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DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION/
ESSAY
This task is based on the
accompanying documents (1-5). Some of these documents have been edited
for the purposes of this task. This task is designed to test your
ability to work with historical documents. As you analyze the
documents, take into account both the source of each document and the
author’s point of view.
Directions:
Read the documents in
Part A and answer the questions after each document ( do not
simply repeat the contents of the
documents).
Then read the directions for Part B and write your essay.
Historical Context:
Professional baseball in the 19th century United States
included some African-Americans. By 1887, approximately twenty were
playing baseball in the minor leagues. When the Northwestern minor
league Toledo Ball Club secured a franchise with the American
Association in 1884, their catcher, Moses “Fleet” Walker became the
first African-American major league player. Both “Fleet” Walker and
his brother Weldy, experienced prejudice in organized baseball. As
evident in other aspects of African-American life, professional baseball
was segregated by the end of the 19th century.
Task:
Examine the obstacles to integration in the United States and determine
how two
African-American pioneers in
organized baseball reacted to racism and prejudice.
Instructions
& Directions,
New York State Education Department, GH-888-98, 1999.
Historical Context, Task, Document Selection, and Organization,
Douglas J. Kaufman, 2001.
Historical Context
background information from Oberlinian Was First Negro Player in
Major Leagues in the Oberlin Alumni Bulletin: First Quarter, 1946.
From the collection of
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Part A: Short Answer
Directions:
Analyze the
documents and answer the questions that follow each document in the
space provided.
Document 1
1.
What does this 1881 photograph of the Oberlin College’s first
varsity baseball team indicate about the issue of race and some
organized baseball leagues in the 19th century?
Players’ names and positions
obtained from Oberlinian Was First Negro Player in Major Leagues
in the Oberlin Alumni Bulletin: First Quarter, 1946.
Photograph and article
Ó from the collection of
The National Baseball Hall of Fame
and Museum.
Task, Historical Context, Document Selection, Question, Douglas J.
Kaufman, 2001.
Document 2
Richmond Virginia
September 5, 1884
Manager, Toledo Baseball
Club
Dear Sir:
We the undersigned,
do hereby warn you not to put up (Moses “Fleet”) Walker, the Negro
catcher, the days you play in Richmond, as we could mention the names
of seventy-five determined men who have sworn to mob Walker, if he
comes on the grounds in a suit (baseball uniform). We hope you will
listen to our words of warning, so there will be no trouble, and if
you do not, there certainly will be. We only write this to prevent
much bloodshed, as you alone can prevent.
Bill
Frick James Kendrick
Dynx
Dunn Bob Roseman
2.
What resistance to integrated baseball did baseball owners and
managers face in the late 19th century?
3.
According to Frick, Dunn, Kenrick, and Roseman, who would be to
blame if problems occurred when the Toledo Baseball Club came to
Richmond?
Excerpted from A Hard
Road to Glory: The African American-Athlete in Baseball
by Arthur R. Ashe, Jr. ã Amistad
Press, Inc., 1988, 1993.
Task, Historical Context, Document Selection, Questions, Douglas J.
Kaufman, 2001.
Document 3
Stuebenville, Ohio
March 5, 1887
Mr. McDermitt
President Tri-State League
I take the liberty of
addressing you because . . . the law permitting colored men to sign
(with a professional
baseball team) was repealed . . . February 23 (1887). . . I am
ascertaining the reason of
such an action. I have grievances, it is a question with me
whether individual loss
serves the public good. . . This is the only question . . . in all
cases that convince beyond
doubt that you . . . have not been impartial and unprejudiced
in your consideration of
the . . ‘National Game’ . . . The law is a disgrace to the present
age . . and casts derision
at the laws of Ohio. . . There is now the same accommodation
made for the colored
patron of the game as the white. . . There should be some broader
cause - such as lack of
ability, behavior and intelligence – for barring a player, rather than
his color. . .
