Lesson Plan 3

Title: The Civil Rights Movement

Grade: 11

Time Requirement: 80 – 120 minutes

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Identify Robert F. Kennedy's vision and his action plan.
• Identify and discuss the social justice issues today that are similar to those in the 1960s.
• Understand the changes, if any, that have taken place since the 1960s.

Background

The 1968 Kerner Report describes causes of black despair, and hopelessness and describes one consequence - riots that ravaged the United States in the mid-1960s. The causes of black anger were many and include prejudice, police practices, unemployment and underemployment, inadequate housing, inadequate education, poor recreation facilities and programs, ineffectiveness of the political structure and grievance mechanisms, disrespectful white attitudes, discriminatory administration of justice, inadequacy of federal programs and inadequate municipal services.

From these just grievences came the civil rights movement, which originated not from a single source, but from the actions of many individuals and groups. Some groups like the Black Panthers advocated using violence if necessary. Others, like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) discouraged violence and achieved some tangible successes. The career of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was crystallized by his use of civil disobedience. Robert Kennedy's belief in social justice led him to recognize that until social, economic and political problems were addressed, many Americans would continue to feel as if they had nothing to gain by adhering to the status quo. Kennedy was shocked to see firsthand the conditions facing many African-Americans. This lesson links those conditions with the actions of Kennedy, as well reflecting on conditions that exist today and what current activists can do to help.

Relevance to Current Issues

• The core issues facing African-Americans today, four decades after the Civil Rights Bill, are very similar to those that they faced in the 1960s.
• Clearly demonstrate widely different impressions on race relations among blacks, whites and Latinos in the United States today.

New York State Learning Standards

• Social Studies Standard 1: History of the United States and New York state KI 2, PI 2; KI 3, PI 4; KI 4, PI 1
• Social Studies Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship and Government KI 2, PI 2; KI 4, PI 5
• English Language Arts Standard 1: Information and Understanding Grade 11 Reading, PI 2, 5; Grade 11 Writing, PI 2; Grade 11 Speaking, PI 5
• English Language Arts Standard 3: Critical Analysis and Evaluation Grade 11 Listening, PI 1, 5; Grade 11 Writing, PI 3; Grade 11 Speaking, PI 3
• English Language Arts Standard 4: Social Interaction Grade 11 Reading, PI 1; Grade 11 Grade 11 Listening, PI 1; Grade 11 Speaking, PI 1

SOCIAL STUDIES CORE CURRICULUM

• Grade 11: United States History and Government
• Unit Seven: World in Uncertain Times: 1950 – Present
• II. Containment and Consensus: 1945 – 1960 (p. 148)
• III. Decade of Change: 1960s (pp. 149-151)
• IV. The Limits of Power: Turmoil at Home and Abroad, 1965 – 1972 (pp. 151-152)

SKILLS

• Thinking skills - comparing and contrasting ideas; drawing inferences and making conclusions; evaluating
• Research and writing skills - getting information; organizing information; looking for patterns; interpreting information; applying information; analyzing information; synthesizing information; supporting a position
• Interpersonal and group relation skills - recognizing that others may have a different point of view; participating in group planning and discussion; cooperating to accomplish goals
• Graph and image analysis skills - drawing conclusions

CONCEPT

• Change
• Civic values
• Citizenship
• Conflict
• Diversity
• Empathy
• Human rights
• Justice
• Power

Technology Requirement:

• A computer attached to a projector will be needed to show a clip from Robert F. Kennedy's South Africa speech and the video clip from CNN's "Black in America."

Student Activities

Anticipatory Set

The teachers ask students to divide into groups of three or four students. The teacher asks a student to read the 1951 poem by Langston Hughes titled "Dream Deferred." The poem is available at the Web site listed in the materials section of this lesson. A photograph and biography of Langston Hughes is available at http://members.aol.com/olatou/hughes.htm .

The teacher then asks the students to discuss the following questions in their small groups:

• What does Hughes' symbolism and imagery really mean? How does the poem predict riots of the 1960s? How might African-Americans have dealt with their unfulfilled dreams? How does this poem predict the civil rights movement?
• The teacher then asks students to share their responses to the questions in a large group discussion.

Activity 1 - The 1968 Kerner Commission Report

Students will continue in their small groups.

The teacher asks each group to read a summary of the 1968 Kerner Commission Report focusing on the urban conditions that caused the 1966-67 riots. (The summary is available at the Web address provided in the materials section of this lesson.) Each group should respond to the following questions.

• Why was there so much black despair?
• Did people feel they had a stake in society?
• What options did they have?
• Which, if any, of their civil rights are still being violated today?

The teacher asks students to share their responses during a large group discussion.

Activity 2 - Quotes and Statements from Robert F. Kennedy regarding civil rights.

The teacher asks students to divide into groups of three to four students. The teacher shares a copy of Robert Kennedy's quotes regarding civil rights. (See student handout 1).

The teacher asks students to individually read the quotes and to discuss them in their small groups, focusing on the following questions:

• Why didn't Robert F. Kennedy simply follow the status quo of previous leaders?
• How were the causes of discrimination in the United States and apartheid in South Africa similar?
• What similarities did the struggles of the civil rights movement and the movement to end apartheid share?
• What risks do people take in fighting the beliefs of the majority?
• Why did Kennedy care about what was going on in South Africa?

The teacher then facilitates a large group discussion focusing on the responses to the questions.

Culminating Activity

• 2008 CNN Special: Black in America.
• Students are asked to remain in their small groups as they view a clip of the CNN special.
• Students are asked to discuss the following questions in their small group; each focuses on the conditions that caused the 1966-67 riots and compares them with conditions of today.
• To what extent have civil rights improved in America? Have you ever been discriminated against due to race, age, sex, ethnicity, clothing or religion? Have you ever witnessed a civil rights violation against someone else? How did you react? What might you have done differently? What can you do to prevent such an incident from occurring again?
• The teacher facilitates a brief large group discussion, asking students to share their responses to the questions.

Extension Lesson:

The teacher could ask students to:

• Write a persuasive letter to the new president expressing their views on current social justice issues and suggesting actions to address them.
• Write a report comparing the ideals of the presidential candidates on social justice issues with those of Robert F. Kennedy.
• Develop a plan of action to address a social justice issue in the student's community.
• Research a civil rights issue in a foreign country, such as women's rights in China or enfranchisement in Arab countries, and describe strategies Robert F. Kennedy used that could be applied to address that civil rights issue.

Student Handout 1

Quotes and Statements from Robert F. Kennedy regarding civil rights

"He described what he's seen there - the shacks, the vermin, the catatonic children with hollowed cheeks and bloated bellies, the ancient grandmother whose body had wasted away, the starving pig with a half-eaten rat hanging out of its snout." – Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi

"We must recognize the full human equality of all our people - before God, before the law, and in the councils of government. We must do this not because it is economically advantageous - although it is; not because the laws of God and man command it - although they do command it; not because people in other lands wish it so. We must do it for the single and fundamental reason that it is the right thing to do." – Robert F. Kennedy, May 6, 1961, at the University of Georgia Law School.

Also from the same speech:

"We will not stand by or be aloof. We will move. I happen to believe that the 1954 Supreme Court school desegregation decision was right. But my belief does not matter. It is the law. Some of you may believe the decision was wrong. That does not matter. It is the law." – Robert F. Kennedy, May 6, 1961, at the University of Georgia Law School.

"At the University of Natal in Durban, I was told the church to which most of the white population belongs teaches apartheid as a moral necessity. A questioner declared that few churches allow black Africans to pray with the white because the Bible says that is the way it should be, because God created Negroes to serve. 'But suppose God is black,' I replied. 'What if we go to heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?' There was no answer. Only silence."

– Robert F. Kennedy, June 7, 1966, Durban, South Africa.