Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883) <MME Single & DLP [Digital Learning Project]>

"It is the mind that makes the body."
"Truth is powerful and it prevails."
~Sojourner Truth

“I am pleading for my people (1), a poor downtrodden race
Who dwell in freedom’s boasted land with no abiding place
I am pleading that my people may have their rights restored,
For they have long been toiling, and yet had no reward
They are forced the crops to culture, but not for them they yield, Although both late and early, they labor in the field.
While I bear upon my body, the scores of many a gash (2),
I’m pleading for my people who groan beneath the lash.
I’m pleading for the mothers who gaze in wild despair
Upon the hated auction block, and see their children there.
I feel for those in bondage (3)—well may I feel for them.
I know how fiendish hearts can be that sell their fellow men.
Yet those oppressors steeped in guilt—I still would have them live; For I have learned of Jesus, to suffer and forgive!
I want no carnal weapons, no machinery of death.
For I love to not hear the sound of war’s tempestuous breath.
I do not ask you to engage in death and bloody strife.
I do not dare insult my God by asking for their life.
But while your kindest sympathies to foreign lands do roam,
I ask you to remember your own oppressed at home.
I plead with you to sympathize with signs and groans and scars,
And note how base the tyranny beneath the stripes and stars (4)."
~Olive Gilbert & Sojourner Truth (1878), Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a Bondswoman of Olden Time, p. 303
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth

Lyrical Footnotes 

1) In referring to “her people,” Sojourner Truth spoke on behalf of all African Americans, who, like her, have long suffered through the injustices of slavery and have been denied the basic human right of individual freedom which all Americans are granted. 
2) Like many slaves, Truth was a victim of harsh physical punishments from her slave masters, including whippings that resulted in scars which served as a permanent reminder of the horrific treatment she had to endure.
3) Slavery existed as a legal institution in the United States during the 18th and 19th century, roughly between the time our nation gained independence until the end of the American Civil War. Though slavery is often associated with the southern states, it was practiced in virtually every corner of the country at one point. In Truth's home state of New York, for example, slavery existed for almost 200 years, ending in 1827 when the last slaves were freed. 
4) The American Flag, and the stars and stripes that make up its design, serves as a symbol of freedom, liberty, and justice for all Americans. Sojourner Truth is highlighting the fact that no country which stands upon such principles can at the same time support the practice of slavery-- an institution which violates and contradicts these very core values by stripping away freedom and rights from those of darker skin color. 


spiritchild (production, arrangement, engineering, mastering; Vocals: Kai Diata Giovanni  & Ziedah Diata

XspiritMental recording studio, Brooklyn NY
Musical Media for Education (MME)2015

Photo: Library of Congress 

Truth Sojourner

Spanish: Hablar Conjugation(present tense)

Yo Hablo
Tu Hablas
Usted, El, Ella Habla
Nosotros Hablamos
Ustedes, Ellos, Ellas Hablan


Vocals-Celia Tobin; Guitar-Gary Levitt; Bass-Lance Fialkoff~Young Love Recording Studio, Brooklyn, NY
Musical Media for Education (MME). All rights Reserved. 2016

Photo: GC/Robb

Hablar

MME Single & DLP-Declamation Sample

Excerpts from JFK's Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961)

"Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask what you can do for your country."

We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom--symbolizing an end as well as a beginning--signifying renewal as well as change.

For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forbears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago. We dare not forget today that we are heirs of that first revolution.

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, (and) proud of our ancient heritage...

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

Let us begin anew—remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service...

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Song: Gary Levitt & Lance Fialkoff; Guitar, Bass, Percussion & Vocals: Gary Levitt
All Rights Reserved, 2013 Musical Media for Education LLC (MME) www.mm-ed.com
Photo: Kennedy Library/National Archives

Ask Not

DLP-Audio Template (Digital Learning Project) 

Students record excerpts from the House Divided speech onto the MME Audio Template)

Abraham Lincoln, A House Divided (June 16, 1858) [transcript]
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/t-02533.pdf


Vocals-Gary Levitt & Lance Fialkoff; Declamation-Gary Levitt; Guitar & Keyboard- Lance Fialkoff; Bass & Drums- Gary Levitt~Young Love Recording Studio, Brooklyn, NY. All Rights Reserved, Musical Media for Education (MME) 2016

House Divided (DLP-Audio Template)

                                                   ELECTORAL COLLEGE

If you want to understand the electoral college, listen up
Did you know your vote for President is not directly [1] counted up?

A slate of state electors [2] counts over the popular vote

California 55, Hawaii has just 3, NY has 29
Population in each state [3] determines how to divvy up the electoral college

The number to win the Presidency
270 electoral votes  [4]

Winner take all [5] also means
some people's votes are screened by electoral college
Vote winners inside each state
get the entire state [6] electoral college

Procedures in the Constitution
determine who will become President

Several times the President was chosen not by people but electoral college
You can  get more votes and lose the race
Winner takes all electoral college

Like Rutherford Hayes , Benjamin Harrison, John Quincy Adams, and George W. Bush [7]

So you see Democrat GOP, happy to be in electoral college
How can small parties compete [8] with this anomaly electoral college

The framers made a compromise [9] with small states so all would ratify

If you want to understand the electoral college, turn it up
Did you know your vote for President is not directly counted up?
A slate of state electors counts over the popular vote

                                                              NOTES

1) directly: The US Constitution (Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2) requires a two stage process for Presidential/Vice-Presidential elections--citizens vote for electors, then electors vote for President. First comes the popular election. In November, people who vote for a candidate are actually voting for an elector (usually unnamed on the ballot) who has pledged to vote for the selected candidate when all electors meet for the formal Presidential election, after the popular vote in November and before Inauguration Day in January. Through the electoral college, "the people" elect voting representatives who in turn vote for the President and Vice-President.

2) state electors: State electors are usually state, county or local politicians, often active members of one of the two main political parties.  Electors pledge to vote for a particular candidate. First they get votes from the citizens, the chosen electors have pledged their votes in a second, “official” election. Electors are not legally bound to honor their pledge, and in rare historical instances, the pledge has been broken. 

3) population in each state: State population is based on the Census tally which is renewed every ten years as required by the Constitution. The total number of electors has been set since 1964 at 538. As population shifts, the number of electoral votes is redistributed among the states. 

