The Marrow of Tradition Lesson Plan

Daily Record Editorial

Kind of Activity:

Research

Objective:

Students will understand the real-world context of the editorials in the novel.

Structure:

In The Marrow of Tradition, the Big Three make use of an editorial against lynching, written by a Black man named Barber and published in The Afro American Banner. In the real event, the editorial was published in The Wilmington Daily Record and was written by Alexander Manly.

Break the class into groups of three or four students. Using this archive from the University of North Carolina, let students read the original editorial. Ask each group to answer the following questions:

1. What are the similarities and differences...