There are so many things I learned in the project that I didn’t know before. More specifically, my decade had many unsung events overshadowed by some of the more well known events. Our decade featured very important events such as the March on Washington, the Signing of the Civil Rights Act, and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Most of the events associated with the political and social change were known to me already, but others such as the Beatles concert at the Washington Coliseum shed new light on a different aspect in this decade. In this way, I was able to gain another understanding about the capital since it is usually associated with politics. I also learned about the economic change and how that influenced the social and political change. The growing feminist movement along with the growth in the stock market played a big untold part in this decade. This project as a whole gave me a more informed perspective on both my decade and my location.
Sadly, there are still many connections from the 1960’s in Washington DC to now in 2018. A big one that is obviously noticeable is that racism and discrimination is still a huge problem in America. While it isn’t discrimination supported by the law, internal biases still make people treat others as less because of the color of their skin. Once again, there are also people in power who are trying to put people of color down. There is also still police brutality in which officers are using excessive force and even shooting unarmed people of color. While it is sad, it’s the sad reality people of color are dealing with on a daily basis.
The artifact that is my personal favorite has to be the diorama we made of the March on Washington. Constructing this was a long and tedious process, but the result was amazing and something I am very proud of. First off, hundreds of beads were glued onto the surface which represented the thousands of people at the march. We also recreated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the Washington Monument, the rows of trees along the sides, and the area where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. We even added our own touch by adding a border with symbols and important leaders from the Civil Rights Movement along with the grayscale theme we stuck with. Overall, this artifact really shows what happens when you put your mind to something and not stop until it is completed.
The aspect I felt I learned most about was the social/cultural aspect of our decade. Of course one the biggest things was the fact that there was so much racial tension at the time. While this itself wasn’t necessarily new to me, what was new to me was the gruesome truth of being a person of color in the 1960’s. White-only hospitals would not accept colored patients under any circumstances, even if that might be their only chance. Also, colored people were at a serious disadvantage when it came to being deemed criminals or not. In general, I learned a lot about how being a person of color meant your life could be shortened for a vast number of unjust reasons. Then there were other aspects such as “beatlemania” and how the Beatles ignited their mark in American culture after that first concert in Washington DC. I definitely gained a better understanding of this politically-focused city. If I could change one thing about this project, it would be to change the themes of some of our artifacts. All of our artifacts tied into the Civil Rights Movement which even though was massive at the time, wasn’t all the decade had to offer. While I’m not exactly sure which artifacts, I would want some of them to focus on the cultural aspects of Washington DC. Being the capital, global communities made an impact in the city so doing something around that would of benefited us in ways we hadn’t thought of. Even though we didn’t go with that, our artifacts were amazing regardless. I also do think that the Civil Rights Movement heavily influenced the political, social, and economic change.
The book we read as a group was “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett. This book explains the lives of two black maids working for white households and raising white children. There names are Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson. It also talked about the life of an up and coming white, female journalist named Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan. The book describes the hardships of their lives and the difficulties they have to deal with. Some of these include racism, segregation, sexism, health problems, domestic violence, and tireless work. All of these struggles bring the main characters together in a way which redefines the social norms at the time. This connects to my decade and location because of the many struggles which take place. These discriminatory laws also affect Washington DC while both the book and my decade are set in the 1960’s.
Here I will post the link to my presentation where all of our information is. This includes everything about our decade/location along with pictures of my group's artifacts, our Choose Your Own Adventure, and the book we read: