LESSON PLANS
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MIDDLE SCHOOL
HIGH SCHOOL
HIGH SCHOOL HANDOUT
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - LESSON PLANS
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL K-3
Purpose: Students experience unequal treatment first hand and discuss fairness to understand the
meaning of equality. Students will learn about the life and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King and write
about what his dream for equality means in their own lives.
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
• Define equality
• Learn about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Identify key words in MLK’s teachings on nonviolence.
• Write or draw pictures of what equality means to them.
Grades:
K-3
Duration:
60 minutes
Materials:
Law Day Stickers
Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport.
http://www.amazon.com/Martins-Big-Words-Martin-Luther/dp/0786807148#_
Introduction
Explain to the students that they will be participating in a short activity to help them think about this
year’s Law Day theme which they will be learning about later on. Tell the students that during the activity not everything will be fair but after the activity is over they will all be treated fairly. Pass out Law
Day stickers to only the students who share a certain characteristic. Tell students the characteristic.
For example, "All of the students wearing black shoes, or brown eyes get a sticker today."
Pass out stickers to the students with the characteristic mentioned and encourage all students to
share their feelings about what has just happened.
Possible prompts:
• Does this seem right?
• What if I said that only the students with stickers get to go to lunch and recess first?
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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - LESSON PLANS
• How would you feel about coming to school?
Discuss with students why this isn’t fair and then pass out stickers to everyone. Explain that another
word for fairness is equality. This year’s Law Day theme is about equality. Today they will be learning about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who fought for equality in the United States throughout
his life.
Ask students to think about how Martin felt about the unfair treatment of people and how he tried to
solve the problem as you read.
Read Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport.
Stop throughout the story to check for understanding: What people were not treated equally/fairly?
What does segregation mean? How did MLK “fight” the problem?
Discussion
Ask students to respond to the reading.
• How did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. use big words?
• Can you think of times when you used your words to solve a problem?
• What was MLK’s dream?
• How can we keep his dream alive today?
Writing/Art Connection
Ask students to write or draw illustrations of what equality means or looks like to them. You could also
ask students to choose different ‘big words’ from the story to write or draw about.
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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 3-6
Rights and responsibilities of citizens: Why Should We Care?
Overview
• Students identify the some of their rights as citizens & responsibilities that accompany their rights.
• Students think about whether or not they have a responsibility to protect not only their rights but the
rights of others as well to improve government and society
Discussion with students Use board or chart paper to list answers
• What are some of the rights we have as citizens?
• How do we know that we have these rights? Where do they come from? (The U.S. Constitution, Bill
of Rights, laws)
• Do we have responsibilities that go along with these rights?
• What are they?
• In three groups students read through a short scenario to help think about what responsibilities accompany various rights.
Scenarios:
The Right to Vote
You are about to vote in an upcoming election. You can vote for or against three proposed laws. You
must choose between two people running for president. What responsibilities should you have? What
could happen if citizens didn’t fulfill these responsibilities?
Freedom of Religion
You believe in a particular religion but some people in your community believe in a different religion
or in no religion. What responsibilities do you have toward one another to protect your religious freedom? What would happen if citizens didn’t fulfill these responsibilities?
The Right to Be Treated Equally
A store owner in your community was in the Vietnam War and won’t allow people of Vietnamese ancestry to shop in his store. You are not Vietnamese and the store owner is always nice to you. What
responsibilities do you have as a member of the community?
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Discuss which scenarios require citizens to be responsible for themselves and which scenarios ask
citizens to be responsible to protect the rights of others. Why might this be important?
What could happen if citizens only worried about their own rights and not the rights of others?
Journal Reflections
Ask students to respond to one of the following quotes in their journal. How does the quote relate to
the rights and responsibilities of citizens? How does the person being quoted feel about the responsibility citizens have to protecting each other’s rights? How do you feel about this? If there is time students can discuss their thoughts as a class.
Reflection Quotes
In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t
speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came
for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then
they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.
!
!
– Martin Niemoeller
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere
!
!
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress
and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough
to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our
own.
– Cesar Chavez
As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved it's the citizen who changes things.
!
!
