Middle School Class:

This class starts with an overview of Black History in the United States, starting in the early 1600’s with a focus on the Civil War, the 14th Amendment, The Dred Scott Decision and Plessy v. Ferguson. Once context is laid down, the class will focus on Civil Rights History with students reading a chapter or a picture book each week about a time or person in Black American History. Students on the S.F. Peninsula have the option to pick up texts on loan from the instructors, otherwise, titles available for digital library loan will be recommended for students. We will conclude in the 1960’s with the reading of MARCH by Congressman John Lewis. For their final project, students will write their own books on a civil rights topic or person of their choice. They will be supported with weekly assignments and will get feedback as they go. This class is a Prerequisite to Part 2, People in Black Civil Rights History.

5th Grade Class

This class will focus on key people and events of Black Civil Rights history, including the Selma to Montgomery March, the Bus Boycotts, School Desegregation, and Lunch Counter sit-ins. The class will read a chapter or a picture book each week about a time or person in Black American History. Texts will be loaned from the instructors for students in the Bay Area, titles available for digital library loan will be recommended for students outside of the Bay Area.

These courses will include the following CA History–Social Science Standards:

CA Content Standards:

• Examine the roles of civil rights advocates (e.g., A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, Thurgood Marshall, James Farmer, Rosa Parks), including the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” speech.

• Analyze the passage and effects of civil rights and voting rights legislation (e.g., 1964 Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965) and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, with an emphasis on equality of access to education and to the political process.

CA Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills

• Students place key events and people of the historical era they are studying in a chronological sequence and within a spatial context; they interpret time lines.

• Students explain how major events are related to one another in time.

• Students explain how the present is connected to the past, identifying both similarities and differences between the two, and how some things change over time and some things stay the same.

• Students pose relevant questions about events they encounter in historical documents, eyewitness accounts, oral histories, letters, diaries, artifacts, photographs, maps, artworks, and architecture.

• Students summarize the key events of the era they are studying and explain the historical contexts of those events.

• Students identify and interpret the multiple causes and effects of historical events