The Road to Civil Rights

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

Social Studies

Grade(s)

4

Overview

This is a series of lessons focusing on the Civil Rights Movement. The lessons include photographs depicting images of the Jim Crow laws. Students will take a closer look at the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments of the United States Constitution and at court cases that brought about changes during the Civil Rights Movement. Be sure to click "Read More" at the top of the collection to view the lesson that can be used with this collection.

Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 4

SS10.4.9

Analyze political and economic issues facing Alabama during Reconstruction for their impact on various social groups.

UP:SS10.4.9

Vocabulary

  • Reconstruction
  • political parties
  • "Redeemer" Democrats
  • Radical Republicans
  • military rule
  • readmittance
  • restoration
  • Union
  • scarcity

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Alabama faced many political issues during Reconstruction including military rule, presence of Freedmen's Bureau, and Alabama's readmittance to the Union.
  • Alabama faced many economic issues during Reconstruction including sharecropping, tenant farming, scarcity of goods and money.
  • Many African Americans, including James Rapier, Benjamin Turner, William Savery, and Jeremiah Haralson, had an impact on Alabama during Reconstruction.
  • The major political parties in Alabama, including Radical Republicans, Bourbon Democrats, and Populists.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify political issues facing Alabama during Reconstruction including military rule, presence of Freedmen's Bureau, and Alabama's readmittance to the Union.
  • Identify economic issues facing Alabama during Reconstruction including sharecropping, tenant farming, scarcity of goods and money.
  • Summarize the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
  • Recall African Americans who had an impact on Alabama during Reconstruction in Alabama.
  • Identify major political parties in Alabama during Reconstruction.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Reconstruction was the rebuilding of Alabama's government and economy after the Civil War.
  • Alabama had to meet several specific criteria before being granted re-admittance to the Union and that the criteria was see as controversial by some people in the state.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 4

SS10.4.10

Analyze social and educational changes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for their impact on Alabama.

UP:SS10.4.10

Vocabulary

  • implementation
  • agriculture
  • "separate but not equal"
  • Populism
  • suffrage

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The social impact of the implementation of the Plessey v. Ferguson "separate but not equal" court decision and the birth of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on Alabama.
  • The educational changes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries impacted Alabama in several ways including the establishment of normal schools and land-grant colleges such as Huntsville Normal School (Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical [A&M] University), Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama (Auburn University), Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (Tuskegee University), Lincoln Normal School (Alabama State University).
  • The changing role of industry, trade, and agriculture in Alabama during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the rise of Populism.
  • The purposes and the effects of Jim Crow Laws.
  • Important Alabamians who made contributions in the fields of science, education, the arts, politics, and business during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries including Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Jesse Owens, Tallulah Bankhead, W.C. Handy, Helen Keller, Patti Ruffner Jacobs, and Julia Tutwiler.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Identify social changes in Alabama including implementation of the Plessey versus Ferguson "separate but not equal" court decision, birth of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
  • Identify educational changes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for their impact on Alabama including the establishment of normal schools and land-grant colleges such as Huntsville Normal School (Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical [A&M] University), Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama (Auburn University), Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (Tuskegee University), Lincoln Normal School (Alabama State University).
  • Identify the cause and effect relationship between the development and changing role of industry, trade, and agriculture in Alabama during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the rise of Populism.
  • Interpret the Jim Crow laws.
  • Identify Alabamians who made contributions in the fields of science, education, the arts, politics, and business during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Industry and agriculture in Alabama saw many changes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
  • Social (racial) injustices occurred in Alabama during this time and these injustices impacted Alabama.
  • Many key Alabamians had an impact on the world of education.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 4

SS10.4.14

Analyze the modern Civil Rights Movement to determine the social, political, and economic impact on Alabama.

UP:SS10.4.14

Vocabulary

  • analyze
  • interpret
  • discrimination
  • prejudice
  • protest (violent and non-violent)
  • boycott
  • sit-in
  • segregation
  • integration
  • Jim Crow
  • suffrage
  • rights
  • NAACP

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Many of the key leaders that were vital to the modern Civil Rights movement including Martin Luther King, Jr.; George C. Wallace; Rosa Parks; Fred Shuttlesworth; John Lewis; Malcolm X; Thurgood Marshall; Hugo Black; and Ralph David Abernathy.
  • How the Montgomery Bus Boycott and other forms of protest impacted Alabama's economy.
  • How the many forms of non-violent protests were used to help African Americans in Alabama gain equality including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Selma-to-Montgomery March, and children's marches.
  • African Americans in Alabama were often the victims of violence while trying to gain equality (Sixteenth Street Church bombing, Freedom Riders bus bombing).

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Recognize important persons of the modern Civil Rights Movement, including Martin Luther King, Jr.; George C. Wallace; Rosa Parks; Fred Shuttlesworth; John Lewis; Malcolm X; Thurgood Marshall; Hugo Black; and Ralph David Abernathy.
  • Describe events of the modern Civil Rights Movement, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, the Freedom Riders bus bombing, and the Selma-to-Montgomery March.
  • Interpret primary sources such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Brown versus Board of Education Supreme Court case of 1954, and Letters from the Birmingham Jail.
  • Use vocabulary associated with the modern Civil Rights Movement, including discrimination, prejudice, segregation, integration, suffrage, and rights.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Many individuals and events had a social, political, and economic impact on the people of Alabama during the modern Civil Rights Movement. There were many benefits of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Brown v. Board (1954).
  • The doctrine of separate but equal called for specific things.
  • These events also had a significant impact on the nation.

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

Smithsonian
ALSDE LOGO