Local History
4th Grade Florida History
Federica Wilson
Dr. John Brown
Carrie Meek
Theodore Gibson
The Civil Rights Movement in Miami – Notable Agents of Change
Essential Question
Why do citizens need to defend their rights, and what are some of the ways that a citizen can make sure that their issues
are addressed?
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
The Civil Rights Movement in Miami – Notable Agents of Change
Florida Literacy Standards Alignment:
LAFS.4.RI.1.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing
inferences from the text.
LAFS.4.RI.1.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what
happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
LAFS.4.RI.3.9 Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject
knowledgeably.
LAFS.4.W.2.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning,
revising, and editing.
NGSSS - Social Science Standards Alignment:
SS.4.A.1.1 Analyze primary and secondary resources to identify significant individuals and events throughout Florida
history.
SS.4.A.6.3 Describe the contributions of significant individuals to Florida.
SS.4.A.8.1 Identify Florida's role in the Civil Rights Movement.
Please note: The reading(s) associated with this lesson is for both teacher content knowledge and student content knowledge development. Teachers are
encouraged to use the readings in their entirety and/or select portions of the reading to best fit the needs and reading levels of their particular students. It
is highly suggested that teachers review the reading(s) thoroughly and adapt the reading(s) and plan instruction using appropriate instructional strategies in
order to maximize student understanding according to their particular students’ abilities.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Topic: The Civil Rights Movement in Miami – Notable Agents of Change
Essential Question
Why do citizens need to defend their rights, and what are some of the ways that a citizen can make sure that their issues
are addressed?
Learning Goals
1. Research additional resource and develop an opinion on the Mrs. Range’s efforts in the community.
2. Students are to write a letter to the appropriate authorities and identify the deep divisions between minorities and
local leaders and argues for a solution. Students are to support their position(s) with evidence from research.
Overview
Students will gain an understanding of the contributions of a significant individual in Miami to the Civil Rights Movement.
Background Information
The Civil Rights Movement began when black Americans were not treated with the same fairness and equality as white
Americans. This is called discrimination. Even after the Civil War ended and slaves were freed by President Lincoln, it
would take black Americans (African Americans) many years and a long, difficult fight to get what Abraham Lincoln had
intended them to have: equality.
The Civil Rights Movement and the Black experience in Miami include both strife and triumph. In Miami, as with other
cities across the United States, cultural clashes between ethnicities contributed significantly to civil unrest and racial
tension. Champions of equality, whose lives and hearts were committed to making Miami a place of peace and
understanding between races evolved out of a deeply segregated, yet shared environment.
The Civil Rights Movement in Florida continues to move forward. Whenever discrimination creates situations where some
Floridians are not treated with fairness and equality, they use the legal process. Public opinion is sometimes mobilized.
The courts consider and resolve the issue. In this way, Floridians are assured their civil rights as Americans.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Materials
Civil Right Leader passages
Activity Sequence
Introduction (3 minutes)
1. Teacher will distribute copies of the articles about the notable civil rights agents.
2. The students will read the passage independently
Activity (10 minutes)

This strategy helps students select and describe a character from a story, and then compare/
contrast it to another character from either the same story or another.
1. After reading the passages, the students choose a character they wish to describe in detail.
2. The students draw a picture of their character and/or write its name in the middle of a blank
piece of paper.
3. The students draw a short line outward from their picture for each description they attribute
to their character.
4. The students create a character map for two characters in their story to compare/contrast
them, or take characters from two different stories to compare and contrast.
5. The students share their character maps with the class.


Students will work independently to write a compare and contrast essay using their character maps.
Student writing should;
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant
and sufficient evidence.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Closure (2 minutes)
Based on what we have read and learned, why do citizens need to defend their rights and what are some of the
ways that a citizen can make sure that their issues are addressed?
