Mr. Holmes
6th Grade Social Studies
CIVIL RIGHTS UNIT
JANUARY 20-23, 2015
Learning Targets
Students will understands the
struggle for racial and gender
equality and for the extension of
civil liberties.
Students will understands
economic, social, and cultural
developments in the contemporary
United States.
Learning Targets
 Students will understand the role of diversity in
American life and the importance of shared values,
political beliefs, and civic beliefs in an increasingly
diverse American society.
 Students will understand issues concerning the
disparities between ideals and reality in American
political and social life.
Objectives
Students will understand the following:
1. Beyond the famous leaders of the Civil Rights
Movement, ordinary men and women struggled for
their beliefs.
2. All the participants—famous and not so famous—
deserve to have their stories told.
3. Older people have a responsibility to pass on these
stories to younger people.
Vocabulary
Civil rights- Definition: The nonpolitical rights of a
citizen; the rights of personal liberty guaranteed to
U.S. citizens by the 13th and 14th Amendments to
the Constitution and by acts of Congress.
Context: The civil rights movement was an effort to
establish citizenship rights for blacks—rights that
whites took for granted, such as voting and freely
using public facilities.
Vocabulary
Discrimination- Definition: The act, practice, or an
instance of discriminating categorically rather than
individually; prejudiced or prejudicial outlook,
action, or treatment.
Context: The 15th Amendment prohibited racial
discrimination in voting.
Poll tax- Definition: A tax of a fixed amount per
person levied on adults.
Context:The poll tax was a voting fee charged to
reduce the number of blacks that were eligible to
vote.
Vocabulary
Hate crime- Definition: assault or destruction of
property motivated by hostility to the victim as a
member of a group (as one based on color, creed,
gender, or sexual orientation).
Context: Federal hate crime laws were used to bring
some of the murderers in the civil rights movement
to justice, since state criminal courts had failed to do
so.
Vocabulary
Martyr- Definition: A. person who sacrifices
something of great value and especially life itself for
the sake of principle
Context:P erhaps the most famous martyr of the
civil rights movement was Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., whose life was taken so early.
Emancipation- Definition: freedom from slavery.
Vocabulary
Segregation- Definition: The separation or isolation
of a race, class, or ethnic group by enforced or
voluntary residence in a restricted area, by barriers
to social intercourse, by separate educational
facilities, or by other discriminatory means.
Context: The state-sanctioned segregation in the
South was intended to keep the races apart,
particularly in Alabama, where Birmingham was the
most segregated city in the South.
Vocabulary
Prejudice- Definition: prejudging or making a
decision about a person or group of people without
sufficient knowledge. Prejudicial thinking is
frequently based on stereotypes.
Stereotype- Definition: an oversimplified
generalization about a person or group of people
without regard for individual differences. Even
seemingly positive stereotypes that link a person or
group to a specific positive trait can have negative
consequences.
Vocabulary
Abolition- Definition: ending, termination, or
extinction of something. Context: the termination
of unjust laws; the abolition of unfair taxes. Represents
the legal ending of slavery, especially of Blacks.
Suffrage- Definition: the right to vote in political
elections. Context: in America women and blacks
weren’t allowed to vote until the government passed
the 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 25th amendments,
allowing all men and women over the age of 18 to
vote, abolishing poll taxes as well.
Agenda
Jan. 5-12
 Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of
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

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Education Activity
Essential Questions:
Is it ever just to break the law?
How did Homer Plessy and Orval Faubus break the
law?
What are some of the differences between what they
did and how they were punished?
Objectives for: Plessy vs. Ferguson & Brown vs.
Board of Education
 Students will be able to analyze political
cartoons.
 Students will be able to identify and
explain the issues of Plessy v.
Ferguson and of the integration of
Little Rock’s Central High School.
 Students will be able to analyze the
complex issues behind breaking laws
Essential Questions
 Is it ever just to break the law?
 How did Homer Plessy and Orval Faubus break the
law?
 What are some of the differences between what they
did and how they were punished?
Do Now
What is
happening in
this political
cartoon?
Who is
breaking the
law?
Plessy vs.
