Unit 7
Martin Luther King
Pre-Class Research: group work
Group 1: Brown vs. Board of Education
Group 2: Montgomery Bus Boycott
Group 3: March on Washington
Group 4: Signing of Civil Rights Act
Group 5: King’s Nobel Lecture
Group 6: Assassination of Martin Luther
King
G1 and G2: Be prepare to make a
presentation on the topics.
Other groups: oral check
Who was he?
 He was great at public speaking.
 He was a pastor.
 He led the Bus Boycott in Montgomery,
Alabama.
 He led the March on Washington in 1963.
 He was assassinated in 1968.
 He was a great leader of civil rights movement
in USA.
Schema Building
What do you know about the life of African
Americans in U.S.?
-How did they come to U.S.?
-What about their life before the Civil War?
-After Civil War and before 1960s?
-After 1960s?
The Life of African Americans in U.S.
Forced to be slaves
Slave life
Separate but equal
Enjoy freedom and equality
What do the following pictures tell us?
Text Comprehension
Group 1
Introduction
Group 2
Para.1
historical background of civil rights
movement
general statement of Dr. King
Group 3
Para.2
Brown vs. Board of Education
Group 4
Para.3
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Group 5
Para.4
Protest in Birmingham
Group 6
Para.5
March on Washington
Group 7
Para.6
Group 8
Para.7+8
Signing of Civil Rights Act
Reviewing Dr. King: comments and
quotes
Group 9
Para.9+10
Epilogue: assassination and Martin
Luther King Day
Text Structure
Prelude
Introduction
Head: general statement
Main Part
Body: achievements (details) P.2-6
Tail: review--comments and
quotes
epilogue
P. 1
P.9-10
P.7-8
In-depth Reading
Brown vs. Board of Education
Student presentation: case
description
Video Watching:
1) the experiment
2) District Court
3) Supreme Court
Movie to watch:
Separate but Equal
Read and ask questions.
Case Description:
When: when did this happen?
Who: who were involved in the case?
Why: Why did this happen? Why were the black
and white go to segregated schools?
How: the procedure of the lawsuit--the district
court, the supreme court
What: What was the result?
Cultural Tip
14th Amendment
Any person born in the United States of America is a
legal citizens no matter what race or religion they are.
Each state should provide equal protection under
the law to all people within its jurisdiction (管辖范围).
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Student Presentation: Rosa Parks
Video Watching:
Montgomery Bus Boycott
1) Rosa Parks arrested
2) call for bus boycott
3) speech
Read the text and ask questions.
On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded
a city bus and sat with three other blacks in the fifth
row, the first row that blacks could occupy. A few
stops later, the front four rows were filled with whites,
and one white man was left standing. According to
law, blacks and whites could not occupy the same
row, so the bus driver asked all four of the blacks
seated in the fifth row to move. Three complied, but
Parks refused. She was arrested.
“I would like to be known as a person who is
concerned about freedom and equality and
justice and prosperity for all people.” ~ Rosa Parks
Protest in Birmingham
1) What was the goal of the protest in Birmingham?
2) Why was King put in jail?
3) How was he criticized by the city’s white religious
leaders?
4) How did he respond in the Letters from a Birmingham
Jail?
Critical Thinking
The “Letters from a Birmingham Jail” include
some famous statements like:
1) Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere.
2) Justice too long delayed is justice denied.
Do you agree with the statements? Why or why
not?
March on Washington
Read Par. 5 and determine whether the following statements
are true or false.
1) March on Washington is the largest civil rights
demonstration in the U.S. history.
2) Half a million civilians staged the march.
3) Only blacks participated in the
march.
4) One goal of the demonstration
is to put pressure on lawmakers
to vote for the civil rights laws.
5) Democrats are more sympathetic
with their civil rights movement.
I have a Dream
Watch the video: I have a
Dream
Students take turns to read “I
have a Dream” part by part.
Cultural Points
Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. (1926 –
1990) was a leader of the American
Civil Rights Movement, a minister,
and a close associate of Martin
Luther King, Jr. in the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference.
Following King's assassination, Dr.
Abernathy took up the leadership of
the SCLC.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) is an American civil rights organization. SCLC
was closely associated with its first president, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. The SCLC had a large role in
the American Civil Rights Movement.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
1. Who signed this Act into law?
A. President John. F. Kennedy
B. President Lyndon Johnson
2. When was the Act signed?
A. March 1964
B. July 1964
3. What is this Act about?
A. prohibit discrimination in public places
B. prohibit segregating blacks and whites in all
public facilities
C. prohibit discriminating in hiring practices,
working conditions and wages.
Nobel Prize for Peace
Why was Dr. King awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize
for peace?
He has shown the Western world that a struggle can
be waged without violence.
Appreciate Dr. King’s Nobel Lecture
“The movement does not seek to liberate
Negroes at the _________
expense of, the ______________
embarrassment
of, nor the ____________
enslavement of whites. It seeks no
victory over anyone. It seeks to ___________
liberate
________
self-liberation
American society and to share in the ___________
of all the people.”
Question Time
What does the following sentence mean?
“Actually, time itself is neutral. Human progress never
rolls in on wheels of inevitability…and without hard work,
time itself becomes an ally of the forces that would
have society remain without needed change.”
Focus on Vocabulary (1): Quiz
1) Which president signed the Emancipation
Proclamation to abolish the slavery in the United
State?
2) What was the bloodiest war in US history? How
many people were killed?
3) Name one treaty in Chinese history.
4) What did the plantations grow in the U.S.?
5) How many justices are there in the Supreme
Court?
6) What is Fourteenth Amendment?
7) Which two houses are in the U.S. Congress?
8) Two parties in U.S.: Republicans and…?
9) What is the campaigning slogan of Obama?
Focus on Vocabulary (2):
Use the words
bribe
reverse
arrest
propose
regulate
circulate
deputy
civilians
invasion
witness
vote
Variation 1: Use each word to make a sentence, one
word at a time.
Variation 2: Chain story. Each one uses a word and
together make it into a logical story.
Focus on Vocabulary (3): expressions
Neither jailing nor beating nor bribing could
change his _____ of action.
On that day, King gave his _____ speech to tell the
world of his faith in the brotherhood of man.
Later that year, King was ____ the 1964 Nobel Prize
for peace.
In 1983 Congress set ____ the third Monday in
January to honor King’s birthday.
“We can no longer ____ our cooperation to an evil
system.”
Course, glorious, awarded, aside, lend
In November 1956 the United States Supreme Court
_____ an arrow into the heart of racial
discrimination…
The Montgomery bus boycott ______ King as a hero
for the nation’s black community.
His courage and public speaking abilities had _____
him the most respected leader of the civil rights
movement.
He organized protests and traveled and lectured
_____ and was arrested more than fifteen times.
shot, established, made, widely
Focus on form: particles
1) The civil rights movement bloomed ____the
leadership of Martin Luther King.
2) Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to yield her seat
on a bus ___ a white passenger.
3) The Supreme Court declared that the Alabama laws
did not accord ____ the Constitution.
4) The Montgomery bus boycott established King ____ a
hero for the nation’s black community.
5) He led a mass protest in Birmingham to appeal
____fair hiring practices and an end to segregation.
6) The movement does not seek to liberate Negroes
____ the expense of the whites. …It seeks no victory
____ anyone.
1) under 2) to 3) with 4) as 5) for 6) at, over
Summary of Dr. King’s life
Martin Luther King, the American ______ ______
leader and ______ of the Nobel Prize for Peace, was
______ in Atlanta, Georgia. He ______ to prominence
in the civil rights movement of the 1950s, _____ the
famous March on Washington in 1963. A _______
orator and writer, whose insistence upon ________ in
the Gandhian tradition accounted for the success
of the movement, Dr. King was ___________ on April 4,
1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, by a white man.
civil rights, winner, born, rose, led, brilliant,
nonviolence, assassinated
After-Class Tasks
Recommended videos
and movies:
Extra readings:
Separate but Equal
Martin Luther King Day
Boycott
Robert Kennedy’s eulogy
on King
Writing Task:
1) Focus on meaning: write about a celebrity you
like: general statements+ achievements
+comments (non-graded; writing-exchange)
2) Focus on form: p189 (graded)
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the
difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have
a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the
American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold
these truths to be self-evident: that all men are
created equal."
>>
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of
Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of
former slave owners will be able to sit down
together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of
Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of
injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an
oasis of freedom and justice.
>>
I have a dream that my four children will
one day live in a nation where they will
not be judged by the color of their skin
but by the content of their character.
>>
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of
Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently
dripping with the words of interposition and
nullification, will be transformed into a
situation where little black boys and black
girls will be able to join hands with little white
boys and white girls and walk together as
sisters and brothers.
>>
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley
shall be exalted, every hill and mountain
shall be made low, the rough places will
be made plain, and the crooked places
will be made straight, and the glory of the
Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together.
>>
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I
return to the South. With this faith we will be
able to hew out of the mountain of despair a
stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to
transform the jangling discords of our nation
into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With
this faith we will be able to work together, to
pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail
together, to stand up for freedom together,
knowing that we will be free one day.
>>
This will be the day when all of God's children will
be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country,
'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's
pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must
become true. So let freedom ring from the
prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom
ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let
freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania!
>>
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies
of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of
California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone
Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of
Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and every
molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside,
let freedom ring.
>>
When we let freedom ring, when we let it
ring from every village and every hamlet,
from every state and every city, we will be
able to speed up that day when all of
God's children, black men and white men,
Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and
Catholics, will be able to join hands and
sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,
"Free at last! free at last! thank God
Almighty, we are free at last!"
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