Activities
Is Segregation Back in U.S. Public Schools?
Merry-Go-Round
- Langston Hughes
Colored child at carnival:
Where is the Jim Crow section
On this merry-to-round,
Mister, cause I want to ride?
Down South where I come from
White and colored
Can’t sit side by side.
Down South on the train
There’s a Jim Crow car.
On the bus we’re put in the back—
But there ain’t no back
To a merry-go-round!
Where’s the horse
For a kid that’s black?
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To what is Hughes comparing the merry-go-round?
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Compare this poem to Melba's incident at the park on July 4.
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What problems does he suggest merry-go-rounds and carousels present in a segregated society?
I’ll Walk the Tightrope
- Margaret Danner
I’ll walk the tightrope that’s been stretched for me,
and though a wrinkled forehead, perplexed why,
will accompany me, I’ll delicately
step along. For if I stop to sigh
at the earth-propped stride
of others, I will fall. I must balance high
without a parasol to tide
a faltering step, without a net below,
without a balance stick to guide.
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What do you think it is like to “balance high” without a parasol, net, or balance stick?
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How does the person on a tightrope keep from falling?
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How are Melba and the other eight African American students at Central High like the narrator in the poem? What kept them from falling?
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Have you ever “walked the tightrope”? What kept you from falling? How did you keep
your balance?