Lemon Grove Incident
Inquiry Unit Plan
Michelle Leigh Arnold
Maria del Rosario Godina
Joseph Medardo Timones Camara
C&I 348, C2
December 15, 2003
Topic
Background
The Lemon Grove Incident was that first successful legal challenge to school segregation in America. The population of Lemon Grove consisted mostly of laborers who had to settle for work in the lemon and orange groves. The school officials felt the Mexican children were hindering the 95 Anglo students in their academics. The school officials’ argument was that the Latino students were bringing diseases and sanitation problems.
In 1930, the School Board of Lemon Grove told the Latino students to attend classes in a two-room building. This building looked like a barn (because of its shape) with old desks and two teachers for 75 students. The school officials wanted to isolate the Mexican-Americans in this building that the school district built. Jerome Green, principal of the Lemon Grove Grammar School, was told by the school district committee to prohibit the Latino students from entering the school. The principal stood in the doorway and directed the Latino students to the new building.
The students were forced to take classes in “Americanization,” even though the majority of the students were born in the United States and many of them did not even speak Spanish. The Lemon Grove School District planned this without informing the parents of the Latino students. The principal told the students about the changes after Christmas break. The parents decided to keep their children at home and file suit against the Lemon Grove School District. One year later, on January 5, 1931 the court ruled in favor of the Latino students.
Why we chose the topic
We chose this topic because we wanted to learn more about school segregation, social justice and civil rights movements for Latinos. At the same time, we wanted to learn how to teach children that the Civil Rights Movement concerns many cultures in America instead of just African-Americans, who are typically the core of many civil rights lessons. In addition, we want students to learn about the social impact the Latinos had in American History.
This lawsuit was 24 years before the Supreme Court’s Brown versus Topeka, Kansas Board of Education, the most influential desegregation ruling, but only few people know about the Lemon Grove Incident. The Lemon Grove decision is the first win for minorities against segregation in a time when it was legal. It makes this ruling an important factor in the United States’ decisions in future rulings regarding desegregation.
It is important to teach students about segregation and to help them understand about unfair rules in the past and the present and about what is fair. It is also vital to teach students how we can practice social justice and how they understand freedom and rules that they have to follow in this society.
As teachers, we need to instruct children in the integration between civil rights and community. Students will reach this understanding through the context of creating a document to state their rights and how to become valuable contributors to their community.
Field Notes from school community members interviews
We interviewed three teachers from different schools districts.
First Teacher (2nd grade)
Interviewer: How often do you teach social studies to your students?
Teacher: I teach social studies two or three times a week for 30 minutes. It depends how much time I have.
Interviewer: What do you teach in your social studies block?
Teacher: My lesson plans are about community. I want my students to know where they live and the resources they have.
Interviewer: Do you teach Civil Rights?
Teacher: Yes, I teach my students about Martin Luther King and Rosa Park.
Interviewer: Do you teach about other movements for social justice such as Native American, or Latinos, or Asian.
Teacher: No, I do not have time and resources to create new lessons. I can find easily any information about Martin Luther King.
Interviewer: Will you teach about Latinos if I find the appropriate resources?
Teacher: Yes, I will teach it.
Second Teacher
Interviewer: How often do you teach social studies to your students?
Teacher: I teach social studies twice a week.
Interviewer: Why do you teach social studies only two times a week?
Teacher: Because I do not have more time. I have to teach my students math and reading.
Interviewer: Do you teach Civil Rights?
Teacher: Yes, I teach about Martin Luther King’s birthday.
Interviewer: Do you teach about his birthday or about the civil right movement in which he participated?
Teacher: I teach about MLK speeches and his assassination.
Interviewer: Do you teach about other movements for social justice? For example, Latinos school segregation or Asian discrimination after World War II.
Teacher: No, I do not have time to prepare or look for information.
Interviewer: Would you teach something different if you have the resources?
Teacher: No, it is too complicated.
Third Teacher
Interviewer: How often do you teach social studies to your students?
Teacher: Three or four times a week.
Interviewer: What topics do you teach in social studies?
Teacher: I teach community, and I integrate science, math, reading, and geography.
Interviewer: Do you teach civil rights?
Teacher: No, I do not teach civil rights. I teach about history, and I include MLK.
Interviewer: Why do you do not teach civil rights?
Teacher: Because is too complicated.
Background information from academic reading
Acuña, Rodolfo. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. New York: Hamper Collins Publishers, 1988.
Alvarez, Roberto R. “The Lemon Grove Incident: The Nations First Successful Desegregation Court Case.” The Journal of San Diego History: Spring 1986. http://sandiegohistory.org/journal/86spring/lemongrove.htm>.
Anonymous. “The Lemon Grove Incident.” The American Review (1988): 93-94.
Lemon Grove Incident, The. VHS, 58 min KPBS-TV; CINEMA GUILD; 1985
Levine, Ellen. Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories. Puffin, 2000.
Rappaport, Doreen. Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Martin Luther King Jr. Jump Sun, 2001.
Ringget, Faith. If A Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks. School and Library Bind, 1999.
Rochelle, Belinda. Free at Last: A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Those Who Died in the Struggle. 1994.
Rochelle, Belinda. Witnesses to Freedom: Young People ho Fought for Civil Rights. Puffin, 1997.
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Esperanza Rising. Scholastic, 2000.
San Diego Historical Society.
Suarez-Orozco, Marcelo M. Latinos: Remaking America. University of California Press, 2002.
Instructional Strategy
There are various strategies that this inquiry plan can be implemented. The best that was decided upon was not to limit ourselves in one strategy but to take advantage of multiple methods. This allows different learning styles of the students to be accommodated. Focusing on one strategy will leave some students uninterested, others too challenged, while others perform fairly well. It is difficult to meet all the independent needs of each child. Using multiple strategies will at least give them a choice so that the students have some influence in their own education.
The first strategy, which is reflected in the activities, is the use of oral history through the use of media (i.e. video). The Lemon Grove Incident occurred in 1930. The priceless primary resources of the children who experienced first hand are still alive and are able to tell their stories. It is unfortunately rare that people such as these are available to speak to classrooms. The best that an average classroom can do is to use the PBS documentary of the interviews of the children about their experiences.
Another strategy that can be used is to analyze photographs from the period. Photographs are good sources of information and present it in a different way. It allows for students who are more visually oriented to develop their strengths. Pictures serve as a glimpse of what life was in the lives of those who were discriminated. Words may tell a story, but pictures relive the story each time someone views it. They also allow easier contrast of the past and the present time.
To further push students to applying the past to the present, the pictures are proceeded by writing letters to local governments. Integrating current events is an important aspect to history because what happens in the past affects what events happen in the present. Students can see what they can apply of what has happened to their own lives.
A very effective method in instructing students is through literacy. There is a combination of fiction and non-fiction books in the activities. Similarly with the instructional strategy, a variety of materials will best serve the students’ needs and interests. The unit begins with a fictional book (Esperanza Rising) to introduce the unit in a familiar medium. From the time the enter kindergarten to when they leave academia, they will be expose to literature. In the case of 4th and 5th graders it is a good way to introduce a unit because they have been exposed to such books as Esperanza Rising. We would like students to have a positive outlook coming into the activity so that they are more willing to learn the materials. Fiction books also fit the level of understanding that students are currently at.
In addition to fiction books, non-fiction literature is used in conjunction. They serve as important historical information. In the activities the students compare the information in the non-fiction to their own experiences. This is important because what we have done in history closely connected to what we do now in the present. The use of non-fiction literature brings children back and forth from their experiences and to the experiences in the past. Non-fiction books make it easier for students, as in fiction literature, to relate to the subject matter.
There is no reason why literature can not be integrated into another subject. Social studies is no exception. The implantation of fiction as well as non-fiction is an important factor in the activities described below.
Lesson Plan
Date: December 15, 2003
Subject Area: Social Studies- School Segregation for Latinos.
Grade Level: 4th-5th
Approximate Time: This activity will take 4 sessions of 30-45 minutes and 1 session of 60 minutes.
Prerequisite Knowledge: The students learned about U.S.A. states and their climates. In addition, the students explored the relationship between climate and growing food. They also learn about the people who are needed in the farms and field in order to get the food to the supermarkets.
Goals:
After completing this lesson
· Students will be able to understand what segregation is.
· Students will understand the similarities between the past and the present.
· Students will understand the ways they can practice social justice and freedom in society.
· Students will understand how the Latino workers were discriminated against and their contributions to American society.
· Students will understand that the Civil Right Movement is for everyone, not just for African Americans.
· Students will learn how to use maps of the United States to find were the Lemon Grove Incident took place.
· Students will understand why Mexicans moved to the North (U.S.A.).
· Students will use maps find where and how immigrant farmers move across the U.S.A. looking for jobs and the living conditions that they had.
· Students will understand this topic better by reading the book Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan.
· Students will increase their vocabulary and enhance their reading and writing skills.
· Students will understand the meaning of the words discrimination, prejudice, segregation, freedom, fairness, and social justice.
· Students will learn who Cesar Chavez and Roberto Alvarez were.
· Students will read books and novels by different Latino authors.
· Students will understand how people lived and dressed in the 1930’s by preparing a skit.
Illinois Standards:
State Goal #16: As a result of this lesson, students will be able to understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations.
16.A.2a: Read historical stories and determine events which influenced their writing.
16.A.2b: Compare different stories about a historical figure or event and analyze differences in the portrayals and perspectives they present.
16.A.2c: Ask questions and seek answers by collecting and analyzing data from historic documents, images and other literary and non-literary sources.
16.C.2a: (US) Describe how slavery and indentured servitude influenced the early economy of the United States.
16.C.2c: (US) Describe significant economic events including industrialization, immigration, the Great Depression, the shift to a service economy and the rise of technology that influenced history from the industrial development era to the present.
16.D.2c: (US) Describe the influence of key individuals and groups.
16.E.2a: (US) Identify environmental factors that drew settlers to the state and region.
17.A.2a: Compare the physical characteristics of places including soils, land forms, vegetation, wildlife, climate, natural hazards.
17.A.2b: Use maps and other geographic representations and instruments to gather information about people, places and environments.
17.B.2a: Describe how physical and human processes shape spatial patterns including erosion, agriculture and settlement.
17.C.2a: Describe how natural events in the physical environment affect human activities.
17.C.2b: Describe the relationships among location of resources, population distribution and economic activities.
17.D.2a: Describe how physical characteristics of places influence people's perceptions and their roles in the world over time.
17.D.2b: Identify different settlement patterns in Illinois and the United States and relate them to physical features and resources.
18.A.2: Explain ways in which language, stories, folk tales, music, media and artistic creations serve as expressions of culture.
18.B.2a: Describe interactions of individuals, groups and institutions in situations drawn from the local community (e.g., local response to state and national reforms).
18.C.2: Describe how changes in production (e.g., hunting and gathering, agricultural, industrial) and population caused changes in social systems.
Materials:
· Lemon Grove Incident video clip (55 minutes)