Students read and analyze a poem written by one the NAACP Youth Council members, Margaret Rozga.

• Lesson plan and handout for students

Protest Spectrum

Students identify and evaluate methods of protest.

• Lesson plan and student handout

Milwaukee Mural Analysis

Students analyze murals in Milwaukee.

• Lesson plan and handout

Mapping the Marches: Creating an Annotated Map of the Marches for Fair Housing

By reading about the marches and annotating a map of Milwaukee as they read, students will get an overview of the Marches for Fair Housing in Milwaukee and identify important locations. This is recommended as an introductory activity, and may best be read aloud as a group to allow students to ask questions and reflect on the major events as they go.

• Lesson plan

• Handouts for students

Sample student work:

Document Based Question

Through exploring primary and secondary sources, students will answer the question "How did local and national governmental organizations help create and maintain segregation in Milwaukee?" This lesson introduces the root causes of segregation in Milwaukee and many other urban areas in the United States. In exploring the historical context that created and maintained segregation, students will gain understanding of the causes of segregation in Milwaukee and many other urban areas and begin to think about how these issues could be addressed today. Most importantly, they will learn that segregation did not “just happen,” but rather was the result of deliberate policies that were designed to 1) help white Americans and exclude African Americans and 2) discriminate against African Americans.

• Click here for the lesson plan, which includes a scaffolded organizational tool for students to use as they read and prepare to write the essay.

• Student handout containing directions and the documents.

• Accompanying Google Slides presentation with additional ideas to support and engage students.

Create a zine!

Print and fold a zine to tell the story of the Open Housing Marches. Two versions are available: a zine with photographs from the marches and a zine that you can illustrate yourself. For folding instructions, click here.

The Wisconsin Historical Society's Tools for Teaching the Civil Rights Movement in Wisconsin (download the entire book here)

• Lesson 1: Students examine a map, a statistical table, and a video clip of Father James Groppi to understand the origins of segregated neighborhoods and why fair housing became an important community issue. Questions are included in the lesson.

• Lesson 4: Students begin to understand the fair housing marches of 1967-68, examine the motivations of participants, and investigate what fair housing means. Questions are included in the lesson.

• Lesson 5: Students learn about teenagers’ participation in Milwaukee’s civil rights struggle by examining a NAACP Youth Council press release and listening to an interview with a woman who marched during the years 1963–68, when she was a high school student. Questions are included in the lesson.

• Lesson 6: Students watch a four-minute video of the Milwaukee Common Council postponing action on Alderwoman Vel Phillips’s proposed fair housing ordinance, analyze key provisions of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and debate the conflict between property rights and civil rights. Questions are included in the lesson.

• Lesson 8: Students discover the effects of de facto segregation by examining maps that show race and income distribution. Using the Anti-Defamation League’s “Pyramid of Hate”, they identify prejudice in their own lives and imagine steps they can take to change it. Questions are included in the lesson.

  • Note -- students can explore the racial dot map directly at https://demographics.coopercenter.org/racial-dot-map

Lesson Plans in Progress Include: