Stories from the Civil Rights Movement
Candace Morgan
Schenley High School

Overview
Objectives
The Civil Rights Movement in America
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Educational Settings and Strategies
Questioning Strategy
Activities
History as Storytelling
Bibliography/Resources
Appendix A: Worksheets and Handouts
Appendix B: District Standards

History is not only what has happened, but also what we have been told has happened. The way we learn about an event through various media affects the way we perceive the event and its significance. Being aware of how media has influenced our understanding of the world is an important step in becoming a discerning consumer of information, one who can ". . . analyze and make critical judgments about all forms of communications, separating fact from opinion, recognizing propaganda, stereotypes and statements of bias, recognizing inconsistencies and judging the validity of evidence." (Core Curriculum Frameworks, Communication Standard #5)

This curriculum unit focuses on the civil rights movement in America from 1954 to 1963, and how it was reported and interpreted to the American people. The Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56 will be used as a starting point for this exploration. Students will learn how to access several forms of print and non-print media to learn about the civil rights movement in America. In addition, they will develop an understanding of how news becomes history. Students will do this by interviewing people who were witnesses to the civil rights movement, and by then comparing their stories with what the students have learned through various media accounts. Students will increase their awareness of the significance of the civil rights movement both as an important historic series of events, and as the inspiration for works of art and literature, which both preserve the history of the civil rights movement and interpret its significance for new generations. This unit will also help students develop and integrate communications skills into other content areas such as social studies and fine arts. In addition, I hope to use this unit as a model for exploring other historic events such as World War II.

This unit has been designed to be used with 11^th and 12^th grade Learning Support students. These are students who have been identified as having significant learning needs which require specially designed instruction to enable them to be academically successful. The students I work with have a wide range of learning needs, but one of the most common characteristics among this population is a limited ability to read and comprehend printed material. While it is important to help these students develop skills and strategies to obtain information from print media, their difficulties in reading make it more likely that they will receive information about their world through non-print media. Therefore, it is critical that they develop the skills necessary to comprehend, analyze and evaluate the information obtained from such sources. In addition, the ability to recognize cultural allusions to historic events will enhance students' ability to understand and appreciate all forms of communication, including literature, drama, visual and performing arts, as well as various forms of news media.

The annotated bibliography included with this unit is extensive. It includes books, curriculum resources, films, documentaries, and online resources. A number of the resources focus on first-person accounts of events of the civil rights movement. These may be especially helpful as models for students in conducting their own interviews of eyewitnesses. Since one of the purposes of this unit is to compare various accounts of the same event, the abundance of suggested resources will give teachers and students a range of choices when selecting materials to further their investigation. As with all curriculum supplements, materials should be previewed by the teacher for appropriateness of reading level and content before they are used in class or recommended to students.

In this unit, learners will participate in a variety of activities designed to help them achieve five main objectives:

1. The learners will develop an understanding of the major issues, events, groups and individuals involved in the Montgomery bus boycott through examination of and interaction with a variety of primary, secondary and interpretive resources.
2. The learners will use a questioning strategy to analyze a source of historical information for accuracy and validity.
3. The learners will compare first-hand accounts of important events in the civil rights movement with later histories and fictionalized versions of the events.
4. The learners will interview a person who had some first-hand experience with the civil rights movement, and compare the interview subject's account with other information available about the event.
5. The learners will work cooperatively to produce a newsletter that summarizes the information and insights acquired through their study of this curriculum unit.

African Americans have been engaged in a struggle for equality, dignity and basic human rights since the moment they first set foot on the shores of Jamestown settlement in 1619. Most history textbooks present American history as the steady, and mostly benevolent, domination of the North American continent by European Americans, with the story of African Americans included as an interesting, but non-essential, sidebar. Despite this viewpoint, the underlying issue in all of American history has been racial equality. During the debate over the Declaration of Independence, this issue almost tore the young United States apart before it even got started. It finally did split the country apart in the bloodiest conflict ever fought on American soil, the Civil War. Although slavery was ended as a result, its devastating aftermath continued to haunt and taint America's triumphs. Long after slavery was abolished, African Americans were still being denied the civil rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution.

The struggle for civil rights has taken many forms over the long years. However, the term "civil rights movement in America" generally refers to the period in the 1950s and 1960s when non-violent protests led by people such as Martin Luther King, Jr., resulted in legislation that outlawed de jour segregation. It is this period that this curriculum unit will address.

In 1954, the American South was a segregated society. Separate schools, separate drinking fountains, and separate seating on buses and in theaters were just a few expressions of the "Black Laws" or "Jim Crow Laws" that regulated almost every aspect of life. It had been like this for so long that many people never even thought to question this system. Segregation had become so ingrained that many who did question it despaired of ever seeing it end.

All of that would soon change, however. On May 17, 1954, years of work by NAACP lawyers, led by Thurgood Marshall, resulted in the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which ordered the desegregation of public schools. A year and a half later, on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, a soft-spoken, 42-year-old seamstress named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated city bus. Her arrest and the resulting outrage in the African American community led to the Montgomery bus boycott.

Hers was the arrest that leaders in the African American community had been waiting for. They saw the arrest of one of Montgomery’s most dignified and respected citizens as an opportunity to break Montgomery’s oppressive segregation laws, and with Mrs. Parks’ consent, they took it. Overnight, E.D. Nixon, a local NAACP official, and Jo Ann Robinson, president of the Women’s Political Council, organized a meeting to consider a boycott of Montgomery’s buses. Nixon asked the new young minister at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church for permission to hold the meeting at his church. The minister, Martin Luther King, Jr., agreed.

The outcome of the meeting was to ask all African Americans to stay off Montgomery’s buses on Monday, December 5. The one-day boycott was extremely effective, almost beyond the hopes of the organizers. Since most of the city’s bus riders were African American, the buses were virtually empty that day. That night, a mass meeting was held at Holt Street Baptist Church, and thousands of people showed up. Martin Luther King, Jr., was elected president of the new Montgomery Improvement Association, which was formed to organize and carry out the boycott. When he spoke that night, the crowd’s response literally shook the rafters of the church. He spoke of injustice, of being " . . . tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression." He told the people that their cause was just, but that violence had no place in their struggle. "The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening," he said, "is the weapon of protest." He went on to point out that their protest was right in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of God. "And we are determined here in Montgomery—to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream!"

The encouraged and determined people left the meeting and continued the bus boycott for another day and another and another. Days stretched into weeks and weeks into months. Still, the boycott went on. While the leaders and lawyers negotiated with Montgomery’s officials and petitioned the courts, the working class men and women walked to work, walked home, walked to mass church meetings, walked home again, and got up the next day to start walking all over again.

The road to justice was not smooth. Leaders of the Montgomery Improvement Association were arrested, protesters were threatened, and some were beaten. Carpool drivers regularly received tickets for the smallest traffic violation, real or imagined, and many were arrested. There were disagreements among the leadership about tactics and strategy, and as with all things, money was a constant concern.

On January 30, 1956, the difficulties facing the protesters took a darker turn. King was leading a mass meeting at First Baptist Church when he received word that his home had been bombed. He rushed home to find his wife, Coretta, and 10-week-old daughter, Yoki, uninjured in a back room, and an angry mob gathered outside. After he gave thanks for his family’s safety, he calmed and dispersed the crowd by reiterating his commitment to nonviolence. "We must meet hate with love," he said.

During the course of the boycott, several more bombings occurred at the homes and churches of leaders of the movement. Tales of the courage and sacrifice of individuals would fill volumes. But the protesters persisted in the face of these obstacles, and the buses remained empty.

This boycott lasted for over a year until the Supreme Court ruled against Montgomery’s bus segregation law. The Montgomery bus boycott not only led to segregated buses being declared illegal, it dramatically changed attitudes about the possibility of massive social change. It also established nonviolent protest as the weapon of choice for the civil rights movement, and made Martin Luther King, Jr., the recognized spokesman for the movement.

Other protests and legal actions against segregation laws in the South had already taken place. The Montgomery bus boycott was not the first. But this protest was the one that became an unqualified success, and is regarded by many as the beginning of the civil rights movement in America. An extraordinary convergence of personalities and circumstances, coupled with the unflagging determination of the African American community and growing national awareness of racial injustice produced a breach in the wall of legal segregation that was to lead to a flood of protests and anti-segregation legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Montgomery bus boycott is a great story, a truly American story, in which a group of people fights against overwhelming odds, and at great personal risk, to achieve a goal that eventually makes life better for all Americans. The heroes of the American Revolution, the pioneers along the Oregon Trail, and the builders of the Transcontinental Railroad did not face a more daunting task than these men and women who moved America away from its destructive segregationist mindset. It is a story worth knowing, and a story worth telling to a new generation.

Although this unit has been developed primarily for students with special learning needs, it can be adapted for use in a number of educational settings. When used exclusively with learning needs students, it can be taught by one special education teacher in a Learning Support English or U.S. History class, or as an interdisciplinary unit by two or more teachers within the Special Education Department. Mainstream English and social studies teachers can also use this unit in their classes. If the mainstream class includes students with special learning needs, the unit can be modified and adapted as necessary by the mainstream teacher. The mainstream teacher can consult with the Learning Support teacher for specific suggestions on adapting the unit to meet particular students' needs, or the mainstream teacher and Learning Support teacher may choose to co-plan and co-teach the unit.

This unit would also fit well into a block schedule time frame with instructional periods of 80 to 90 minutes. Extended time is one of the most common specially designed instructions included in special needs students’ Individualized Educational Plans. Extended time blocks allow students to "process information in a connected curriculum. . . . Increasing class time allows for more in-depth involvement with curricular concepts. This extended block of time can promote success for the wide variety of students, especially when there are many students who require extended time for processing information." (Conti-D’Antonio, et. al., 1998) Some of the same benefits can occur if this unit is co-taught by teachers in two different classes, such as English and U. S. History. The students’ learning time is almost doubled, and they can transfer skills and information from one class to the other. Of course, this model will work only if the two teachers share the same or nearly the same class rosters. Provision must be made for students who take only one course or the other.

When using this curriculum unit in a class with a wide range of academic abilities, the teacher must decide what elements of the unit are most important. By using a planning pyramid such as the one developed by Schumm, Vaughan and Leavell, (1994), teachers can provide appropriate learning activities for all their students. (See Appendix A.) The most critical elements are those that all students are expected to learn. The planning pyramid helps teachers consider the material in an instructional unit in terms of " . . . what all students should know, what most but not all students will learn, and what some students will learn." (Schumm, Vaughan & Leavell, 1994)

One approach to pyramid planning is to differentiate expectations based on levels of questioning or thinking required. Bloom's Taxonomy and Pittsburgh Questioning Levels are two models that may be useful in adapting learning activities for diverse learners. These models are summarized below:

In using this approach to modify the final activity of this unit, which is creating a class newsletter, all students would be able to participate in the activity at a level appropriate to their ability level and learning needs. At the informational level, all students would be expected to identify and/or define key terms, people, places and events from the Montgomery bus boycott, and use that information to create word puzzle activities or timelines. At the inferential level, most students would be expected to write several paragraphs comparing the film, The Long Walk Home, with newspaper and textbook accounts of the boycott. At the evaluation level, some students would be expected to write an essay summarizing important information about the boycott and assessing its impact and significance in American history.

The Pittsburgh School District expects all its students to " . . . analyze and make critical judgments about all forms of communications, separating fact from opinion, recognizing propaganda, stereotypes and statements of bias, recognizing inconsistencies and judging the validity of evidence." (Core Curriculum Frameworks, Communications Standard #5) As part of this curriculum unit, students will be asked to examine various sources of historical information for accuracy and validity. This can be a daunting task for college-educated adults, let alone for adolescents who have learning needs that require specially designed instruction. However, if students are taught to use a questioning strategy to structure their analysis, such a task becomes more manageable. By using this strategy, students will begin to develop the critical thinking skills necessary to evaluate and make sense of the vast amount of information available to them.

In order to help students examine a piece of historical information, I have developed a questioning strategy based on five questions suggested by James W. Loewen in Lies My Teacher Told Me (1995). I have tried to simplify Loewen’s inquiry process into short, easy to remember questions. In addition, I have selected a key word that hopefully distills the essence of each question into one clear concept. The key words can also function as a mnemonic device to help students remember this strategy. (A worksheet using this strategy is found in Appendix A.)

These questions can be used to examine any source of historical information including, but not limited to: books, journals, census records, films, newspaper articles, television and radio news reports, Internet news items, plays, paintings, sculpture, and photographs.

1. Why was this work produced? (Key word: Purpose)
2. Whose viewpoint is presented? (Key word: Viewpoint)
3. Is this account believable? (Key word: Credibility)
4. Is this account backed up by other sources? (Key word: Verifiable)
5. How does this author want you to feel? (Key word: Response)

The following outline details the activities designed to help students achieve the objectives of this curriculum unit. Approximately 15 45-minute class periods should be allotted for instruction. Taking this much time to cover one event in U. S. history, like the Montgomery bus boycott, may seem excessive. However, the skills the students acquire as they progress through this unit will enable them to explore other topics in this class, other classes, or (may we dare hope?) on their own. If we want students to become self-directed learners, covering fewer topics in-depth and teaching critical thinking skills is more effective than covering a large amount of material superficially.

That said, this is only a suggested timeline. I often find that my students need more time to complete this type of extended activity, especially if there are several students who require individual attention. Other teachers may find that they can accomplish these objectives more expeditiously. Also, it is not necessary to conduct these activities on consecutive days. Some students (and teachers) may benefit from "time off" to work on other topics or assignments.

The instructional activities in this unit will address three primary areas: 1) providing historical background, 2) analyzing sources of historical information, and 3) making connections to local history. The final activity will ask students to summarize and share the information and insights they have gained as a result of their study.

Day 1

The learners will use a concept web (see Appendix A) to access and organize their prior knowledge about the civil rights movement in general, and the Montgomery bus boycott in particular. Ask students to generate a list of the things they already know about the civil rights movement. Encourage students to share any personal connection they or their families have had with the civil rights movement. Help them organize their responses into categories such as events, people, issues, places and methods on the concept web worksheet. The partially filled-in web in Appendix A shows how such a web might be developed.

This step is important, not only as an anticipatory set for students before beginning the study of this unit, but to establish for the teacher a baseline of knowledge. By knowing what students have already learned, the teacher can decide whether to spend more or less time on certain topics. The teacher can also be alert to clear up any misinformation or misconceptions.

It is certainly possible that a few students may know nothing about the civil rights movement. If these students are unable to offer information for the concept web, they should still be encouraged to participate in the activity by helping to organize the information presented by others in the class. For example, a student may not know who Rosa Parks is, but can correctly place the name in the "persons" section of the web.

It is important to establish an atmosphere of acceptance, tolerance, and cooperation as part of the study of this unit. Students and teachers alike should strive to develop a learning environment that encourages the participation of all learners at their ability level.

Day 2

The learners will view and discuss the second half of Episode 1 of Eyes on the Prize, Part 1: Awakenings (1954-56), which focuses on the Montgomery bus boycott. This portion of the video runs a little less than half an hour, and can be shown and discussed in one class period. During the discussion, be sure to point out (or let students point out) any information from the video that was also included in the concept web developed on Day 1. Encourage students to correct any factual errors in their web.

Day 3

Introduce the questioning strategy using a newspaper, encyclopedia, or textbook account of the Montgomery bus boycott. (The Montgomery Bus Boycott Page website, listed in the bibliography, contains a number of primary resources that may be used for this activity.) Guide students through each of the five questions using the Questioning Strategy worksheet in Appendix A.

Day 4-6

Use Globe-Fearon Historical Case Studies: The Civil Rights Movement, Case Study 3: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott to take an in-depth look at this event. The learners will complete the following activities:

1. Read and discuss "Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott," pp. 37-48. Ask students to compare this account with the Eyes on the Prize segment viewed on Day 2. Some possible questions are: Are there any factual differences between the two accounts? If so, which account is more accurate or believable? Why do you think so?
2. Put a list of events in the Montgomery bus boycott in correct sequence.
3. Use the questioning strategy introduced on Day 3 to examine the sources used in this reading.

Day 7-9

The learners will view and discuss The Long Walk Home, a fictionalized film version of the Montgomery bus boycott. Past Imperfect (Carnes, 1995), pages 262-265, provide helpful background information on both the film and the boycott. Questions such as the ones on pages 80-82 of American History on the Screen may be used as a viewing guide.

Use the questioning strategy to analyze this movie as a source of historical information. An important concept for students to understand is that although this movie is fiction, and therefore not "true," it still contains some "truth" about the event, especially with regard to the emotions expressed by the characters as they wrestle with the issue of racial equality.

Day 10

Field Trip to Freedom Corner in the Hill District (Centre Avenue and Crawford Street)

A monument to Pittsburgh's civil rights heroes was recently dedicated here in Pittsburgh's Hill District. It includes 74 names of people who were involved with the civil rights struggle in Pittsburgh as well as an interactive video component. During this field trip, a docent will explain the importance of this site and these people in Pittsburgh history. Students will have a chance to explore the monument and ask questions. Before they leave, students will choose at least one name from the monument to research.

Day 11

The learners will use the questioning strategy to analyze the Freedom Corner monument as a source of historical information. They will begin to research the names that they selected from the monument.

Day 12-13

The learners will select a person to interview who was involved in the civil rights movement or remembers what was happening in Pittsburgh at that time. A list of persons who have agreed to be interviewed for this project will be provided to students, but they are free to choose someone else who fits the criteria mentioned above if they wish. Students will be expected to contact their interview subject and schedule an appointment. Interviews should be conducted within a week. The teacher will provide assistance as needed.

The learners will develop a list of questions to ask their person based on the History Channel Oral History Interview Guidelines (see Bibliography for website). Then students will work with a partner to conduct mock interviews. During this activity, students may decide to revise their questions.

NOTE: To develop a list of potential interview subjects, start with the faculty and staff of your school. It is quite likely that many of your colleagues will be delighted to help with this project, and they may also be able to provide you with additional names.

Day 14-15+

During this time, students will be conducting their interviews outside of class. Class time will be used to produce a newsletter that summarizes what the students have learned in their study of this topic. Students will make individual or small group contributions to the newsletter content, which may include:

• Article about the Montgomery bus boycott and its significance
• Summaries or reprints of articles from The Pittsburgh Courier, The Montgomery Advertiser or other newspapers that reported on the Montgomery bus boycott
• Review of the film The Long Walk Home, including its value as a source of historical information
• Biographies of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others involved in the boycott
• Report on the class field trip to Freedom Corner
• Biographies of the people named on the Freedom Corner monument
• Interview transcripts
• Student responses to what they have learned: essays, drawings, poems, etc.
• Crossword or word search puzzles using terms, names and places studied
• Timelines of events in the civil rights movement in America, the Montgomery bus boycott, or civil rights activities in Pittsburgh

The length of time spent on this activity may be extended to accommodate students' production rate, interest level or other factors (including availability of computer access and/or printing capacity).

Final Day

Students will share their projects with the class. The class may decide to invite members of the school and community who participated in this project to attend. Distribute copies of the completed newsletter to all participants.

I have often used Ken Burns' The Civil War in my classes. I am so familiar with the first episode that I sometimes annoy my students by reciting the narration, word for word, along with the speakers. However, after the numerous times I have heard them, I am still awed by the sheer numbers intoned by narrator David McCullough: The Civil War was fought in 10,000 places. Six hundred thousand people, two percent of the entire population, perished. At Cold Harbor, 20,000 Americans fell in just 20 minutes. The immensity of this event is staggering.

But it is the story of one man in the midst of that huge conflict, Sullivan Ballou, that still brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. Episode One closes with a reading of Ballou's letter to his wife, a letter filled with love, hope and determination to fight for what he believes is right. The segment ends with this simple, poignant statement:

"Sullivan Ballou was killed at the first battle of Bull Run."

History is filled with stories like these. Looking at history in terms of how it affected one human being, someone not too different from ourselves, is a very effective way to interest students in what is too often a dry, fact-filled subject. John Hersey used this technique masterfully in Hiroshima by following six individual people through the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath.

These stories can be found in many places: newspaper accounts; television news reports; letters, journals and memoirs of participants; the voices of those who were there; the voices of those who remember where they were when it happened; works of literature and art created in response to what happened. It is the intent of this curriculum unit to send students off in search of such stories--stories that put a face on history, stories that will make history stick.

BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFERENCES

(Print resources marked with * are particularly suitable for use by students.)

James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, in Baldwin, Collected Essays (Library of America, 1998).

Lerone Bennett, Jr., Before the Mayflower (Penguin Books, 1988, 1961).

Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 (Touchstone, 1988).

Mark C. Carnes, ed., Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies (Henry Holt and Company, 1995).

Clayborne Carson, et.al., eds. The Eyes on the Prize Civil Rights Reader (Penguin Books, 1991).

* Martin Connors and Jim Craddock, eds., Videohound’s Golden Movie Retriever 2000 (Visible Ink, 2000).

Marcia Conti-D’Antonio, Robert Bertrando, and Joanne Eisenberger, Supporting Students With Learning Needs In The Block (Eye On Education, Inc., 1998).

For both regular and special education teachers, this book shows how block schedules offer opportunities for students who are at-risk, learning disabled, gifted, or otherwise in need of support. It is one of a series of books, Teaching in the Block, written primarily by teachers who have been successful in teaching in block schedules.

Jim Davidson, The Making of "Nothing but a Man." Common Quest, Summer 1998, 8-23.

* John Faber, Great News Photos and the Stories Behind Them (Dover Publications, Inc., 1978).

David Halberstam, The Children (Random House, 1998).

Henry Hampton and Steven Fayer (eds.), Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s (Bantam Books, 1990).

* Ellen Levine, Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1993).

Toby Kleban Levine, ed., A Reader and Guide: Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years (Penguin Books, 1987).

James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me (The New Press, 1995).

Jon Meacham, ed., Voices in Our Blood: America’s Best on the Civil Rights Movement (Random House, 2001).

* Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins, Rosa Parks: My Story (Dial Books, 1992).

* Fred Powledge, We Shall Overcome: Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993).

* Belinda Rochelle, Witnesses to Freedom: Young People Who Fought for Civil Rights (Lodestar Books, 1993).

Schumm, J.S., Vaughn, S., Harris, J. (1997). Pyramid power for collaborative planning. Teaching Exceptional Children, 62-66.

* Beatrice Siegal, The Year They Walked: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Four Winds Press, 1992).

Juan Williams, Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-63 (Penguin Books, 1987).

Andrew Young, An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America (HarperCollins Publishers).

Julian Bond, Stephen Middleton, Rose Ann Mulford, Globe Fearon Historical Case Studies: The Civil Rights Movement (Globe Fearon Educational Publisher, 1997).

Caroll Jordan Hatcher, Black History and the Newspaper (CJ Hatcher & Associates, Inc., 1991).

Douglas M. Rife, History in the Headlines: March on Washington (Good Apple, 2000).

Wendy S. Wilson and Gerald H. Herman, American History on the Screen (J. Weston Walch, 1994).

4 Little Girls (1997).

Dawn's Early Light: Ralph McGill and the Segregated South.

Editor of The Atlanta Constitution, Ralph McGill was an outspoken opponent of segregation. This documentary tells of his efforts to bring about change.

Eyes on the Prize (PBS Television Series, 1987).

When We Were Kings (1996).

The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990). MPAA Rating: R

Driving Miss Daisy (1989). MPAA Rating: PG

The Long Walk Home (1991). MPAA Rating: PG

Nothing But A Man (1964). MPAA Rating: Not rated. (PG in nature)

Selma, Lord, Selma (1999). MPAA Rating: Not rated. (PG in nature)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). MPAA Rating: Not rated. (PG in nature.)

