Download - Civil Rights in America
Civil Rights in America
The Movement 1950-1970
The Constitution 13th Amendment (1865): abolished slavery
14th Amendment (1866): Defines a citizen as anyone born or naturalized in the US. Equal protection of law clause.
15th Amendment (1869): voting will not be withheld on “account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
Early Civil Rights
Voting, while protected by the constitution, was withheld from African Americans by:Literacy
testsPoll Taxes
Supreme Court Ruling: separate-but-equal facilities for black and whites did not violate the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
Jim Crow & the South
Jim Crow Laws: laws aimed at segregating society.
Schools, parks, hospitals, public transport, and other places.
Was challenged in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Jim Crow Laws & the South
Barbers. No colored barber shall serve as a barber (to) white girls or women (Georgia).
Burial. The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons (Georgia).
Nurses. No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which Negro men are placed (Alabama).
White and black prisoners could not be chained together (6 states)
Brown v. Board of Education Topeka (1954)
8 year old Linda Brown
Court struck down segregation in schools UNANIMOUSLY.
Violation of the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause.
Brown II (1955): ordered desegregation to be implemented with “all deliberate speed.”
Reactions to Brown Southern states some stated
desegregation would “take years” Mississippi and Georgia vowed total
resistance.
Little Rock Crisis: Arkansas governor Orval Faubus called out the national guard to turn away the “Little Rock Nine.”
Boycotting Segregation: Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1955 Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a public bus and is arrested.
NAACP enlisted the help of Martin Luther King, Jr. to organize a boycott.
Boycott lasted 381 days and operated on principal of nonviolence.
1956: Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation.
Sit-ins became a popular form of protest
March on Washington
August 28th, 1963: African Americans march on Washington D.C. to show their support for a new Civil Rights bill and to convince Congress to pass it. “I Have a Dream”
Racial harmony
In the South: four Birmingham girls die when a bomb was hurdled through their church window. (MTG)
Voting Rights
Summer of ‘64: Freedom Summer
Civil Rights groups trained students in non-violence and sent them out to help African Americans register to vote.
Faced with violence and racism.
The Help
Set in 1962, two years before the freedom summer, after bus boycotts and sit-in, after Brown vs. Board of Education
Deals mostly with issues of race but also includes feminism as well
Women’s Liberation Movement
Tensions regarding traditional roles of women. 1960s saw a lower rate
of female college attendance than in the 1920s
Media husband the breadwinner, wife the homemaker.
Unit Requirements
Annotation
As you read, annotate each chapter in the book
If it’s a library copy see me for sticky notes or purchase some Notes must push your thinking deeper
Notes must show your thinking
Notice and analyze plot, character, author’s purpose, author’s craft
Refer to your notes on annotations for ideas on what to mark
(PowerPoint from the first week is on my website)
Annotations will be checked twice this unit for daily grades First time random
Second at the end of the unit
Reading Calendar and Reading Quizzes
Keep up with your calendar and if you fall behind, spend your weekends catching up on your reading.
(Reading quizzes each Monday)
Journals
The following components will be recorded in your notebooks
They will be checked randomly once during the unit and will serve as an exam grade at the end of the unitGrade will be based on completion and quality
Character Tracking
Make a section in your notebook titled: Characters of The Help
Make a page (front and back) for: Skeeter
Minnie
Aibileen
Divide your paper in half vertically
On the left record Major Discoveries/Insights about these characters
On the right record Important Quotes that reveal the depth of their character
For minor characters I recommend keeping a list with brief descriptions on the inside front flap of your book
History Tracking
Make a section (at least 2 pages) in your notebook titled: History in The Help
Find at least 15 historical references as you read the book
Google each one and record a BRIEF description of it’s historical relevance
Note the source of your findings (do not use Wikipedia more than 5 times!)
Your notes should look as follows:
1. Rosa Parks: Civil rights activist famous for the Montgomery Bus Boycotts – worked with MLK. Lived 1913-2005 (biography.com)
Dialectical Journals
After the character and history tracking sections, make a section titled: Dialectical Journals
Annotations can aid you greatly!
Refer to your handout for more information and requirements, we will do one of these entries together