had won many battles and might succeed CThe white crew had already planned to sell the Planter in Charleston DHis family had been moved to Fort Sumter and he wanted to free them

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 1, paragraph 2, how did Smalls get the Planter past Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie?

   AHe gave the right signals and wore a captain's hat BHe waited for a storm to hide the ship from the guards CHe sailed at noon, when the forts changed their guards DHe flew a United States flag so the forts would let him by

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 2, paragraph 1, describes what Smalls did in Philadelphia in 1864. What development did his action help bring about?

   AA new law letting formerly enslaved men serve as ship pilots BThe end of the naval blockade around Charleston Harbor CThe desegregation of Philadelphia's transit system in 1867 DA new state constitution for Pennsylvania in 1868

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 2, paragraph 2, what did Smalls work for at the 1868 South Carolina convention?

   APublic education as a key part of the new constitution BA new state capital in the city of Beaufort CA larger navy to protect the South Carolina coast and harbors DHigher taxes on the stores that served Freedmen

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 2, paragraph 3, explains a Memory question: why were Smalls's successes left out of the mainstream story for many years?

   AHe asked that his papers be kept private after his death BThe Lost Cause rewrote the history of Reconstruction CHistorians did not know that he had served in Congress DThe Navy kept the story of the Planter secret until 2017

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 3, paragraph 2, why did the army decide to train a small number of African American pilot cadets?

   AArmy leaders believed African American cadets would make the best pilots BThere were not enough white cadets to fill the training classes CTuskegee Institute paid the army to start a flight school there DCivil rights groups and African American leaders pressed the army

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which statement matches the numbers in Source 3, paragraph 3?

    AAbout 1,000 pilots trained, and over 10,000 people served in support roles BAbout 10,000 pilots trained, and about 1,000 people served in support roles CAbout 1,000 people served in all, counting pilots and support crews DOver 10,000 pilots trained, and nobody else served in the program

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Source 3, paragraph 5, names two developments the Tuskegee Airmen helped shape. One is the desegregation of the military. What is the other?

    AThe building of new military airfields in North Africa BThe founding of the National Park Service CThe civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s DThe first airline flights for paying passengers

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to Source 4, paragraph 4, how quickly was the new policy to be put into effect?

    AWithin ten days of the order BAs rapidly as possible, without harming efficiency or morale COnly after Congress passed a law to approve it DAt the end of the Korean conflict

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Source 6, paragraph 3, describes what happened after the order. Which statement fits it?

    AThe military welcomed the order and finished the whole change before the end of 1948 BCongress cancelled the order after the military objected to it CThe order was ignored, and the armed forces stayed fully segregated for many decades DDespite resistance, almost all of it was integrated by the end of the Korean conflict

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Source 6 says the order was "abolishing segregation in the armed forces." What do you notice when you compare that with the order itself in Source 4?

    ASource 4 uses the word "segregation" in every paragraph BSource 4 says the order applies only to the Navy CSource 4 never uses the word "segregation"; it speaks of equal treatment and opportunity DSource 4 says the order applies only to pilots

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write one Change question about the Tuskegee Airmen. Then answer it with a quotation from Source 3, 4 or 6, and explain in one sentence why the answer matters.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Explain one reason it can be harder to ask good questions about a group than about one person. Use Source 5 in your answer.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write one Memory question about Robert Smalls that Source 2, paragraph 3, helps answer. Then answer it with evidence.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Source 3, paragraph 3, says the Tuskegee Airmen were "the first African American soldiers to successfully complete their training and enter the Army Air Corps." Explain why being first is not enough by itself to make them significant, using paragraph 5.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose Robert Smalls or the Tuskegee Airmen. Write three sentences that explain why your choice is seen as historically significant. Use two different question types and name them.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write one Window question about Source 1, paragraph 1, and answer it: what does Smalls's story show about the Civil War in Charleston in early 1862?

    Show model answer

These standards connect to D2.His.3.6-8: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.