Fight for Your Rights:
The History of African American Progress
Civil Disobedience and the Atlanta Student Movement
(Lesson Plan) 1/4
Summary:
• Students view a powerpoint with visuals that show the tactics used in civil disobedience.
• In groups, students analyze “An Appeal for Human Rights,” a primary source document written
in 1960 by members of the Atlanta Student Movement.
• Groups create protest signs and a protest chant to be performed in front of another class.
• Students from the viewing class vote for the group that was most convincing.
Time Required:
Two 60-minute class periods
Materials Required:
• Protest signs: Large pieces of paper (card stock or poster board works best), paint stirring sticks (from
hardware store) for sign handle, paint or markers.
• To show powerpoint: computer with projector or interactive white board.
Essential Questions:
What elements are necessary for civil disobedience to work?
What conditions in Atlanta led to the Atlanta Student Movement? Was it successful?
Specific Student Understandings:
1. Civil disobedience creates change by non-violently disobeying rules or laws of society.
2. Tactics include: boycotts, sit-ins, strikes, marches, and picketing.
3. Civil disobedience was used effectively many times in history, especially during the Civil
Rights Movement.
4. Civil disobedience is only successful when implemented effectively (organization, leadership,
unity, a convincing message, etc).
5. The Atlanta Student Movement was inspired by the Greensboro sit-ins.
6. The Atlanta Student Movement voiced concerns publicly by publishing “An Appeal for
Human Rights.”
7. The Atlanta Student Movement achieved measured success using civil disobedience.
8. Movements all around the country resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Fight for Your Rights:
The History of African American Progress
Civil Disobedience and the Atlanta Student Movement
(Lesson Plan) 2/4
Preparation:
Divide students into groups of 4
Procedure/Lesson:
1. Slide 1:
What is civil disobedience? Is it always bad to disobey authority? It can be good to disobey authority in a
certain way and for a specific purpose – to create change. Analyze the words: what is civil? (non-violent);
what is disobedience? (refusal to follow a law or other rule)
2. Civil Disobedience Examples:
What are some ways to “disobey” in a civil way?
Slide 2 - Henry David Thoreau: He was a famous author. He thought the Mexican American war was being
fought to gain land – land that would allow more slavery. He refused to pay his taxes. He knew that being
thrown in jail would attract attention for the cause.
Slide 3 - Montgomery Bus Boycott: What is a boycott? Refusal to spend money on something when the
company is doing something you don’t agree with. In this example, the city buses in Montgomery would not
let African Americans sit in front. So thousands of people decided NOT to ride the bus. They walked miles to
work in the rain and snow, just so that the bus company suffered financially. It worked. It took one year, but
the bus company desegregated.
Slide 4 - Greensboro Sit-in: There was a store in Greensboro called Woolworth’s. It was like a drug store but
it had a lunch counter as well. If you were African American you could buy things in the store, but you
couldn’t eat at the lunch counter. One day, four college students decided to go to the lunch counter
and sit there until they were served. This is called a sit-in. The first day it didn’t work. The next day, they
came back with more students and in the weeks after that, even more students. Soon Woolworth’s and
other lunch counters were losing business because no one wanted to eat in a place where there were
demonstrations and protesters disrupting their lunch. The students won. The lunch counters and restaurants
in the city desegregated.
Slide 5 - Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike: What is a strike? A strike is when a big group of workers refuse to
go to work. A business can’t run without the workers, right? So workers can use their power in numbers to
get their boss to listen to them about something that’s unfair. In this example, over 1000 African American
garbage men refused to pick up the trash because they were angry about being treated differently
than the white garbage men. They wanted equal wages and better working conditions. Some of the
demonstrations turned violent and people were hurt. Then Martin Luther King Jr. came to town to get
everyone on the right track again – to remind people to be non-violent. The city of Memphis eventually
gave in and gave the workers what they wanted. (On a side note, this would be the last demonstration MLK
led, as he was assassinated in his hotel room in Memphis.)
3. What Makes Civil Disobedience Work?:
Slide 6-11 - Students brainstorm using what they know from the examples. Use examples to support ideas.
• A charismatic leader?
• Organized plans?
• Lots of people and unity? (this is the biggest challenge!)
• Media attention?
• A convincing message?
• Other ideas?
Fight for Your Rights:
The History of African American Progress
Civil Disobedience and the Atlanta Student Movement
(Lesson Plan) 3/4
4. The Atlanta Student Movement:
Slide 12 – The Atlanta Student Movement: It was inspired by the Greensboro sit-ins. It started just one month later.
Slide 13 - Student leaders from 6 black colleges decided to draft “An Appeal for Human Rights” and publish
it as a paid advertisement in 3 Atlanta newspapers. The purpose of the Appeal was to inform everyone
in the city that blacks and whites were not being treated equally. They wanted the facts to speak for
themselves. Atlanta was known as “The City Too Busy to Hate.” These students wanted to tell everyone
that this slogan was a lie. It must have taken a lot of courage for these 6 students to put their names on
this document. Their parents could have lost jobs, they could have gotten expelled, they could have
been harassed. Keep in mind that for many black college students, they were the first generation to go to
college. Would you be willing to risk it?
Slide 14 - Reaction to the Advertisement: It became national news. It was discussed by Congress, and
republished in the New York Times. Also Governor Ernest Vandiver made a televised statement speculating
that since the document was so well written, it could not have been the work of college students (click the
link to the video). He said the authors must have been influenced by foreign radicals (aka communists). He
said it was “calculated to breed dissatisfaction, discontent, and evil.” Do you think it was a good idea to
publish this “Appeal for Human Rights?”
Slide 15 – What exactly was unfair about the conditions in Atlanta? Did the students have good reason to
complain? You’re going to find out.
5. Students Analyze “An Appeal for Human Rights”:
• Give each group the task of reading a different section of the document: Education, Jobs, Housing,
Voting, Hospitals, Movies, and Law Enforcement.
• Ask them to: (1) find out what was unfair about the conditions in Atlanta in their category, and (2) make
a case for why their category of complaints are more unfair than the rest.
6. Student Groups Make Protest Signs and Chant:
• Students will create protest signs and a protest slogan to chant during a protest, which they will perform
in front of another class of students. The goal is to convice the class of students (by a vote) that their
cause is the most important. This exercise will show the students that the cause can be convincing, but
you need a good way to communicate your message if a protest is to win the hearts and minds of the
people.
• What makes a protest sign and message effective? (bold letters, simple message, clever, clear). Go
back through examples in the powerpoint. Ask students to explain what signs and messages were the
most effective and why.
• Student must also create a slogan to chant while they are protesting. It may match their signs or contain
a separate slogan. For example: “Hey hey ho ho. Jim Crow has got to go. Hey hey ho ho. Jim Crow has
got to go.”
• Give students 30 minutes to create protest signs and a protest slogan or chant to perform.
7. Students Protest to Another Class:
• After each group has completed their signs and has practiced their protest “performance,” the
students visit another classroom. Each group has 2-3 minutes to perform a protest.
• Students in the other class vote on which group’s cause seemed the most convincing.
Which one inspired them to want to take action? Instruct voters that they must
vote on merit, not popularity of students.
Fight for Your Rights:
The History of African American Progress
Civil Disobedience and the Atlanta Student Movement
(Lesson Plan) 4/4
8. Closing:
• Lead a discussion about what made the winning group’s protest most effective. Without considering
the signs, the chants, and the passion the students showed for their cause, which section of the
“Appeal for Human Rights” was really the most important? Is this the same section whose group won
the competition? Discuss the implications of a flat campaign. Without large numbers of people to
participate, success is harder.
• What other techniques could have been used to affect change (in each group’s subject area) besides
picketing and chanting?
Slide 19-22 – Was the Atlanta Student Movement Successful?
• Six days after publishing “An Appeal” the group organized a series of sit-ins, pickets and boycotts.
• By 1961, sales in the downtown segregated businesses had declined by 13%.
• The demonstrations caused such a disruption that the city’s business leaders were called by Mayor
Hartsfield to negotiate with the students.
• By the end of the first year, most segregated businesses voluntarily desegregated, although segregation
was still legal.
• The students (partnering with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) continued protests and
achieved some successes. But the final straw came with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This
law was the result of many protests around the country, including the one in Atlanta. Altogether, the
students created a movement that Congress and President Johnson could not ignore. The Civil Rights
Act put an end to legal segregation all over the country.
• Did the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended legal segregation, solve all the problems listed on
the Appeal for Human Rights? Which of these problems are still around today? What could be
done to improve conditions?
• Civil disobedience is not just a bold word in a history book, it’s a tactic that you can use today.