TOPIC/TITLE:
Civil Rights/The Battle Cry of Freedom

QUESTION THIS LESSON WILL ANSWER:
What measures did African-Americans take in order to gain equality?

PURPOSE/RATIONALE/GOALS FOR THE DAY'S LESSON:
The purpose of this lesson is for students to understand how far the Civil Rights movement has come and how far it still has to go.  Although everyone is “equal,” not everyone is treated the same.  The issue of Civil Rights is not an issue that no longer exists; it is an issue that will be around for many more years.  Students need to be prepared to deal with certain issues in order to create a society where everyone is equal, no matter of their color.

OBJECTIVES:
SWBAT:

• Identify the various forms of civil disobedience.
• Compose a journal or poem of an African-American teen involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

• Civil rights demonstrations.

• Analyze photographs and speeches.

• Civil disobedience vs. rule of law;
• Intolerance of African-Americans by certain sectors of the population;
• The evolution of universal civil rights.

NCSS THEMES W/ INDICATORS:
Theme 4: Individual Development and Identity

• Assist learners in making personal connections to the civil rights movement;
• Assist learners to describe the ways family, religion, gender, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status contributed to the civil rights movement;
• Guide learners as they examine the interactions of ethnic, national, and culture influences during the civil rights movement;
• Enables learners to analyze how the role of the civil rights movement role in the development of African-American identity;

• Black Power---Political and economic power sought by African Americans in the struggle for civil rights.
• Civil Disobedience---The nonviolent opposition to a government policy or law by refusing to comply with it on the grounds of conscience.
• Civil Rights Act of 1964---The act passed by Congress prohibiting discrimination in public places, education, or employment on the basis of race, color, sex, nationality, or religion.
• Civil Rights---Those rights guaranteed to the individual.
• Inalienable Rights---The rights that cannot be taken away from individuals, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
• Racism---The practice of racial discrimination, persecution.
• Separate but Equal---The Supreme Court doctrine that held that a state could provide separate facilities for blacks and for whites as long as the facilities were equal.
• Sit-in---Method of protesting the policy of a government, business, etc., in which demonstrators sit in, and refuse to leave, a public place, thus blocking traffic, disrupting operation, etc.

• Students will create a concept map of what civil right consists of.
• It should take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete.
• Students should fill out the concept map using their prior knowledge.
• Upon the completion of the concept maps, discuss the maps with the class to better understanding what the students already know.
• This can be used to help guide the class discussion.

• Following the anticipatory set, the teacher should have a better understanding of what the students already know.
• This lesson will be using role playing, having the students act out scenes with famous pictures behind them.
• They may be interacting as a person in the picture or they may be acting like a reporter.
• Have the students break up into groups of three or four.
• Have students count out to 3 or 4, depending on group size.
• Give each group one picture that they will have to use in their role-playing.
• The groups will have to analyze the pictures prior to the role-playing activity.
• Each group will choose who will act what part and what type of role-playing there will be.
• The goal of this activity is for students to better understand what African-Americans had to endure to gain the basic civil rights.

• As a conclusion, the class will read aloud Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech.  The speech is a good demonstration of what the Civil Rights movement was all about.

• Write a journal entry through the eyes of a teenage African American during the Civil Rights movement.
• What do you see, feel, and hear?