Crossroads: Middle School Unit XI Crossroads Middle School Curriculum

Unit XI: Leader of the Free World: 1945-1975

Question/Problem 3: In what ways did the Civil Rights movement change the lives of African Americans?

Contents

Objectives

Description of lesson/activity

Resources


Objectives: The students will be able to:

  1. describe important events in the Civil Rights movement, appreciate what it was like to participate in those events, and explain how those events changed the lives of African Americans.

  2. explain the important role Martin Luther King, Jr., played in the Civil Rights movement.

  3. recognize alternate views in the Civil Rights movement and compare them to the views of Dr. King.

  4. describe success and failures of the civil rights movement.

  5. appreciate the need to respect the rights of all persons.

  6. interpret primary resources.

  7. recommend possible solutions to civil rights problems.

Description of lesson/activity:
  1. Teachers should read or distribute to students the accompanying "Martin Luther King, Jr., on the Future of America" reading. The excerpt should be used to begin discussion about the civil rights unit. Include in the discussion:

    • a comparison of U.S. world leadership in the Cold War and in technology/ prosperity to its role as a moral leader in the world.
    • a review of Reconstruction and the origins of the segregated South as learned in Unit VII, including Plessy v. Ferguson and the Jim Crow laws.

  2. Students should learn that in the 1950s and 1960s many efforts were made to end segregation and discrimination in the United States. The focus of this lesson is the accompanying "Civil Rights: Before and After" chart. This chart highlights important events, strategies, and legislation accomplished by the Civil Rights movement. Student directions are included on the chart; a teacher's guide is also included.

  3. While discussing the completed charts, teachers should review other events in the civil rights struggle, such as the integration of Little Rock Central High School (1957), the March on Washington (1963), and Bloody Sunday at Selma, Alabama (1965). This class should focus on what it was like to participate in these events and how these events changed the lives of African Americans.

  4. The teacher should provide students with information on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. Emphasis should be placed on his "March on Washington" speech, excerpts of which are found on the accompany accompanying "Martin Luther King, Jr.: I Have a Dream" worksheet; some students may enjoy reading the entire speech or viewing it on film or video. The teacher can choose from a wide variety of text, filmstrip, and video tape resources to review King's life and accomplishments.

  5. Students should realize that there were other leaders of the Civil Rights movement with visions for the future that were different from that of Martin Luther King, Jr. Teachers should distribute the accompanying "Malcolm X: An Alternate Dream" and "Black Panther Party: An Alternate Dream" worksheets. After students have responded in writing to the readings, the teacher should lead a discussion about how these alternate views differ from those of King. Teachers may supplement this with additional information about the Black Muslims, the Black Panthers, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, among others.

  6. At this point students should begin to evaluate the successes and failures of the Civil Rights movement. The accompanying worksheet "The Unfulfilled Dream" should be used to detail many of the problems faced by African Americans fifteen years after r Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968.

  7. As a culminating activity for this unit, students should be asked to deliver a speech about their dream for the future of civil rights using the "Civil Rights: Your Dream For The Future" worksheet. The teacher may choose to evaluate student work in either written or oral form.

  8. Teachers should also compare the Civil Rights movement led by African Americans to those led by women, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans during this period of time.
Resources:

Resource 1: Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Future of America

Resource 2: Civil Rights: Before and After Chart

Resource 3: Civil Rights: Before and After Chart-Teacher Guide

Resource 4: Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream"

Resource 5: Malcolm X: An Alternate Dream

Resource 6: Black Panther Party: An Alternate Dream

Resource 7: The Unfulfilled Dream

Resource 8: Civil Rights: Your Dream for the Future

The following are collections of primary resources:

  1. Carson, Clayborne et al., ed. The Eyes on the Prize: Civil Rights Reader. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.

  2. Hampton, Henry and Steve Fayer, ed. Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of The Civil Rights Movement from the 1950's through the 1980's. New York: Bantam Books, 1990.

  3. Meltzer, Milton. The Black Americans: A History in Their Own Words. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1984.

  4. Teachers may wish to order the free America's Civil Rights Movement Teaching Kit from : Teaching Tolerance, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, Alabama, 36104.

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