Content Summary
After a comprehensive lesson on the Civil Rights Movement students will use the following resources to further explore civil rights movement content.
The Watson's Go to Birmingham - 1963 follows an African American family who visits the deep south during very difficult times. Racial tensions are at their breaking point. The family traverses its way through racial tensions they are not used to due to living in Michigan. The family's idealistic dreams are shattered when violence rocks their lives with the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
The Story of Ruby Bridges tells the struggle for Ruby after entering William Frantz Elementary School when a judge ordered separate but equal schools for black and white children was not fair. Ruby is patient and strong willed as she endures harsh treatment from opponents of integration in schools.
Coles, Robert. (1995). The Story of Ruby Bridges. New York: Scholastic.
Curtis, Christopher, P. (1995). The Watson's Go to Birmingham -1963. New York: Yearling.
The Story of Ruby Bridges tells the struggle for Ruby after entering William Frantz Elementary School when a judge ordered separate but equal schools for black and white children was not fair. Ruby is patient and strong willed as she endures harsh treatment from opponents of integration in schools.
Coles, Robert. (1995). The Story of Ruby Bridges. New York: Scholastic.
Curtis, Christopher, P. (1995). The Watson's Go to Birmingham -1963. New York: Yearling.
Lesson Summary
The civil rights movement sparked due to massive racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States. This movement lead to large protests that came to national prominence during the mid-1950 - late 1960's. The movement had its roots in the long efforts of African slaves and their descendants to resist oppression. American slaves were freed due to the Civil War and were then granted basic civil rights with the passing of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, there were still many struggles to secure federal protection of these rights. Through nonviolent protest, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s broke the pattern of public facilities’ being segregated by race in the south and achieved the most important breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans. The passing in 1964 and 1965 of major civil rights legislation was victorious for the movement.
The civil rights movement sparked due to massive racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States. This movement lead to large protests that came to national prominence during the mid-1950 - late 1960's. The movement had its roots in the long efforts of African slaves and their descendants to resist oppression. American slaves were freed due to the Civil War and were then granted basic civil rights with the passing of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, there were still many struggles to secure federal protection of these rights. Through nonviolent protest, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s broke the pattern of public facilities’ being segregated by race in the south and achieved the most important breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans. The passing in 1964 and 1965 of major civil rights legislation was victorious for the movement.
Additional Resources
Background for Documents 5-9
Background for Documents 1-4
Brown vs. Board of Education decision
To separate [minority students] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.
We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.
-Chief Justice Earl Warren, 1954
Source: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954
http://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/get-involved/federal-court-activities/brown-board-education-re-enactment/history.aspx
To separate [minority students] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.
We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.
-Chief Justice Earl Warren, 1954
Source: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954
http://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/get-involved/federal-court-activities/brown-board-education-re-enactment/history.aspx
Background for documents 6 & 8
The catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott was when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on one of the city's buses and was arrested. This was the law. This situation had happened to other young African American women. After Fred Gray, a black lawyer, was informed by Jo Ann Robinson, president of the Women's Political Council, of Rosa Park's arrest, he started putting his plan for the boycott into action. His first step was to create over 35,000 flyers reading:
"Another Negro woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down. It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped. Negroes have rights, too, for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Negroes, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or mother. This woman's case will come up on Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday."
This one day boycott was so successful it sparked a movement that changed the civil rights movement.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/02_bus.html
"Another Negro woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down. It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped. Negroes have rights, too, for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Negroes, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or mother. This woman's case will come up on Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday."
This one day boycott was so successful it sparked a movement that changed the civil rights movement.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/02_bus.html
Background for Document 7
At 10:22 a.m. on the morning of September 15, 1963, about 200 church members were in the building–many attending Sunday school classes before the 11 am service when a bomb detonated in the church shooting mortar and bricks from the front of the church and bringing down the inside walls. Most church members were able to evacuate the building, but the bodies of four young girls (14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson and 11-year-old Denise McNair) were found beneath the rubble in a basement restroom. Ten-year-old Sarah Collins, who was also in the restroom at the time of the explosion, lost her right eye, and more than 20 other people were injured in the blast.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/birmingham-church-bombing
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/birmingham-church-bombing
Background for Documents 10,12,14-15
On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political event known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This event was organized by many civil rights and religious groups. They wanted to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States. The march concluded with Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for racial justice and equality.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-washington
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-washington
Background for Document 13
In 1961 the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) initiated a new idea to desegregate public transportation in the south. This idea became called Freedom Rides. The first freedom ride took place on May 4, 1961 when seven black and six whites left Washington, D.C. on two busses bound for the deep south. They set out to test the Surpreme Court's ruling in Boyton v. Virginia (1960), that declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch