Notes of a Native Son Lesson Plan

Reread the passage in Part II that begins: “...the people I knew felt, mainly, a peculiar kind of relief when they knew that their boys were being shipped out of the south, to do battle overseas” and ends: “Such a death would be, in short, a fact with which one could hope to live.” What does this passage imply about the impact of physical wounds and even death in battle as opposed to the emotional, psychological, and spiritual wounds inflicted by racism? What is your own emotional and/or intellectual response to this phenomenon experienced by Black families during WWII?

Students may discuss the distinction made in western culture between the mind (as well as the...