4) number of electors by state:  The 2012 electoral count from the National Archives:
             http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/calculator.html  

5) winner take all: According to the procedures for Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections set forth in the Constitution, a candidate who wins the popular vote within a state wins the entire electoral slate of that state. In other words, if a state has 10 electoral votes and two candidates nearly split the popular vote, with one of them eking out a small victory, the victorious candidate wins the entire slate of all 10 electors.

6) the entire slate: In 2012, only two states (Nebraska and Maine) divide up the electoral slate to reflect proportional distribution of the vote.

7) Rutherford B. Hayes:  Election of 1876: Popular Vote--Rutherford B. Hayes: 4,036,572.  Samuel J. Tilden 4,284,020; Electoral Count--Hayes, 185~Tilden, 184

Benjamin Harrison:  Election of 1888: Popular vote--Benjamin Harrison:  5,443,892. Grover Cleveland:  5,534,488; Electoral Count--Harrison,233~Cleveland,168

John Quincy Adams: The Election of 1824 was a four candidate race. All contenders were members of the Democratic-Republican party. Because no candidate received a majority of the popular vote, in accordance with the Constitution, the election was "thrown into the House" of Representatives. Adams was selected there over Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and William Crawford. In the popular election Adams received 113,000 votes vs. 151,000 for Jackson as well as an Electoral Count victory, 99 to 84. The vote in the House was: 
Adams, 87~Jackson, 71~Crawford, 54

George W. Bush: Election of 2000: Popular Vote--George W. Bush: 50,456,002. Al Gore:50,999,897; Electoral Count--Bush, 271~Gore, 266. The validity of the election process was contested before the Supreme Court and decided in favor of Bush.

8) small parties:  Small parties who receive a minority percentage of the popular vote 
are denied a proportional share of the state's electoral count due to the winner take all provision. A candidate who received 49% of the vote might get zero electoral votes.

9) compromise: The electoral college increases the electoral weight of small states by establishing a minimum state electoral weight of 3, two for the Senators and one for the Representative of each state. Even states with the smallest populations have 3 electoral votes, over-representing small states in relation to their population in the nation as a whole. In addition, the electoral college favors "swing states", where an entire state electoral slate is "up for grabs." 
The conflicts and compromises between large and small states at the Constitutional Convention influenced many key decisions during the period of draft and ratification. The electoral college was, in large part, a concession to small states within a larger negotiated framework for sharing power in federation at the state and national level. 

Song: Lance Fialkoff, Music, Vocals & Recording: Gary Levitt
        © 2012 Musical Media for Education, Lance Fialkoff                    www.mm-ed.com


Electoral College

OBAMA 2012

Forward [1] on, moving on…

Barack Obama Democrat
44th president
Here’s where he’s at…

Obamacare [2], affordable care.
Broader insurance reduce costs on healthcare [3].
Pre-existing conditions still getting care increased access 
Decrease out of pocket scare
Reduce deficits [4], so who benefits?
Tax the rich [5], not middle and working class [6] Americans.
But since no "Grand Bargain" with Republicans [7]
Specific cuts and revenue source pending
Jobs [8] slow steady growth since 2008
He wants Congress to pass jobs programs
Teachers and infrastructure workers increase
Tax cuts to help small business breathe

Barack Obama Democrat President

He supports Roe v. Wade [9], birth control [10].
He backs equal pay equal work [11] for both.
Fair pay act to help women fight discrimination
But what about education?
Access to loans [12] more education.
Race to the Top [13], more teachers in the station [14].
Core Content Standards, performance accountability
But what about energy?
More energy conservation, invest in alternatives [15]
Wind, solar, nuclear, propose another way to live.
Stabilize the global economy [16]
Withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014. [17]

Barack Obama Democrat
44th president
Here's where he's at...

More money more jobs to grow 
More healthcare yeah don't tax the poor.
Race to the Top keep it on. 

Barack Obama Democrat President

                                                            NOTES

[1] Forward: "Forward" was the 2012 campaign slogan of Barack Obama, following upon “Hope & Change” in the 2008 Election.

[2] Obamacare: Obamacare is another name for the Affordable Care Act, Obama's health care plan. With Obamacare health insurance coverage is required for all Americans, with the federal government providing coverage options for the large number of uninsured with low and middle incomes. Romney would have repealed Obamacare, favoring private and state level insurance plans instead.

[3] health care costs: One of the main goals of the Affordable Care Act is to reduce the rate of increase of health care costs, which have been rising much faster than the rate of inflation in recent decades.

 [4] deficit: The deficit is the amount that spending exceeds revenue in one budget year. The national debt is cumulative, it is the total of previous annual budget deficits. Currently, the national debt is more than $16 trillion. Experts disagree about the economic impact of deficits, but Obama has proposed deficit reduction even though the national debt has increased by $5 trillion during his first term of office. Both Romney and Obama regarded debt reduction as a priority, though they offered different formulas for tax and spending policies to move toward a balanced budget

[5] tax the rich: Obama has endorsed the Buffett Rule, named after billionaire investment icon Warren Buffett, to raise tax rates for the wealthy (income above $250,000) and close loopholes and deductions. Romney, like Republicans since Reagan, supported "trickle down” economic theory, which would minimize taxes and regulations on the wealthy under the assumption that their investments will positively impact the whole of society. 

[6] taxes for middle & working class: Obama intends to maintain or decrease taxation of the middle and working class. Romney offered the same promise. Both candidates accused each other of raising taxes on the middle class indirectly, as a consequence of their broader policies, which would necessitate tax increases for the middle and working class.

[7] Grand Bargain: In 2011 Obama and Congressional Republican leaders tried to break the stalemate over taxes, spending and the deficit through a negotiated compromise, but the Grand Bargain was unsuccessful, ending with recriminations on both sides.

[8] job growth: Unemployment was regarded as the most important issue in the Election of 2012. When Obama became President the United States was in a deep recession, losing 818,000 jobs the month after his inauguration. Over the course of his four years in office the unemployment rate declined and then held steady at approximately 8%, an unacceptably high level for all. Between February 2009 and October 2012 one million additional jobs were added to the economy, but Obama's critics argued that this degree of recovery was insufficient. Romney claimed his plan for tax, deficit and spending reductions would stimulate economic growth and thereby create millions of new jobs. Obama agrees with tax reductions, especially for small business (and not for wealthy families) but he supports a more active job creating role for the federal government. His proposed American Jobs Act would have allocated $447 billion to create jobs through small business hiring incentives, infrastructure work programs (roads, schools, mass transit), and state & local anti-budget cut subsidies, but the Act was blocked by the Republican dominated House of Representatives in 2011. Third party candidates have criticized Obama for involving the federal government too much (Libertarian Party) or not enough (The Green Party proposes a Green New Deal).

