11th grade California State Standards for Us History Covered In this Unit
11.10 Students analyze the development of federal civil rights and voting rights.
- Explain how demands of African Americans helped produce a stimulus for civil rights, including President Roosevelt's ban on racial discrimination in defense industries in 1941, and how African Americans' service in World War II produced a stimulus for President Truman's decision to end segregation in the armed forces in 1948.
- Examine and analyze the key events, policies, and court cases in the evolution of civil rights, including Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, and California Proposition 209.
- Describe the collaboration on legal strategy between African American and white civil rights lawyers to end racial segregation in higher education.
- Examine the roles of civil rights advocates (e.g., A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, James Farmer, Rosa Parks), including the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr. 's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech.
- Discuss the diffusion of the civil rights movement of African Americans from the churches of the rural South and the urban North, including the resistance to racial desegregation in Little Rock and Birmingham, and how the advances influenced the agendas, strategies, and effectiveness of the quests of American Indians, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans for civil rights and equal opportunities.
- Analyze the passage and effects of civil rights and voting rights legislation (e.g., 1964 Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965) and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, with an emphasis on equality of access to education and to the political process.
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.11-12.1. Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.11-12.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self- generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.11-12.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the specific task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.5. Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.11-12.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self- generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.11-12.8. Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the specific task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.5. Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
Big Ideas
- The evolution of the Civil Rights Movement leading up to 1954.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Nonviolent Confrontation as a protest strategy.
- The reaction to the Civil Rights Movement by establishment politics and ordinary Americans.
- The Black Power Movement
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Nonviolent Confrontation as a protest strategy.
- The reaction to the Civil Rights Movement by establishment politics and ordinary Americans.
- The Black Power Movement
Essential Questions
- What are the landmark pieces of legislation and Supreme Court cases that set the stage for Rosa Parks, the Freedom Riders, and Martin Luther King Jr.?
- Why did Martin Luther King Jr. employ a peaceful protest strategy? How and why was it an effective strategy during the 1960s?
- How did President Kennedy react to the Civil Rights Movement? Lyndon Johnson? Congress? Supreme Court? How did the reaction to Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 compare from region to region?
- How did the message and tactics of the Black Power Movement of Malcolm X compare to MLK’s peaceful protests? How was the Black Power Movement perceived differently? Was it an effective strategy at pushing Civil Rights forward?
Summative ASsessments
- Summative Unit Test covering basic material from the unit.
- Document-Based Question Essay, which requires students to analyze and utilize primary sources from the period to discuss the ways in which African Americans have been denied equal rights.
- Students will use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the ideologies and methods of MLK and Malcolm X.
- Students will create fictional journal accounts of signature events of the Civil Rights Movement and from various perspectives. For example, a student could be required to write an account of the Selma March from the perspective of a marcher, state trooper, TV cameraman, Lyndon Johnson, or George Wallace.