– Jose Saramago
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A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred group start down the
path either to dictatorship of the right or the left.
– Justice William O. Douglas
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
!
!
– Edmund Burke
It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into
error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling
into error.
!
!
– Justice Robert H. Jackson
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MIDDLE SCHOOL
Equality for All: Do we need an Equal Rights Amendment? (Lesson Choice A)
Overview: Students will learn about the history and current relevance of the Equal Rights Amendment
and participate in a mini debate on the topic.
Note to lawyer in the classroom: You may want to make students aware of what their own state constitution mandates regarding equal rights. Twenty-two states currently provide either inclusive or partial
guarantees of equal rights on the basis of sex in their constitutions.
Warm-up
Have students take a stand. Ask students to decide if they agree or disagree with the following statement. Tell students to agree to go to one corner of the room, those who disagree can go to the opposite
corner, and those who are not absolutely decided can go in the middle.
Statement: Women and men have equal rights under the law in this country. Have students in
each group share reasons why they agreed, disagreed, or were undecided. Note reasons on the board
for referral later. After the discussion students can return to their seats.
Introduce the brief history of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to students.
Be sure to post the ERA text for students to see and reference.
Brief History of the Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was written by suffragist leader Alice Paul.
(http://www.alicepaul.org/alicepaul.htm)
Alice Paul was born into a Quaker family in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, in 1885. The Quaker faith strongly supported equality among men and women and this had a lasting impact on Alice. She was the founder of
the National Women’s Party and led protests at the White House, and was even jailed in her efforts to
fight for women’s right to vote. In 1920 the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified and
guaranteed the right to vote for all American women. Alice believed that the Equal Rights Amendment
was the next necessary step to achieve equal rights for both men and women.
The ERA was first introduced in Congress in 1923 and reintroduced every year until it was passed by Congress in 1972 and sent to the states with a seven-year deadline for ratification. Phyllis Schlafly
(http://www.eagleforum.org/about/bio.html) founded the National Committee to Stop ERA in 1972. Congress extended the ratification deadline to June 30, 1982 and the ERA received only 35 of the necessary
38 state ratifications. The amendment has been reintroduced in every session of Congress since that
time.
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Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her
1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo, on the history of the Republican National Conventions. She founded
Eagle forum, a national volunteer organization. In 1972, she led the pro-family movement and organized
the Stop ERA campaign to prevent further state ratification of the amendment. Phyllis argued that the
ERA would take away certain gender specific privileges for women.
Text from the ERA
Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of
this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
ERA Vocabulary Terms
Suffragist – a person who supports the right to vote for a particular group, for example, to women.
Amendment – a revision
Legislation – the making of laws or the process of writing and passing laws
Ratification – agreement or approval
Class Debate: Should the ERA be added to the United States Constitution?
Note to lawyer in the classroom– It is important to inform students that during this debate they will be
making arguments based on assigned groups and not their own opinions. It is alright if they personally disagree with the side they are assigned to. They will have an opportunity to share their own opinions at the
end of the debate.
This is an exercise to help students think about the issue, articulate their ideas, and consider
different view-points. It is not a mock trial.
Phase 1
Divide the class into three groups—Group A, Group B, and Group C. Have students review the arguments for and against the ERA. Groups may also want to refer to the following websites:
Pro ERA: www.equalrightsamendment.org
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Anti- ERA: www.eagleforum.org/era/
2. Ask Group A to imagine that they are advocating equal rights to women on the basis of the Equal
Rights Amendment (ERA) to a group of delegates at a Constitution Convention. Ask Group B to imagine
that they are arguing a viewpoint opposite to that of Group A to the delegates. The two sides are debating if the Equal Rights Amendment should be added to the United States Constitution.
3. Instruct both groups to review and discuss the arguments for their position carefully. Have groups
write down the most important points that they want to present to the delegates. Assist them in their discussion. Remind students to refer to the arguments they brainstormed in taking a stand. They will need to
support arguments with facts.
4. Instruct Group C about their roles, duties, and responsibilities as delegates at a Constitutional Convention. The delegates will need to listen carefully to all arguments presented. They will be making their decision based on the information presented and not their personal opinions. After both sides have presented
the delegates will discuss which side they are in favor of and why.
5. Instruct Group A and Group B to choose two people as their spokespersons. Group C should choose
two presiding delegates. The presiding delegates will deliver their final decision to the entire class.
Phase 2: The Debate
1) Ask the spokesperson from Group A to present their views before the delegates.
2) Ask the spokesperson from Group B to present their views before the delegates.
3) Give the groups time for preparing and presenting two rounds of rebuttal.
Phase 3: The Verdict
1) Ask the delegates to discuss aloud the debates and to draw a conclusion.
2) Instruct Groups A and B to observe the delegates’ decision-making process, without intervening.
3) Invite the presiding delegates to pronounce the delegates’ decision.
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Concluding Discussion
Encourage students to share their own thoughts on the issue outside of the assigned group roles. Ask
students to repeat Take a Stand. Has anyone changed their view since the beginning of the class? Why
or why not?
• Do you think we still need the ERA if the 14th Amendment guarantees all citizens equal protection
of the laws?
• Do you think it would significantly impact women’s current or future role in the military?
• What would be the two most significant reasons to pass the ERA? What would be the two most
significant reasons not to pass the ERA?
Arguments to Support the Equal Rights Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees equal protection of the laws to all U.S.
citizens. However, when legal cases involving women who are discriminated against based on gender
come up before the courts across the country, the judgments are often contradictory and not uniform.
The ERA offers a legal standard by which complaints based on gender discrimination may be judged in
the same way.
The ERA would clarify the legal status of sex discrimination for the courts, where decisions still deal inconsistently with such claims. For the first time, sex would be considered a suspect classification, as race currently is.
Without the ERA, the Constitution does not directly state that the rights it protects are held equally by all
citizens without regard to sex. The first – and still the only – right specifically affirmed as equal for women
and men is the right to vote.
The ERA would provide a strong legal defense against a decision that would violate significant advances
made in women’s rights made in the past 50 years. Without it, Congress can weaken or replace existing
laws on women’s rights.
Without the ERA, women regularly and men occasionally have to fight long, expensive, and difficult legal
battles in an effort to prove that their rights are equal to those of the other sex.
The ERA would improve the United States’ human rights standing in the world community. The governing
documents of many other countries state the legal gender equality including countries constitutions have
been written under the direction of the U.S. government.
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Arguments Against the Equal Rights Amendment
U.S. Supreme Court has itself interpreted the federal constitution as prohibiting sex discrimination, without needing the ERA.
The ERA will invalidate all state laws, designed to protect the family and will be replaced by laws making
women equally liable for financial responsibilities. The stability of families will be undermined by this drastic
change in wives' legal status.
The ERA would mean that women would also be treated the same as men in a military draft and forced
into combat.
The ERA will lower the social security benefits for wives, mothers, and widows. When a husband and wife
reach retirement age, the husband receives his social security check based on his earnings, and his wife
additionally receives a social security check that is 50% of the benefits paid to her husband. If her husband passes away and she becomes a widow then she will receive the full amount previously paid to her
husband. If the ERA was added to the Constitution social security benefits would only go to individuals
with paying jobs, not stay at home mothers or wives.
The ERA will eliminate privacy between the sexes in hospitals, prisons, schools, or other public accommodations.
The ERA will wipe out state labor laws and guidelines which benefit women in industry who do heavy,
manual work.
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MIDDLE SCHOOL
The Dream Today (Lesson Choice B)
In this lesson, students analyze a political cartoon, and in discussing its meaning, also have a conversation about equal rights. For use in the classroom, a handout-ready version of the cartoon below, as
well as a download-ready. PowerPoint® presentation that includes the cartoon, are available for free
download at www.lawday.org.
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Activity
Project or distribute handout copies of the cartoon to students. Ask the students to describe what
they see in the cartoon.
Students will likely describe the billboard, the face of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the words on the
sign. Other items in the photo that might be observed include the spotlights, ladder, paint cans, and
paintbrushes, as well as the sky and the tree. Depending on the students’ background, an explanation that this is a political cartoon, which is meant to convey an idea, rather than provide amusement,
might be appropriate.
Ask students to discuss the cartoon with the following questions:
• What is happening in the cartoon? In what season do you think the cartoon is set?
• Who is on the billboard? Have you heard these words before? Where do they come from?
• What do you think the “dream” is?
• What do you think the cartoonist was trying to suggest with this cartoon? Why?
• Are there other messages that you think the cartoonist is trying to convey?
• Do you think that the ladder, paint can, or paintbrushes are significant? Why?
• Do you think that the spotlights are significant? Why?
• Do you agree with the messages that the cartoonist might be sending? Why or why not?
The cartoon refers to King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, in which the “dream” serves as a powerful metaphor for justice and racial equality. The word “dream” can have different meanings, but generally, for King, referred to an aspiration, a promise, a vision of what might or should be in the future,
but is not yet in the present. The cartoonist, in depicting an unfinished billboard with reference to Dr.
King’s speech, might be conveying multiple messages. He might be suggesting that King’s dream for
racial equality is not yet finished, like the billboard. In displaying the ladder, paint cans, and paintbrushes, the cartoonist may be suggesting that the tools to “complete” the dream are available. He
may also be suggesting that a painter, potentially a path to “completing” the dream, was once working, but has stopped. Or, perhaps the painter was painting over the billboard. As viewers, we are unsure of the circumstances surrounding the painter’s work and absence—why, how, and length of
time. Encourage students to consider all of these possibilities, and the ideas that they convey.
Lead students into a conversation about Dr. King’s dream, and discuss the following questions:
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• In what ways do you think that Dr. King’s dream has been realized? What policies and laws can you
think of that have made this possible?
• Do you think that it is important, as King proclaimed, for the nation to “rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed,” that “all men are created equal?”
• What makes “equality” possible?
• In what ways do you think that Dr. King’s dream has not been realized, or is unfinished?
• Do you think our country faces new or different challenges than the ones that Dr. King mentioned?
What challenges or problems does our nation face today?
Wrap up discussion by exploring ways that students might work to ensure equality for everyone in
their communities.
Ask a student to read or watch the “I Have a Dream” speech and research its significance and impact. Then ask them to explain—e.g., through writing, cartoons, poems, videos– a dream that might
eliminate a problem facing our nation today.
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HIGH SCHOOL
Modern Day Slavery: Human Trafficking (Lesson Choice A)
Overview: Students will learn about human trafficking in the United States and read a short profile of human trafficking survivors as they think about the human rights that are violated in this modern form of slavery.
Students will be able to:
• Define human trafficking and identify the international and United States policies that exist to prevent human trafficking.
• Create a public awareness poster on human trafficking directed at student peers.
Topic Introduction:
This year marks one hundred fifty years since the Emancipation Proclamation. Does anyone know what
the Emancipation Proclamation is and why it is important?
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed slaves in the
states that had seceded from the Union. This proclamation did not end slavery but it was a symbolic beginning step in the fight for freedom.
Do you think that slavery still exists today? Do you think that it exists in the United States?
Today we are going to read several true stories about the modern day slave trade, human trafficking, that
is happening around the world and even in the United States.
Student Reading & Discussion
Have students read a story about a human trafficking survivor and then work in groups to answer the discussion questions. All story excerpts are from the Polaris Project at www.polarisproject.org
Natalia | Domestic Servitude Labor Trafficking
Thirteen year old Natalia was told by her parents she was moving to the United States with family friends
who would allow her to receive an education and learn English.
Born and raised in a small village in Ghana, Natalia’s family was struggling to pay the school fees for their
children’s education and welcomed the opportunity for Natalia to receive an education in the United
States.
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Shortly after she arrived in the United States, the father she was living with began to physically and sexually abuse the young girl, creating a constant environment of fear for Natalia. For the next six years she
was forced to clean the house, wash clothes, cook, and care for their three children, often working 18
hours a day while receiving no form of payment. She was never allowed to enroll in school as the family
had promised, go outside, or even use the phone. One day, after she was severely beaten, Natalia saw
an opportunity to run away from the home and a neighbor called the police. She was then taken to a local hospital for medical care. The nurse assisting Natalia was aware of the National Human Trafficking Resource Center and referred her to Polaris Project New Jersey.
The Polaris Project New Jersey team met Natalia at the local hospital and immediately coordinated emergency services including clothing, a safe shelter, counseling, emotional support and case management.
Now, nearly a year later, she is volunteering at a local animal rescue shelter, participating in a weekly poetry workshop, and is pursuing her education to become a nurse.
Sabine | Domestic Servitude
Sabine was the only member of her family to survive the genocide in Rwanda, so she agreed when a
wealthy family offered her a chance to move to America with them. Shortly after arrival, however, she was
imprisoned in their home; forced to work around the clock and made to sleep on the kitchen floor. Finally
after six months of servitude, Sabine was allowed to go to church for an hour each Sunday. On one visit,
she was approached by a kind Rwandan man who learned of her situation and helped her escape. He
took Sabine to one of our partner agencies who immediately referred her to Polaris Project. Brittany | Escort Service Sex Trafficking
A man approached Brittany at a mall in her hometown, asked if she was looking for a job, and gave her a
business card for a local restaurant he owned. When Brittany called the number on the card, the man confirmed that he was looking for waitresses to start working immediately. Brittany needed the job and asked
for the restaurant’s address, but the man told her he would pick her up at the mall where they first met.
Instead of going to the restaurant, the man drove her to a nearby hotel and told her that she was going to
be a prostitute instead of a waitress. At gunpoint, Brittany was forced to drink bottles of vodka and take
blue pills that made her dizzy and disoriented. Brittany tried to look for help but was locked in the hotel
room without access to a phone. After three days of being beaten, drugged, and forced to have sex with
men, Brittany managed to escape and asked the first car she saw to call the police. Polaris Project provided case management services to Brittany, and, with time and a strong support system, she was able
to enroll in school.
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Discussion Questions: What human rights were taken away from the survivor? What made the person
in the reading vulnerable to human trafficking? What other people might be vulnerable to human trafficking?
You might want to have students refer to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at:
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
Class Brainstorm on Human Trafficking
Have a large piece of chart paper available for class brainstorming. Write the following across the top of
the paper and ask students to share their thoughts. Assure students that it is okay if they don’t know the
answers to these questions, this activity is to get everyone thinking.
Human Trafficking:
• Who (ask students who they think is vulnerable to human trafficking?)
• Why (why are people vulnerable to be preyed upon by traffickers? To do what kind of work?)
• How (How might people be put in this position?)
Share Human Trafficking Definition & Infographic with Students
Human trafficking is a criminal activity in which people are recruited, harbored, transported, bought, or
kidnapped for forced labor, sex labor, or to become a child soldier. Traffickers lure individuals with false
promises of employment and a better life. Traffickers often take advantage of poor, unemployed individuals who lack access to social services.
The United States Law: Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) further states that human trafficking is the recruitment of individuals for labor by force, fraud, or coercion.
http://www.dhs.gov/human-trafficking-laws-regulations
Student Discussion Question
• Were each of the survivors that we read about obtained for labor? Was this done by force, fraud,
coercion, or a combination?
Looking at the Law: Human Trafficking
Ask students to think about:
What is it about human trafficking that might make it a hard crime to prevent? What levels of government
do you think should be responsible for creating laws to prevent human trafficking? State, National, International? Why?
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• Have students read excerpts from the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) and
the Presidential Proclamation – National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention
Month, 2012 in groups.
• Project Extension: Have students create a public awareness poster on this issue for their peers.
Ask students to think about what would be helpful for people their age to know about human trafficking and how to gain their attention.
Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) modified from the Polaris Project
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 created the first comprehensive federal law to address human trafficking, with a significant focus on the international dimension of the problem along with
a framework to fight trafficking at state and local levels. The law provided a three-pronged approach: prevention through public awareness programs overseas and a State Department-led monitoring and sanctions program; protection through a new T-Visa and services for foreign national victims; and prosecution through new federal crimes.
The TVPA was reauthorized in 2003, 2005, and 2008 to provide great protections for U.S. citizen victims.
In September 2012 President Obama gave an executive order to strengthen protections against trafficking in federal contracts. The following is a summary of key provisions.
Prevention
• An Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking is created within the State Department which is required to report on and rank countries’ efforts to combat trafficking.
• The President may impose sanctions on countries that are neither in compliance with minimum
standards for elimination of trafficking nor are making significant efforts to do so.
• Creates public awareness and information programs, and international economic development programs to assist potential victims.
• Requires the U.S. government to provide detailed information about human trafficking, worker’s
rights, and access to available assistance to all applicants for work and education based visas.
• Requires the Department of Labor to work toward preventing U.S. citizens from using goods produced or extracted with slave labor and provide of list of goods produced by slave labor and child
labor.
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Protection
• Gives protection and assistance to certain foreign national victims of trafficking, by making them eligible for the Federal Witness Protection Program and other federal and state benefits to the same
extent as refugees. Benefits include educational, health care, job training and other social service
programs.
• Establishes the T Visa, which allows victims of trafficking to become temporary U.S. residents,
through which they may become eligible for permanent residency after three years.
• Authorizes new programs to serve as U.S. citizen victims of domestic human trafficking, including a
pilot program for sheltering minors.
Prosecution
• Makes human trafficking a federal crime with severe penalties.
• Mandates that restitution be paid to victims.
• Expands criminal liability to those persons or organizations that financially benefit from human trafficking crimes, as well as obstruction and conspiracy.
National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month
Excerpts from January 2012 Presidential Proclamation:
Human trafficking endangers the lives of millions of people around the world, and it is a crime that knows no borders.
Trafficking networks operate both domestically and transnationally, and although abuses disproportionally affect
women and girls, the victims of this ongoing global tragedy are men, women, and children of all ages. Around the
world, we are monitoring the progress of governments in combating trafficking while supporting programs aimed at its
eradication. From forced labor and debt bondage to forced commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary domestic
servitude, human trafficking leaves no country untouched. With this knowledge, we rededicate ourselves to forging robust international partnerships that strengthen global anti-trafficking efforts, and to confronting traffickers here at home.
My Administration continues to implement our comprehensive strategy to combat human trafficking in America. By coordinating our response across Federal agencies, we are working to protect victims of human trafficking with effective
services and support, prosecute traffickers through consistent enforcement, and prevent human rights abuses by furthering public awareness and addressing the root causes of modern slavery. The steadfast defense of human rights is
an essential part of our national identity, and as long as individuals suffer the violence of slavery and human trafficking,
we must continue the fight.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in
me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 2012 as National Slavery and
Human Trafficking Prevention Month, culminating in the annual celebration of National Freedom Day on February 1. I
call upon the people of the United States to recognize the vital role we can play in ending modern slavery and to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities.
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Equality in Schools: From Brown Through Today (Lesson Choice B)
Purpose: This lesson will use Brown v. Board of Education as a lens to look at current issues of equality
and access in our schools. Students will be challenged to think about equality issues within their own
lives.
Objectives:
Students will:
• Understand Brown v. Board of Education
• Articulate their own definition of equality
• Engage in discussions on equality in their schools
• Understand modern issues of equality including, but not limited to, gender, LGBT, disability, and immigration.
Grades:
High School
Duration:
60–90 minute class period
Materials:
• Blank notecards
• Handouts for Brown facts, quotes, and discussion questions
• Large chart paper or access to PowerPoint
Activity Steps
Pass out notecards and ask students to spend five minutes writing a definition for “equality.” Collect the
cards and read 3-4 selected definitions.
Divide students into groups of 3-4. Pass out Brown handouts. Students should spend 5-7 minutes reviewing the facts and quotes and then another 5-7 minutes answering the questions as a group.
As an entire class, answer the questions. Each group should be asked to take the lead for a question; allow time for discussion/reactions from other students.
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Break students back into groups.
• Each group should brainstorm one inequality within their school environment and develop a plan of
action to address the issue.
• Groups should write their issue and plan of action on large chart paper or in a PowerPoint as appropriate.
Note– if there is a particular equality issue that has been present in your community lately, feel free to have
all the groups focus on that issue.
Examples of “equality” issues that may be present include:
• Disability (For example, are there ramps in and out of the building? Are there athletic opportunities
for disabled students?)
• Gender (What is the gender break down on the student government? What about the school
board? What is the gender break down of the teaching staff?)
• Immigration (issues surround documentation and financial aid for college)
• LGBT Issues
• Religion (Are spaces made available for daily prayer? Are students able to get days off for their religious holidays?)
If time permits, groups should share their issues and plans with the rest of the class.
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HIGH SCHOOL HANDOUT - LESSON PLANS
HIGH SCHOOL HANDOUT
The Story of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
The case we know as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was the result of years of legal battles in school districts across the country, motivated by the bravery of children, their parents, and a determined team of lawyers wiling to challenge the notion that schools segregated by race could provide equal
education opportunities to all.
Kansas, situated in the American heartland, has played a central role in this nation’s struggles with race
relations. In the years preceding the Civil War, “Bleeding Kansas” was a battleground in the debate over
slavery, as pro-slavery and abolitionist forces fought to determine whether Kansas would enter the Union
as a free state or a slave state. Nearly one hundred years later, Kansas was again in the national spotlight
as a group of parents in Topeka challenged racially segregated schools in the state’s capital city.
Kansas law gave cities with a population of 15,000 or more the right to segregate schools below the high
school level according to race. Topeka High School was integrated, as the law required, although most
extracurricular activities, such as athletic teams and student advisory council, were segregated by race.
In 1941, the junior high schools had been integrated as well by order of the Kansas Supreme Court in Graham v. Board of Education of Topeka. Topeka had tried to establish segregated junior high schools, which
offered white students in grade 7 through 9 departmentalized courses taught by subject specialists. Black
students would have stayed in a grade school system through grade 8, in which a single classroom
teacher was asked to teach all course offerings. Not until grade 9 would black students have had the opportunity to join white students for a single year in junior high. The Kansas court held that this system denied black students equal educational advantages in the seventh and eighth grades, and the Topeka junior high schools were integrated.
Ten years later, the case of Brown v. Board of Education was filed in the United States District Court of
Kansas. Encouraged by McKinley Burnett, head of the Topeka NAACP chapter, 13 parents of black
elementary-age students had tried to enroll their children in one of Topeka’s eighteen “whites only” elementary schools when school began in September 1950.
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HIGH SCHOOL HANDOUT - LESSON PLANS
The District Court found that the facilities provided for black elementary students in Topeka were substantially equal to those provided to white students. It noted that existing U.S. Supreme Court precedent
bound it to deny the plaintiffs’ claims that segregation itself violated their equal protection rights. But attached to the court’s decision was a finding of fact that “segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children,” and that “the impact is great when it has
the sanction of law.”
The Brown case, in combination with a number of other cases from around the country, made it to the
U.S. Supreme Court for argument, first in December 1952 and then again in December 1953. The following year, on May 17, 1954, the Court issued a unanimous decision declaring that segregated schools are
inherently unequal, violate the equal protection guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1955, the
Court ordered that the schools in Brown be integrated under supervision of the district courts with “all deliberate speed.”
The Court’s decision in 1954 was both an end and a beginning. The doctrine of “separate but equal” was
officially refuted, but a new round of battles was about to begin over the necessity, extent, and pace of integration in schools around the country. The decision in Brown certainly represented a monumental shift
in the law; no longer could segregationists claim support for their practices in the United States Constitution.
Quotes from Brown v. Board of Education
We must consider public education in the light of its full development
and its present place in American life throughout the Nation.
In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed
in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where
the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to
all on equal terms. We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of
"separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently
unequal.
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HIGH SCHOOL HANDOUT - LESSON PLANS
Discussion Questions
• Why were schools the focus of desegregation litigation?
• Is it more important for schools to be diverse and desegregated than the rest of society?
• Why do you think the Court determined that “separate but equal” was incorrect?
• Is equality in education still important today? Why?
• Are there any problems with focusing social reform within schools?
• Are there any benefits?
Content for this handout has been adapted from “The Stories of Brown v. Board” which was originally published in the Law Day
2004 Planning Guide.
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