References for links
http://scholar.library.miami.edu/miamiCivilRights/biography.html
https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/15290
http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/cvl_rts/cvl_rts6.pdf
http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/Hispanicsfocus10.pdf
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/wilson-frederica-1942#sthash.vVLM3NYy.dpuf
http://fcsw.net/halloffame/WHOFbios/cherry.htm
http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/honorable-carrie-p-meek
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Reverend Theodore R. Gibson
Reverend Theodore R. Gibson (1915-1981) devoted his life toward the advancement
of civil rights in Miami. He was born to Bahamian immigrant parents. Thanks to the
efforts of his mother who worked as a maid, Gibson attended St. Augustine College in
Raleigh, North Carolina, and Bishop Payne Divinity School. He returned to Miami to
become pastor of the 800 member congregation of Christ Episcopal Church in Coconut Grove.
He spoke strongly about the need for improvements of conditions for Black residents in the community, and fought for
desegregation of Miami. As early as 1945 he led a group of blacks to swim at the all-white Baker’s Haulover Beach. The
action served as an impetuous for the creation of the Virginia Key Beach for colored people by the Dade County
Commission.
In the 1960s he joined forces with Grove activist Elizabeth Verrick and the Coconut Grove Slum Clearance Committee to
ameliorate the standard of living of residents in the Black Grove. These efforts led to the establishment of indoor plumbing
and improvements in the sewage disposal system.
Gibson’s mission for equality led him to posts of importance; he served as president of the Miami NAACP in the 1950s
and 60s. The 1963 Gibson Case centered on his refusal to reveal the membership of the local chapter of the NAACP. His
stance resulted in a prison sentence in 1960, but in 1963 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gibson’s favor and dismissed
the charges.
Reverend Gibson was later elected to the Miami City Commission, a job he held from 1972 and for nearly the rest of his
life, until 1981. As a commissioner Gibson pushed for the inclusion of African Americans and Hispanics to civil service
jobs and to the promotion of blacks to higher level administrative positions.
Source: University of Miami Libraries http://scholar.library.miami.edu/miamiCivilRights/biography.html
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Carrie Meek
Former Congresswoman Carrie Meek was born on April 29, 1926, in Tallahassee, Florida.
The granddaughter of a slave and the daughter of former sharecroppers, she spent her
childhood in segregated Tallahassee. Meek graduated from Florida A&M University in 1946.
At this time, African Americans could not attend graduate school in Florida, so Meek
traveled north to continue her studies and graduated from the University of Michigan with an
M.S. in 1948.
After graduation, Meek was hired as a teacher at Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach,
Florida, and then at her alma matter, Florida A&M University. Meek moved to Miami in 1961 to
serve as
special assistant to the vice president of Miami-Dade Community College. The school was
desegregated in 1963 and Meek played a central role in pushing for integration. Throughout her years as an educator,
Meek was also active in community projects in the Miami area.
Elected as a Florida state representative in 1979, Meek was the first African American female elected to the Florida State
Senate in 1982. As a state senator, Meek served on the Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Her efforts in the
legislature also led to the construction of thousands of affordable rental housing units.
In 1992, Meek was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida’s 17th Congressional District. This made
her the first black lawmaker elected to represent Florida in Congress since Reconstruction. Upon taking office, Meek
faced the task of helping her district recover from Hurricane Andrew’s devastation. Her efforts helped to provide $100
million in federal assistance to rebuild Dade County. Successfully focusing her attention on issues such as economic
development, health care, education and housing, Meek led legislation through Congress to improve Dade County’s
transit system, airport and seaport; construct a new family and childcare center in North Dade County; and fund advanced
aviation training programs at Miami-Dade Community College. Meek has also emerged as a strong advocate for senior
citizens and Haitian immigrants. Source: http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/honorable-carrie-p-meek
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Wilson, Frederica
Image Courtesy of the U.S.
House of Representatives
Democratic Florida Congresswoman Frederica Wilson was born on November 5, 1942
in Miami, Florida to Beulah Finley and Thirlee Smith. Wilson learned the importance of
community activism at a young age. Her father was a small business owner and civil
rights activist who worked to promote voter-registration in Miami’s black neighborhoods.
