Indvidual development and Identity

Status:

Strand IV, Individual Development and Identity

Andy Walden

Martin Luther King Jr. and the rise of the Civil Rights Movement

I.    Performance Expectations

Examine the interactions of ethnic, national, or cultural influences in specific situations or events. (E)

Analyze the role of perceptions, attitudes, values, and beliefs in the development of personal identity. (F)

II.                 Learning outcomes

The student will:

Recall the social status of African Americans of in the South prior to 1964.

Explain Brown vs. Board of Education, and the new implications this ruling had on segregation

Compare/Contrast the African-American leaders during the Civil Rights Movement, for example, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Define Jim Crow laws, and describe how these laws prohibited blacks from participating in certain functions.

Recall the term “Separate but equal”, and how this term stereotyped blacks

Identify why racial tensions between whites and blacks grew stronger during the civil rights movement.

III.               Evaluation

I feel the best way to evaluate MLK and the rise of the civil rights movement is through a test. Because of the complex, and broad content this time period covers, I feel that testing is my best option. I would have fifty multiple choice questions, along with an essay. I’m thinking about giving the students the option of either taking the test, or doing a research paper on the topic. By doing this I would give the students who aren’t good test takers, an opportunity to do well.

IV.              Curriculum

History

Political Science

Sociology

V.                 Instruction

I wonder if it would be possible if I could divide the class into two groups. One group would be the privileged group (whites). The other group will be the non privileged (blacks). I would lecture for most of the hour about the deep south and segregation, with periodic breaks in my lecture, to award the privileged group with some candy, or something to that effect. I would then make it noticed that the non privileged group would not get anything. I would be careful not to incorporate any unintentional racism on my part. But I want the students to get the feel how blacks were discriminated against, and how it affected their self-esteem and self identity. At the end of the lecture I would ask the students to write a reaction to the day’s material. I would ask for their reaction to discrimination from both sides.

VI.              Questions

How did being discriminated against feel? Did you feel like less of a person? Were you jealous of the privileged group? Did you want to speak out in anger of discrimination? What would have been the penalties for speaking out against the privileged group? What if the role was reversed? Would you, the blacks, discriminate against the whites if the situation presented itself? What could the non-privilege group done? Could they go to the police? Government? Which leader would you have followed, Malcolm X or MLK JR.? Who are freedom riders? Who was Rosa Parks? By asking these questions I hope to invite students to ask their own questions. There are many aspects during this time that are open to student’s interpretation. Conversely there are topics that aren’t.