It’s important for students learning about civil rights history to put themselves in the shoes of those who were there. Have them commemorate their own civil rights road trip by writing postcards from the past. This activity helps students imagine being in another place and time by writing about a moment on the path to equality.
Essential Questions
What would it have been like to
be a young person living through the civil rights movement and experiencing the
events firsthand?
Materials
- “Civil Rights Road Trip: Travel the Path to Equality” map
- Civil Rights Road Trip postcards
- Student Writing Prompts (PDF)
Task
Using the postcards provided,
have students write a message from one of the states featured on the civil rights
map. Their messages will tell about a key event that took place in that state
during the civil rights era.
Step 1
Take your class on a civil rights
road trip, using the map and additional information provided in Teaching Tolerance, Spring
2012.
Step 2
Students choose a key event and
state to write about. Depending on the time, resources available and grade
level, students can do further research on the civil rights events and history
from that time and place.
Step 3
Students choose a role and
audience for their postcard writing. Below are five suggested prompts for
students’ writing. Each prompt includes suggestions for differentiation to
accommodate a range of grade and readiness levels (mild, medium, spicy).
Prompt A
Imagine you are a young person growing up in a place and time
on the civil rights map. Write a postcard to a friend or relative living in
another part of the country during that time.
- Mild: What is happening in your state and how do you feel about it? What might you ask your friend or relative?
- Medium: What is happening in your state and how do you feel about it? Include historically accurate facts or details about that event. What help might you ask for from your friend or relative?
- Spicy: What is happening in your state and how do you feel about it? Make a connection to something that’s happened in your friend or relative’s state during that same time period. Include historically accurate facts or details.
Prompt B
Imagine you have traveled back to a place and time on the civil
rights map. Write a postcard from that place and time to your present-day
self.
- Mild: What did you witness and how did you feel about it? Describe the people, places and events you saw.
- Medium: What did you witness and how did you feel about it? Share how you think things have changed since this time in American history.
- Spicy: What did you witness and how did you feel about it? Connect an issue of equity or social justice from today to a person or event you witnessed on your trip to the civil rights past.
Prompt C
Imagine you have opened your mailbox and found a postcard
from the past. A person your age from a place and time on the civil rights map
has written to you.
- Mild: What does the person from the past tell you about the events happening in her state? What does he want to know about the future?
- Medium: What is that person’s opinion of the events happening in his state? What concerns does she express about the future? What advice does he give to you based on what she experienced?
- Spicy: What is that person’s perspective on the events happening in his state? What questions and concerns would she express about the future? What request does he make of you and your generation?
Prompt D
Imagine you are a young person growing up in a place and time
on the civil rights map. Write a postcard to your grandchildren living in the
future.
- Mild: What do you want your grandchildren to learn about this time in history?
- Medium: What do you ask your grandchildren to remember? What lessons can you offer to them for their lifetime?
- Spicy: What do you want your grandchildren to learn and remember about this time in history. What wisdom do you offer them? What is their inherited responsibility from the struggle for civil rights?
Prompt E
Imagine you are a young person growing up in a place and time
on the civil rights map. Write a
postcard to a public official living at that time, such as civil rights
leaders, community figures, mayor, governor, judge, President.
- Mild: What do you think they should do to help the people in your state?
- Medium: What is the main problem facing your state and what solution would you suggest?
- Spicy: What specific action would you like to see leadership take in response to the problems happening in your state? How would you convince them?
Step 4
Students write rough drafts of their message and receive
peer and teacher input and editing.
Final drafts are written onto the civil rights road trip postcards.
Step 5
Students share what they’ve written by passing their
postcards around the room or taking turns reading them aloud to the class.
Allow discussion if students have questions for each other.
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing (K-12):
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization and analysis of content.
3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.
