School desegregation pioneers
In this lesson, students will learn about the challenges faced by the first students to desegregate Southern schools. Students will hear oral histories telling the story of desegregation pioneers from Alabama and North Carolina and critically analyze images of school desegregation. They will synthesize the information by writing a narrative from the point of view of a black student desegregating a white school.
Provided by UNC Libraries / Documenting the American South
In this lesson, students will learn about the challenges faced by the first students to desegregate Southern schools, such as racism, verbal harassment, and physical threats. They will hear oral histories telling the story of desegregation pioneers from Alabama and North Carolina, and critically analyze images of school desegregation. Students will then write a narrative from the point of view of a black student desegregating a white school, exploring how the student may have felt about the experience.
Learning outcomes
Students will:
- know about the early desegregation of American schools, in particular the experiences of students who first desegregated them.
- critically analyze images, determining the creator’s purpose, the image’s message, and its effect on viewers.
- gain practice writing a narrative, using detail, organization, and other writing strategies to effectively tell the story of students experiencing desegregation.
Teacher planning
Materials needed
- Image analysis handouts — 3 copies for each student
- Oral history excerpts:
- Transcripts of oral history excerpts for each student (available at the links above.)
- Computer with internet connection and speakers, or a CD player if you have burned your own CD.
Time required for lesson
2-3 class periods, plus time for students to write narrative
Pre-activities
- Teachers should listen to the oral histories and preview the discussion questions before using them in class.
- Teachers should prepare to project three images for all students to view, either by using a computer set-up or printing the images on overhead transparencies. Alternatively, teachers may print out a paper copy of each image for students, or schedule a time for all students to have access to a computer to view the images online.
- Students should have basic background knowledge of segregation and the Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954. If needed, review the basics of the case with them, and explain the controversy and protests that resulted in several Southern states (more information is included in “Supplemental Information” below).
Activity one: Listening to the oral histories
- Introduce the concept of oral histories, and discuss their value as we study important events. Mention that oral histories provide a chance for the “regular person” to record his or her experiences, not just the well-known or famous people often recorded in written history.
- Ask students to come up with more reasons we should value oral histories — such as allowing minority groups to record and publicize their experiences, making connections between generations, and passing on the art of storytelling. (For more about oral histories, see the LEARN NC guide, “Oral History in the Classroom.”)
- Hand out the oral history transcripts to students, and encourage them to take notes as they listen.
- Read aloud the introduction to the first oral history (Madge Hopkins) or instruct students to read it from the printed transcript:
Madge Hopkins attended segregated schools in Charlotte, North Carolina. She remembers hearing abut Dorothy Counts, a young woman she knew through church, becoming one of the first four students to desegregate Charlotte’s schools. Counts struggled with verbal and physical harassment: her brother’s car windshield was broken when he picked her up from school, she was taunted on a daily basis, and her family received many threats of violence. The harassment continued for weeks, and Counts’ parents decided to withdraw her from school to protect her safety.
Play the excerpt for students and discuss.Please upgrade your Flash Player and/or enable JavaScript in your browser to listen to this audio file.
Download recording (Right-click or option-click) | About the recording
- Discussion questions:
- How did Madge Hopkins know Dorothy Counts?
- Why do you think Ms. Hopkins would not have wanted to be the first student to integrate a school?
- Discussion questions:
- Read the introduction to the second oral history (Sheila Florence) or instruct students to read it from the transcript:
Sheila Florence was one of the first students to desegregate schools in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. When she began attending Chapel Hill Junior High School in 1962, she endured hurtful treatment from her white classmates, who refused to sit by her, used racial slurs, and threw spitballs at her. Here, Ms. Florence remembers her fist day of integration.
Play the excerpt and discuss.Please upgrade your Flash Player and/or enable JavaScript in your browser to listen to this audio file.
Download recording (Right-click or option-click) | About the recording
- Discussion questions:
- Why did Sheila Florence dress up for her first day of attending an integrated school?
- What do you think Ms. Florence may have been scared of on her first day?
- What were some of the difficult experiences she had at the new school?
