Lesson #4
--
Segregation, Jim Crow Laws, and Race Riots
Instructional
Sequence
A.
Focusing Activity:
1. Bring out pocket poster
a. Ask students what they thought Lincoln
had in his pockets when he was shot
Student
Answer: Chapstick, money, pen
b. Ask the students to pick one of the pockets
to pull off the poster to reveal what Lincoln
had in his pockets
c. Ask the students what they found in his
pockets
Student
Answer: answers will vary depending on
which pocket they
picked off
the poster
d. Ask the students if they think that these are
things people would carry in
their
pockets today
Students
Answer: maybe some of them like the
wallet
e. Ask the students why they think that people
would not carry these items with them
in their pockets
Student
Answers: kids can’t carry pocketknives, and most
people wear their
glasses on
their head, not
carry them in their pockets
f. Ask students if they think people (kids)
would be made fun of for carrying some of
these items in their pockets
Student
Answer: maybe, especially the pocketknife
or the glasses case
or
glasses
cleaner cloth because the pocket knife is
dangerous and
they shouldn’t
have them
g. Ask them if they think people had to do
things like drink at different drinking
fountains, or use separate
bathrooms
Student
Answer: Yes, because it was in the skit
you performed for us
B.
Purpose:
1. Does anyone know why we are studying about
segregation?
Student
Answer: because it is something that
happened in the south
2. Does anyone know what Jim Crow laws are?
Student
Answer: no
3. Do you know what a riot is?
Student
Answer: When people get mad at each
other and gather in the streets
C.
Instruction:
1. Talk about segregation
a. What was segregation?
1.) The policy or practice of separating people
of different races, classes, or
ethnic groups, as in schools,
housing and public or commercial facilities,
especially as a
form of discrimination
b. Ask students where they think they would find
segregation in their lives today
(does it still exist?)
Student
Answer: Maybe
c. Where do you think it exists?
Student
Answer: In the south
d. Explain to the students that segregation is
something that does not necessarily
just happen in the south like
with slavery, but it happens everywhere, and it happens
on a daily
basis.
1.) Give examples:
a.) People segregate or separate such as groups
of people (blacks,
whites, Mexicans, Asians, etc.)
b.)
People sometimes segregate
within their religions (Buddhist,
Muslim, Christian, etc.)
c.) People sometimes segregate into groups of
males and females
d.) People sometimes segregate into the popular
and non-popular groups
e.) Sometimes, teachers separate from their
students by going to visit
with other teachers instead of being
with their students all the
time
2. Talk about Jim Crow laws
a. Does anyone know what Jim Crow Laws are?
Student
Answer: no
b. Definition:
a term describing the American racist culture against blacks (define
on
butcher paper and have
students write in their books)
c. Does anyone know what racism is or how it
affects our culture?
Student
Answer: racism makes people not like
other people
d.
Good. Racism is when people of one culture do not
like people of another
culture for whatever reason.
e. As a review of Ms.
Connor’s lesson from before we left over a month ago,
do you remember
what Constitutional
Amendments were passed to grant newly
freed African Americans legal
status?
Student
Answer: Amendment 13 – abolished
slavery, Amendment 14
–
provided
citizenship and Amendment 15 –
guaranteed the right
to vote
(students
might need a little help with this answer)
f. So if
the slaves were free, do you think
people still did not like them? Were
people still mean to them?
Student
Response: Yes
g. Why do you think people were still mean to
them?
Student
Response: Maybe because they were of a
different color
h. Good job!
Many people didn’t like those people that had been slaves because they
were of a different color.
i. Explain that the Jim Crow laws separated the
blacks and whites and the general
customs and laws that subordinated
blacks as an inferior people.
j. Remember our skit when Ms. Connor and Ms.
Tuleja tried to drink out of the
same water fountain? They had to drink from
separate water fountains
because they
of the Jim Crow Laws. Incorporate the drinking
fountain mini-field trip
into this part
of
the lesson. Take the students to the hall, to the separate but
equal
drinking
fountains. Let the students know that they had
separate things but they had to be
equal (if the whites had two drinking
fountains, the
blacks had to have two drinking
fountains).
The students will be separated based on the color of bracelet they
have on
their wrist.
k. Jim Crow Laws also segregated or separated
things like using separate bathrooms
for not just men and women like
we see today, but for blacks and whites.
Therefore,
no matter what your gender, you had to
go to the restroom or drinking fountain that
was
designated specifically for your color (also bring up people like Rosa
Parks and
how she fought for rights for blacks, just as MLK
did)
3. Who can tell me what race riots were?
Student
Answer: riots that happened in the
streets
a. What else about a race riot can you tell
me? Think about the name: Race Riot.
Is there another word in
that name that could tell you something?
Student
Answer: maybe something to do with their
skin color
b.
Excellent! The violent, racial confrontations in which mobs of whites
and blacks
battled each other in U.S.
towns and cities during the Jim Crow era were triggered
by some of the
same forces driving legalized segregation, disfranchisement, and
lynching of thousands of African Americans
c. Do you think there were ever any race riots
right here in Charleston?
Student
Answer: No
d.
There were. In 1863 or 1864, the Charleston
riot pitted approximately 40 Copperheads
and 15 soldiers
against one
another. This gun-battle left 9 dead and another 12
wounded. Supposedly, this was pre-planned by
the
Copperheads and was not exactly
spontaneous.
e.
What do you think would happen if there was something like that in Charleston
today?
Who do you think it would be
between? Do you think the city and police would allow
such
a thing or do you think they’d fight it out in some other way?
Student
Answer: I don’t think that the police or
the citizens would allow
something like
that. If they are going
to fight, they might fight
in their homes,
but not in the
streets and I don’t think people would
shoot and kill other people
because that
isn’t right.
D.
Modeling:
1. Model
what you want the students to do during
the definitions
a.
Let them know that you want them to write out the definitions in their
booklet for
future reference
b.
Show them that you want two on a page, not just one per page so they
are not wasting paper
2. Model what the students will be doing in the
hallway. Show them that they have cue cards that
they need to read and
that this is how they acted back when blacks and whites were
segregated.
3. Model what race riots could have been like
through use of pictures or having the students
close their eyes and imagine
what certain things would be like (like lots of people gathering
in the
streets,
food fights in the cafeteria, etc.)
E.
Checking for Understanding
1. Ask students to remember what type of
examples I gave that could be considered segregation
Student
Answer: blacks and whites, different
people that look different (different
cultures),
etc.
2. Ask students to think about ways that people
are different and reflect on whether they see
segregation or separation
of different types of people
Student
Answer: different people playing in
their own groups at lunch (we
might
get something
like this)
3. Ask the students to look back and think if
the segregation of blacks and whites was fair
and why it was or why it was not
Student
Answer: It wasn’t fair, and if we were
there we would make it right
so they
were not
treated differently
F.
Task/Guided Practice
1. Students will go on a mini-field trip to the
hall so they can discover what it was like to be
either black or white based
on what their bracelet color is
a. Students will have cue cards to tell them
what to say to the other race based on
things that might have been said
during the time of the Jim Crow laws
2. Students will be guided through what the
definitions of the words segregation, Jim Crow laws,
and race riots are so they
have a general understanding of the terms
G.
Independent Practice
1. Crossword puzzle about segregation and Jim
Crow laws
a. Students will find the words in the crossword
and teachers will go over the words with
the students before they try
finding them, and ask questions periodically throughout
the time
given for the students to find the words so they can review
what the words
mean.
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