Civil Rights Movement

Use first-graders’ commitment to fairness to help them connect with the modern civil rights movement. 

When Idaho Rep. Brent Crane characterized Rosa Parks as a champion of states’ rights in a recent debate, it was a troubling sign of what happens when a nation doesn’t work hard to remember its history.

Getting away from the “usual suspects” of the modern civil rights movement, this teacher introduced her students to Bayard Rustin.

The lesson series, “The Role of Gay Men and Lesbians in the Civil Rights Movement,” challenges instructors and students to rethink the ways in which race, gender, sexual orientation, politics and class intersect.

The confluence of President Obama’s second inauguration and MLK Day is a fitting legacy and inspiration to continue making changes.

Teaching African-American history to middle and high school students is sometimes daunting. I have found it is difficult for today’s youth to identify with a time when it was legal to discriminate against other human beings simply because of the color of their skin. Even more than the disconnect with the issues that were at the heart of the black freedom struggle, I was shocked at the lack of knowledge my students possessed about the long history that made something like Jim Crow possible.

The 1963 March on Washington is perhaps the most iconic event from the modern civil rights movement. Almost a half-century ago, a quarter of a million Americans gathered to show solidarity for African Americans. While images of the March on Washington are engrained in our collective conscience, few may realize that the event defined and crystallized the social, political and moral revolution. To commemorate the event, here are 10 things you may not know about the March on Washington.

When I teach lessons about Martin Luther King Jr., I always wonder exactly how students will connect with the events and themes. My adult students are refugees and immigrants from different cultural backgrounds. Some of them were cultural minorities in their countries. Others are experiencing racial discrimination for the first time in the United States.

My desire to share stories about some of the most important people and events in history led me to teach. That’s why I volunteered for a project with Whitman College students to teach a lesson on the civil rights movement in my three history classes.