- Discussion questions:
- Read the introduction to the third oral history (Daisy Bates) or instruct students to read it from the transcript:
Daisy Bates was a civil rights activist and the head of the state chapter of the NAACP. She served as advisor to the Little Rock Nine, nine black students who enrolled at the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Alabama in 1957. She helped the students cope with the harassment they suffered from white students by organizing daily after school meetings at her home where the students could talk about their frustrations and learn the non-violence strategies practiced by Martin Luther King, Jr. Here, Ms. Bates recalls Minnijean Brown, one of the nine, being expelled for fighting back against students who taunted her. After leaving Central, Minnie was enrolled in and graduated from an integrated school in New York.
Play the excerpt and discuss.Please upgrade your Flash Player and/or enable JavaScript in your browser to listen to this audio file.
Download recording (Right-click or option-click) | About the recording
- Discussion questions:
- Why did Minnie get expelled?
- Why do you think she was punished, but the boys who harassed her weren’t?
- How would you have reacted in Minnie’s place?
- Discussion questions:
Activity two: Analyzing images of desegregation
- Hand out 3 copies of the image analysis handout to each student.
- Instruct students to view the first image (from the Library of Congress), a photograph of Dorothy Counts, one of four black students who integrated a Charlotte high school in 1957. Give students enough time to answer the analysis questions about this image.
- Repeat the procedure for the second image (from the University of Michigan’s Brown V. Board of Education Digital Archive), a photograph of Gustevas Roberts, who also integrated Charlotte schools in 1957.
- Instruct students to view the third image (from the Guggenheim Museum), of the Norman Rockwell painting The Problem We All Live With (1964). Explain that the painting is based on the experience of Ruby Bridges, who integrated New Orleans schools at age six in 1960. Give students time to answer the analysis questions. What do they think is “the problem we all live with”? Do we still live with this problem?
- Have the students come together as a class to discuss their answers. Are there common themes or emotions in the three images? Do students think the artists had similar or different motivations in creating the images?
Activity three: Writing the narrative
- Ask students to imagine themselves as pioneers of school desegregation. What thoughts and feelings would these students have experienced as they prepared to attend a desegregated school? Based on the oral histories and images they’ve analyzed, what events would likely take place during the first days of desegregation? How would students react to these events? You may have students take notes during this thinking process.
- After students have had time to record some of their thoughts, explain to the class that they will write a narrative from the point of view of a desegregation pioneer. Students may choose to write as if they are Dorothy Counts, Ruby Bridges, one of the Little Rock Nine, or another “real life” student, or they may choose to create their own narrator. Students will narrate the first few days of school desegregation, using details from the oral histories and images to support their narrative as well as explaining the narrator’s feelings throughout the story.
Assessment
Teachers will assess how well students have organized their narratives to tell the desegregation story. Student should use details from the oral histories and images, and should explain the emotions the narrator would experience.
Modifications
English-language learners or other students who may not be able to write a full-length narrative can create a “desegregation scrapbook” using images to help tell the story. Students may want to read Through My Eyes, Ruby Bridges’s narrative of her desegregation experience, which uses photos to illustrate her experiences. Students can create their own images to illustrate their narratives, using the photographs in Through My Eyes as inspiration. These images will be integrated with the narrative to create a kind of “scrapbook” of words and illustrations.
Alternative assessment
Students should still write a narrative using detail and emotions, but it can be shorter than the full-length narratives. Students should have created 2-3 illustrations, using pencil, markers, crayons, paint collage, or other materials, to highlight the events of school desegregation.
Websites
Images for Analysis
- Dorothy Counts photo from Library of Congress’ “With an Even Hand”: Brown v. Board at Fifty
- Gustaves Roberts photo from the University of Michigan’s Brown V. Board of Education Digital Archive
- The Problem We All Live With from the Guggenheim Museum’s Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People
Complete Oral Histories
- Madge Hopkins oral history from Documenting the American South
- Sheila Florence oral history from Documenting the American South
- Daisy Bates oral history from Documenting the American South
Supplemental information
- Brown V. Board: An American Legacy — summary from Teaching Tolerance magazine
- “With an Even Hand”: Brown v. Board at Fifty — online exhibit from the Library of Congress