Yours truly,
Weldy W. Walker
(Akron Tri-State League)
4.
What effect did the legislation mentioned by Weldy Walker have on
the participation of African- Americans in professional baseball?
5.
What would Weldy Walker consider an acceptable reason for being
dismissed from baseball?
Excerpted from A Hard
Road to Glory: The African-American Athlete in Baseball
by Arthur R. Ashe, Jr.,
Amistad Press, Inc., 1988, 1993.
Task, Historical Context, Document Selection, Questions ã Douglas J.
Kaufman, 2001.
Document 4
“. . . The Negro Problem is the paramount question with over
ten million black people in the United States. The relations of the
two races, economic social and industrial, are being discussed from
every Negro pulpit in the country. Negro teachers and politicians are
disseminating their views in every community of
black people. . .
The leading
Negro teachers and writers ask to be let alone with an equality
before the law, and a chance to educate their youth, work and save
money. The views advanced in the following pages (of Our Home
Colony) are not all new and will be found to be opposed to all of
those mentioned above. We have endeavored to place facts side by
side, and prove that absolute separation of the races is the only true
solution of this troublesome question. Our own personal experience,
in no way, has been allowed to bias our judgment. No one could
entertain higher regard for the American white man and his magnificent
civilization than the writer; and it is the appreciation of this fact,
along with the infancy of Negro freedom, that forces the conclusion
upon our mind that it is contrary to everything in the nature of man,
and almost criminal to attempt to harmonize these two diverse peoples
while living under the same government.
If we have
by this Treatise attracted the attention, or discussion of more able
men to this phase of the Negro Problem, the result will be our
reward.”
-
Preface to Our Home Colony by Moses Fleetwood Walker,
1908.
6.
According to “Fleet” Walker, what is the only solution to the
“Negro Problem”?
7.
How does “Fleet” Walker’s opinion differ from that of the
African-American leadership which was dealing with the problem of
racism in the United States?
Excerpted
from Our Home Colony: A Treatise on the Past, Present, and Future of
the Negro Race in America by Moses Fleetwood Walker.
The Library of Congress, 1908,
From the collection of
The National Baseball Hall of Fame
and Museum.
Task, Historical Context, Document Selection, Questions ã Douglas J.
Kaufman, 2001.
Document 5
8.
What does Weldy Walker list as his current employment in this Oberlin
College questionnaire for their Anniversary Catalogue of Former Students
in 1908?
9.
How might Weldy Walker’s choice of career have been influenced
by the experiences the Walker brothers shared in organized baseball?
Oberlin College,
Seventy-Fifth Anniversary General Catalogue of Former Students, 1908.
From the collection of The
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Task, Historical Context, Document Selection, Questions,Douglas J.
Kaufman, 2001.
Part B
Essay
Directions:
·
Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction,
several paragraphs, and a conclusion.
·
Use evidence from the documents to support your response.
·
Do not simply repeat the contents of the documents.
·
Include specific related outside information.
Historical Context:
Professional baseball in the
19th century United States included some
African-Americans. By 1887, approximately twenty were playing
baseball in the minor leagues. When the Northwestern minor league
Toledo Ball Club secured a franchise with the American Association in
1884, their catcher, Moses “Fleet” Walker became the first
African-American major league player. Both “Fleet” Walker and his
brother Weldy, experienced prejudice in organized baseball. As evident
in other aspects of African-American life, professional baseball was
segregated by the end of the 19th century.
Task:
Using information from the documents provided and your knowledge of
United States
history, write an essay
which describes baseball segregation and specifically identifies how
some African-Americans struggled against political, economic, and social
inequality in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th
centuries.
Be sure to include specific
historical details. You must also include additional information from
your knowledge of United States history.
Instructions
& Directions,
New York State Education Department, GH-888-98, 1999.
Task, Historical Context, Document Selection, Organization,
Douglas J. Kaufman, 2001.
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