Ferguson trial
explanation
Do Now
Analyze this
photo. What
do you see?
What do you
think is
happening
and why?
 ___________________________
Do Now
Jan. 9, 2015
Fill in the
blanks with
the correct
vocabulary
words.
is the act or practice of discriminating
categorically rather than individually.
 The assault or destruction of property
motivated by hostility or hatred towards
the victim as a member of a group
based on race, religion, or gender (male
or female) is known as a
___________________________.
 A ______________________ is an
oversimplified generalization about a
person or group of people without
regard for individual differences.
Plessy vs. Ferguson & Brown vs. Board of Education
Activity
Plessy vs. Ferguson & Brown vs. Board of Education
Activity
Plessy vs. Ferguson Discussion Questions
 Should all laws be followed?
 Do people have the right to choose what laws they
will follow? Why or why not?
 Should Homer Plessy be considered a criminal?
Should he be considered a hero?
 Does Plessy’s premeditated planning to break the
law make his crime more or less heinous? Why?
Brown vs. Board of Education Discussion Questions
 Who broke the law?
 Why do you think that Orval Faubus broke the law
against segregation in schools? How did that affect
white and black residents of Little Rock?
 What should his punishment have been?
 How does this crime compare to that of Homer
Plessy?
Do Now: 01/12/15
 Write a paragraph summary of
the brief video clip detailing the
Plessy v. Feguson and Brown v.
Board of Education court cases
and how each began and ended
legal segregation.
 Plessy v. Ferguson & Brown v.
Board of Education video
summary
Lesson Activity: 01/12/15
 Choose one of the “crimes” and draw a
four-frame comic strip that depicts its
important events.
 You will do this activity in pairs and it
must be turned in with each student’s
name on the back.
Plessy v. Ferguson-Brown v. Board of Education
Put this quotation in their own words, do you agree or disagree with Dr.
King?
You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly
a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's
decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem
rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: 'How can you
advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?' The answer lies in the fact that there
are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws.
One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one
has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that
'an unjust law is no law at all.'
Now, what is the difference between the two? A just law is a man made code that
squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of
harmony with the moral law. Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of
the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation
ordinances, for they are morally wrong.
Homework- 01/12/15
 Students will write a 1 page essay on a topic of their




choice:
Are all crimes equal? Why or why not?
If laws are unfair, should we break them?
Are there crimes for which we should not be
punished? If so, which crimes and why?
Evaluate the quotation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Lesson Activity 01/13/15
 Battle Cry For Freedom
 Essential Question: What measures did African-
Americans take in order to gain equality?
 Rationale: Students will understand how far Civil
Rights movement has come and how far it still has to
go. Although everyone is equal, not everyone is
treated the same.
 Objective: Identify various forms of civil rights
disobedience
Lesson Activity-01/13/15 cont.
 Standards:
 Students will evaluate federal civil rights and voting
rights developments since the 1950’s.
 Students will develop skills for historical analysis
 Vocabulary:
 Civil disobedience- nonviolent opposition to a
government policy or law by refusing to comply with
it on the grounds of consicience.
Lesson Activity-01/13/15 cont.
 Do Now:
 Create a concept map of what civil rights consist of.
 You will only get 5-10 minutes to complete this.
 Fill out the map using prior knowledge
 Homework:
 Write a journal entry through the eyes of a teenage
African American during the Civil Rights movement.
That means 2 paragraphs as a journal entry.
 What do you see, feel, and hear?
Lesson Activity-01/13/15 cont.
 Role-playing activity in groups of 3-4 by analyzing
photos of events during civil rights movement.
 You will be writing out your skit and turning it in
immediately after performing your brief skit for the
class. Please take this activity seriously as it will be a
major part of your grade for this unit on Civil
Rights!!!
Do Now
01/21/15
What did you
find most
interesting
about the
civil rights
unit? Be
specific and
provide
details.
Visual
Resources
Check out
some of the
resources
dealing
with civil
rights in the
early 20th
century.
 Timeline on racism during and
after World War II
 Images of actual civil rights
movement issues during the
1950's and 1960's