Is Baltimore Burning?

National History Standards

Materials compiled in this document can be used by educators to fulfill the following National History Standards for Grades 5-12:

Era 9: Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s) 

STANDARD 4: The struggle for racial and gender equality and for the extension of civil liberties. 

Standard 4A: The student understands the “Second Reconstruction” and its advancement of civil rights

7-12: Explain the origins of the postwar civil rights movement and the role of the NAACP in the legal assault on segregation. [Analyze multiple causation] 
5-12: Evaluate the agendas, strategies, and effectiveness of various African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans, as well as the disabled, in the quest for civil rights and equal opportunities. [Explain historical continuity and change] 
9-12: Assess the reasons for and effectiveness of the escalation from civil disobedience to more radical protest in the civil rights movement. [Marshal evidence of antecedent circumstances] 

Primary Resources

1. Lincoln, Abraham. Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. 27 January 1838. Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University, 1953-). Vol. I, pp. 108-115. Photograph from Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., et al., Lincoln, an Illustrated Biography. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), p. 67, MSA SC 2221-12-19.

2. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail." From Robert A. Goldwin, ed. On Civil Disobedience. (Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1973), pp. 61-71. Photograph from Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988) second photo insert, 60-62, MSA SC 2221-12-18.

3. Civil Rights Act of 1964, MSA SC 2221-12-30.

4. Voting Rights Act of 1965, MSA SC 2221-12-22.

5. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Maryland State Archives Map Collection) Map of Cambridge, ca. 1960. Highways of Dorchester County, Maryland Department of Transportation. MSA SC 1427-215, MSA SC 2221-12-16.

6. A collation of transcripts of a speech given by H. Rap Brown on 24 July 1967 in Cambridge Maryland, by Lawrence Peskin and Dawn Almes, and a recording of part of the speech provided by Wayne E. Page, MSA SC 2221-12-8.

7. DORCHESTER COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Criminal Papers) #2116 Maryland vs. H. Rap Brown, September 1967, MSA T 2091. The Annotated Code of the Public General Laws of Maryland Horace E. Flack, ed., Vol 1, Sec. 7, Art. 27 (Baltimore: King Bros. Inc., 1952). ATTORNEY GENERAL (Criminal Investigation Papers) #1028, 1968, transcript of reports concerning H. Rap Brown's speech, MSA T 2094, MSA SC 2221-12-12.\

8. Early newspaper accounts relating to the arrest of H. Rap Brown, MSA SC 2520, MSA SC 2221-12-35.

9. Excerpts from Die Nigger Die! by H. Rap Brown (New York: Dial Press, 1969), MSA SC 2221-12-13.

10. Excerpts from the Addresses and State Papers of Spiro T. Agnew (Annapolis: State of Maryland, 1975), MSA SC 2221-12-6.

11. GOVERNOR (General File) Letters to and from Delegate Aris Allen in 1968 concerning Governor Agnew's remarks to the African American leadership in Baltimore, 11 April 1968. MSA S 1041-1713, MSA SC 2221-12-15.

12. ATTORNEY GENERAL (Criminal Investigation Papers) 1967-1973, MSA T 2094  MSA SC 2221-12-31.

13. Newspaper accounts relating to alleged fraudulent charges and dismissal of H. Rap Brown case, MSA SC 2221-12-32.

14. Newspaper accounts of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, arrested in 1995 for weapons and assault charges, MSA SC 2221-12-33.

Additional Media Resources

George Calcott, Maryland & America 1940 to 1980. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), pp. 152-167, MSA SC 2221-12-1.

Peter Irons, The Courage of Their Convictions. (New York: The Free Press, 1988), pp. 130-152, MSA SC 2221-12-2.

Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, All the President's Men (New York: Warner Books Inc., 1974) title page and acknowledgements. MSA SC 2221-12-34

Howard Schneider. "Summer of Fire." Washington Post Magazine, July 26, 1992, MSA SC 2221-12-20.

Peter L. Szanton. Baltimore 2000 A Choice of Futures. A Report to the Goldseker Foundation. 1986, MSA SC 2221-12-17.

Biography of H. Rap Brown from Contemporary Authors, vol. 125, and interview with John Lewis, published in the Baltimore City Paper, January 24, 1992, MSA SC 2221-12-14.

Later news stories on Judge Robert Mack Bell,   MSA SC 2221-12-37.

Obituary for William Kunstler, September 5, 1995, MSA SC 2221-12-36

Secondary Resources

Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters, America in the King Years 1954-63. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

Kennicott, Patrick C. and Wayne E. Page. "H. Rap Brown: The Cambridge Incident." The Quarterly Journal of Speech, October 1971, Vol. LVII, No. 3, pp. 325-334.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. Why We Can't Wait. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.

Schneider, Howard. "Summer of Fire." The Washington Post Magazine, July 26, 1992, pp. 14-18; 26-27.

Simon, James F. The Antagonists. Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter and Civil Liberties in Modern America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.

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Credits

Teaching American History in Maryland is a collaborative partnership of the Maryland State Archives and the Center for History Education (CHE), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and the following sponsoring school systems: Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Baltimore City Public School System, Baltimore County Public Schools, and Howard County Public Schools.

Other program partners include the Martha Ross Center for Oral History, Maryland Historical Society, State Library Resource Center/Enoch Pratt Free Library, with assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress. The program is funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Education.

The Archives of Maryland Documents for the Classroom series of the Maryland State Archives was designed and developed by Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse and Dr. M. Mercer Neale and was prepared with the assistance of R. J. Rockefeller, Lynne MacAdam and other members of the Archives staff. MSA SC 2221-12. Publication no. 2395. 

For further inquiries, please contact Dr. Papenfuse at:
E-mail: edp@mdsa.net
Phone: MD toll free 800-235-4045 or 410-260-6401

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