Voices of Civil Rights

EQ:

• Why do we have a national holiday for MLK Jr?

Engage:

• Vocabulary Review
• Bigotry
• Children’s Crusade of 1963
• Complicit
• Exonerate
• Freedom Rides
• Ideology
• Infallible
• Injunction
• Jim Crow

Explore:

• Voices of Civil Rights Video (44:20)

Explain: Questions take from: https://images.history.com/images/media/pdf/VoicesofCivilRightsguide.pdf

1. How has this documentary made you think differently
   about the civil rights era?
2. In what ways does this program affect your views of history and the
   ways it should be told?
3. How do you define civil rights? In light of your answer, what would you say are the beginning
   and ending dates of the civil rights era in the United States?
4. Some of the interviewees implied that during the civil rights era “there were two Americas.”
   Do you think this is an accurate description?
5. How do the interviewees in this film describe their experiences as students during integration?
6. How does the social climate of your school compare/contrast to that of public schools during
   integration?
7. How does the theme of forgiveness appear in the stories?
8. In what tangible ways can you see the impact of the civil rights era in your community?
9. Historians often ensure historical accuracy via fact-checking. How could someone ensure the
   stories in this film are accurate? How is fact-checking for oral history similar to the process for
   printed documents? How does it differ?
10. Why are some “voices” readily heard in the historical record while others are not? In what ways
    can historians seek out unheard voices?
11. The stories in this program will be archived at the Library of Congress. What are some steps
    and technologies we can use to preserve these stories for future generations?

Evaluate:

• Class Discussion of questions