Compelling Question: Is it ever too late for justice?

Supporting Questions:

• How did the system of Jim Crow get established in the US?
• What were the methods (both tactics and strategy) used by people in the civil rights movement to try to achieve their goals?
• What role did the federal government play in the Civil Rights Movement?
• How does the story of Emmitt Till's death and the legacy of Emmitt's life impact people today?
• What made nonviolent protest effective during the Civil Rights movement?
• In what ways did these local actions affect the nation as a whole?
• Why did some African-American leaders of the 1960s begin to move away from the ideals of integration and civil disobedience?
• What can the Black Panther Party teach us about radical US social movements?
• Why did the US government target Martin Luther King and the Black Panther Party, among others?
• Why did civil rights leaders focus their attention on voting rights after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed?
• How successful was the Civil Rights Movement?
• What were the causes and effects of the 1967 Detroit Rebellion?
• What efforts and struggles have occurred in recent attempts to pursue justice?

Enduring Understandings:

• After World War II, long-term demands for equality by African Americans led to the civil rights movement. The efforts of individuals, groups, and institutions helped to redefine African American civil rights, though numerous issues remain unresolved.
• Racial, gender, and socioeconomic inequalities were addressed by individuals, groups, and organizations.
• Varying political philosophies prompted debates over the role of the federal government in regulating the economy and providing a social safety net.

Formal Writing Task: Argument: Is it ever too late for justice? In this summative task, students construct a multi-paragraph evidence-based argument using multiple sources to answer the compelling question “Is it ever too late for justice?” Students should be expected to demonstrate the breadth of their understandings of the Civil Rights Movement and their abilities to use evidence from multiple sources to support their claims.

Performance Task: Students research the recommendations made by the Kerner Commission in 1968 and the Ferguson Commission in 2015. They will first answer the inquiry guiding questions. Next, they will choose one of the recommendations from either the Kerner or Ferguson commissions (i.e. reforming sentencing laws, creating two million jobs) that they think will have the greatest impact. Using an online poster-making or presentation tool such as Prezi, Easel.ly, Piktochart, Infogram, students design a poster that illustrates how their choice will have a positive community impact. Templates that show cause/effect or if/then scenarios will work best for this assignment. Presentations should have a Works Cited section documenting the credible sources used.