Essay on The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
Unit 1 Prompt – Argument
Write a four-paragraph essay that addresses the following prompt:
Individuals, when faced with conflict, tend to deal with it in different ways. These varied
approaches are shown through texts we have read this quarter. In an extended response,
argue - Which approach is best when dealing with conflict? You must include details from
at least two relevant sources (including the anchor text) for support.
Which approach is best?
Standards: write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant details (W.7.1)
Standards: support claims with logical reasoning and accurate, relevant evidence (W.7.1b)
In this essay you will identify the best approach to take when faced with a conflict.
Describe a scene from the novel that shows a character showing this approach. You will
then compare this approach to a real individual or group of people fighting for civil rights.
For example, some characters take a calm, logical approach to resolving a conflict. Mr.
Watson and Rufus use honesty and humor. Other characters assert their strength and try to
strike fear others to win in the conflict. Mrs. Watson and Larry Dunn take this approach.
Similarly, both approaches were used by groups and individuals who fought for civil
rights. Some took the path of civil disobedience and reasoning while others were willing
to achieve their rights using more forceful methods.
Argue which method is best . Show how effective it is when a character uses is it in the
novel. Show how an individual or group uses it during the Civil Rights Movement.
Include details from the novel and from the articles read in class or during your research.
Your essay will be evaluated using the Sachem rubric:
Constructed
Measure
Key Ideas and
Details
Score Point 4




Relevant
Accurate
Full comprehension
Strong examples
Development
 Clear and convincing
text-based evidence
 Elaboration of details
Organization
 Strong introduction
and conclusion
 Purposeful flow; easy
to follow
 Many varied transitions
used throughout
Clarity of
Language
Language and
Conventions
 Precise language
consistently
 Formal tone
 Effectively edited
 Few minor errors in
grammar
 Meaning is clear
Score Point 3




Relevant
Accurate
Overall Comprehension
Examples may lack
strength
 Clear text-based
evidence
 Some elaboration
 Includes an
introduction and a
conclusion
 Great deal of flow;
fairly easy to follow
 Some variety of
transitions used
 Mostly precise
language
 Attempt at formal tone
 Consistent with edited
writing
 Few distracting errors
in grammar
 Meaning is clear
Score Point 2
Score Point 1
Score Point 0
 Mostly accurate
 Basic comprehension
 Weak examples
 Minimally accurate
 Limited comprehension
 Listing of examples
 Inaccurate or no
analysis
 Little or no
comprehension of text
 Some development
 Examples may be
general
 Attempt at elaboration
 Includes an
introduction or a
conclusion
 Some flow; ideas
discernable; not
obvious
 Several transitions used
 Some precise language
 Attempt at formal
writing inconsistent
 Limited development
 Examples are weak,
repetitive
 No elaboration
 May be missing and
intro and/or conclusion
 Limited flow;
somewhat unclear
 Few or repetitive
transitions used
 Underdeveloped
 Answer incomplete
 Limited Language
 Informal style of
writing
 Inconsistent
understanding of
conventions
 Few patterns of errors
in grammar
 Occasionally impedes
understanding
 Limited understanding
of conventions
 Multiple errors in
grammar
 Occasionally impedes
understanding
 Little to no precise
language (uses slang)
 Inappropriate style of
formal writing
 Little to no
understanding of
conventions
 Frequent and varied
errors
 Frequently impedes
understanding
 May be missing an
intro and/or conclusion
 Lack of flow; unclear
 No transitions
Excerpt from the article: “Civil Rights Movement”
The first desegregation effort to capture national attention grew out of an incident in 1955, when an African
American woman named Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat on a crowded Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a
white man. When she was arrested, the African American community of Montgomery launched a boycott of the
city bus system, the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Led by a young, African American minister named Martin Luther
King Jr., the protest eventually succeeded in the integration of the city's buses.
Civil rights activists of the early 1960s experimented with a variety of nonviolent tactics, from acts of individual
defiance to mass marches and demonstrations. One of the most effective, the sit-in, was first put into practice in
1960 by four African American college students who refused to move from a segregated Woolworth's lunch
counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, unless they were served. In 1961, members of the Congress of Racial
Equality carried out another peaceful protest. Called the Freedom Riders, the group set out in two buses to
integrate bus stations from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans.
The summer of 1963 witnessed major milestones for the civil rights movement. The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, founded by King and other ministers, targeted Birmingham, Alabama, for a major
desegregation march dubbed Project C, for confrontation. The police responded by attacking the peaceful
protesters with batons, fire hoses, and dogs. Television and newsreel footage of the brutal assault shocked
viewers across the country and aroused a great deal of sympathy for the movement. That sympathy heightened
on August 28, 1963, when King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to 200,000 people following the
massive March on Washington.
“Civil Rights Movement” (2013). In American History. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from
http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/
desegregation: ending the separation of races
boycott: a form of protest in which consumers refuse to use goods or services
nonviolent tactics: methods that do not incorporate anger or violence
sit-in: a form of protest in which protesters sit peacefully in a particular space
integrate: to include all races
The Black Panthers
The Black Panthers were formed in
California in 1966 and they played a short
but important part in the civil
rights movement. The Black Panthers
believed that the non-violent campaign
of Martin Luther King had failed and any
promised changes to their lifestyle via the
'traditional' civil rights movement, would
take too long to be implemented or simply not introduced.
The language of the Black Panthers was violent as was their public stance. The two founders of
the Black Panther Party wereHuey Percy Newton and Bobby Seale. They preached for a
"revolutionary war" but though they considered themselves an African-American party, they
were willing to speak out for all those who were oppressed from whatever minority group. They
were willing to use violence to get what they wanted.
The Black Panther Party (BPP) had four desires : equality in education, housing, employment
and civil rights. It had a 10 Point Plan to get its desired goals.
The ten points of the party platform were:
1) "Freedom; the power to determine the destiny of the Black and oppressed
communities.
2) Full Employment; give every person employment or guaranteed income.
3) End to robbery of Black communities; the overdue debt of forty acres and two
mules as promised to ex-slaves during the reconstruction period following the
emancipation of slavery.
4) Decent housing fit for the shelter of human beings; the land should be made into
cooperatives so that the people can build.
5) Education for the people; that teaches the true history of Blacks and their role in
present day society.
6) Free health care; health facilities which will develop preventive medical
programs.
7) End to police brutality and murder of Black people and other people of color
and oppressed people.
8) End to all wars of aggression; the various conflicts which exist stem directly
from the United States ruling circle.
9) Freedom for all political prisoners; trials by juries that represent our peers.
10) Land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and community
control of modern industry."
The call for a revolutionary war against authority at the time of the Vietnam War, alerted the FBI
to the Black Panther's activities. Whatever happened, the FBI was successful in destroying the
Black Panther's movement.
Those who supported the BPP claim that the FBI used dirty tactics such as forging letters to
provoke conflict between the BPP's leaders; organising the murders of BPP leaders such as
John Huggins; initiating a "Black Propaganda" campaign to convince the public that the BPP
was a threat to national security; using infiltrators to commit crimes that could be blamed on the
BPP so that leaders could be arrested and writing threatening letters to jurors during trials so
that the BPP would be blamed for attempting to pervert the course of justice. Supporters of the
BPP claimed that this last tactic was used with success at the trial of the "Chicago Eight"
whereby the jury, apparently angered at being intimidated by the BPP, found the eight
members of the BPP guilty. None of the above tactics have ever been proved or admitted to by
the FBI.
In California, the party leader of Oakland, David Hilliard, claimed that the BPP was at the top of
the FBI's most wanted list. Hilliard also claimed that the then governor of California, Ronald
Reagan, constantly vilified the BPP.
"This caused a stigma to be placed upon the Black Panther Party
as Pied Pipers of cultural and social revolution characterising us
as the essence of violence, chaos and evil."
+-The head of the FBI, Edgar J Hoover, called the BPP "the greatest threat to the internal
security of the country." Hoover ordered field operatives of the FBI to introduce measures that
would cripple the BPP. Using infiltrators (one of these, William O'Neal, became Chief of
Security for the BPP), the FBI knew of all the movements etc of BPP leaders. FBI raids in BPP
heartlands - Chicago and Los Angeles - that led to the arrest of regional leaders, resulted in the
collapse of the movement.
To view the BPP as a purely revolutionary and violent movement is wrong. In areas of support
the BPP created a Free Food Program to feed those who could not afford to do so for
themselves; Free Medical Research Health Clinics to provide basic health care for those who
could not afford it and an Intercommunal Youth Band to give community pride to the movement.
In a book of his essays called "To Die for the People", Huey Newton wrote that these were
exactly what the African-American community wanted and that the BPP was providing its own
people with something the government was not. Such community projects have survived in
other guises, but after the demise of the BPP their lost their drive for a number of years.
Was there much support for the BPP? Were they 'Public Enemy Number One' as Hoover
claimed? In 1966, a survey carried out in America showed that less than 5% of AfricanAmericans approved of groups such as the BPP. 60% were positively hostile to such groups.
But were these survey results slanted in such a manner as to tarnish the name of the Black
Panthers at an early stage in its existence especially as the head of the FBI, Hoover, was
known to be very against the movement? In areas such as Oakland and parts of San Francisco
and South San Francisco where the BPP claimed to feed nearly 200,000 people, support would
have been a lot higher.
MLA Citation/Reference
"The Black Panthers". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2005. Web
Peaceful Protests that Bolstered Civil Rights
http://news.yahoo.com/martin-luther-king-jr---8-peaceful-protests-that-bolstered-civil-rights.html
From 1955 until his death in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was the dominant leader of the US civil
rights movement. Following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, the Rev. Dr. King believed that
nonviolent protest is the most effective weapon against a racist and unjust society. But it required
rallying people to his cause. Here are some of the most revolutionary peaceful protests King led.
Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-56
Lasting just over a year, the Montgomery bus boycott was a protest campaign against racial
segregation on the public transit system in Montgomery, Ala. The protest began, on Dec. 1, 1955,
after African-American Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white
person. The next day, Dr. King proposed a citywide boycott of public transportation at a church
meeting.
The boycott proved to be effective, causing the transit system to run a huge deficit. After all,
Montgomery’s black residents not only were the principal boycotters, but also the bulk of the transit
system’s paying customers. The situation became so tense that members of the White Citizens'
Council, a group that opposed racial integration, firebombed King's house.
In June 1956, a federal court found that the laws in Alabama and Montgomery requiring segregated
buses were unconstitutional. However, an appeal kept segregation intact until Dec. 20, 1956, when
the US Supreme Court upheld the district court's ruling. The boycott's official end signaled one of
thecivil rights movement's first victories and made King one of its central figures.
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 1963
Perhaps Dr. King’s most famous act as a civil rights leader came during the March
on Washingtonfor Jobs and Freedom, on Aug. 28, 1963. The largest political rally ever seen in
the US, it drew between 200,000 and 300,000 police and participants, to whom King delivered his
famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Among other things, the speech advocated racial harmony and economic rights for AfricanAmericans. Observers estimated that nearly 80 percent of the marchers were black.
Bloody Sunday, 1965
Dr. King and several other civil rights leaders organized three marches from Selma, Ala., to the
state capital of Montgomery, in a bid for voting rights for all.
The first, on Sunday, March 7, 1965, involved nearly 600 protesters who marched east from Selma
on US Highway 80, led by Jon Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the
Rev. Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King was not present
because he had church duties. But days before, King had met with government officials to try to
ensure the marchers would not be impeded. Even so, mob and police violence caused the march to
be aborted on that "bloody Sunday." When film footage of the police brutality was broadcast around
the country, it sparked widespread public outrage and helped to boost support for the civil rights
movement.
Of the event, King later wrote, “If I had any idea that the state troopers would use the kind of
brutality they did, I would have felt compelled to give up my church duties altogether to lead the
line.”
King tried to organize another march, but protesters did not succeed in getting to Montgomery until
March 25. The speech he delivered that day, on the steps of the state capitol, has since become
known as “How Long, Not Long.”
Bloody Sunday was a turning point for the civil rights movement, building public support and clearly
demonstrating King’s strategy of nonviolence.
Chicago, 1966
After successful demonstrations in the South, Dr. King and other civil rights leaders sought to
spread the movement north. They chose Chicago as their next destination to take on black urban
problems, especially segregation.
To show his commitment to the northern campaign, King rented an apartment in the slums of
NorthLawndale on the city's West Side. One Friday afternoon in August, King led about 700 people
on a march in Marquette Park on Chicago’s Southwest Side, a white enclave, to protest housing
segregation. Thousands of white people gathered, taunting King and the other protesters. At one
point, a brick hit King in the head, but he continued the march as onlookers hurled rocks, bottles,
and firecrackers at the marchers. Thirty people, including King, were injured.
Of the Chicago protest, King later said, “I have seen many demonstrations in the South, but I have
never seen anything so hostile and hateful as I’ve seen here today.” He continued, “I have to do this
– to expose myself – to bring this hate into the open.”
Vietnam War opposition, 1967
Dr. King, an opponent of the Vietnam War, denounced America's involvement in a series of
speeches at rallies and demonstrations. His first speech on the war itself, in 1967, was called
“Beyond Vietnam” and was delivered exactly one year before his assassination. In it, he criticized
the US government, insisting it was “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”
“A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.
With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West
investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with
no concern for the social betterment of countries, and say, ‘This is not just.’ ”
Later that year, King commented on the “cruel irony” of black Americans dying for a country that
treats them as second-class citizens.
“We were taking the young black men who had been crippled by our society and sending them
8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties, which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East
Harlem,” he said. “We have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white
boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them in
the same schools.”
King’s opposition to the Vietnam War cost him many white allies, including President Lyndon
Johnson and many members of the media. Criticizing one of his speeches, Life magazine called it
“demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi.” The Washington Post also said
King had “diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.”
In January 1968, the day after President Johnson’s State of the Union address, King called for a
march on Washington to protest what he called “one of history’s most cruel and senseless wars.”
'Poor People’s Campaign,' 1968
Organized by Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1968, the so-called
"poor people’s campaign" sought to address issues of economic justice and housing for the poor.
King traveled the country to assemble a diverse group of protesters representing the poor who
would march on Washington until Congress created a bill of rights for poor Americans.
After King's assassination in April 1968, SCLC members continued the campaign, organizing
protests in Washington, D.C. Joined by D.C.'s poor and homeless, the protesters effectively shut
down the city that summer. The bill of rights they envisioned never became law.