Topic--Civil Rights

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The Civil Rights Movement

DIRECTIONS: Below are several sub-topics you will need to research on this issue. Each sub-topic has questions you need to answer, and all the sites on the "Resources" page have the information you need in order to answer the questions. However:

WRITE YOUR ANSWERS IN YOUR OWN WORDS.

You do NOT have to write in complete sentences (yet), but make sure what you write down is clearly said.

(unless the question specifically asks for quoted material--meaning something you are writing down word for word from a web page)

I highly recommend that you split up the sub-topics among your group members (divide and conquer!). SHARE the information you find with your group members because everyone needs to write down the information. If there are still things you are missing after everyone does their share, work together to find that missing information.

HOW TO TAKE NOTES: Write down your information according to the sub-topic you research (i.e., Write all the information you find on "What are Civil Rights?" down in one section. IF YOU WANT, you can copy down the questions as well, but that is not necessary as long as you make sure to gather all the information the questions ask for.

Sub-Topics and Questions

What are Civil Rights?

Find a definition of "civil rights" and write it down word for word.
Give 2 specific examples of what would be considered a "civil rights violation" during the Civil Rights era (approximately 1950-1970). You can find examples on the web, mention ones that have appeared in Warriors, or give examples you know of on your own.
In your own words, what are the important points of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

What is Civil Disobedience?

Find a definition or two of "civil disobedience." Try dictionary.com or do a Google search. Write down the definitions word for word.
Read the following quote. According to Douglass why is civil disobedience so important?

"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist

Based on your own knowledge, why do you think civil disobedience was so important during the Civil Rights Movement?

Civil Rights Timeline

Find and look at several timelines from this era. Pick out 2-3 key events that happened BEFORE the Little Rock crisis in 1957. What are these events? When did they happen? Why are they important in the Civil Rights movement?
Go back and look at the timelines from this era. Pick out 3-4 key events that happened AFTER the Little Rock crisis in 1957. What are these events? When did they happen? Why are they important in the Civil Rights movement?