The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords

http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/educate_event/index.html

Bridging the Urban Landscape

http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/exhibit.html

The History Channel: Oral History Interview Guidelines

http://www.historychannel.com

The Internet Movie Database

http://www.imdb.com

Everything you need--or would want-- to know about movies and television shows is here. Yahoo!: the ultimate desk reference to the Web says it may be the best site on the Internet. Period.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott Page

http://sobek.colorado.edu/~jonesem/montgomery.html

This page has an extensive list of links to websites dealing with various aspects of the Montgomery bus boycott. The lesson plan site includes original documents such as the Code of the City of Montgomery, articles from the Montgomery Advertiser, and a list of suggestions for riders of the newly integrated bus system, written by Martin Luther King, Jr.

The National Civil Rights Museum

http://216.157.9.6/civilrights/

Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement

http://www.wmich.edu/politics/mlk/

Websites for Ninth Grade Research

http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/northwesths/english/ninth_grade.htm

Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

http://unbrokencircle.org

Appendix A

Worksheets and Handouts

DATE: _________________ SUBJECT: _________________________ CLASS PERIOD: ________

LESSON OBJECTIVE: ____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

                                      What some students
                                       will learn:

                                     What most students
                                     will learn:

                                   What all students
                                    will learn:

Materials: ________________________________

_______________________________________

1.___________________________________________

2.___________________________________________

3.___________________________________________

4.___________________________________________

5.___________________________________________

6.___________________________________________

7.___________________________________________

8.___________________________________________

Homework: _______________________________

_________________________________________

NAME _____________________________________ DATE______________________

Questioning Strategy Worksheet

Use these questions to examine any source of historical information.

SOURCE: ____________________________________________________

PURPOSE 1. Why was this work produced?

VIEWPOINT 2. Whose viewpoint is presented?

CREDIBILITY 3. Is this account believable?

VERIFIABLE 4. Is this account backed up by other sources?

RESPONSE 5. How does this author want you to feel?

                                    Concept Web
Rosa Parks                                                                                                                                Montgomery, AL
Martin Luther King, Jr                                                                                                                Pittsburgh, PA
Byrd Brown                                                                                                                                Freedom Corner

                       People                   Places
Montgomery Bus Boycott                                                                                                             School desegregation
Brown v. Board of Ed                                                                                                                   Separate fountains

Events              Issues
      Civil Rights Movement

                                        
__________________                                                                                                     _____________________
__________________                                                                                                     _____________________
__________________                                                                                                     _____________________

Appendix B

District Standards

This curriculum unit addresses the following Standards:

1. All students use effective research and information management skills, including locating primary and secondary sources of information with traditional and emerging library technologies.
2. All students read and use a variety of methods to make sense of various kinds of complex tasks.
3. All students respond orally and in writing to information and ideas gained by reading narrative and informational texts and use the information and ideas to make decisions and solve problems.
4. All students write for a variety of purposes, including to narrate, inform, and persuade, in all subject areas.
5. All students analyze and make critical judgments about all forms of communication, separating fact from opinion, recognizing propaganda, stereotypes and statements of bias, recognizing inconsistencies and judging the validity of evidence.
6. All students exchange information orally, including understanding and giving spoken instructions, asking and answering questions appropriately, and promoting effective group communications.
7. All students listen to and understand complex oral messages and identify their purpose, structure, and use.
8. All students compose and make oral presentations for each academic area of study that are designed to persuade, inform, or describe.
9. All students communicate appropriately in business, work, and other applied situations.

1.  All students demonstrate an understanding of major events, cultures, groups, and individuals in the historical development of the United States during the 20^th century.

3.  All students describe the development and operations of economic, political, legal, and governmental systems in the United States during the 20^th century and assess their own relationships to those systems.

7. All students demonstrate their skill of communicating, negotiating, and cooperating with others.

8. All students demonstrate the ability to work effectively with others.

9. All students demonstrate an understanding of the history and nature of prejudice and relate their knowledge of prejudice to current issues in the United States.

6. All students evaluate, infer, and draw appropriate conclusions from charts, tables and graphs, showing the relationships between data and real-world situations.

7. All students make decisions and predictions based upon the collection, organization, analysis and interpretation of statistical data and the application of probability.

3. All students relate various works from the visual and performing arts to the historical and cultural context within which they were created.

9. All students demonstrate basic computer literacy, including word processing, software applications, and the ability to access the global information infrastructure, using current technology.