Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: Follow Cassie's Footsteps

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a novel that illustrates the struggle that many African Americans endured while living in the Southern states of America during the mid-1930s. This WebQuest will help you to gain a deeper understanding of the hardships, realities, and victories about life that the novel's main character, Cassie, faced. 

You will be challenged to read and study about the time of the Great Depression era of the United States' history. To help further your understanding, you will next focus your attention upon how life during the Great Depression was for African American citizens living in the United States, as theirs was a unique perspective to be had. 

To get started, view this video that tells the story of what day to day life was like during the Great Depression: Daily Life in the 1930s

• How was the day to day life in the 1930s different than how people live today?
• What did you find interesting or suprising in this video?

Step 1: Learn more about the Great Depression:

• Visit the Teach Dear America website that summarizes what the Great Depression era was. (If the link doesn't work, copy & paste this address: http://www.scholastic.com/teachdearamerica/depression.htm)
• Use the information from the Teach Dear America website to answer these questions in your notebook:

1. During what year did the stock market crash, causing the start of the Great Depression?

2. What other traumatic event was occurring in the southern plains that further exasperated people during the Great Depression?

3. How many men and women were unemployed by 1932?

4. What was the name of Roosevelt's plan to help deliver America out of the Great Depression?

5. What did many people turn to to escape the sad realities of the Great Depression?

Step 2: The Logan family was lucky as they owned land, but many of their neighbors worked as sharecroppers. Let's take a closer look at what sharecropping meant for the people who practiced it.

• Look up the definition of a "sharecropper" online. Write down the definition in your notebook. 
• Next look up the definition of "slavery" online. Write down the definition in your notebook.
• Write down one similarity between sharecropping and slavery in your notebook.
• Write down one difference. 
• View the Photo Essay on Sharecropping.  (If the link doesn't work: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brown/photos.htm)
• Answer these 2 questions in your notebook: 

- What surprises you about these pictures?

- What did you learn about sharecropping from these photos that you didn't learn from looking up the definition? 

Step 3: Last, learn more about the racism that African Americans like the Logans would have had to face while living in the South during the Great Depression.

• Read about one of the most well-known racism organizations ever to be established, the KKK. (If the link doesn't work:  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_kkk.html). 
• Record in your notebook answers to the following questions:

1. When & where was the Ku Klux Klan founded? 

2. Who founded the Ku Klux Klan and for what reason(s)?

3. What did the Ku Klux Klan do?

4. What was the name and the dates of the federal laws that made the practices and activity of the Ku Klux Klan illegal?

How Will You Be Graded?

• Notebook Responses: Each question you respond to in your notebook is worth 1 point. Overall, your notebook responses are worth 17 points. 

Daily Life in the 1930s: 2 Questions 

Teach Dear America Website: 5 Questions

Sharecropper Definition: 1 Question

Slavery Definition: 1 Question

Sharecropper vs. Slavery: 2 Questions

Sharecropper Photo Essay: 2 Questions

KKK Biography: 4 Questions

• Participation Points: As per our usual system, your participation and effort may earn you up to 5 points.