[9] Roe v. Wade: Obama supports legal, accessible abortion based on the standard established by the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Romney is pro-life, and pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

[10] birth control: Obama wants widespread access to contraception, including federal funding for birth control through the Affordable Care Act

[11] equal work/equal pay: Obama supports equal pay for the equivalent work of men and women. Toward that end, he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act on his first day in office as President. Mitt Romney opposed federal equal work/pay regulations, and would allow the free market to redress inequities.

[12] college loans: Obama supports widespread access to college loans and has acted to reduce the level of student indebtedness by creating a direct link between the federal government and student  borrowers, bypassing the role of banks as middle-men, and thus reducing interest rates.

[13] Race to the Top: This is Obama's signature program of educational reform, involving state proposals for educational reform as part of a national competition for federal funds. Race to the Top winners are now implementing reforms, often based on teacher performance accountability models and a commitment to national Core Content curriculum standards.

[14] more teachers: Obama has attempted to reduce the number of teachers laid off due to the constriction of state and local budgets by hiring 100,000 new teachers with federal funds.

[15] energy alternatives: Obama's "all of the above" approach to energy includes federal support for solar, wind and other energy alternatives, usually in the form of tax preferences. Romney's energy plan also sought diverse sources of energy, but emphasized the development of untapped fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) rather than renewables.

[16] global economy: Obama sees the US as part of an integrated global economy. His policy of trade liberalization envisions the US as a financial, agricultural and manufacturing giant. 

[17] bring the troops: Obama is committed to a full US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by 2014. Romney agreed, though he wanted some flexibility on the timing based on the input of military commanders. Both Obama and Romney said they will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. They stand by Israel as the closest US ally in the Middle East. Obama sees China as a partner as well as a competitive rival.


Written & arranged by Billy Martin and Lance Fialkoff for Musical Media for Education; Vocals performed by spiritchild & Carly Deluca ; Recorded at multi creations studios xspiritmental labs, Brooklyn, NYC. Composed & Produced by spiritchild of xspiritmental records; Lyrical Footnotes by Lance Fialkoff
© 2012, Musical Media for Education (MME)  All Rights Reserved.   www.mm-ed.com

Obama 2012

                                           Wounded Knee

For the accompanying YouTube video please go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qRec0bUgrk&feature=plcp

Call it the Battle of Wounded Knee, call it the Wounded Knee Massacre. 
On December 29, 1890, 300 Lakota [1] and Chief Big Foot [2] were slaughtered. 
The United States War Department used its Army in South Dakota to control 
the Sioux population occupying Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations [3].
The Indians wanted to perform ceremonies as they had in the old way. 
So they started the religion of the Ghost Dance [4] to return to the past for this they prayed. The US government was fearful that the Ghost Dance was a war dance so they ordered "arrest Chief Sitting Bull"  and Big Foot to squash the resistance.
Sitting Bull [5] was killed in the attempt, when word to Big Foot was sent, he led 
hundreds on a long trek through the badlands seeking protection. 
The people were intercepted by the 7th Cavalry [6], and led to the banks of a creek, Wounded Knee.
The Army surrounded the camp, the Sioux would not give up their weapons. 
A single gun shot was fired, deadly response by the Army. [7]. 
When night fell a blizzard swept over, blanketing the dead, causing the wounded to die slowly from exposure.
When bodies were uncovered the dead were 300 [8] Sioux warriors, women, elders, children, babies  and 25 US soldiers.
Misunderstanding of cultures, and the failure of US policies [9], led to this woeful massacre ending the Ghost Dance and Indian Wars, the old ways were over.

                                                    NOTES

1) Lakota: The Lakota were a branch of the Sioux nation, one of the largest of the Plains Indian tribes. They lived in the territory ranging across present day South Dakota. Portraits of Sioux Indians appearing in this video have been selected from a Library of Congress collection located at: 


http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=LOT%203401&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co!=coll&sg=true&st=gallery

It is not known whether these individuals were present at Wounded Knee in 1890, but they represent the people and culture of the Sioux.

2) Chief Big Foot: Also known as Spotted Elk, Big Foot was a leading chief of the Sioux. After Sitting Bull was killed, he led a band of Indian families on a march to the reservation of Chief Red Cloud, where he hoped for safety. He and his people were stopped by the Cavalry at Wounded Knee, where he was killed.

3) reservations: As the United States expanded westward after the Civil War, Native American tribes were confined to relatively small parcels of land, generally carved out from of their original territory. On these reservations Indians owned the land collectively as a tribal community. In return for the loss of their land, and because they were unable to hunt the free ranging bison herds, once their main source of food, the Sioux were promised regular allotments of food and other necessities by the US government.  Rosebud and Pine Ridge are today Sioux reservations.

4) Ghost Dance: The Ghost Dance was a religious revival movement that swept through the Plains tribes in the 1880's. Indians believed the Dance ceremony, and a return to traditional ways would rid them of whites and the interference of the US government. It was believed Ghost Dancing would bring the return of the buffalo, hunted by white settlers to near extinction, as well as the reincarnation of Indian ancestors (thus the name Ghost Dance). 

5) Sitting Bull: Sitting Bull was a prominent Sioux holy man and chief, well known for his victory over Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.  He was killed while resisting arrest by US and Indian police agents two weeks before the massacre at Wounded Knee.

6) 7th Cavalry: This famous regiment of the US Army played a prominent role in the Indian Wars, from their legendary defeat at Little Big Horn in 1876 to the 
massacre at Wounded Knee, where they were commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside. 

7) shot, response:  The events preceding the massacre are disputed. The Indians initially refused to turn over their weapons but apparently began to do so
as it became clear that they were outnumbered by the Cavalry. The first shot may have been fired by a deaf Indian named Black Coyote who did not hear the order to give up his arms. This shot unleashed indiscriminate firing by the Cavalry into the Indian camp, included a fusillade from four rapid fire Hotchkiss guns. Indians who fled were hunted down and killed.

8) 300: Estimates of the number killed at Wounded Knee vary, ranging from 150 to 300. Approximately half the casualties were women and children. According to an eyewitness account from Chief American Horse: "There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce ... A mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still nursing ... The women as they were fleeing with their babies were killed together, shot right through ... and after most all of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not killed or wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys ... came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them there."

