Birmingham and Project Research

Today in class we explored the Birmingham campaign of 1963.  You can see the video that we looked at in class by watching both of the following clips: Birmingham Part I and Birmingham Part II
We also went over the guiding questions for Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham City Jail.
Hopefully you have been making progress on your initial research for the Civil Rights Museum Project.  You should put your initial research into this FORM and then submit it to turnitin.com.
Once you are finished with your initial research, you may submit a request to me with your choice(s) for further work on the museum project.  The request should be made on the original form I gave you or submitted via this REQUEST FORM.

Protest

Today we explored the methodology of protest in some of the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's. We began by watching this VIDEO about the Nashville sit-ins of 1960 which, while reviewing some of the information we had already learned about Diane Nash, also provided more detailed information and imagery of what this form of nonviolent protest entailed. We then discussed sit-ins and freedom rides by sharing some of our ideas from our portfolios, trying to make conclusions about the effectiveness of non-violent protest.  We also tried to make comparisons between the sit-ins and freedom rides and the die-ins taking place today.  We finished class by reading excerpts from this ARTICLE by Howard Zinn about SNCC, again working to make connections by responding to the questions: What would your generation be called and what is your generation committed to?

Children in the Movement

Today in class we are going to look at stories from the Civil Rights Movement that involve young people. Consider that many of the people that we are going to study were right around your age during the events that we'll discuss.
These are the film clips that we're watching today:
Emmett Till
Little Rock (at least the first 30 minutes-this is longer than the clip watched in class).
This is the notetaking sheet you should use as you watch. Make a copy of it for yourself and then fill in the center column as you watch.  Do a reflection in the right hand column after each clip.  At the end of the unit, print this out and submit it as part of your portfolio.

Without Sanctuary and the Brown Decision

On Friday we looked at Without Sanctuary, a short film with images of lynchings put to the music of Billie Holliday as she sings Strange Fruit.  A different version of the images can be found HERE (although it has narration rather than the music). The song can be found HERE.  After responding to the images for our portfolio, we worked to answer some questions by reading excerpts from Hellhounds an essay by Leon Litwack.
On Monday, we focused on the legal strategy that the NAACP used in preparation for making the argument to overturn the Plessy decision in the Brown v. Board of Education Case.  Mr. Kramer used this PRESENTATION in order to tell the story of the strategy.  We closed class by reviewing some of the questions prepared about the Brown decision.

Washington and Dubois

Today in class we did some in-class writing for our portfolios and discussed the laws and customs that existed during the Jim Crow era.  We then used this chart to examine the differences between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois.

Jim Crow Contd.

Today in class we discussed the ongoing portfolio assignment (linked in the Unit Four tab above) and then worked on finishing the Jim Crow web activity (also linked above).

Post-Reconstruction and the Plessy Decision

Today in class, we looked at the excerpted articles on the situation in Ferguson, Mo.  We brainstormed questions that arose from the articles and began to think about how our current unit might help to answer those questions.
We then took a look at the new assignment sheet that is posted in the Unit Four Tab above and noted that it is necessary to access the electronic version of it to be able to use the hyperlinked articles and assignments.
We finished by looking at the Supreme Court's majority opinion from the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, using these QUESTIONS to go over it.  We finished questions 1-12.  The responses to the remaining questions should be annotated in the opinion.