Separate is Not Equal

• Begin by explaining why it’s important that we have a substantive, rather than a superficial, understanding of American history and that this is especially true when learning about traditionally excluded or marginalized histories. Write these essential content areas on the board. Set the expectation that they should be learning about each area when studying a topic related to the civil rights movement:
  • Leaders
  • Groups
  • Grassroots
  • Events
  • Historical context
  • Opposition vii. Tactics
  • Connection to the past and present
     
• Provide each student with a copy of the Civil Rights Done Right note-taking worksheet. Have them write “segregation” where it asks for the topic and then complete the left-hand column that asks what students already know about that topic. Remind them that it’s fine if they know only a little, or even nothing, about some of the seven content areas. By the end of this lesson, they will know much more!

Plessy v. Ferguson ruled that racially segregated schools were permissible, as long as the education provided was equal. Provide students with the main claims made by segregationists and integrationists in their fight over this question. Have students jot down the question and then summarize these arguments in their own words on the T-Chart.

After students have read and taken notes on the main claims made by segregationists and integrationists, have students discuss the question, “Can separate schools be truly equal schools?” at their table groups using the Talking Chips discussion strategy.

Once students have had an opportunity to discuss at their table groups, have the entire class discuss the question as a group.

Provide each student with a copy of the “Separate is Not Equal” essay. Assign them to closely read sections 2 and 3. (Options available: you can assign additional sections either for homework or by dividing the class into groups, each responsible for reading and reporting on a different section.) Students should take notes on the Civil Rights Done Right worksheet from step 2. 

Ask students to answer the following prompt:

Using evidence from the texts you read today, please explain and analyze the central ideas of segregationists and integrationists.

• What were their respective ideas?
• Why is separate not equal?

Show photographs of segregated schools attended by white and black students before Brown v. Board of Education. (See the teacher guide for background information.) Have students examine each photo closely, completing the Photo Analysis worksheet.

• Photograph background information
   
• Photographs
  • White School, Paxville, South Carolina
  • Fourth-grade class, Potwin School, Topeka, Kansas, 1950
  • Paxville Colored School, Paxville, South Carolina
  • One-teacher School, Vaezy, Greene County, Georgia, 1941
     
• Photo Analysis student worksheet

After students have had time to work on photo analysis, begin debrief by reviewing arguments made by segregationists and integrationists. Then, ask students to draw from their warm-up work to answer the following questions in a discussion: Did those segregated schools appear to be “separate but equal”? Can separate schools be truly equal schools?

• Separate students into “home groups” with five students in each group. Explain that students will leave their home group and join an “expert group.” Each expert group will focus on the court case from one of these five communities:
  • Clarendon County, South Carolina
  • Topeka, Kansas
  • Farmville, Virginia
  • New Castle County, Delaware
  • Washington, D.C.
     
• Assign each student in each of the home groups to one of the five expert groups. Make sure each home group has at least one representative assigned to each expert group. Tell students to move and join with their expert group.
   
• Once settled with their expert group, tell students to read and research the case from their assigned community. They can read from section 5 of the “Separate is Not Equal” essay and do research on the Separate is Not Equal online exhibit. (See the teacher briefings for more background on each case.)
  • Five Communities Background, Section Five
  • Five Communities (Separate is Not Equal online exhibit)
  • Five Communities Teacher Briefings
     
• As they do their research, tell expert groups to take notes and answer the questions on the Five Communities Change the Nation: Research Sheet. Later, they will use it to summarize their section for their home groups.
   
• Have students return to their home group and use their Research Sheet to summarize the particular community they focused on. Students should speak one at a time, actively listening to each “expert” so that they can learn about all five of the communities.

Once each expert has shared, tell students to brainstorm within their home groups and come up with things the communities had in common.

• How were their struggles the same?
• What was the unifying goal across communities?

End the lesson by asking students to imagine that it’s May 1954 and they are at a rally outside of the Supreme Court, while Brown v. Board of Education is being argued inside. Provide each student with a blank sheet of paper, colored pencils, and markers and assign them to create a protest sign that expresses the unifying message from step 8 and supports the plaintiffs from these five communities that changed a nation.