The African American Civil Rights Movement
A Lesson in Celebration of Black History Month
Preview (Hook)
Ask students to respond to the following prompt on paper or in their interactive student notebook.
Describe a time when you (or someone you know) were treated unfairly. Briefly describe the
incident and how it made you feel.
Offer the opportunity for students to share their response if they feel comfortable doing so.
Lesson (Line)
Tell students that they will be going to an exhibit on the African American Civil Rights Movement of
the 1950s and 1960s. They will be visiting each station in the exhibit with a partner. They should
carefully examine each photograph and read the information about each photograph. Using the
student handouts, they should record information about what they see in each photograph, along with
what they infer about the Civil Rights Movement from the information in that station.
(You might remind students that this is a public “exhibit” and that the noise level is low so that all may
enjoy the exhibit.)
Have student groups stop on the last station that they have viewed and present key information about
that particular station.
Ask the following questions:

What were some of the methods that were used by people who participated in the civil rights
movement?

How do you think they might have felt?

Why do you think that they chose to join the movement?

How do you think other people responded to their actions?

What impact do you think their actions made upon the decisions of the federal government?

What impact do you think their actions had on Americans?
Process (Sinker)
Ask students to respond to the following prompt in their interactive student notebook:
Pretend you are an American citizen living during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. You are an
eyewitness to one of the events portrayed in the exhibit. Write a letter to a friend describing what
you have witnessed. Your letter should

Be dated

Have a proper salutation (greeting)

Begin with a clear topic sentence

Clearly explain the sequence of events that you witnessed

Include in your letter at least two ways that you think the actions of the protestor(s) will
inspire change.

Be free from spelling and grammatical errors
Austin ISD Social Studies Curriculum / Susan Everett / 2008
Austin ISD Social Studies Curriculum / Susan Everett / 2008