Riding The Rails

The Great Depression was a very difficult time in American history. The Great Depression is the longest and most serious depression experienced in Western countries. The movie 'Riding the rail' is a good example of this depression. This movie is the story of ten men and women of young people and they tell the story of escaping from the house seeking a better life. I think that Riding the Rails can understand the lifestyle of teenagers in these historical times very clearly and precisely.

In this event, PBS's US experience documentary "Riding the Rails" is incorporated. Students will look for jobs, see and read information about life in the 1930 's. The experience they see and read is the youth experience of the 1930s. Like George and Lenny, these teenagers are looking for temporary work. Steinbeck's novels are symbolic, "rats and people" are no exception. Students should be able to distinguish between words and figurative concepts. This activity helps students understand symbols and follow the usage and meaning of symbols through mice and men.

In the 1930s, more than 250,000 young people used the railway and illegally looked for adventure and food from one town to another. One of the stories I read about horse racing was about a man named Henry Koczar from East Chicago. When he left the family he was 19 years old. As a member of a large family, his parents put food on the table every day. Henry just wanted to make the family a little more relaxed, he felt he was getting old enough, and now he began working independently. So in September 1932, he took the train in hopes of relieving his family's troubles.

Scottsboro was a group of young people and nine young people between the ages of 12 and 19 were arrested for riding the railroad. Basically, they are free to board the train. These are young blacks. But during the arrest, the police also discovered that two young white women were doing this with a nearby car. This claim quickly became rape. These young people soon tried, except for the youngest, a 12-year-old child was sentenced to death. In the 1940's, she wanted to be more active. In World War II, blacks were serving abroad so they could not register to vote at home, which shocked her. She wants to sign up for voting. So she went to a local NAACP meeting, she was a secretary elected on the first day, she was the only woman there. She will spend the next decade with E.D., one of Montgomery's radical activists. Nixon changed Montgomery 's National Coloring Education Association to a more active chapter. We deal with the voter registration problem and we will consider the criminal justice problem