Framing the Movement

Quiz by Teaching for Change
Through this quiz, and the answers that appear after each question, participants learn some of the history of the Civil Rights Movement that is all too often omitted from the textbooks.

Lesson by Deborah Menkart
A community-building activity for teachers or students to write about "in whose shoes I walk for justice" or some way they have walked for justice in their shoes.

Lesson by Alana Murray
A workshop designed to give teachers and other school staff a chance to examine their own understanding of the Civil Rights Movement and consider the impact of the traditional narrative on students.

Lesson by Allison Acosta and Deborah Menkart
A lesson to introduce students to people throughout U.S. history, including many young people, who fought for social justice and civic change using a range of strategies.

Lesson by Katy Swalwell and Jennifer Gallagher
Edna Griffin’s life work provides a powerful counter narrative to the traditional framing of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. She was a woman living in the North who used court cases, boycotts, sit-ins, and protests to improve her community starting well before 1954. Through her decades of activism, she strategically employed a range of tactics. She also made connections between racism and other social concerns like war, labor struggles, education, and criminal justice.

Lesson by Linda Christensen, as applied by Deborah Menkart
Students research Civil Rights Movement activists and then write poetry based on what they have learned.

Lesson by Jenice L. View
A mixer lesson to introduce students to women from various social justice struggles from throughout U.S. history.

Lesson by the Choices Program of Brown University
This curriculum explores the history of the civil rights movement at a local level. Mississippi was one of the most racially divided states in the South. It symbolized the oppression and violence of white supremacy, and the strong Black movement that rose up in response. The unit is divided into three parts. Each part includes:

Teaching Idea by Willow McCormick
Students write letters to grandparents and family friends to ask about their experiences during the Civil Rights Movement.

Lesson by Laurel R. Singleton
A lesson to help children understand the racism faced by African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement and recognize that young people can help bring about social change by reading and discussing the interviews in Freedoms' Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories.

Lesson by Deborah Menkart
Native American boarding schools were part of a U.S. federal government strategy to dominate and assimilate Indigenous Peoples. In this lesson, students examine primary text and visual sources to gain an understanding of the ways in which theories of race and assimilation affected education policies in the past.