Standing Up for Freedom by Sitting Down:

Non-Violence, the Civil Rights Movement,

and the Greensboro Sit-Ins

Christine Cahill, Teacher/Librarian

Carrie Busey Elementary School, Champaign, Illinois

AHTC 2010 Summer Institute-The Civil Rights Movement

Abstract

Students (appropriate for late elementary or middle school) learn about the Greensboro Sit-Ins through picture book and primary source material and compare what was happening in North Carolina to what was going on in their community of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

Ronald Martin, Robert Patterson, and Mark Martin stage sit-down strike after being refused service at a F.W. Woolworth luncheon counter, Greensboro, N.C. (UPI photo taken February 2, 1960)

Essential Questions

·  What are civil rights?

·  Why do people fight for civil rights?

·  How have people achieved civil rights in the United States?

·  Is the struggle for civil rights over?

Assessment

Students will be assessed by discussion participation and document analysis worksheets.

Setting the Purpose

Most students know about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King and their roles in the Civil Rights Movement. My students also know that many people active in the Movement were part of larger organizations such as the NAACP which provided support to their personal efforts. The purpose of this lesson is to show how the efforts of Parks, King, and others inside and outside organizations led to thousands of people standing up for freedom, often by sitting down.

Lesson Plan Procedure

Engage background knowledge and give context to ensuing lesson

  1. Read the title and jacket-flap information from Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney. Ask the student what they think the book is about. Remind students that Rosa Parks defied segregation in 1955. Sit-In takes place in 1960. Read the story. Discuss the story and highlight the fact that the young men in the story were not part of an organized group, that they were inspired by others, but acted on their own.

Examine primary sources

  1. Ask students what they think life was like for African Americans in Champaign Urbana 60 or 70 years ago. Pass out local primary source material and have students fill out document analysis worksheets for one or two articles. Students should share information about their articles with a partner or another group. Students can also write questions for discussion with the whole group.
  2. Ask students to reflect on the effects of segregation on the community. Do we still see the effects of segregation and discrimination today?

Extension

Listen to oral history recordings from the Greensboro Sit-Ins: The Launch of a Civil

Rights Movement website. Use a sound recording analysis worksheet to record

information about the recordings.

Examine photos from the Greensboro Sit-Ins website using photo analysis worksheets.

Local Primary Sources (from the Urbana Free Library Archives)

Illinois Alumni News, June 1937 – Negro Students

Illinois Alumni News, July 1937 – Negro Student Problem

Illinois Alumni News, November 1937 – Lily White Cafes

Illinois Alumni News, April 1937 – Negroes Must Eat

Daily Illini, April 8, 1961 – Why Picket Penneys?

Daily Illini, April 8, 1961 – Cease Week 3 of Picketing

Penney’s Memo, April 25, 1961

State of Illinois Executive Order (Page 1 Page 2)

Courier, October 3, 1963 - Henry Urges Intensified Action for Negro Rights

Courier, October 4, 1963 – 20 in C-UIA Walk Friday for Housing

Annotated List of Web-based Resources

Website

Greensboro Sit-Ins: The Launch of a Civil Rights Movement

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c35508

Great source for photographs of the Greensboro Sit-Ins as well as oral history recordings of the participants.

Picture Source

“Ronald Martin, Robert Patterson, and Mark Martin stage sit-down strike after being refused service at a F.W. Woolworth luncheon counter, Greensboro, N.C.”

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95512251/

This photograph was taken on the second day of the Greensboro Sit-In, February 2, 1960

Document Analysis Worksheets and Rubrics

History Frame Story Mapping Graphic Organizer

http://www.readingquest.org/strat/

Scroll down to the History Frames/Story Maps section and download History Frame graphic organizer pdf.

Photo Analysis Rubric

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1447586&

Example of a rubric for assessing photo analysis skills of students. This rubric is designed for elementary students. Rubistar allows teachers to design their own rubrics.

Teaching with Documents-National Archives and Record Administration

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/

The “Teaching with Documents: Lesson Plans” page has links to several different worksheets for analyzing a variety of documents as well as lesson plans using primary source documents organized by different eras in American History.

All sites accessed August 15, 2010