Activities

Hear Our Voices...
as we demand an equal chance

In the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, black people struggled toward the same goal that the slaves had struggled toward so many years before--freedom. This time it was not freedom from enslavement, but freedom to enjoy all the benefits of life in America. At first the movement, under Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s leadership, was a nonviolent one. But gradually some people became impatient with this approach, and leaders with a more militant outlook gained followers. It was a tumultuous time and often a frightening one.

What would it have been like to have been an African- American during those days? Or a member of another minority? Or a member of the white majority?

Interview relatives or friends who were young adults during the Civil Rights Movement. Find out how they felt about the movement at the time. In which leaders did they put their trust? What were their hopes and fears? Did they take part in any of the political activities? Did they feel they understood what was going on and what the result might be? A good interview depends on solid preparation. Read about the events of the Civil Rights era (1950s and 1960s) to help you formulate good questions.

Explore the articles under the subject Civil Rights, Law, and Society to familiarize yourself with the subject. Visit the timeline and view the events of 1936-59: The Birth of the Civil Rights Movement for additional information.

TEACHER GUIDE

Activity:
Interview relatives or friends who were young adults during the Civil Rights Movement. Find out how they felt about the movement at the time. In what leaders did they put their trust? What were their hopes and fears? Did they take part in any of the political activities? Did they feel they understood what was going on and what the result might be? A good interview depends on solid preparation. Read about the events of the Civil Rights era (1950s and 1960s) to help you formulate good questions.

Objectives:
Students will be able to formulate a set of questions to use to collect information in interviews with relatives or friends about their roles as young adults during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Students will be able to interview friends or relatives and then select and transcribe the responses from these interviews into an interesting and informative written dialogue.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

• Allow time on The Britannica Guide to Black History for students to view information about issues, leaders, organizations, and events of the Civil Rights Movement. If computer time is limited, appoint several students to be "research leaders" for the class, studying the Web site, taking notes, and holding "a forum" or study session with small groups of students. Senior students, for example, might use the above idea and serve as "mentors or writing coaches" for underclassmen who are conducting these interviews. This set-up, of course, could be reversed. This idea also might work with less able students working with older or more accelerated students to complete the activity.
• Preparing and conducting interviews may take a large amount of time. Students should contact persons to be interviewed ahead of time, perhaps 1-2 weeks. Allot quality time to prepare questions, conduct interviews, and present the results of this activity. Other work or complementary activities could continue as students work on their interviews. English and social studies classes could collaborate on this project and invite those people interviewed to a class reception.

ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION

Successful interviews and presentations will:

• be based on solid preparation and on questions that elicit carefully composed, informative answers
• adhere to the rules of etiquette for interviewing, including clear phrasing of questions, attentive listening to answers, and careful transcription of information
• result in a written dialogue or audio/video recording that is factually correct, informative, and entertaining

TEACHING TIPS

• If interviews are to be taped for either audio or video, have the class create a permission form to be signed by each person being interviewed. Remind students to thank the people they interviewed for the generosity of sharing their time.
• Hold a classroom seminar and contrast interview techniques. Emphasis should be placed on active listening, such as repeating and rephrasing answers for verification. Use the questions from Activity 4, or have students devise some sample questions on the Civil Rights Movement. Then have partnerships practice the interviewing techniques they’ve learned before conducting "live" interviews with friends and relatives.
• Assist students in selecting the best parts of their interviews to share with classmates. After sharing, have students discuss their own reactions to the answers they’ve heard. In addition, have them discuss how their own perspectives might differ if they were interviewed years from now about some of the current hot-button issues and events of their time.

RESOURCES

African Americans: Voices of Triumph. Vol. 1 Perseverance, Time-Life Books, 1993.
Volume one of a three-volume set on African Americans, it covers the Civil Rights era as well as other topics. Good collection of photos, illustrations, reproductions.

Hampton, Henry, and Steve Frayer, Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s, Bantam Books, 1990 (pbk.).
The authors present nearly 1,000 interviews with politicians, Justice Department officials, civil rights activists, and others to create the fascinating story of the Civil Rights Movement and the people who experienced it. Hampton is the creator and executive producer of PBS’s "Eyes on the Prize."

King, Casey, and Linda Barrett Osbourne (eds.), Oh Freedom!, A. A. Knopf, 1997.
A personal look at the Civil Rights Movement by 4th graders who interviewed parents, neighbors, and friends. Provocative and informative stories, with 40 archival photographs. Foreword by Rosa Parks.

Williams, Juan, Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965, Penguin USA, 2002 (pbk.).
This oral history of the first 10 years of the Civil Rights Movement is the companion to the acclaimed PBS television series of the same name. Includes 100 photos.