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To
understand how the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March
changed the lives of people across the nation and how it continues
to inspire oppressed people around the world
To pay homage to the heroes of the 1965 Voting Rights March
Activities:
Students will keep notebooks to record notes on the lectures, discussions,
readings, and videos in the below activities.
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Students will participate in an interactive teacher lecture on
Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi. The social studies teacher
and the English language arts teacher may team teach the portion
of the lecture on Henry David Thoreau’s essay "Civil
Disobedience" and his book Walden. For brief quotations,
see Notable
Quotes of Civil Rights.
Students will take a short quiz after the lecture.
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The teacher will conduct a lecture on life in the segregated South
and how segregation limited the rights and opportunities of African
Americans to fully participate in the social, economic, political,
and cultural life of the time. Special attention should be given
to life under the Alabama
Constitution of 1901 and Jim
Crow laws of Alabama. The teacher may wish to show
the video "The
Rise and Fall of Jim Crow". Students
will take a brief quiz after the lecture.
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The teacher will conduct a lecture on the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery
Voting Rights March, identifying some of the heroes of the march.
Special attention should be given to the participants who gave
their lives for the right to vote: Jonathan Daniels, Jimmie Lee
Jackson, Viola Liuzzo, and Rev. James Reeb. Students will take
a brief quiz after the lecture.
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Students will read the short story “Liars
Don't Qualify”
by Junius Edwards by Junius Edwards and answer
questions about the story on the “Liars
Don’t Qualify” Worksheet.
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Students will read and discuss “Selma: For Viola Liuzzo,”
a short story found in Natalie L.M. Petesch’s book, After
the First Death There Is No Other. This story honors the
slain Civil Rights worker Viola Liuzzo. The Nonviolence
Resources list contains more information on this book.
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Students will read and discuss selections from My Soul is
Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered by Howell
Raines. See the Nonviolence
Resources list for more information.
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After reading the above selections, each student will write a
one-page paper from the perspective of a participant of the voting
rights march.
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Students will view a video clip or photographic images of the
violence perpetrated against the marchers on Bloody Sunday, such
as Eyes
on the Prize,“Bridge to Freedom” segment.
Another film “A
Time for Justice” produced by Teaching Tolerance,
Southern Poverty Law Center, won the Academy Award for the best
documentary short subject in 1995. See Nonviolence
Resources for more information
on these films.
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Students will complete the Video
Viewing Journal or Motion
Picture Analysis Worksheet for the video selections.
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Students will read Letter
from the White Church Congregation of Pine Grove - Ebenezer Methodist
Charge in Carson, Alabama, to Governor George
C. Wallace, November 04, 1962, requesting the use of nonviolence
as a means of solving racial discord in regard to integration
of the schools in Alabama. Students will then read Governor
George C. Wallace's School-House Door Speech
for
further insight into the history of school integration in Alabama.
Students will also read Telegram
from L.H. Foster, President of Tuskegee Institute,
a black Alabama university, to Governor Wallace, May 13, 1963,
requesting fair and humane treatment for Negroes suffering from
violence in Birmingham, Alabama. Students will write a short paper
detailing their thoughts on the requests and motives of the writers
of these two communications sent to Governor Wallace, and the
students' understanding of the outcome of the issues involved.
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Students will take a comprehensive exam after the activities are
completed.
Evaluation:
Teacher assessment of students’ participation in the classroom
discussions
Teacher grading of students’ quizzes, one-page writing assignments,
notebooks, journals or worksheets, and the final exam
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