Civil Rights in America
Lesson 1
Lesson 1: The Legacy of Jim Crow and the Beginning of the Civil Rights
Movement
Instructional Outcomes
Maine Learning Results:
B3. Demonstrate an understanding of enduring themes in history (e.g., conflict and cooperation,
technology and innovation, freedom and justice).
A1. Describe the effects of historical changes on daily life.
Content learning outcomes:
Students will activate prior knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement and identify the terms,
concepts, and individuals that require further study.
Students will define the term “Civil Rights,” and how it relates to the struggles of African
Americans and other minority groups in the United States from 1865–1970.
Students will be able to identify the vocabulary and concepts of the Jim Crow era, and will be
able to synthesize their knowledge and describe the era’s impact on Civil Rights in their own
words.
Literacy Support Strategies and Instruction
Before reading/learning: Knowledge Rating Guide (explicit instruction and teacher modeling)
Materials: Teacher-created Knowledge Rating Guide based on a sampling of key terms,
concepts and individuals of the Civil Rights Movement.
During reading/learning: Triple-Entry Vocabulary sheets (guided practice)
Materials: Text material (Social Studies text pages), teacher-created Triple-Entry Vocabulary
sheets that utilize the terminology of the students’ Social Studies text.
After reading/learning: Two-Column Notes
Materials: Online video clips portraying life in the Post-Reconstruction South, student-created
Two-Column Notes sheets to highlight the main points of these videos.
Before Reading/Learning (10 minutes)
Literacy outcome: Students will complete a pre-assessment using a Knowledge Rating Guide to
activate prior knowledge and identify new information. Students will identify terms, events, and
individuals from the Civil Rights Movement by recording the depth of their familiarity.
Teacher preparation: The teacher will create a Knowledge Rating Guide using a combination of
ten notable terms, events, and individuals from the Civil Rights Movement.
Teacher facilitation:
The teacher will provide the students with their Knowledge Rating Guides, and will allow two
minutes for students to mark them.
The teacher will instruct students to discuss how they scored their sheets with their neighbors
for about three minutes.
The teacher will lead a class discussion on the most known and unknown terms, and will
provide brief clarification on how each term fits into the Civil Rights movement.
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Civil Rights in America
Lesson 1
During Reading/Learning (15 minutes)
Literacy outcome: Students will interact with and interpret the most crucial vocabulary terms and
concepts regarding the post-Reconstruction injustices faced by African Americans in the “Jim
Crow” era. Students will be partnered up with a neighbor who they will work with to complete
Triple-Entry Vocabulary sheets as they read a selected passage.
Teacher facilitation:
The teacher will set the stage for a specific focus on the Jim Crow era by giving a brief two
minute re-teaching on the state of the South following Reconstruction, namely the social void
left by the abolition of slavery, which was filled by the establishment of a multitude of laws and
unwritten societal “rules” designed to keep African Americans as an underclass with no power.
The teacher will then hand out Triple-Entry Vocabulary sheets, comprising seven terms directly
from this era (poll tax, literacy test, grandfather clauses, segregation, Jim Crow Laws, Plessy v.
Ferguson, lynching).
The teacher will pass out the sheets and model the activity with the class, providing the
context, definition, and memory device for the first term.
As students absorb responsibility for completing the activity, the teacher will rotate around the
class, observing the discussion and interaction between partners.
Student activity:
With their partners, students will read through the selected text (p. 519–520 in their Social
Studies books).
Students will discuss the vocabulary terms and how they relate to the Jim Crow era.
Students will complete their Triple-Entry Vocabulary sheets, recording each term in the context
of the sentence it appears in, a definition of the term in their own words, and a personalized
image or memory device to help them further synthesize the terms.
Literacy outcome: Students will access online primary sources dedicated to the Jim Crow era,
including personal accounts listings of Jim Crow laws.
Teacher facilitation: Display three brief videos of white backlash against southern blacks in the
Jim Crow south (http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/bf09_vid_lossrights/),
(http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/bf09_vid_investigat/),
(http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/bf09_vid_backlash/)
After Reading/Learning (10 minutes)
Literacy outcome: Students will use information from their Two-Column Note Sheets taken from
the video clips and at least three vocabulary terms that were included in their Triple-Entry
Vocabulary Sheets to describe, in their own words, what the Jim Crow era was and what
difficulties African Americans faced in achieving Civil Rights.
Teacher facilitation: Ask students to complete an Exit Slip that will combine their vocabulary
learning and impressions from the video clips.
Ask each student to ensure they answer the following points in their Exit Slips:
What was the Jim Crow era?
What types of difficulties did African Americans face from laws or unwritten codes in the
South?
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Civil Rights in America
Lesson 1
At the end of the class:
Collect the Knowledge Rating Guides (not graded).
Collect the Triple-Entry Vocabulary sheets (graded).
Collect the Exit Slips and examine them in order to better adjust the pacing and focus of the
unit.
Subsequent Lesson
Students will apply their knowledge of the Jim Crow era to the early formation of Civil Rights
leaders among African Americans in the early 1900s, notably W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T.
Washington.
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Civil Rights in America
Lesson 1
Knowledge Rating Guide
Name:____________________________
Date:_______________
Term/Event/ID
Know It
Can Describe It
Don’t Know It
Civil Rights
Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Rosa Parks
Jim Crow
Black Panthers
Sit-In
The Civil Rights Act
of 1964
NAACP
Freedom Riders
The “Little Rock 9”
Malcolm X
Poll Tax
Black Codes
Emmett Till
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