Read, Highlight, & Margin Note

Flash Cards

Geographic Map Literacy: Central America & South America

Making History at Oak Ridge High School

 

 

What is your story?

 

Letter from Birmingham Jail

California History-Social Science standards:

11.10 Students analyze the development of federal civil rights and voting rights.
       4. 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.

This lesson specifically examines Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and it's significance in the civil rights movement. 

Background:

Birmingham, Alabama in the 1950's and early 1960's was a place where roughly forty percent of it's population (African American citizens) were discriminated and living in fear of city and state leaders such as proud racists Birmingham  commissioner of  Public Safety,  Eugene "Bull" Conner and Governor George Wallace. Birmingham was known as the most segregated city in the United States and it was time for a change and Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership went to Birmingham to protest in an effort to bring change in the treatment of African American people.  

Further background exploration links:
King's description Birmingham from in 1963 from Clayborne Carson, ed., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Stanford University website).

Birmingham’s Racial Segregation Ordinances (Stanford University website).

Lesson

1. Pre-reading- read King's "Letter to Birmingham Jail" (annotated by Michael Wilson as part of his honors thesis research at Stanford University from the Stanford University Website).
2. Post at least two violations (in comment section below) to the civil rights of the citizens of Birmingham according to the Bill of Rights. 
3. Post a response to a fellow student's post of civil rights violation and how it would make you feel if you to subject to these social injustices. 
4. Partner assignment (posted on Google docs for entire class to view), a newspaper reporter (Student A) is interviewing Mr. King (Student B) from his Birmingham jail cell. Create at least eight questions and answers that will be published in newspaper the following day. Groups 1-5 a local Birmingham newspaper, Groups 6-10 the New York Times newspaper, Groups 11-15 the Pittsburgh Courier (an African-American newspaper). 
5. Essay Question; Respond in a short essay to the following questions; What did Kings leadership in preaching non-violent civil disobedience mean to the civil rights movement? Did his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" advance the cause, make no difference, or hurt the cause? Do you think President Obama would have became president without men such as Martin Luther King Jr.? 

Extension

Martin Luther King had a Dream, equal rights for all. Try to think if there are any equivalent issues such as King faced that Americans are dealing with today. Finish the following statement and list three steps that will be the beginning of the answer to your dream.

I have a dream that .....

Step 1:___________________________________________________________________.
Step 2:___________________________________________________________________.
Step 3:___________________________________________________________________.

Rubric:

Violation posts & response
30-25 points	24-20 points	19-12 points	11-0 points
2+ violations with well written and thought out response. No grammatical errors	2 violations and with written response. may include one or two minor grammatical errors.	1 violation and a response (may have one or two grammatical error, or 2 with no response.	1 violation or response only
Partner assignment
30-25 points	24-20 points	19-12 points	11-0 points
minimum 8 well written questions and answers that match newspaper. No grammatical errors.	8 questions and answers that mostly match newspaper assigned. May have 1-3 minor grammatical errors.	6-7 questions and answers that mostly match newspaper assigned. May have up to 5 minor grammatical errors	less than 6 questions or questions do not match newspaper assigned, or contains 6 or more grammatical errors.
Essay
40-34 points	33-26 points	25-18 points	18-0 points
Essay addresses and answers all three questions. Essay is well written and thought out. It contains two or less minor grammatical errors.	Essay addresses all three questions, but does not provide a detailed supporting the answers. It also may contain 3-5 grammatical errors.	Essay does not address all three questions and if it does is poorly supported and contains 6 or more grammatical errors.	Essay has multiple grammatical mistakes and fails to support 2 or more of the questions.
Extension (extra credit)
10-0 points