Begin by showing students the Separate but Equal: Homer Plessy and the Case That Upheld the Color Line film produced by Black History in Two Minutes or so. With the Plessy case in mind, ask students the following questions,

• What do you think the Plessy decision meant for the issues Black activists and writers focused on in the early 20th century?
• How do you think Black activism and Black newspapers changed in the years after the Civil War? Why? What similarities do you think remained from earlier Black activism and Black newspapers? Why?

After this short conversation, have students work in small groups to look at selections from The Guardian, a Black-owned Boston newspaper published and edited by William Monroe Trotter. Distribute the handout Introduction – William Monroe Trotter and Boston’s The Guardian Newspaper and the two sources, “Still Humiliating Us: Louisiana Laws to Keep Negroes Down,” The Guardian, June 14, 1902 and “National Race Congress,” The Guardian, November 20, 1915 to each student. 

Have students engage in a Silent Conversation, in which they respond to guiding questions by annotating texts with observations and questions and engage with each other’s comments in writing—but not through verbal communication. Have students focus on the following questions:

• What forms of racial inequality were features of life for African American people in the early 20th century, as reported by The Guardian?
• According to The Guardian, how did Black people respond to these forms of racial injustice?
• What role(s) do you think newspapers like The Guardian played in the Black community during this era?
• Whose voices and perspectives do these articles emphasize? What do they offer the reader? What other voices and perspectives would you like to have encountered in these articles and why?

Once students have completed the silent conversation, have small groups debrief verbally, focusing on the following questions:

• What did you notice about the ideas that emerged during the Silent Conversation?
• How did the written format change the discussion? What new insights did you gain?
• How did the act of writing your thoughts and responses influence the experience of interacting with your classmates? How did it influence the experience of thinking about racial injustices in the early 20th century United States?