What Would You Do? Students Grapple with Risks Faced by Voting Rights Activists
Lesson by Cristina Tosto
Annie Devine speaking at an evening gathering in Canton, Mississippi, during the “March Against Fear” begun by James Meredith. She is standing on a ladder, and Flonzie B. Goodloe and John Lewis are standing on either side of it. © Alabama Department of Archives and History, Jim Peppler Southern Courier Photograph Collection
Whenever I teach of the 1950s and 1960s, there is always at least one student who will display their bravado and exclaim what they would have done in those situations. As we watch footage of the angry mob outside Little Rock Central High hitting Black journalists, or police in riot gear beating up on demonstrators, I hear: “Ooh, I would turn around and punch them so fast!” “I couldn’t live back then, they would have had to kill me!,” and “Why didn’t they fight back?”
Finally, it dawned on me. Despite teaching my students about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the ordinary people involved in the Civil Rights Movement, my students did not fully understand and appreciate the amount of courage and self-sacrifice it takes for people to choose to resist and organize. Though some have an idea of the consequences people faced, on the whole, there was a serious lack of knowledge about the risks individuals faced back then and the many factors that went into making a decision to take action. Furthermore, my students did not understand that even seemingly minute actions to stand up can be an act of resistance.
This lesson was introduced when teaching my Mississippi Studies students, ranging from 9th to 12th grade, about grassroots organizing during the Civil Rights Era. This activity can be adapted for any state that has a history with SNCC using the SNCC Digital Gateway website, or it could incorporate people from different states for a United States History class. I constructed roles relevant to Mississippi Studies so that my students could learn about the true nature of the movement in their state. Because Mississippi Studies is an elective outside of the confines of a state test, we can go deeper into topics.
This lesson took place in the middle of my civil rights era unit. Students had learned about the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Emmett Till murder and subsequent trial, Medgar Evers’s activism, and the state institutions’ violent resistance to anything and anyone who posed a threat to the white supremacist power structure.
However, they lacked an appreciation of the level of bravery displayed by local activists and ordinary people in Mississippi for even the seemingly simple act of filling out a voter registration form. They also lacked an understanding of how challenging it was to make the decision to go to the courthouse or attend a mass meeting.
Grade Level: High School
Time Required: One class period
Materials
SNCC Digital Gateway and Civil Rights Movement Archive websites
Mississippi activist roles
These numbered roles correspond to the bios at the end of the lesson.
1. Victoria Gray
2. Mattie Bivins
3. Sam Block
4. C. C. Bryant
5. Vernon Dahmer
6. Annie Devine
7. Fannie Lou Hamer
8. Curtis Hayes
9. Aaron Henry
10. June Johnson
11. Dorie Ladner
12. Willie Peacock
13. Jimmy Travis
14. Unita Blackwell
15. C. O. Chinn
16. Luvaughn Brown
17. Macarthur Cotton
18. Lawrence Guyot
19. Jesse Harris
20. Juadine Henderson
21. Hazel Palmer
22. Brenda Travis
23. Hartman Turnbow
24. Hazel Palmer
25. Hollis Watkins
Procedure
Students receive the role of someone who was active during the Civil Rights Movement as they come into the classroom. While the roles are based on real people in Mississippi, no names are included. Therefore, the students assume these are imaginary situations. They are free to use their imagination as to how to respond to the prompt I provide. Some roles have more information than others. All that is on their slip of paper is a number and a short description. Here are a few of the roles to give a sense of the range of backgrounds I include:
You are a Black female in your 40s. You are a sharecropper with a 6th-grade education living and working on the Marlow plantation. You are married with no children. If the land owners find out you are involved in civil rights activities, you will be kicked off the land.
You are a 40-something-year-old Black man who has a “dangerous” reputation around town. You grew up on an independent farm. You are an entrepreneur who owns a 152-acre farm and a rhythm-and-blues nightclub, and you run a bootlegging operation. In addition, you own a large collection of rifles and pistols.
You are a young African American man in your early 20s who grew up in Pass Christian. Despite how bad segregation was in the rest of Mississippi, you feel fairly free on the coast.
You are a Black WWII veteran who owns a drugstore. Locals refer to you as “Doc,” because you are a pharmacist. Your wife is a teacher.
You are a young Black man in your late teens. Your grandfather was murdered for teaching sharecroppers to read. When you were 15, you saw a sharecropper shot and killed by his land owner for attending church instead of working in the fields. You are angered by the racial violence you have witnessed.
Not all roles are as detailed. Some only contain a sentence, e.g., “You are a teenager who lives in segregated Jackson.” However generic or specific their roles are, students must consider their circumstances. I explained to students that they should read and reflect on the role and then construct a response to this scenario based on their individual circumstances:
“Imagine someone you have never seen before knocking at your door to talk with you about politics and getting involved in the movement for voting rights. Taking into consideration your role, please answer the following questions and explain your choice:
How would you respond to the stranger?
Would you attend the mass meeting? Why or why not?”
Depending on the amount of background knowledge students have, it may be helpful to provide some options that are examples of how people did respond. “Do you invite them inside? Do you tell them to leave so your boss doesn’t see you talking with them?”
Hartman Turnbow speaks at a Third Sunday Countywide Meeting in 1965. Also pictured are James Moore (center), from Pickens, and Walter Bruce (far right), from Durant. Photo by Sue Sojourner from Thunder of Freedom: Black Leadership and the Transformation of 1960s Mississippi.
Student Responses and Discussion
I allow students time to write about how they might respond and then invite them to share their responses to the group. When I introduced this lesson in my class, the responses were reflective and intriguing.
The student with Fannie Lou Hamer’s background said she would not go to the meeting because she is dependent on the plantation owner. If she were to be kicked off the land, she wouldn’t know what else to do.
Conversely, the student with C. O. Chinn’s background stated that he would get involved in the movement because he is independent and less likely to suffer from economic retaliation. Plus, he has weapons to protect himself. One student with Aaron Henry’s information said he would not get involved because his wife was a teacher and she would probably lose her job.
Teachers can take this opportunity to point out that many teachers, principals, professors, and church leaders did not join the movement due to legitimate fear of reprisals and the risk of losing their employment, land, or even their life. As a number of roles are those of World War II veterans, it is also good to highlight the relationship between Black veterans and early civil rights work. After all, it was WWII veterans who invited SNCC to Mississippi and made up the network of activists to whom SNCC first connected.
One student had the role of an activist who witnessed a murder of a sharecropper who did not listen when the landowner asked him to leave church and get back to the field. She said that she would join because the violence she witnessed in her life would motivate her to change things. She also acknowledged that she could also see how she might be scared because of her experience witnessing such horrific violence.
Students enjoyed sharing their responses with the class, and the activity ignited a brief but insightful discussion about the stakes that were at play for ordinary people involved in civil rights organizing. My students were stepping into the shoes of someone from history and thinking critically about the complexities and risks of grassroots organizing. They were thinking historically, using prior knowledge and context from previous lessons. They were empathizing with people from the past, understanding their courage and sacrifice, and understanding some of the difficulties that come with building a movement.
I heard neighborly discussions during the writing piece. My students were curious to know about their classmates’ roles and loved to share their opinions on what decisions their classmates should make.
Deepening the Learning
Next, I explained to students that all of their roles were based on the lives of real people from Mississippi, all of whom said “yes” to the call for action.
The students were visibly surprised. When I revealed the list of true identities and names, students eagerly matched the number on their roles to the name on the board.
“I’m Annie Devine!” a teenage girl exclaimed. “I wonder what she looks like.” Students then got on the SNCC Digital Gateway website to conduct research on their activist. As the exit ticket that day, students had to write 10 facts they learned about their activist. The SNCC Digital Gateway site does not have to be the only resource, I tell students to use it as a springboard. Another great resource where students can search for information about their activist is CRMvet.org.
The lesson can be adapted to various state or United States history classes. Students could complete a research project on their activist. The lesson can also be paired with Linda Christensen’s lesson in Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re- Imagining the Language Arts Classroom and students could create a “Write That I” poem about their activist.
Students also enjoy seeing their activists in the Eyes on the Prize episode 5: “Mississippi, Is This America?” in which a number of the Mississippi activists appear.
Whichever end result an educator chooses, be it a poem or research project, students will come away with a deeper knowledge of the civil rights struggle. Taking on a role different from a student’s background helps foster empathy by having students think outside of their own perspective. Students must recall prior knowledge as they place their role within historical context and consider the decisions they must make.
Students will understand that it was regular people that produced the most change; and by understanding the risks they took, they can see that the courageous people are not just the leaders like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X. The people with extraordinary courage are the ones just like them.
Teacher Testimonial
I used your “What Would You Do?” activity about protesters in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi today in class. We have been talking about nonviolence as a philosophy and strategy for change (my school includes nonviolence in its mission statement), and I wanted to make it less theoretical and more real for the students.
I loved this activity. I teach 7th and 8th graders in central Virginia. Our county has one stop light, but we are only 30 minutes from Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, so we have a huge range of class and life experiences in the room — but we are all white.
The students were able to think, somewhat vaguely, about the risks people might have faced when they were asked to participate in activities, such as meetings about voting or registering to vote, but they still were somewhat disconnected from the idea.
When I told them that each of their slips represented a real person, they were surprised and excited. When they looked up their person, they were actively engaged in finding out more and excited to share with me what they learned.
Thank you for helping me make this lesson and idea a little more three-dimensional and meaningful for my students and me!
— Katrien Vance, middle school teacher, Afton, Virginia