Biography

Civil Rights Heroes

Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X— these are the names that come to mind when we think of the Civil Rights Movement. But the movement was made of hundreds of heroes, some famous, and some only known to their families and localities. This episode of Biography looks at some of these heroes of the movement—men and women who risked their economic freedom, their safety and their lives to ensure that African Americans, especially their children and future generations, received the full measure of rights due any American guaranteed by the Constitution. Civil Rights Heroes would be useful for classes on American History and Culture, African-American History and Ethics. It is appropriate for middle school and high school.

OBJECTIVES:

Students will learn about the actions of people involved in the Civil Rights Movement. They will explore the reasons for the movement and its successes and failures, and will understand the sacrifices made by those who participated in the movement.

NATIONAL HISTORY STANDARDS:

Civil Rights Heroes fulfills the following National Standards for History for grades 5-12: chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretations, and historical research capabilities for eras 9 and 10.

Vocabulary

• Articulate
• Consigned
• Cowardice
• Cynic
• Demean
• Futile
• Premier
• Segregation
• Spontaneous
• Stimulus
• Tenacity
• Violated

Discussion Questions

1. The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most important movements of the twentieth century. Why was it necessary to have a Civil Rights Movement?
2. How did the Civil Rights Movement change America?
3. Before the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans survived under a harsh system of segregation. How did African Americans survive? What survival techniques did they use?
4. Discuss the unconstitutionality of Jim Crow laws.
5. How did segregation work? What were its principles? How was it enforced?
6. The Carter family lived a life of poverty. How did the family lift their children out of this lifestyle?
7. Discuss the reactions to school integration in the South in the 1950s and 1960s.
8. Why were white Americans so opposed to school integration?
9. The Carter children faced humiliation and harassment every day they went to school. How did they deal with the oppression they faced?
10. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee are actors. How have they used their celebrity status and high profile to help the movement?
11. Ossie Davis talks about the “niggerization” he witnessed as a young boy. What does he mean by this term?
12. What does it mean to be Black in America?
13. Discuss the power of movies in the fight for social justice.
14. Bill Russell was one of basketball’s greatest players. How did this premier athlete become involved in the movement?
15. Discuss the courage of Irene Morgan.

Extended Activities

1. Follow this link (http://www.mecca.org/~crights/cyber.html) to take a virtual tour of the National Civil Rights Museum.
2. Research Jim Crow laws on the Internet. Use your data to create a report about these laws. Where were these laws valid? What did they mean? How did they determine life in the states that had them? How did these laws govern relationships between Black and white Americans.
3. Design a commemorative to honor the men and women who participated in the Civil Rights Movement.

Primary Sources

• Follow this link (http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/post-civilwar/plessy.html) for an online version of the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which made segregation legal.