On Thursday, Fourth Graders imagined themselves as recent immigrants working in a factory in 1909. The conditions in the factory were dismal. Workers were unhappy. Some of the workers had heard about a meeting that was taking place that evening at Cooper Union. At the end of their difficult workday, the boss announced,
“I heard they are gathering at Cooper Union tonight and that Clara Lemlich will be there too. If I hear you’ve gone, you’ll be fired. If you go, don’t come into work tomorrow.”As the workers left the building they discussed whether to go to the meeting and ultimately to strike… or not. Here is what they said:
“I’m going to the meeting! Because I hate these stupid working conditions! If nobody was striking then the working conditions would stay the same. The sooner we strike the better because then if we strike maybe the bosses will give in and give us a better place to work and more pay. The lousy pay doesn’t even help my family.” – Ezra
“Because if I didn’t then America wouldn’t be like this right now. If they hadn’t gone striking America would be the same in a bad way. I want to help.” – Suko
“We should go on strike because everybody is saying that it’s horrible. We’re just going to be fired either way. If we don’t go then we won’t be able to have better conditions. If we do go there is a chance that we might not have these conditions.” – Gia
“I think that I’m going to Cooper Union because if you just stay here nothing is going to change. You’re just going to keep sewing the same garments every day. The pay isn’t going to go up. The work is just going to get harder.” – Kieran
“Why would we want to stay in this job? It’s already awful.” – Alden
“We need to stand up because we need to share that we don’t like how we’re being treated. That’s a big enough reason for me to be out of my job. I want a sustainable life and I want to be known for doing something. If I strike it could change the future. Would you rather help the future and help make our country better or would you just care about yourself? I’d rather go to jail.” – Asher
“I am going to the meeting and I don’t care what anybody says! I don’t care if I lose my job! Because we have such bad working conditions and we’re forced to lie about them. We shouldn’t have to do that. Some of my friends here are underage and they have to be thrown into crates. All of that to get really low pay. It’s not fair! You have to think about other people not just yourself.” – Margot
“I only get one dollar a week and that’s not enough.” – Romy
“I know that a lot of people want to stay in their job because of the money but if a bunch of people go up against the factory owners then maybe America can change and everyone could have the thoughts of those people.” – Jade
“We’ll be more comfy in jail than we are here. Suck it up and strike!” – Makeda
“I am going to Cooper Union because that might lead to a strike. You have to work seven days a week, fourteen hours a day. If I can make a tiny dent in history that’s worth it.” – Miles
Not to Strike?
“I made my choice because I need the money. I can’t go. My life depends on it. So many people are doing it that it’s sort of depending on them. I’d rather be working hard.” – Crosby
“Even though it is low pay we still need the low pay to survive and to live. Make more money to give to your children and to taxes so that they can make a difference.” – Yves
“I’m just a regular citizen who gets my regular pay. I don’t care if I make a mark or not, I’m just helping my family.” – Avery
“I want more money because I live with a lot of people. If we stay working we can get more money. Then we could try to make things better.” – Sam
“I’m not going to the meeting or going on strike because I need the money to pay rent and food and feed my family.” – Nate
“It’s because you can go to jail, you can get fired from your job. You can possibly get killed striking. Also, what do we know about the future? I’m guessing a bunch of you who want to strike would not have wanted it if you were in the time period. I’m guessing you probably are inspired by the books we are reading. If we were actually working right now in a really bad factory, working low pay, surviving, you wouldn’t go on strike. It’s dangerous and your parents wouldn’t let you. Let other people handle it.” – Lorenzo
On the Fence
“I’m not going on strike. I don’t want to die or go to jail.” – Zen
Later that night…”On November 22, 1909, workers gathered at a huge meeting at the Cooper Union Building to decide what to do….A young union organizer and worker named Clara Lemlich made her way through the crowd. Climbing up onto the platform, she looked out over the sea of faces. Her eyes flashing, Clara electrified the crowd with her simple plea: ‘I have listened to all the speakers. I would not have further patiences for talk…I move that we go on a general strike!’” (Shutting Out the Sky by Deborah Hopkinson)
To be continued….
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Our class went to see the film, Hidden Figures,…..
Below are excerpts from diary entries written by fourth graders from the perspectives of one of the three women in the film:
Katherine Johnson— mathematician/astrophysicist
Mary Jackson— engineer
Dorothy Vaughn— manager, learns to program
Alden: “Today I had another hard day at NASA. They moved me to the a position in the office where the white people work. …In the 1960’s there is so much segregation. With everything! …It is especially hard in Virginia no matter what the law is.”
Alex: “…It is tough being a black girl in 1961. Not many white people respected me or the way I felt like I should be respected. It felt like no one listened to me sometimes, they just wanted me to leave them alone because of how I look. I go to the library and can’t get the book I want because of my skin color. It is not fair.”
Asher: “…Because I am black I do not get the same rights of white people. This is making me really mad because my skin color should not change the way people treat me. When I take the bus to work I have to sit in the back of the bus and to me I am equal to the whites who sit in the front of the bus. Everyday I have to use separate bathrooms and water fountains and that makes me feel like I am too different and I cannot fit in. When I am at NASA and working in my office I do not like that is is segregated. I do not hate white people, why do they hate me?…My life is full of challenges but I like to overcome them.”
