Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, 1951, oil on Masonite, 10 ⅛” x 12 ⅞”
1. Play the recording of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” for your students as they look at this oil painting. After the song is over, tell them that the artist painted this after listening to the song sung many times and listening to her friends talk about how important the song was to them. Ask the students if, after listening to the song, they can connect the song and the painting.
2. Ask the students what the people on the ground might be feeling when this chariot is suddenly upon them. Express to your students that for many Black people at the time Heaven represented a world of freedom beyond the constraints of segregation. They believed that even though their lives on Earth had been full of hardship, their time in Heaven was going to be full of all the good things they had always wanted so the idea of going to Heaven was eagerly anticipated.
3. Have your students pretend that this event just happened and needs to be reported for the nightly news. Ask them to be the reporter who is the first on the scene and needs to interview people who witnessed the event. Have the students ask people what they saw and have them describe it. For even more of a challenge, have them do it as if it happened in 1951 and today, and have them then write a paragraph that compares and contrasts the way things would be remembered differently depending on the time period.
MD State Standards
Music: Cn11:E:3-5:1/Cn11:E:6-8:1/Cn10:I:3-5:3/Cn10:I:6-8:3