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The Civil Rights Movement

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The Civil Rights Movement Making It Right: The Civil Rights Movement Getting Ready If computers are not available for student use, print out the recommended internet selections before class. Relate to social context Skills: Making Inferences, drawing conclusions • Ask the students to write why they think the election of Barrack Obama is significant. Give students the opportunity to share what they have written. • In his inaugural speech, President Obama mentioned that fifty years earlier, his father would not have been served in many restaurants in the South. Why would he have been refused service in “white restaurants”? • Ask students to share what they know about the Civil Rights Movement. What are some of the issues and people that they can identify with from the 1960’s? Write names and events on the board/flipchart. • Ask older students to share their memories about the 1950’s and 1960’s. Other students can share a story from a family member(s) who lived during this period. Teach and reinforce skills/content Skills: Identifying the main idea and supporting details • The sit-in movement was an important feature in the quest for Civil Rights. Divide students into two groups; each group reads one of the following articles and determines the main idea, lists three supporting details, and presents group reaction to the article. Both are about the 50th anniversary of the first sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, and about the opening of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. Information from the civil rights museum (flyer) could be used instead of a dated newspaper article. • One group reads The News & Observer article about the Greensboro Sit-ins, “Greensboro 1960: Ground Zero for civil rights,“ February 2, 2010. To locate the article, search for the following link being sure to include quotes: “Greensboro 1960: Ground Zero for Civil Rights” charlotte observer • The other group reads The Greensboro News and Record article, “An Act of Defiance That Changed History,” February 1, 2010. To locate the article, search for the following link being sure to include quotes: News-record “An Act of Defiance that Changed History” • The enormous changes that happened in this country during the 1950’s and 1960’s played a huge role in electing the first African American president in 2008. Organizing voter registration campaigns and fighting against segrega- tion were central issues of the Civil Rights Movement. Explain key issues: Why voter registration was an issue; where did segregation exist; what does the term “civil rights” refer to; and what discrimination is. Demonstrations and protests occurred and legislation was passed, all calling for racial equality. Discuss the many ordinary people who did heroic things and played crucial roles during the Civil Rights Movement. • Have students explore the website www.sitins.com of the new International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, NC, that opened in April 2010. Ask them to write reactions and five things they learned. • Working in pairs, have the students conduct a mock voter registration interview using the tests found at the following link. http://www.crmvet.org/ info/lithome.htm Compare and contrast voter registration today and in the time when this form was used. Note to instructor: Familiarize students with the content at this website before conducting this activity. Skills: Summarizing and oral presentation • Divide the class into teams. Have the teams use the internet to research important Civil Rights event(s) or organization, as well as descriptions of 1-3 people who played a key role during the event. Each student on the team reads one description about the event or person and writes a summary. Then each team prepares an oral presentation to the whole group. Each team has to make “history come alive” for the presentation. Suggest prop ideas (e.g. picket signs for a march or boycott). If the students have lower literacy skills, indicate specific sections for them to read from the following selections. 1. Brown vs. Board of Education: http://brownvboard.org/summary/ 2. Thurgood Marshal: http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/marshall.htm 3. Mississippi Summer Project/Freedom Summer: http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/mfdp.html 4. Andrew Goodman: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAgoodmanA.htm 5. James Chaney: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAchaney.htm 6. Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP): http://usm.edu/crdp/html/cd/mfdp.htm 7. Fannie Lou Hamer: http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/hamer.html 8. SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/ 9. Ella Baker: http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/baker.html 10. Robert Moses: http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/moses.html 11. United Farm Workers: http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/systems/agentsheets/New-Vista/grape- boycott/History.html 12. Cesar Chavez: http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Cesar_Chavez.php 13. March on Washington: http://www.core-online.org/History/washington_march.htm 14. Philip Randolph: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USArandolph.htm 15. Voting Rights Act of 1963: http://www.core-online.org/History/voting_rights.htm 16. President Lyndon Johnson http://www.historycentral.com/bio/presidents/l_johnson.html • Each team starts with the event/projects/organization, followed by people associated with the event. Instructor decides time allocation per team. Students ask questions of each team after presentations. Transfer skills to new learning situations Skill: Summarizing • Ask students to research and write a summary of one of the following events that also occurred during the Civil Rights Movement. 1. Selma to Montgomery March 2. Birmingham 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing 3. School Integration, Central High School, Little Rock, AR 4. Freedom Riders 5. James Meredith and the University of Mississippi • Invite someone who was involved in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Before the speaker comes, ask each student to write two questions to ask. After the presentation, each student writes a summary of what was said. Let the students share what they have written. Guide reflection on what’s learned Help students review and label what they have learned during the class. Include lit- eracy skills and content. Ask them to think about their individual accomplishments and write them down..
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