9) failure of US policy: The US policy of supplying reservations with food and basic necessities was undermined by corruption and an unwillingness
to fulfill commitments to the Indians. According to US Army officer Nelson A. Miles: 
"They (Indians) understood that ample provision would be made for their support; instead, their supplies have been reduced, and much of the time they have been living on half and two-thirds rations." (12/19/1890)

Song & Video: Lance Fialkoff; Words: Jessica Koock; Vocals: Celia Tobin
© 2012, Musical Media for Education  www.mm-ed.com

Wounded Knee

The Bill of Rights, First Ten Amendments (1) to the Constitution
The Bill of Rights, Foundation Stone of our Freedom

The 1st Amendment is freedom of speech (2) and press (3),
so you can express how you feel, protects free assembly (4) 
Gives you freedom of religion (5) to worship as you choose
the right to send petitions to government, though that is rarely used.

2nd Amendment gives the right to bear arms, though people disagree;
Does that mean guns for people or for soldiers in the Army (6)?
3rd Amendment, not much used today, soldiers can't bunk in your home
The 4th through 8th Amendments are your criminal rights (7),
if arrested, you're not alone.

The 4th Amendment says you can't be searched by police, or seized unreasonably (8),
It’s also the legal source of our right to privacy (9)
The 5th Amendment says you must get "due process” (10) in your criminal trial,
that's fairness of judge and jury, not forced to testify (11)

The 6th Amendment gives you a lawyer (12) and speedy trial,
so you won't be stuck in jail alone for more than a short while,
The 7th Amendment ensures that you will  get a jury trial (13),
The 8th Amendment says the punishment can't be “cruel or unusual.” (14)

The 9th Amendment says all your other rights, will be respected (15)
The 10th Amendment tells the States their rights won't be neglected (16).
All of these 10 Amendments, they are all the Bill of Rights
Always there protecting us, every day and night (17)

                                                                         NOTES

(1) Amendments: Amendments are changes or additions to the Constitution. To date there have been 27 amendments. All of them have the same legal authority as if they had been part of the original Constitution. Unlike all of the other amendments, the ten amendments in the Bill of Rights were passed together as a “package” designed to protect the individual rights of American citizens. The Bill of Rights was a compromise between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists during the Constitutional Convention and ratification period which followed. Anti-Federalists pledged to support the Constitution only if there were specific protections for individual rights. They both agreed to the Bill of Rights and ratified the Constitution. 
(2) Freedom of Speech: There have been numerous Supreme Court rulings on freedom of speech and its limits. Many hinge on the 1919 decision in Schenck v. the United States, when the Court stated that individuals have the right to freedom of speech unless that speech is a “clear and present danger” to society.  As an example of a “clear and present danger” the Supreme Court offered the famous “shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theatre” analogy. The Supreme Court ruled that a person does not have the right to express themselves that  way because it would endanger others. Speech is not protected by the first Amendment when it is an immediate danger to others.
(3) Freedom of Press: Although the word “press” implies print media only, in 1787 the framers of the Constitution didn’t have electronic media such as radio, television and the internet. Accordingly, the “free press” clause in the 1st Amendment has been loosely interpreted to include all forms of mass media communication.
(4) Freedom of Assembly: Freedom of assembly means you have the right to gather as a group and to march in public, as long as the gathering is peaceful.
(5) Freedom of Religion: You have the right to follow any religion you choose and not to be pressured by the government to follow another one.
(6) 2nd Amendment: The language of the 2nd Amendment makes it unclear whether the framers of the Constitution meant that individual citizens should have the right to own guns, or whether that right is held only by the citizens who serve in a militia (army).  Both sides of the gun control debate have exploited this constitutional ambiguity in an intense and controversial issue. 
(7) Criminal Rights: Generally, these amendments follow the course of a criminal case from arrest through trial through possible imprisonment.
(8) Unreasonable Search and Seizure: Unless there is an emergency, the police need a search warrant before they can enter your home. The warrant is obtained from a judge, who must agree that the police have enough evidence to justify a search.
(9) Privacy: The 4th Amendment never mentions a “right of privacy,” but those who believe the Constitution provides Americans with such a right see it as an extension of the limits on police authority found in the search and seizure provision of the 4th Amendment. This protects American citizens from “unreasonable search and seizure.”
(10) Due Process: “Due process” is a general phrase designed to cover all the ways that a criminal proceeding should be fair. There are too many possibilities to name them all.
(11) Forced to Testify: “Pleading the 5th” means that a defendant may choose not to testify in their own trial and that no witness is required to offer self-incriminatory evidence.  This was included in the Bill of Rights by far sighted framers who saw that it would reduce the temptation to torture prisoners for confessions. 
(12) Lawyer: A public defender (attorney) is appointed if a defendant cannot afford an attorney.
(13) Jury Trial: A jury is a panel of 12 citizens who decide whether a defendant is innocent or guilty. The framers believed that a panel of regular citizens, not one judge, should decide whether a defendant is innocent or guilty and would provide the best guarantee of fairness.
(14) Cruel or Unusual Punishment: Supreme Court decisions about capital punishment (the death penalty) hinge on this Constitutional provision. Between 1972 and 1976, the Supreme Court suspended the death penalty due to concerns about its inconsistent application. Executions resumed in 1977 and capital punishment remains legal.
(15) Unenumerated Rights: Citizens have other rights than those spelled out in the Bill of Rights.
(16) States’ Rights: Before the Constitution was ratified, the Anti-Federalists fought to protect the states from what they feared would be an overly powerful federal (national) government. Memories of England pushing around the colonies were fresh. They insisted that the 10th Amendment be included in the Bill of Rights if they were to vote in favor of ratification.
(17) Always There: The Constitution and the Bill of Rights within it are the “Supreme Law of the Land.” They supersede (are more powerful than) state and local laws.

Song: Lance Fialkoff & Erica Quitzow;  Vocals, Guitar, Drums & Bass: Erica Quitzow, Lyrics: Lance Fialkoff, Engineered by Erica Quitzow & Mixed by Gary Levitt at Young Love Studio, 
New Paltz, NY, 2008, All Rights Reserved.  Musical Media for Education (MME)       www.mm-ed.com

The Bill of Rights

MME Declamation DLP (Digital Learning Project) Sample

Fellow-Countrymen...

...On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it...Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained... 