Avery: “…As a women and being African American I would never, we would never, be looked at like a white man or women. I would always be picked last for everything compared to a white man or women. Also when I am compared to a white man or women and the person who was picking knew me, the white man or women would try to cheat their way. I kind of felt like they wanted me to mess up when they crossed out the stuff that I was reading. The last challenge that I am going to mention to you diary is that it is such a challenge to have to run half a mile to the bathroom. And then my boss gets mad at me and I have to stay late. Well I got so mad. He finally asked me, “Why are you gone so for 40 minutes every day?” So I told him or yelled it to him. Now there aren’t any more signs that say “Colored Only” or “Whites Only.”
Crosby: “…People segregated my bathroom which makes it far away and then my boss yelled at me for being away for 40 minutes a day just for going to the bathroom. When I walked into the place where I was going to work everybody stared at me and after the first day I can’t drink coffee. Every time I finish one project I have to start all over again from changes they make in the briefing room….It has not been easy getting to this day as African American women but I have thrived.”
Ezra: “…My job at NASA is to make math calculations to help the rockets go into space and land safely…When I was a kid I was always good at math. When I started working as a mathematician at NASA I was really happy…until I had to go to the bathroom…Also, in the room where I was working there was a coffee machine for all the white people, but only a coffee pot for me…with no coffee in it!!!”
“In my free time I go to church and spend time with my family and friends. Sometimes I go over to Mary or Dorothy’s house, or they come over to mine. No matter what, I LOVE hanging out with them….Mr. Harrison had put me back in the west area because the computer could do all the calculations in a split second, but when John Glenn said that if he got the calculations from me he would feel more safe. When I okayed the calculations everyone was happy and John Glenn got into space.”
Gia: “…Here at NASA, I am a calculator. I get all the calculations done for the spacecraft launches. Sometimes, I feel like I am not being appreciated enough, but then again, I am a negro woman in the 1960’s, so chances of being appreciated are almost at a 40% chance of being successful.”
“I have a tough life. The negro women’s bathrooms are all the way in the West Area Computing Section, which is where I get most of my work done. My boss can be very hard at some points in the day, so I have to be very careful around him.”
“Whenever I have to go home, I take Dorothy’s car, and so does Mary. Once, we almost got towed. A police officer came over, but luckily our jobs (actually, our NASA ID tags) saved us. He even offered us a ride!”
Jade: “My name is Katherine Johnson. My job is mathematician/astrophysicist of NASA. I used to be Katherine Goble. I also used to work in the West Area Computing Section. I got a technical promotion to the Space Task Group. As an African American woman, I had a few difficulties in my life. There were NO colored bathrooms in the building where I newly worked, everyone except for one person was a man but everyone in the place was white. They acted weird around me. I’m the same though and will always know that. Also outside people still treat African Americans the same so there are still protests and sit ins. Anyway I’m happy NASA finally launched someone (John Glenn) into space.”
Kieran: “It’s hard being segregated from all the whites and not being allowed to be equals with them. I want to take classes to become an engineer but the classes are in a white high school. I’m going to have to go to court to get the classes. I got a seat in the court and soon I will be going to court. The redstone rocket is not yet ready for launch. It needs something else to hold the heat shield in place other than the bolts. But I can’t be an engineer and work on the stuff that I want without attending those classes.”
“When I’m not at work I’m at home with my son and my daughter and my not very supportive husband. I take the children to church on Sunday. Dorothy and Katherine are my best friends and it is nice to hang out with them. We eat food, chat, and get Katherine engaged.”
Laiali: “I work at NASA in the West Computing Group. I calculate math for the launch and landing of rockets. I do important work at NASA. John Glenn made sure I checked the math for his landing. I double-check and make my calculations.”
“I feel honored, but lots of people don’t think I should have the job. And I was privileged to work on the assignment. I follow the rules, go to the colored bathrooms yet still I get in trouble. White men and women were giving me a hard time getting comfortable with the job, I had to do everything different than white people, work harder than white people-especially before John Glenn’s flight and landing.”
Lorenzo: “…It is hard being an African-American. My friend, Mary, is an engineer but had to stop when the NASA team said, you don’t have the degrees to be an engineer, so you have to go to this school. The school is an white only school. …Dorothy said I was the best at math, so, now I am an Astrophysicist. I like my job it is hard, and I am probably the best at math in that room. Off to the moon we go!”
Makeda: “…I worked in the West Area Computing Room with all the other colored computers at NASA. Recently I got an assignment to work on the capsule that will hold one of the astronauts going into space. I would love to be an engineer but to be an engineer at NASA requires to take a whites only night class at an all white high school.”
“The sixties is a segregated time and I am sure we can get past that. But for now I have to go to court just to take night classes at a high school. Of course that means the high school is segregated but it is also the only way for me to become an engineer at NASA. And since that is what I really truly want to be I will make sure that judge uses his mind and uses it well so I can go to those night classes. Because if I was a white man I already would be.”
“I love spending time with my kids and husband Levi but sometimes he just gets too worked up about how I’m never home. I’m sad to say he’s right but it’s what I have to do to support my family and I can’t stop now because NASA still needs to put a man into space. I also am determined to stop all this nonsense segregation.”
Margot: “…
On Tuesday, January 17th, our class went to the Tenement Museum to simulate what it would have been like to be tenement inspectors. Below are some news articles describing the experience.
On January 12th, Harriet Lieber, LREI First and Second Grade Learning Specialist, visited to share her family’s immigration story. Her great-grandparents came through Ellis Island in 1905 and 1898 from Lithuania and Romania. Harriet took us through their stories with primary source documents, a timeline of her family history, and inherited family heirlooms.
In preparation for a trip to the Tenement Museum to meet a recent (historical) immigrant, Victoria Confino, fourth graders spent some time looking at primary source documents. Using the documents, they started to build an understanding of who Victoria was and what her life was like. This also led to more questions.
