1. English IV

2. Definition Assimilate
verb (used with object) 1. to take in and incorporate as one's own; absorb: He assimilated many new experiences on his European trip.
2. to bring into conformity with the customs, attitudes, etc., of a group, nation, or the like; adapt or adjust: to assimilate the new immigrants.
3. Physiology . to convert (food) to substances suitable for incorporation into the body and its tissues.
–verb (used without object) 7. to be or become absorbed.
8. to conform or adjust to the customs, attitudes, etc., of a group, nation, or the like: The new arrivals assimilated easily and quickly.

3. Questions
-Of what aspects of your culture are you most proud? Why? -How have you tried to assimilate into a different culture? -How important is your culture to your identity? Why? -How does the United States force people to assimilate?
How does the national government respect cultural differences?

4. Fences How do fences protect? How do fences prevent or prohibit?
How do fences empower through ownership?
How do fences oppress through prohibition?
What cultural/political/social messages do fences convey?
Can fences be invisible?

5. Fences How do we erect and enact our own fences?
How does the past/history provide fences in our lives?
How are cultural/language groups affected differently by fences? Do different groups have different fences?
Can someone have access to “both sides of the fence”? How?
What are your fences?

6. Intro to Fences
Make sure that you read the introduction and the first 10 pages of the play for Monday.
Expect a quiz.
We will read the August Wilson Biography

7. August Wilson Read through his biography
Create an outline with 7 different sections (A-G--- each letter will represent a different period/piece of the reading)
Include important facts or details about Wilson’s life and accomplishments
Provide titles for each section

8. Intro to Fences The play takes place in 1958
The play takes place in Pittsburgh PA
What was happening in the US in 1958?
What major events may have effected the Maxon family?

9. The Play
Timeline of important Civil Rights Events
1954 Brown vs. Board of Education: U.S. Supreme Court bans segregation in public schools.
1955 Bus boycott launched in Montgomery, Ala., after an African-American woman, Rosa Parks, is arrested December 1 for refusing to give up her seat to a white person .
1956 December 21. After more than a year of boycotting the buses and a legal fight, the Montgomery buses desegregate.
1957 Garfield High School becomes first Seattle high school with more than 50 percent nonwhite student body. At previously all-white Central High in Little Rock, Ark., 1,000 paratroopers are called by President Eisenhower to restore order and escort nine black students.

10. The Play
Also in
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little), minister of Temple No. 7 of the Nation of Islam since 1954, leads demonstration outside a police station in Harlem, April 14, to protest the beating of a Black Muslim and demand his transfer to a hospital.
First federal civil rights bill since 1875 is passed on August 29 after it is significantly weakened in the Senate to avoid a filibuster. The act makes conspiring to deny citizens their right to vote in federal elections a federal crime and gives federal prosecutors the power to obtain injunctions against discrimnatory practices used to deny citizens their voting rights.

11. The Great Migration
The Great Migration began. Approximately two million Southern Blacks moved to Northern industrial centers in the following decades. Between the turn of the century and 1930, more than 1 million black southerners set out on one of America's most important mass movements. These people migrated from the South's countryside to the cities in the North. They hoped to find better jobs, a new sense of citizenship, and a new respect for themselves, their families, and their people in the North. In 1910 the North and the South were so dissimilar that they could have passed for two different countries. The southern states were isolated, economically backward, had fewer schools, and higher rates of illiteracy. Their northern counterparts boasted cultural attractions and booming industries. Many blacks used the path to the north as an escape route from the menacing racism of the South.

12. Intro to Fences Troy is a former Negro League baseball player
He currently works for the Pittsburgh Sanitation Department
He is married to Rose, his second wife
His son Cory is a star football recruit