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.


Reading: Jessica Koock, Song: Lance Fialkoff, Beat: Gary Levitt. Mixed and Engineered by Gary Levitt at Young Love Studio, New Paltz, NY, All Rights Reserved © 2008, 2012.
Musical Media for Education (MME)     www.mm-ed.com

Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address (Declamation)

Let justice be for all. Let peace be for all. 
Let there be work, bread, water, salt for all. 

Your Majesties, Your Highnesses, Distinguished Guests, Comrades and Friends: 

Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in other parts of our country and the world, confer glory and hope to newborn liberty (1). 
Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster (2) that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all. 

 (The) spiritual and physical oneness we all share with this common homeland explains the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts as we saw our country tear itself apart in a terrible conflict, and as we saw it spurned, outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the world (3), precisely because it has become the universal base of the pernicious ideology and practice of racism and racial oppression.(4)
We, the people of South Africa, (5) feel fulfilled that humanity has taken us back into its bosom, that we, who were outlaws not so long ago, have today been given the rare privilege to be host to the nations of the world on our own soil. 
We thank all our distinguished international guests for having come to take possession with the people of our country of what is, after all, a common victory for justice, for peace, for human dignity. 

We trust that you will continue to stand by us as we tackle the challenges (6)of building peace, prosperity, non-sexism, non-racialism and democracy. 
The time for the healing of the wounds has come. 
The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us (7) has come. 
The time to build is upon us. 

We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty (8), deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination. (9) 

We succeeded to take our last steps to freedom in conditions of relative peace. We commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, just and lasting peace. 
...We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity--a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world. 

NOTES
1)	newborn liberty: Speaking of a “newborn liberty,” Mandela refers to the transformation of South Africa from an apartheid nation to one of legal equality. Mandela also delivered his Presidential Inauguration in a remarkable moment of personal liberation, having just completed a twenty seven year prison sentence for sabotage and other offenses.
2)	extraordinary human disaster: Apartheid had a deeply devastating impact on the livelihood of non-white people living in South Africa. Black South Africans were deprived of their citizenship, forced to relocate to new residences, and removed from “white” institutions and services, including education and healthcare. Apartheid triggered significant internal resistance and violent conflict, including protests often met with police brutality.
3)	outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the world: The apartheid regime was met with widespread resistance across the globe, boycotted and denounced as unjust by a great number of nations in opposition to its racist ideology. Attempts to impose economic sanctions served as one display of this resistance--a central component of the Anti-Apartheid Movement aimed at pressuring South Africa to eliminate legalized segregation.
4)	pernicious ideology of racism and racial oppression: Apartheid (translated as “separateness” in Afrikaans) was a system of legal segregation in South Africa in which the non-white majority fell under the oppressive rule of a white minority. Under this system of rule, blacks were considered to be inherently inferior to white South Africans, and therefore unworthy of many of the rights and privileges enjoyed by their white “superiors.” The ultimate aim of the apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation.
5)	the people of South Africa: Mandela delivers his speech with an enlightened spirit of reconciliation, hoping to bind all South Africans by a common thread of equality. Mandela approaches this reconciliation not charged by vengeance or indignation, but by the desire to create a long lasting state of justice and racial equality in South African society. 
6)	we tackle the challenges: Mandela speaks of many of the challenges facing post-apartheid South Africa. South Africa’s recent hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup may prove symbolic of the progress made in the face of these challenges, especially considering the multitude of economic opportunities which the World Cup provided for black South Africans. 
7)	to bridge the chasms that divide us: The process of reconciliation in South Africa was an arduous one, a task demanding a dramatic transformation of the South African social and political ideology. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a restorative justice body instituted in 1995, embodied this reconciliatory effort, helping to facilitate the transition to full and free democracy in South Africa. Desegregation of schools served as an example of the “bridging” of racial gaps dividing white and black children, offering equal education to all members of society, regardless of race. 
8)	poverty: Blacks living in South Africa during apartheid suffered from extreme poverty, enduring very low standards of living largely due to the unavailability of jobs in a market geared towards job opportunity for whites. 
9)	gender and other discrimination:  Mandela is very inclusive in his speech, pledging to liberate “all” people from the bondage of discrimination, not just blacks. Black women, for example, had no legal rights, no access to education or the right to own property. Mandela wished to eradicate discrimination enacted towards all peoples, not merely those representing his own struggle.  

Song: spiritchild, Lance Fialkoff & Jessica Koock; Music & Production: spiritchild; 
Reading: Jessica Koock; Notes: Lance Fialkoff & Dan Arsnow
2013, Non-commercial/educational use only by permission Nelson Mandela Foundation Musical Media for Education (MME)         www.mm-ed.com

Nelson Mandela's Inaugural Address (1994) <excerpts>

2008, Obama, Change, Hope, "YES WE CAN!", Change, Hope, Obama, 2008

Vocals: KJ Denhert, Percussion: Lance Fialkoff, Bass: Robert Bard, Drums: David Rhee
Mixed at Skytop Studio, New Paltz, NY
Musical Media for Education (MME)  2008

Obama: Hope Change (2008)

How about love, nonviolence (1), brotherhood (2), triumph, we will rise up, let's all find a better way, How about justice (3), action, morality, some passion, we will rise up till we find  some better d/ways

Martin Luther King (4), more than a dream, followed a path of non-violence like Mahatma Gandhi. He first made a demonstration for Rosa Parks (5), December 1 1955, bus boycotts.
Dear Lord singing songs, we shall overcome, finally courts ruled, segregation (6) wrong, for the buses, no more black to the bus, cause they're fighting for rights (7), not enough, so King began the March on Washington (8) for the rights to vote, right to education, right to live in a world without segregation, rights for all men and women equation, justice for King was participation, so he got involved, action for the congregation, emancipation, he put his faith in nonviolence and organization (9)

Black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants, Catholics singing the spirituals
Unity is the great need of the hour (10), you're never wrong when you protest that's people power, soul power, real power, love powers all, let it shower, human kind, we are divine, sing the words of Martin Luther King justice shine.

