C U R R I C U L U M    M A T E R I A L S

Gloria F. Pate-Hayes

Overview

Main Ideas
The unknown African American Dr. Rev. James Henry Magee is long overdue for recognition as an important role model and leader who helped to advance the rights of African Americans and others during his lifetime. He believed that all people can live and work together to achieve educational, economic, and political advances.

Connection with the Curriculum
The material is appropriate for the introduction and reinforcement of the

40

continuous efforts that many leaders and organizations have made for quality education, equal economic opportunity, political participation, and equal job opportunities. The activities may be appropriate for the Illinois Learning Standards 14:D, 16:A, 16:B, 16:D, 17:A, 17:D, and 18:B.

Teaching Level
Grades 6-9

Materials for Each Student
• A copy of the narrative portion of the article
• The excerpt of The Night of Affliction and Morning of Recovery
• The activity sheets
• An atlas, maps, encyclopedias, and dictionaries
• Newspaper articles or other documents
• Access to computer for Internet search and word processing

Objectives for Each Student
• To become more knowledgeable of another great Illinois African American who lived and died unrecognized for his great accomplishments
• To be able to read and understand an article and create a time line to list important events in Magee's lifetime
• To become familiar with the meaning of vocabulary words pertaining to the social behavior of people under oppression
• To become knowledgeable of and to understand certain time periods and the accomplishments that people in those periods achieved, despite great odds
• To recognize influential people in James Henry Magee's life

SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING THE LESSON

Opening the Lesson
• Students shall be given the narrative portion of the article to be studied.
• Show the video "Black Contributions" (Illinois State Board of Education, 1986). For directions in obtaining a copy please go to <www.isbe.net/vidlib/welcome.htm>
• Discuss and list the different accomplishments of three to four people of their choice.
• Show a poster display of three influential blacks representing the latter part of the nineteenth century, the first part of the twentieth century, and the latter part of the twentieth century and discuss how their lives were alike and different in comparison to Magee's.

Developing the Lesson
• Allow students class time to complete each activity
• Allow students time to discuss concerns and ideas
• See that each student has his own handout materials
• See that each student has access to all materials needed to accomplish the activities
• Allow homework time for gathering family history materials to be shared at school

Concluding the Lesson
• Students shall write one or two paragraphs describing what they have learned from the life of James Henry Magee.
• Students may share a brief oral presentation of what they have learned and how this knowledge affects them.

Extending the Lesson
• Students could make and share a display containing some photographs and articles/clippings of someone from their own family's history and share why that story is important to their family today
• Students could visit any ethnic museum in Illinois. Especially consider the Chicago Historical Society or the Du Sable Museum of African American History.

Assessing the Lesson
• Have the students list as many ways as possible how history can be made by anyone at anytime.
• Students can write how someone in their own family can contribute to the history of Illinois and the United States.

41

Students shall define each of the following vocabulary words that appear in the article, and they shall understand its meaning.

Students will determine if the definition used in Magee's time is interpreted the same way today.

1. emancipation

2. ratified

3. Thirteenth Amendment

4. manumission

5. autobiography

6. rivalry

7. gubernatorial nomination

8. partisan

9. alleged

10. relegate

11. subvert

12. vociferously

13. candid

14. reiterated

15. scathingly

16. perpetuate

17. Fifteenth Amendment

18. desegration

19. assiduously

20. affiliated

21. Ambidexter Institute

22. marginalization

23. bondage

24. abolish

25. lynching

Students will complete either of the following activities:

Create a time line detailing James Henry Magee's life and accomplishments. Include dates and important events. Or Write an essay describing James Henry Magee's life and accomplishments. Include religious, educational, and political opinions and views.

43

See Key on page 47.

Students shall be able to match the people, events, dates, and places on the left to its reference on the right.

a. born in Madison County, Illinois in 1839 b. born a slave and mother of James H. Magee c. Louisville, Kentucky d. owned a farm worth $3,000 around 1860 e. the year the autobiography entitled The Night of Affliction and Morning of Recovery was published f. others that did manage to acquire education in Illinois g. James Henry Magee h. accumulated property valued at $1,000 was located near i. went to Racine, Wisconsin to further their education j. escaped to Canada because of kidnappings and reselling into slavery k. a constitutional amendment prohibiting the slavery or involuntary servitude l. an August 1865 celebration m. drafted and endorsed a report asking the Illinois General Assembly to grant immediate suffrage to black citizens n. a Baptist minister in London, England o. Nashville, Tennessee prep school association p. largest black Baptist church in Ohio q. wrote The Night of Affliction and Morning of Recovery: An Autobiography r. Magee earned $45 per month in this place s. a leading white Republican and Representative from Massac County t. served as the first black on the Republican state central committee u. a Republican gubernatorial candidate in 1884 v. an important vehicle for African Americans to voice their concerns and to promote the movement for abolition w. in Chicago, Magee founded the ... that requested the execution of laws in order to protect the colored people of the U.S. and all citizens alike x. no copy was ever found of this book y. a native of Massac County and a Secretary of State z. opposed the State Colored Convention to be held in Springfield of 1886 aa. the year the weekly periodical Chicago Brotherhood was written bb. an organization that campaigned for stronger anti-lynching laws cc. an organized society that prepared papers and held meetings to assist blacks in 1905 dd. Ambidexter Institute... ee. delivered an address at the Lincoln Centennial Association's Banquet ff. an organization that highlighted the accomplishments and successes of African Americans