After graduating from Miami Northwestern Senior High School, Wilson attended Fisk
University in Memphis, Tennessee where she graduated with a degree in Elementary
Education in 1963. That same year Wilson married an investment banker, Paul Wilson,
with whom she had three children. While working as an elementary school teacher in
the Miami-Dade school district Wilson earned her Master of Science in Elementary
Education from the University of Miami in 1971. In 1980 she became principal of
Skyway Elementary in the upper middle class black suburb of Miami Gardens. During
her time as principal Wilson led a successful campaign to shut down an Agripost
compost plant that was polluting the community and preventing the school children from playing outside during recess.
The pollution also caused a mold problem at the elementary school. See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/wilson-frederica-1942#sthash.vVLM3NYy.dpuf
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Dr. John O. Brown, M.D.
Dr. John O. Brown, M.D. was born in Colbert, Oklahoma to Edward D.
Brown and Gala Hill of Texas. He spearheaded much of the activism
that was associated with the civil rights movement in Dade County. His
name is linked with Sit-ins, pickets, the Gibson vs. Board of Education
suit and Miami's role in the 1963 March on Washington.
Dr. Brown attended the University of Wisconsin - Madison and
graduated in 1943. That same year, he married Marie Faulkner in
Nashville, TN. They had four children (three boys and one girl). He
later attended Meharry Medical School (a historically black Medical
College) in Nashville and graduated from there in 1950. He completed
his post-graduate work in Ophthalmology at the Veteran's
Administration Hospital at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama. After
completing his formal education Dr. Brown moved to Miami in 1955 and opened his Ophthalmology practice in Liberty City
the following year.
By the late 1950s he was head of the Miami Chapter of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). He led marches to
integrate lunch counters and public beaches. Many of these protests were patterned after the historic lunch counter sit-ins
across the South. Dr. Brown was quoted saying that Miami was Jim Crow from top to bottom in the late 1950s and 1960s
(The Miami Herald, 02/26/1995). One of his sons (John, Jr.) was among the black children who sued the Dade County
Public School System (Gibson vs. Board of Education) to force desegregation of Public Schools (Edison High School).
The case was settled in 1963, the same year Dr. Brown participated in the March on Washington. By then John, Jr. had
graduated high school and gone away to Harvard University.
Dr. Brown was voted president- elect of the National Medical Association and took control as President in 1986. He was a
life member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and member of the regional
board of the National Council of Christians and Jews and he was a Director at Capital Bank along with being a Charter
member of the Community Race Relations Board (CRB).
Source: University of Miami Libraries http://scholar.library.miami.edu/miamiCivilRights/biography.html
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
Civil Rights for Other Groups
The advances of the Civil Rights Movement influenced other groups as well. The
Seminole Indians developed a Constitution designed to protect their civil rights and land
ownership in Florida. This process helped to make Floridians aware of Native Americans’
unique background and contributions to Florida history. Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 (ICRA)
extended individual rights onto the tribal reservations. The Act provided for a variety of
guarantees which track those of the Bill of Rights: freedom of speech, due process, equal
protection, a speedy trial and others.
https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/15290
In the 1960s, Florida’s large Hispanic community worked for equal rights. They pushed for higher
education and greater involvement in politics and government. 1963 Miami's Coral Way Elementary
School offers the nation's first bilingual education program in public schools, thanks to a grant from the
Ford Foundation. http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/Hispanicsfocus10.pdf
Civil Rights for Women
Women also worked to increase their opportunities and establish equal rights with men.
Because many people involved with Florida politics did not take women seriously, this proved to
be a difficult task. Throughout the years, however, many women played important roles in Florida
politics. Among them are; Gwen Margolis, and Gwen Sawyer Cherry. Source: College of Education,
University of South Florida
After careers as a teacher and a lawyer, Cherry was elected to the
Florida House in 1970, becoming the first African-American woman to serve as a state legislator in
Florida. During her four terms, she introduced the Equal Rights Amendment and the Martin Luther
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Local History
King, Jr. state holiday, chaired the state's committee for International Women's Year in 1978, and co-authored Portraits in
Color: the Lives of Colorful Negro Women. http://fcsw.net/halloffame/WHOFbios/cherry.htm
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES