Teaching the Civil Rights Unit
Dave Horton
Whitney Point School District
Grade Level: Grade 8
Time Allocation: 10 days
Overall Objective: To make the students familiar with the movement for civil rights that was undertaken by the African-American minority in the 1950s and 1960s. The students will be able to:
- Explain the need for a Civil Rights Movement.
- Describe the constitutional basis for a civil rights movement.
- Describe 4 key events in the movement and 4 key individuals.
- Discuss how the different events in the civil rights movement led to legislation that furthered the cause of civil rights.
- Perceive, on their own, how the civil rights movement is not over.
- Understand how different individuals, groups and events hurt the movement for civil rights.
Day 1
Objective:
- Make the students aware of the need for a Civil Rights Movement
- Review Segregation in the post-Reconstruction South.
- Introduce the Bridge project.
Task:
- Hand out the Alabama Literacy Test and explain that the students have 8 minutes to complete this exam and can only miss two.
- Explain the purpose of the exam
- Critical Question: Did African-Americans have equal rights?
- Question the students about post-Reconstruction South and Jim Crow?
- Pass out Guides and discuss how a bridge works.
Homework:
The students must complete the first note page.
Day 2
Objective:
Getting students aquainted with the 1st, 14th, and 15th Ammendments, and the Brown V. Board of Education decision.
Task:
- In small groups read the documents (1st, 14th and 15th Amendments, and the Brown V. Board of Education decision) and highlight the important points in each.
- Have each group present one aspect about one document.
Homework:
The students must complete the second note page.
Day 3 and 4
Objective:
The students will discover and describe four civil rights events.
Task:
In the library the students will research 4 different civil rights events and wite a summary for each answering who, what, where, when and how
- Montgomery Bus Boycott
- Intergration of Schools... Little Rock Arkansas
- Freedom Rides
- March on Washington, 1963
Homework:
The students must complete the third note page.
Day 5 and 6
Objective:
The students will understand the struggle faced in gaining civil rights in 1965 and 1965.
Task:
- Watch the Eyes on the Prize Video... "Bridge to Freedom."
- Write a letter to their parents describing one event from the film.
Homework:
The students must complete the fourth note page.
Day 7
Objective:
The students will recognize the important victories in the civil rights movement and the continuing process.
Task:
The students will write a summary for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act, 1965, using the Mobile Lab to research and write.
Homework:
The students must complete the last note page.
Day 8, 9 and 10
Objective:
The students will demonstrate their knowledge of the civil rights movement.
Task:
- The student will choose one of the two civil rights quizzes to complete.
- The students, in small groups, will create a DBQ exam for the Civil Rights Movement.
- Brainstorm task question.
- Assign questions to different groups to find documents.
- Collate exams.
1965 Alabama Literacy Test
You have 8 minutes to complete the exam. You cannot miss more that two answers.
If a person is indicted for a crime, name two rights which he has?
A U.S. Senator elected in November takes office the following year on what date?
A person appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court is appointed for a term of (how long)?
When the Constitution was approved by the original colonies, how many states had to ratify it in order for it to be in effect?
Does enumeration affect the income tax levied on citizens in various states?
Persons opposed to swearing in an oath may say, instead "solemnly (fill in the blank)?
What words are required by law to be on all coins and paper currency?
A U.S. Senator is elected for how many years?
Appropriation of money for the armed services can be only for a period of how many years?
Who passes laws dealing with privacy?
The number of representatives which a state is entitled to have in the House of Representatives is based on what?
If no person recieves a majority of electoral votes, the vice president is chosen by the Senate. True or False?
Name two things which the states are forbidden to do by the U.S. Constitution?
If a person flees from justice into another state, who has the authority to ask for his return?
If the two houses of Congress cannot agree on adjournment, who sets the time?
After the presidential electors have voted, to whom do they send the count of their votes?
How many votes must a person recieve in order to become President if the election is decided by the House of Representatices?
Name the two levels of government which can levy taxes?
Of the original 13 states, which had the largest representation in the first Congress?
If it were proposed to join Alabama and Mississippi to form one state, which groups would have to vote approval in order for this to be done?
Name two purposes of the U.S. Constitution?
The Constitution limits the size of the District of Columbia to (what)?
Bridge Builders Guide
First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof: or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Fourteenth Amendment
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without the due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Fifteenth Amendment
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous servitude.
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
Decided May 17, 1954
Mr. Chief Justice Warren delivered the opinion of the Court.
Excerpts of the opinion...
These cases... are premised on different facts and different local conditions, but a common legal question justifies their consideration together in this consolidated opinion.
In each of the cases, minors of the Negro race, through their legal representatives, seek the aid of the courts in obtaining admission to the public schools of their community on a nonsegregated basis.In each instance, they have been denied admission to schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to race. This segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. In each of the cases other than the Delaware case, a three-judge federal district court denied relief to the plaintiffs on the so-called "separate but equal" doctrine announced by this Court in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537. Under that doctrine, equality of treatment is accorded when the races are provided substantially equal facilities, even though these facilities be separate. In the Delaware case, the Supreme Court of Delaware adhered to that doctrine, but ordered that the plaintiffs be admitted to the white schools because of their superiority to the Negro schools.
The plaintiffs contend that segregated public schools are not "equal" and cannot be made "equal," and that hence they are deprived of the equal protection of the laws. Because of the obvious importance of the question presented, the Court took jurisdiction. Argument was heard in the 1952 Term, and reargument was heard this Term on certain questions propounded by the Court.
In approaching this problem, we cannot turn the clock back to 1868, when the Amendment was adopted, or even to 1896, when Plessy v. Ferguson was written. We must consider public education in the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the Nation. Only in this way can it be determined if segregation in public schools deprives these plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws.
Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment. In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.
We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities? We believe that it does.
"Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system."
Whatever may have been the extent of psychological knowledge at the time of Plessy v. Ferguson, this finding is amply supported by modern authority. Any language in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding is rejected.
We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. This disposition makes unnecessary any discussion whether such segregation also violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
It is so ordered.
Source: National Archives and Records Administration
For the Civil Rights Act of 1964 go to...
http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/civil_rights_act/civil_rights_act.html
For the Voting Rights Act of 1965 go to...
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?page=documents&doc=100
Web Resources
Southern Defense of Segregated Education
http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/scho.htm
The Southern Manifesto
http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/manifesto.htm
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/nvsageh/Hist122?Part4/CRact57.htm
Jack O'Dell on organizing
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6926/
Letter from Jackie Robinson to Eisenhower, 1958
http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroon/lessons/jackie_robinson/letter_1958.html
Interview with Rosa Parks
http://achievement.org/autodoc/page/%09%09%09par0int-1
Photos from Central High School
http://www.ardemgaz.com/prev/central/counts.html
Eisenhower on Mob Rule
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6335/
Executive order 10730
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?page=document&doc=89
Testimony of an African American unable to vote in Alabama
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6334/
Photo of Orval Faubus
http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/2142/mcms.html
Marin Luther King Jr. Adress to the First Montgomery Improvment Association
http://www.stanford.edu/group/king/publications/speeches/MIA_mass_meeting_at_holt_street.html
Martin Luther King Jr., "Give us the Ballot"
http://www.stanford.edu/group/king/publications/speeches/Give_us_the_ballot.html
Link to photos of Eugene "Bull" Connor and Audio file
http://pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/web14/segment6.html
Photos from 1963 church bombings and pictures of the four girls killed
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/randall/birmingham.htm
Writings and Quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.
http://www.members.aol.com/klove01/martinsp.htm
SNCC Founding Statement
http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/SNCC_founding.html
SNCC Position Paper: The Basis of Black Power
http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/SNCC_black_power.html
SNCC Position Paper: Women in the Movement
http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/SNCC_women.html
Black Student Unions
http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/BSU_platform.html
Slide show of Freedom Summer
http://www.americanradioworks.org/features/oh_freedom/index.html
Audio files of oral histories, including Fannie Lou Hamer, James Randolph
http://anna.lib.usm.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/57/49?user_id=ARCHIVE
Television News about Civil Rights
http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/civilrightstv/
An Oral History Project about 1968
http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/1968
Photos and accounts of 1966 Meredith March
http://www.jofreeman.com/photos/meredith.html
Letters from James Meredith concerning the integration of Ole Miss
http://www.jfklibrary.org/meredith/jm.html
"I can't fight alone," James Meredith
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6326/
FBI documents of SNCC
http://foia.fbi.gov/sncc.htm
Documents of the case against the murders of James Cheney, Andrew Goodman and Mike Schwerner - includes FBI missing poster
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/price&bowers.htm
Photos of vigil outside of 1964 Democratic Convention
http://www.jofreeman.com/photos/mfdp2.html
http://www.jofreeman.com/photos/mfdp1.html
Photos of Selma to Montgomery March, 1965
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/al4.htm
More pictures from "Bloody Sunday"
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/mar07.html
Political cartoons from the 1960s
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/animal.html
The history of Jim Crow
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org
Student Project for African-American History
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/
Online resource about the Civil Righs Movement
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcivilrights.htm
Civil Rights Theme Park
http://www.uen.org/themepark/html/liberty/civilrights.html
Martin Luther King Jr., "I have a Dream" speech
http://www.ku.edu/carrie/docs/texts/mlkdream.html
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
http://www.nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html
List of documents by and about Malcolm X
http://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/
Malcolm X's speeches
http://www.webcorp.com/civilrights/malcolm.htm
Documents on Malcolm X, including letter from Mecca
http://www.members.aol.com/klove01/malcomsp.htm
Photos of Elijah Muhammad
http://www.noi.org/elijah_muhammad_history.htm
Audio speech by H. Rap Brown
http://www.historycannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_397.html
George C. Wallace, "The Civil Rights Movement"
http://www.ku.edu/carrie/docs/texts/wallace64.html
LBJ speech on the Civil Rights Act of 1964
http://www.historycannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_144.html
The history of Jim Crow website with teachers resources
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/home.html
The rise and fall of Jim Crow with teachers resources
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/
Remembering Jim Crow with photos and audio interviews
http://www.americanradioworks.org/features/remembering/
Photo Gallery
Rosa Parks
In 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested for disobeying a segregation law in Montgomery, Alabama, that required her to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. Her action helped to stimulate a boycott. For over a year, blacks refused to use the city's bus system. The boycott recieved national attention and forced city officials to repeal the discriminatory law.
Earl Warren
In 1953 President Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren, the Republican governor of California, as Chief Justice of the United States. The conservative Eisenhower soon discovered that rather than appointing a fellow conservative to the Court, he had choosen one of the great liberal jurists in American history. The Warren Court greatly expanded individual rights and government power to regulate the economy. For example, in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Warren wrote the decision for a unanimous Court decision outlawing segregation in public schools because segregation denied black students equal protection of the law under the 14th Amendment.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr., emerged as a leader of the American civil rights movement after organizing the famous 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Throughout his career he pressed for equal treatment and improved circumstances for blacks, organizing nonviolent protests and delivering powerful speeches on the necessity of eradicating institutional racial inequalities. In 1963 King led a peaceful march between the Washington Monument and the Lincon Memorial, where he delivered his most famous speech, "I Have a Dream."
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th United States president. Johnson served as vice president under John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. Johnson was sworn in as president minutes after Kennedy's death. He continued his sucessful domestic reforms after winning the 1964 presidential elections, but his leadership during the Vietnam War became unpopular, and he retired at the end of his term.
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson became the first black baseball player in the modern major leagues when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Playing from 1947 to 1956, Robinson had a career batting average of .311, and in 1962 became the first black player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Chisholm, a New York Democrat, was the first black woman to serve in the United States Congress. Chisholm served six terms, from 1969-1983.
Malcolm X
Malcolm X was a militant leader of the Nation of Islam, a Black Muslim organization, in the 1950s and early 1960s. In contrast to other black religious leaders of the time who espoused pacifism, he called for achieving equality "by any means necessary." Malcolm X created a secular black nationalist group known as the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Despite threats on his life, he continued to preach the "new religion" until his assassination in 1965.
Civil Rights Movement
Student Notes
Page 1
What are Civil Rights?
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How did African-Americans lose rights?
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What is lynching?
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Who Protested against segregation?
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Page 2
What was the NAACP? Who was Booker T. Washington?
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Who was Marcus Garvey?
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What was the Harlem Renaissance?
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How did WWI and WWII change the lives of African-Americans?
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Page 3
What was the first victory for integration?
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What is integration?
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What was Brown v. Board of Education?
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How were schools integrated?
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Page 4
Who was Rosa Parks?
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Who led the Boycott?
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What is nonviolent protest?
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How did MLK change the civil rights movement?
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Who was Malcolm X?
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Page 5
How did the Federal Government aid the movement?
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How did violence affect the movement?
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What groups promoted the use of violence ?
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What were race riots?
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How did the movement change after 1968?
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Did the civil rights movement end?
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The Ernest Green Story, Study Guide
Name______________ Social Studies Period____
Date______________ Notes: Video Guide
Directions: Define the following terms using your textbook and/or dictionary.
segregation __________________________________________________________________________________________________
desegregation ________________________________________________________________________________________________
integration ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
civil rights ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Brown v. Board of Education _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Directions: Use information from the video and any other source you may need to answer the following questions...
1. What court case is quoted at the very beginning of the movie?
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2. What year is the Ernest Green story set in?
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3. Ernest's first school was known as Horace Mann, why would they choose to call a school by that name?
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4. If Ernest had the possibility for "greatness" during his senior year at Horace Mann, why did he want to transfer to Central High?
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5. What does the NAACP stand for?
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6. What reason did the principle of Central High School give the students as to why they would not be allowed to participate in extra-curricular activities??
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7. What was the real reason the student's were being denied these programs?
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8. Where all blacks supportive of integration? Why or why not?
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9. What philosophy were the students taught to use in case of any conflicts that may arise during their transfer period? Where did the minister get this idea from?
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10. Who was the President of the United States at this time?
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11. Thurgood Marshall would go on to later become the first African-American to...? What was his role in this movie?
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12. Rosa Parks achieved distinction in U.S history by...
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13. Why would the demonstrators choose to carry the Confederate flag? Yes, it was a symbol of the Civil War, but why carry it almost 100 years later?
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14. What was Governor Fuabus' reaction to integration? What did he say, how did he act?
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15. What was the President of the U.S. reaction to the situation at Central High? Again, what did he say, how did he act?
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16. Did desegregation happen all at once? Explain.
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17. Describe what a day in the life of one of the Little Rock 9 might have been like during the early days of integration. Consider the day from getting to school in the morning to going to bed at night.
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