    "A right delayed is a right denied."
    “A riot is the language of the unheard.”
    "At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love."
    "A lie cannot live."
    "A man can't ride on your back unless your back's bent."
    "A man who won't die for something isn't fit to live."
    "I look for the day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content     of their character."
    "In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends."
    "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

NOTES
(1) Non-Violence: King found teachers of nonviolence in Jesus, Paul of Tarsus, Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and Bayard Rustin. The foundation of non-violent resistance is the belief that the innermost essence of all people, even one’s foes, is goodness. Standing up to an oppressor peacefully with honor, courage, self-respect and love activates his conscience, transforming hatred to right action. 
(2) brotherhood: For King, oppressor and oppressed alike must realize their common humanity to allow divisions based on religion, race, politics and class to fall away. As he stated in the closing of the “I Have a Dream” speech: “When we allow freedom ring . . . we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at Last! Free at Last.” 
(3) justice: “When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” – Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: Essential Writings of MLK, Jr.
(4) Martin Luther King: King grew up within the African-American Baptist church. Both his grandfather and father served as pastors of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, King, Sr. from 1931 through 1975. “Daddy King” preached, his mother played organ, and young “Mike” sang the gospel. As he matured, King was fast tracked for the ministry. He skipped the 9th and 12th grades, and at 15 years old, enrolled at Morehouse College, also in Atlanta. After graduation, King continued his education at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he received a B.D. (Bachelor of Divinity). He studied “personalism” (the idea that G-d has a personal relationship with humans) at Boston University for his Ph.D. Before he finished his doctorate, King accepted an offer to become the full-time pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.  On December 1, 1955 local activist Rosa Parks was arrested after she refused to give her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus., King stepped forward to lead the first major non-violent demonstration of the Civil Rights Movement. The year-long bus boycott in Montgomery brought an end to segregated busing in the city. A federal district court decision upheld by the Supreme Court found racially segregated seating in public transportation to be unconstitutional. For King, the victory demonstrated the power of non-violent resistance on a mass scale. 
(5) Rosa Parks: In 1955, Rosa Parks of Montgomery, Alabama refused the order of a bus driver to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus. Her action sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and symbolized courage, inspiring civil rights activists and many Americans.
(6)  segregation: Institutionalized de jure (legal) segregation froze racial relationships in the South after Reconstruction. Jim Crow laws mandated separate facilities for blacks and whites in every sphere of public life. “White” and “Colored” signs, strict hierarchical norms, and the threat of violence rendered blacks second class citizens. There were segregated schools, workplaces and neighborhoods. Blacks were prevented from voting. Many children internalized the status of inferiority forced upon them, carrying the effects of segregation from one generation to the next. King explained it as a system of   dehumanization. “Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an ‘I-it’ relationship for an ‘I-thou’ relationship and ends up  relegating persons to the status of things.  Hence segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful.”  The first goal of King and the Civil Rights Movement was the dismantling of Jim Crow. Their success on the ground was backed up by the federal government in the form of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and a number of important Supreme Court decisions.
 (7) fighting for rights: In 1963, King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organized a nonviolent demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama, the leading industrial city of the South.  After meticulous planning, local protestors and SCLC members marched in the city center. They were roughed up and arrested, as King had expected. Soon the jails were crowded beyond capacity as new demonstrators replenished the ranks of those who had been arrested. From a solitary confinement cell, using the margins of the Birmingham News and some paper smuggled in for him by an orderly, King wrote an everlasting treatise about the moral imperative of confronting injustice in the form of a reply to a group of white ministers who criticized him for coming to Birmingham. During the second phase of the demonstration, the SCLC organized teenagers and schoolchildren for a series of protest marches downtown, which became known as the “Children’s Crusade.” On orders from Chief Eugene “Bull” Connor, a vocal defender of segregation and a crude racist, the police attacked adults and children with billy clubs, snarling dogs and fire hoses strong enough to knock people off their feet. By now the violence in Birmingham appeared on the nightly news and although television was still a growing influence, millions of Americans became aware of conditions for blacks in the South and King’s struggle to change them.  Public outrage coincided with more decisive support from the federal government. Under pressure from the demonstrators, the Kennedy administration and growing elements of the white establishment, Birmingham yielded to most of King’s demands including the desegregation of public facilities and the creation of a program to train blacks for better jobs.
 (8) March on Washington: On August 28, 1963, King delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech to 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. 
(9) organization: Although King personified civil rights in the early 1960s, the Movement was a loose coalition of united organizations including King’s SCLC, SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and others.  Bayard Rustin, Andrew Young, and Ralph Abernathy served as King’s top advisors, while activists such as Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer and Medgar Evers connected the grass-roots with the leadership. King held the SCLC together through periods of ruinous internal dissension even as he clashed with allied organizations over strategy and tactics. The black church was the foundation of the Movement, providing financial support as well as places to recruit, organize and take shelter.    
(10) Unity: In a pep talk before launching the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, King exhorted his followers to remain unified.  “I want to say that in all of our actions we must stick together. Unity is the great need of the hour. And if we are united we can get many of the things we not only desire but which we justly deserve. And don’t let anybody frighten you. We are not afraid of what we are doing, because we are doing it within the law. There is never a time in our American democracy that we must ever think we’re wrong when we protest.”(Martin Luther King, Jr., December 5, 1955) 
 (11) riot is the voice of the unheard: King’s focus on racial justice in the late ’50s and early ’60s tends to overshadow his long-standing condemnation of class inequality. After 1965, when the focus of the Movement turned to urban ghettoes in the North, King became a strong advocate of wealth redistribution, questioning whether equal opportunity was possible within the framework of capitalism.  


Song: Lance Fialkoff & Spiritchild; Music, Engineering & Production: Spiritchild;
Vocals: Spiritchild, Maya Azucena; Mouth Harp: David Barnes; Lyrical Footnotes: Lance Fialkoff. Multicreations Recording, Brooklyn, NYC, 2013. All Rights Reserved. 
Musical Media for Education (MME)          www.mm-ed.com

This is an archaeological sound fragment from my teaching days at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional HS, NJ (RFH). A more dressed up version of the Periodization Song is now the MME Single "US History"-sample> http://mm-ed.com/audio/triplets/01_ushpdzn.mp3 

US HISTORY PERIODIZATION
Exploration
Colonies
Revolution
Constitution 
2 Stream Politics
Sectionalism SSWING (South-Slavery; West-Internal Improvements; North-Growth)
Civil War
Reconstruction
Rest of West
Gilded StAge
Progressives 
Imperialism, &
World War I

Musical Media for Education LLC: Putting a Groove in Social Studies Since 2003 (even earlier)

www.mm-ed.com

SOCIAL STUDIES MUSIC & DLP VIDEO FROM MME:
https://soundcloud.com/237a
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2013, Musical Media for Education LLC (MME)   www.mm-ed.com

US History Periodization Song (RFH)

MME Single & Sample Digital Learning Project-Audio Template

For the Digital Learning Project (DLP) teachers and/or students research, practice and/or record Template "fills" using open source audio editing software. The Audio Template, MME instructions and online samples show the way. 


WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

Come On, Come On, Let's Hear It, Let's Hear It, Let's Hear It For All of Us.
Cause Its Women's History Month. Cause Its Women's History Month.

Separate Spheres (1)
Abigail Adams (2)
Law of Coverture (3)
Social Reform (4)
abolitionism (5)
temperance (6)
First Factory Work (7)
Lowell (8)
Mother Jones (9)

Overland Trail (10)
“Go West Young Woman” (11)
Oregon Trail (12)
Voting Suffrage (13)
Seneca Falls (14)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (15)
Lucretia Mott (16)
Nineteenth Amendment (17)
“No” to Great War (18)
Mother’s Day (19)
Jeanette Rankin (20)

Flappers roar (21)
“new freedom” (22)
(Margaret) Sanger (23)
Victoria Woodhull (24)
Rosie’s at War (25)
Six million  (26)
“The Riveter” (27)
Baby Boom Suburbs (28)
Levittown (29)
birthrate soars (30)
Fighting for Rights (31)
ERA (32)

Hit a Glass Ceiling? (33)
equal pay? (34)
Title IX (35)
VAWA [Violence Against Women Act] (36)
Dolores Huerta (37)
Oprah Winfrey (38)
Hillary Clinton (39)

NOTES

1) Separate Spheres was the middle class ideal that men and women should have different roles in society (i.e., gender roles). Women were supposed to take care of the home and domestic matters such as child care and cooking while men were to concern themselves with the world outside the home, especially work and political life. Although many women had to work outside the home for financial reasons, especially women of color, the cultural ideal of separate gender roles for men and women had a huge effect on the everyday lives of both sexes. “A women’s place” was said to be “in the home”.  The notion that the proper realm of women was the domestic and that of men the public, proved to be a remarkably effective principle for denying even middle class white women the right to vote. Separate spheres continued to influence family life through the twentieth century, even as women began to take much more active roles in the worlds of labor and politics. 

2) Abigail Adams: Many people are familiar with John Adams, leading colonial patriot and second American President, but few know much about his wife Abigail, who was a strong intellectual personality in her own right and an early crusader for women’s rights. Nevertheless, John Adams ridiculed his wife’s admonition to “remember the ladies.”
 
3) The Law of Coverture was a colonial law which stated that, upon marriage, a woman was, in effect, the property of her husband. All family wealth was considered to be the property of the male head of the household.  

4) Social Reform: In the early nineteenth century, there was a major wave of social reform. Many groups emerged in response to pressing problems in American society such as slavery, alcoholism and poor education.  Women were very active in the social reform movement as a whole.

5) Abolitionism was the movement to ban slavery in the years before 
the Civil War. Women played a major role in this effort to “abolish”, or outlaw, slavery.  Freed men and women, like Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglas led the way.

6) Temperance was the movement to get people to drink less alcohol. 
Alcoholism was a major problem in early America, and women, often 
victimized by alcoholic husbands, were at the forefront of the movement to 
curb drinking.

7) First Factory Work: Large numbers of women began to work outside the home in the textile (cloth) factories of New England during the 1820’s.

8) Lowell: Well-positioned along waterways that could be used for power, Lowell, Massachusetts was home to more than a thousand textile mills. They were the first factories to hire large numbers of women. The Lowell factories developed a special system to care for young women when they were not at work. This became known as the Lowell System and included dormitories and extensive monitoring to enforce “proper behavior”. Such strict control of young female workers made the public more willing to accept the idea of women leaving the home to enter the work force. 

9) Mother Jones: Mary Harris “Mother” Jones was a labor union leader in late nineteenth century and an outspoken advocate of socialism. She co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) a powerful union which stood for worker solidarity against the upper class. While many unions excluded women, blacks and immigrants, the IWW welcomed everyone in accordance with the belief that “an injury to one is an injury to all.” 

10) Overland Trail: Before the Civil War, many American families migrated west in search of farmland, gold, or a new start. Women participated in the great adventure, moving slowly across the country in covered wagons on the overland trails. The journey was slow and sometimes perilous.

11) “Go West Young Woman”: The famous call, “Go West Young Man” does not credit the many women who were also — and equally — pioneers. One out of seven Western migrants were women. The ride across the Great Plains was very demanding on men, women and 
children, sometimes taking up to six months by ox drawn wagons.

12) The Oregon Trail was one of the most important routes West. Stretching over 2,000 miles, it opened the rich land of the Pacific Northwest to settlement by American pioneers. 

13) Voting Suffrage: Suffrage means voting, or the right to vote. Before 1920 (and the Nineteenth Amendment) women were not allowed to vote. As early as the 1830’s, however, women organized a suffrage movement that began the long struggle for the right to vote. The women’s suffrage movement grew out of abolitionism, which was among the first social movements that enabled women to speak out publicly on a political issue.

14) Seneca Falls: Women’s suffragists met in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 and issued the “Declaration of Sentiments,” a strong statement of their right to vote modeled on the language of the Declaration of Independence. Although it would take another seventy-two years before women could vote, the Seneca Falls gathering was an important step for the identity  and organization of the suffragist movement. 

15) Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a suffragist leader who fought tirelessly for the right to vote. She was a remarkably independent woman, insisting, for example, that the traditional wedding vows be altered for her wedding. The words pledging a wife to “obey” her husband were removed.

16) Lucretia Mott was a Quaker minister, a leading nineteenth century abolitionist, and an advocate for women’s rights. Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mott organized the Seneca Falls Convention, a high point in the struggle for women’s suffrage. 

17) The Nineteenth Amendment: Ratified in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment states: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

18) “No” to Great War: Although, by 1917, most women joined the general public in support of America’s involvement in World War I, several outspoken women argued forcefully against American intervention. They believed the issues at stake were European, not valid reasons to shed American blood. 

19) Mother’s Day: Mother’s Day was conceived as a holiday in which women would dedicate themselves to the cause of world peace. Julia Ward Howe, best known for writing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, the Union’s anthem during the Civil War, published a Mother’s Day Peace Proclamation in 1870. Having seen the devastation of war firsthand, she began to shape a movement for peace, culminating in her campaign for the Mother’s Day of Peace.

