Students will compare two different songs, “The Ballad of Roosevelt” by Langston Hughes and “His Spirit Lives On” by Joe Williams, which were written within a few years of one another. 

Students should work in pairs. Each pair reads both songs together and then completes a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the poems. 

Then have a full class discussion using the following questions:

• How are the two songs similar? How are they different?
• Where do you see evidence in the songs of the Great Depression’s impact on the Black community?
• How do both authors feel about Roosevelt?
• After looking at these two sources, do you think the New Deal helped or harmed Black Americans?