TKAM - Ch. 12 - Visiting Calpurnia’s Church

TKAM

Chapter 12

Calpurnia’s Church

Why is the Black Church “the single most important institution in African-American culture,” according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.?

How did the church help African-Americans learn to read and write?

What was the role of music in the Black Church?

How did the Black Church influence politics and culture in the U.S.?

Open Ended

The Black Church helped teach African-Americans to read and write in the late 19th and early 20th century. Why did black people need to learn these skills in the church? How specifically did they learn reading and writing in the church?

Open Ended

What was the role of music in the Black Church, and what effect did the music of the Black Church have on culture around the world?

Open Ended

How did the Black Church influence politics in the United States during the 20th century, and how does it continue to influence politics today?

Open Ended

Why is the Black Church “the single most important institution in African-American culture,” according the Henry Louis Gates, Jr.?

Write a paragraph, using best practices for embedding quotations.

The Rev. Al Sharpton: “The black church was more than a spiritual home. It was the epicenter of black life. Out of it came our black businesses, our black educational institutions...”

Oprah Winfrey: “The black church gave people a sense of value, belonging and worthiness. I don’t know how we could have survived as a people without it.”

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: “And despite all the trials and tribulations that Black people have had to suffer, the church has survived, it's grown, it's morphed, it's transformed, and we're still here.”

Multiple Choice

Why does Calpurnia insist on taking Jem and Scout to church with her?

• Atticus is out of town

• Atticus invited Aunt Alexandra to stay with them

• Atticus had asked Calpurnia to take them to her church to see what it was like

Multiple Choice

How does Calpurnia prepare Jem and Scout to attend her church?

• She doesn’t do much preparation; she’s too busy

• She is unsure of what the kids should wear

• She drives the kids crazy because she’s very strict about them being dressed perfectly

• She asks the kids what they wear to their regular church and gets them to wear the same outfits to hers

First Purchase African M.E. Church was...the only church in Maycomb with a steeple and a bell, called First Purchase because it was paid for from the first earnings of freed slaves. Negroes worshipped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays.

“A Happy Cemetery”

The churchyard was brick-hard clay, as was the cemetery beside it. If someone died during a dry spell, the body was covered with chunks of ice until rain softened the earth. A few graves in the cemetery were marked with crumbling tombstones; newer ones were outlined with brightly colored glass and broken Coca-Cola bottles. Lightning rods guarding some graves denoted dead who rested uneasily; stumps of burned-out candles stood at the heads of infant graves. It was a happy cemetery.

The warm bittersweet smell of clean Negro welcomed us as we entered the churchyard—Hearts of Love hairdressing mingled with asafoetida, snuff, Hoyt’s Cologne, Brown’s Mule, peppermint, and lilac talcum.

The warm bittersweet smell of clean Negro welcomed us as we entered the churchyard—Hearts of Love hairdressing mingled with asafoetida, snuff, Hoyt’s Cologne, Brown’s Mule, peppermint, and lilac talcum.

Multiple Choice

Who’s Lula?

• she’s Cal’s best friend

• she’s the minister’s secret girlfriend — a big scandal in Cal’s church

• she’s really snobby and says nasty things to Cal about bring Jem and Scout to church

• she’s Cal’s daughter and reads out the lines to the congregation during the hymns

Multiple Choice

Scout is shocked by one difference between Rev. Sykes’s sermon and the typical sermon at her white church.

• Rev. Sykes condemns the white leaders of Maycomb for arresting Tom Robinson

• Rev. Sykes claps his hands and does cool things with his voice when he preaches

• Rev. Sykes calls out individual members of the church for not putting enough money in the collection plate

Multiple Choice

What does linin’ mean in the black church?

• after church, everyone lines up to get food

• someone reads out the church hymns, line by line

• there’s a boundary line between white and black neighborhoods that African-Americans know not to cross after dark

• every member of the congregation must get in line to put a coin in the collection plate

What is Code Switching?

Open Ended

What is “code-switching”?

Open Ended

How do you use code-switching? Describe an example of how your language is different when you address different people or groups of people. Why does your language change? Are you conscious or unconscious of the change?

Open Ended

Describe how — and why — Calpurnia uses “code-switching” (although she’d never call it that).

Write a paragraph, using best practices for embedding quotations.