20) Jeanette Rankin was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives. She voted against U.S. entry into both World War I and World War II.

21) Flappers Roar:  “Flapper” was the name given to a woman in the 1920’s who lived a new, more liberated lifestyle. Although most women were not flappers, the new style was colorful and bold, so flappers got a lot of attention. The stereotypical flapper was an adventurous woman who liked to party in the “Roaring ‘20’s”.

22) “new freedom”: In the 1920’s there was more room for women to express themselves in non-traditional ways. Flappers dressed fashionably in shorter skirts (which rose from six inches above the ground to the knee) and wore their hair in short bobs. Young women were also more active sexually, and, for the first time, were allowed in bars. 

23) Margaret Sanger: Birth control was illegal before the 1920’s. More than anyone, Margaret Sanger fought to make it legal and accessible.  Sanger coined the term “birth control” and founded the American Birth Control League (which later became Planned Parenthood).

24) Victoria Woodhull: Woodhull was a women’s suffragist and advocate of “free love.” She felt women should not be trapped in loveless marriages, as many were due to rigidly restrictive marriage laws and the stigma associated with divorce. She and her sister became the first female brokers on Wall Street and became wealthy as owners of their own stock investment firm. Woodhull gained notoriety in 1872 when she ran for President as a candidate of the Equal Rights Party (nearly fifty years before women had the right to vote).

25) Rosie’s at War: Rosie the Riveter was a fictional character created for a government advertising campaign that persuaded millions of women to join the work force during World War II. 

26) Six Million: Approximately six million women entered the labor force during World War II. They were needed in factories because so many men were away fighting, and because, with war production booming, there was great demand for new workers. Both World Wars provided opportunities for many African American women to move from the rural south to the urban north in search of industrial jobs (which previously barred blacks) and greater freedom as part of the Great Migration.

27) The Riveter: Just as women were told that it was their patriotic 
duty to enter the work force, after the War, they were told that it was their 
responsibility to give up their jobs to the men coming back from battle.

28) Baby Boom Suburbs: After World War II, as soldiers came home and economic prosperity returned, there was a sharp rise in the birth rate. This became known as the “Baby Boom.” Much of the population shifted to the areas surrounding cities, aided by a growing infrastructure of highways connecting the new suburbs to urban work environments.  

29) Levittown was one of the first large suburbs. Built near New York City, and later imitated throughout the country, Levittown featured row after row of nearly identical houses made from standardized, interchangeable parts. Suburban life brought new roles for women and their families.

30) birthrate soars: The national birth rate (number of births per 1000 people) dropped during the troubled years of the Depression, and declined further during World War II as so many men were overseas. After the war, marriage and birth rates soared to record levels. A Baby Boom is generally defined as a national birth rate of 2% or higher. In 1946 the birth rate was 5.72%. Over seventy-five million Americans are part of the “Baby Boom” generation.

31) Fighting for Rights: In the 1960’s, women organized to fight for economic and social equality. The National Organization for Women (NOW) was a leading group working to ensure equal opportunities for women.

32) ERA: Women’s rights organizations proposed a Constitutional amendment to guarantee the rights of women, just as there was a Fourteenth Amendment to provide equal protection for African-Americans after the Civil War. The proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) stated: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”  The ERA did not pass, but it generated serious discussion about the status of women in American society. 

33) Hit a Glass Ceiling: The term “glass ceiling” suggests that, although women are supposed to have equal access to the highest corporate positions, there is often an invisible barrier that prevents women from rising to the top. The term suggests that the “ceiling” is the result of gender-based discrimination.

34) Equal Pay: Studies comparing the earnings of men and women have shown that, in most professional fields, the salaries of working women lag far behind men in the same positions.

35) Title IX is a federal law requiring equal funding for men’s and women’s educational and athletic programs in all public schools and colleges.  The law contributed to the explosive growth of women’s sports in recent years.

36) VAWA: Sponsored by Senator Joe Biden, the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 strengthened protections for the victims of domestic violence. It committed $1.6 billion to investigate and prosecute domestic violence, toughened pre-trial detention of the accused, and allowed civil prosecution when criminal action was not pursued. VAWA was reauthorized in 2000, 2005 and 2013.

37) Dolores Huerta: Huerta was the first Vice President of the United Farm Workers. Together with Cesar Chavez and other union organizers, Huerta was responsible for signing collective bargaining agreements to protect the rights of over 70,000 migrant farm workers. She directed the union’s Grape Boycott, a successful non-violent action which brought national awareness to the plight of migrant farm laborers.

38) Oprah Winfrey: Talk show host and media star Oprah Winfrey is one of the most powerful, contemporary influences on American opinion, and according to some, the most influential woman in the world.  She is also the only African-American billionaire.

39) Hillary Clinton: Clinton contended for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2008 and ran a close second place to Barack Obama. She is best known for having served as First Lady during Bill Clinton’s two presidential administrations, a two-term Senator from New York and Secretary of State in the Obama administration 2009-13. 


Songwriters: Spiritchild, Erica Quitzow & Lance Fialkoff; Beat, Keyboards, Production, Engineering: Spiritchild (MultiCreations Studio, Brooklyn, NY); Vocals: Erica Quitzow; Names: Candice Myer; Engineered & Mastered at Young Love Studio, Brooklyn, NY, 2010.
2013, All Rights Reserved. Musical Media for Education (MME) www.mm-ed.com
Photo: Library of Congress

Women's History Month

Excerpts: Susan B. Anthony, "Suffrage and the Working Woman" (July 1871)



Song: Gary Levitt & Lance Fialkoff; Guitar, Bass, Drums: Gary Levitt, Vocals: Erica Quitzow, Declamation: Jessica Koock

Mixed & Mastered at Young Love Studio, New Paltz/Brooklyn, NY, 2010.
All Rights Reserved, Musical Media for Education (MME)    www.mm-ed.com  

Susan B.

MME Single & DLP-Audio (students research and record "talkovers" on audio template)

Song: Erica Quitzow & Lance Fialkoff, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Drums, Vocals: Erica Quitzow, Talkovers: Lance Fialkoff, Mixed by Gary Levitt at Young Love Studio, Brooklyn, NY. 2010.

All Rights Reserved, Musical Media for Education (MME)    www.mm-ed.com

Robespierre

Henry David Thoreau

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