______Lazarus ______1873 ______James Henry Magee ______ Susan Magee ______John Jones, H.O. Wagoner, and John Willis Menard ______Magee's parents and oldest siblings were from ______The oldest Magee children ______born in 1839 ______Thirteenth Amendment ______Shipman in Macoupin County ______veteran sons and daughters of the Underground Railroad ______Evangelist Charles Haddon Spurgeon ______ Benjamin O. Jones ______ Union Baptist Church ______Missouri manumission celebration ______ Wood River colored Baptist Association ______ James Henry Magee, the first black to be elected (1882) ______Baptist College ______Richard J. Oglesby ______Metropolis, Illinois ______James Henry Magee published this book in 1873 ______The Black Man's Burden ______Colored State Convention ______James A. Rose ______The Black Man's Burden Relief Association ______James Henry Magee opposed ______Illinois Colored Historical Society ______1890-1891 ______Booker T. Washington ______Black Man's Burden Relief Association ______Illinois Colored Historical Society ______provided vocational educational opportunities

Provide students with an outline of the following maps: Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee, Canada, and England. Students are to mark and label the areas where Magee journeyed during his lifetime.

Next, using an outline of the state of Illinois, students are to create their own map key and show the locations of the journeys of Magee's life. Students can use the timeline from Activity 2 as an aid to the locations.

45

Read the following except from The Night of Affliction and Morning of Recovery, pp. 141-143.

What our people need is mental and moral training, so that preachers and teachers may take positions as the leaders among our own people. None can so effectually do this as the people who understand their own needs, and can sympathize with the deficiencies of their suffering bretheren. Therefore, let us educate, educate, educate, until our people can take the helm and thus guide the ship of destiny among our own people, until we shall have reached that true eminence to which all true greatness tends—the moral and intellectual development of true manhood and womanhood. Many have come to our assistance from the ranks of our white bretheren, for which I thank God. They are yet laboring in self-sacrifice, and that of their homes and firesides, in order to help their colored bretheren on the road to the light of truth. We shall be the last to forget, while memory holds its place, the noble deeds and heroic devotion to the right when it was dangerous to be considered the friend of the black man. Such philanthropist as Wendell Phillips, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, Owen Lovejoy, Henry Ward Beecher Stowe and a host of others, who have not bowed their knee to the Baal of slavery, nor to its shadow—prejudice. I want to add another name to the grand galaxy of liberty-loving heroes and heroines, so that their lustre may shine yet more resplendent with the light of liberty and justice. I refer to Abraham Lincoln, whose deeds in the cause of human freedom will live throughout all coming time.

Abraham Lincoln, president of the republic and commander-in-chief of the armies of the union, proclaimed freedom to all of our race within the limits of our country. It was the grandest act of his grand administration. It will send his name down "to the last syllable of recorded time." He will be known in future ages as the Great Emancipator, who gave freedom to four million of mortal beings. Borrowing the language of a distinguished American statesman with reference to George Washington, it may be fitly said of Abraham Lincoln: "The republic may perish; the wide arch of our ranged union may fall, star by star, its glories may expire, stone after stone of its columns and its capitol may moulder and crumble, all other names that adorn its annals may be forgotten, but as long as human hearts feel and human tongues shall speak, those hearts shall enshrine the memory and those tongues shall proclaim the fame of Abraham Lincoln!

After you read the excerpt, answer the following questions in an essay, or prepare a ten-minute oral presentation to the class. If you chose the ten-minute presentation, prepare to discuss it with the class. Whether you choose the essay or oral presentation to present your remarks, attempt to use information from your local newspaper.

1. How do Magee's words apply to current circumstances throughout the nation?

2. How especially do Magee's words apply to opportunities for blacks in school? Consider busing, school integration, and outstanding civic contributions by local black leaders.

3. What attitudes may be barriers against equal opportunities?

46

d    Lazarus

e    1873

a    James Henry Magee

b    Susan Magee

f    John Jones, H.O. Wagoner, and John Willis Menard

c    Magee's parents and oldest siblings were from

i    the oldest Magee children

g    born in 1839

k    Thirteenth Amendment

h    Shipman in Macoupin County

j    veteran sons and daughters of the Underground Railroad

n    evangelist Charles Haddon Spurgeon

s    Benjamin O. Jones

p    Union Baptist Church

l    Missouri manumission celebration

m    Wood River colored Baptist Association

t    James Henry Magee, the first black to be elected (1882)

o    Baptist College

u    Richard J. Oglesby

r    Metropolis, Illinois

q    James Henry Magee published this book in 1873

w    The Black Man's Burden

v    Colored State Convention

y    James A. Rose

w    The Black Man's Burden Relief Association

z    James Henry Magee opposed

cc    Illinois Colored Historical Society

aa    1890-1891

ee    Booker T. Washington

bb    Black Man's Burden Relief Association

ff    Illinois Colored Historical Society

dd    provided vocational educational opportunities

Click here to return to the article

47