CIVIL RIGHTS UNITJANUARY 20-23, 2015

Mr. Holmes 6th Grade Social Studies

Learning Targets

Students will understands the struggle for racial and gender equality and for the extension of civil liberties.

Students will understands economic, social, and cultural developments in the contemporary United States.

Learning Targets

Students will understand the role of diversity in American life and the importance of shared values, political beliefs, and civic beliefs in an increasingly diverse American society.

Students will understand issues concerning the disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life.

Objectives

Students will understand the following:1. Beyond the famous leaders of the Civil

Rights Movement, ordinary men and women struggled for their beliefs.

2. All the participants—famous and not so famous—deserve to have their stories told.

3. Older people have a responsibility to pass on these stories to younger people.

Vocabulary

Civil rights- Definition: The nonpolitical rights of a citizen; the rights of personal liberty guaranteed to U.S. citizens by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution and by acts of Congress.Context: The civil rights movement was an effort to establish citizenship rights for blacks—rights that whites took for granted, such as voting and freely using public facilities.

Vocabulary

Discrimination- Definition: The act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually; prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment.Context: The 15th Amendment prohibited racial discrimination in voting.

Poll tax- Definition: A tax of a fixed amount per person levied on adults.Context:The poll tax was a voting fee charged to reduce the number of blacks that were eligible to vote.

Vocabulary

Hate crime- Definition: assault or destruction of property motivated by hostility to the victim as a member of a group (as one based on color, creed, gender, or sexual orientation).Context: Federal hate crime laws were used to bring some of the murderers in the civil rights movement to justice, since state criminal courts had failed to do so.

Vocabulary

Martyr- Definition: A. person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principleContext:P erhaps the most famous martyr of the civil rights movement was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose life was taken so early.

Emancipation- Definition: freedom from slavery.

Vocabulary

Segregation- Definition: The separation or isolation of a race, class, or ethnic group by enforced or voluntary residence in a restricted area, by barriers to social intercourse, by separate educational facilities, or by other discriminatory means.Context: The state-sanctioned segregation in the South was intended to keep the races apart, particularly in Alabama, where Birmingham was the most segregated city in the South.

Vocabulary

Prejudice- Definition: prejudging or making a decision about a person or group of people without sufficient knowledge. Prejudicial thinking is frequently based on stereotypes.

Stereotype- Definition: an oversimplified generalization about a person or group of people without regard for individual differences. Even seemingly positive stereotypes that link a person or group to a specific positive trait can have negative consequences.

Vocabulary

Abolition- Definition: ending, termination, or extinction of something. Context: the termination

of unjust laws; the abolition of unfair taxes. Represents the legal ending of slavery, especially of Blacks.

Suffrage- Definition: the right to vote in political elections. Context: in America women and blacks weren’t allowed to vote until the government passed the 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 25th amendments, allowing all men and women over the age of 18 to vote, abolishing poll taxes as well.

AgendaJan. 5-12

Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of Education Activity

Essential Questions: Is it ever just to break the law? How did Homer Plessy and Orval Faubus

break the law? What are some of the differences between

what they did and how they were punished?

Objectives for: Plessy vs. Ferguson & Brown vs. Board of Education

Students will be able to analyze political cartoons.

Students will be able to identify and explain the issues of Plessy v. Ferguson and of the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School.

Students will be able to analyze the complex issues behind breaking laws

Essential Questions

Is it ever just to break the law?

How did Homer Plessy and Orval Faubus break the law?

What are some of the differences between what they did and how they were punished?

Do NowWhat is happening in this political cartoon?

Who is breaking the law?

Plessy vs. Ferguson trial explanation

Do Now

Analyze this photo. What do you see? What do you think is happening and why?

Do NowJan. 9, 2015

Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary words.

___________________________ is the act or practice of discriminating categorically rather than individually.

The assault or destruction of property motivated by hostility or hatred towards the victim as a member of a group based on race, religion, or gender (male or female) is known as a ___________________________.

A ______________________ is an oversimplified generalization about a person or group of people without regard for individual differences.

Plessy vs. Ferguson & Brown vs. Board of Education Activity

Plessy vs. Ferguson & Brown vs. Board of Education Activity

Plessy vs. Ferguson Discussion Questions

Should all laws be followed?

Do people have the right to choose what laws they will follow? Why or why not?

Should Homer Plessy be considered a criminal? Should he be considered a hero?

Does Plessy’s premeditated planning to break the law make his crime more or less heinous? Why?

Brown vs. Board of Education Discussion Questions

Who broke the law?

Why do you think that Orval Faubus broke the law against segregation in schools? How did that affect white and black residents of Little Rock?

What should his punishment have been?

How does this crime compare to that of Homer Plessy?

Do Now: 01/12/15

Write a paragraph summary of the brief video clip detailing the Plessy v. Feguson and Brown v. Board of Education court cases and how each began and ended legal segregation.

Plessy v. Ferguson & Brown v. Board of Education video summary

Lesson Activity: 01/12/15

Choose one of the “crimes” and draw a four-frame comic strip that depicts its important events.

You will do this activity in pairs and it must be turned in with each student’s name on the back.

Plessy v. Ferguson-Brown v. Board of Education

Put this quotation in their own words, do you agree or disagree with Dr. King?

You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: 'How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?' The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all.'Now, what is the difference between the two? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.

Homework- 01/12/15Students will write a 1 page essay on a topic

of their choice:Are all crimes equal? Why or why not?If laws are unfair, should we break them?Are there crimes for which we should not be

punished? If so, which crimes and why?Evaluate the quotation of Dr. Martin Luther

King Jr.

Lesson Activity 01/13/15

Battle Cry For FreedomEssential Question: What measures did

African-Americans take in order to gain equality?

Rationale: Students will understand how far Civil Rights movement has come and how far it still has to go. Although everyone is equal, not everyone is treated the same.

Objective: Identify various forms of civil rights disobedience

Lesson Activity-01/13/15 cont.

Standards:Students will evaluate federal civil rights and

voting rights developments since the 1950’s.Students will develop skills for historical

analysisVocabulary:Civil disobedience- nonviolent opposition to a

government policy or law by refusing to comply with it on the grounds of consicience.

Lesson Activity-01/13/15 cont.

Do Now:Create a concept map of what civil rights

consist of.You will only get 5-10 minutes to complete

this.Fill out the map using prior knowledgeHomework:Write a journal entry through the eyes of a

teenage African American during the Civil Rights movement. That means 2 paragraphs as a journal entry.

What do you see, feel, and hear?

Lesson Activity-01/13/15 cont.

Role-playing activity in groups of 3-4 by analyzing photos of events during civil rights movement.

You will be writing out your skit and turning it in immediately after performing your brief skit for the class. Please take this activity seriously as it will be a major part of your grade for this unit on Civil Rights!!!

Do Now01/21/15What did you find most interesting about the civil rights unit? Be specific and provide details.

Visual Resources

Check out some of the resources dealing with civil rights in the early 20th century.

Timeline on racism during and after World War II

Images of actual civil rights movement issues during the 1950's and 1960's