THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM Civil Rights, American Law

and Equality in America

RESOLUTION RESOLVED: Social justice and equal rights

are achieved by passing laws that forbid discrimination and guarantee equal opportunity.

AFFIRMATIVES: Argue that the statement above is true and back up your argument with evidence and examples.

NEGATIVES: Argue that the statement above is not true, and back up your argument with evidence and examples.

WHAT TO DO NEXT…? First, prepare a one-minute speech

defending your position. What evidence and examples can you give, as the affirmative side, to show that laws help to end discrimination and preserve equal rights?

The negative team will offer its own one-minute speech next, providing as much contrary evidence and as many examples of the failure of laws to end discrimination and preserve equal rights as possible…

REBUTTALS After the negative side has made their

speech, the affirmative side – speaking in favor of the resolution – will be allowed to respond in thirty seconds.

Finally, the negative side will have thirty seconds to respond to any arguments brought forth in the affirmative rebuttal.

This will conclude the first round of our debates.

USING ACTIVE LISTENING STRATEGIES

As the listener, part of your job is to ENCOURAGE the speaker:

To convey interest in what the speaker is discussing –

To keep the person talking Nod, smile, and use other facial expressions

You do not have to –

Don’t agree or disagree

Therefore, Use noncommittal words with positive tone of voice

“I see…” “Uh-huh…” “OK…” “Keep going…”

USING ACTIVE LISTENING STRATEGIES

Part of your job is to RESTATE OR CLARIFY what the speaker is saying:

To show that you are listening and understand

To check your perception of the speaker’s message

So you should attempt to restate the basic ideas, emphasizing the facts which the person is sharing with you. Your task is to –

Clarify points Don’t “fake listen”

You might try saying:

“If I understand correctly, your idea is…” “I see what you mean.” “In other words, this is…” “What did you mean when you said…?”

USING ACTIVE LISTENING STRATEGIES

After listening to the speaker, you should REFLECT UPON OR PARAPHRASE what they have shared with you:

To show the speaker that what he or she is saying is being heard

To show you understand the speaker’s feelings

The way you do this is to:

Restate the other’s basic feelings. Respond to the other’s main ideas.

You may use some of the expressions below to help you: “So you feel that…” “You must feel angry that…” “I think you’re very happy that…”

USING ACTIVE LISTENING STRATEGIESIn order to show that you have listened, you must be able to SUMMARIZE :

To pull important ideas, facts, and so on together To establish a basis for further discussion To review progress

The way to summarize is to:

Restate, reflect, and summarize major ideas and feelings

You may find the expressions below helpful:

“So would you say the key ideas are…” “If I understand you, you’re saying that…” “Based on your presentation, would it be accurate to

say that…”

Source: Frey, N., Fisher, D., & Everlove, S. Productive Group Work. ASCD: Alexandria, VA. 2009.

WRITING A DIALOGUE Now that we have finished our debates,

it’s time to write out a more formal dialogue. In partners, you will need to compose a ten (10) line formal dialogue in which you exchange opposing viewpoints regarding our resolution:

RESOLVED: Social justice and equal rights are achieved by passing laws that forbid discrimination and guarantee equal opportunity.

SHARING YOUR WORK In groups of 4 to 6 students, you will

share your dialogues and accept constructive criticism from your peers. How could you strengthen your arguments? What evidence can you bring forth to make a more convincing case?

As a class, we will record the most convincing arguments from both sides, and brainstorm regarding the most effective methods to promote social justice, and equal rights for all.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON CIVIL RIGHTS AND EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW

The Skeleton Timeline of the Expansion of Civil Rights for African-Americans from the Revolution through 1965.

THOMAS JEFFERSON'S DECLARATION OF

INDEPENDENCEThe Declaration of Independence is perhaps our nations most important creed – or statement of values and beliefs.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE – THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1776“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

- Thomas Jefferson, 1776

“WE THE PEOPLE” - 1787

“WE THE PEOPLE, IN ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION…” The Founding Fathers had a certain meaning in mind when they chose the words, “We the People” – one which did not include all of the people. The Constitution never used the word “slave”, but several provisions which extended slavery were in the document.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S EMANCIPATION

PROCLAMATIONAbraham Lincoln issued this executive order after the Battle of Antietam Creek in 1862. The Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in January of 1863.

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION“All persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

“Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, - except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth – and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.”

THE RECONSTRUCTION AMENDMENTSThe Radical Republicans passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments during the Reconstruction in order to end slavery, provide citizenship and equal protection under the law, and grant suffrage to African-American men.

THE RECONSTRUCTION AMENDMENTS: 13TH, 14TH, & 15TH The Thirteenth Amendment forbid slavery

in the United States of America.

The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship rights to all individuals born in the United States (except Native Americans) and guaranteed equal protection under the law.

The Fifteenth Amendment forbid discrimination in voting rights based on race, skin color, or previous condition of servitude.

THE “JIM CROW” SOUTH

“Jim Crow” Laws Plessy V. Ferguson

“JIM CROW” LAWS AND THE SEGREGATED SOUTH

So called “black codes” – laws that applied only to African-Americans and placed severe restrictions on the liberty of the formerly enslaved peoples movements and opportunities were institutionalized into Jim Crow laws in the 1870s. The Supreme Court eventually ruled that these laws were constitutional in the case of Plessy V. Ferguson in 1896. This case would remain the law of the land until the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown V. Board of Education, Topeka, KS.

OBSTACLES TO VOTING RIGHTSIn order to prevent African-American men from voting during this period, several methods were used by Southern whites: the poll tax, the literacy test, and violent intimidation. Many whites were exempted from the poll tax and literacy test by grandfather clauses.

MARTIN LUTHER KING’S, “A LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL”

A LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL, - REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

A LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL – REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people”

A LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL, - REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

“When you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean? When you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.”

A LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL, - REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

“You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

MLK’S “I HAVE A DREAM” SPEECHThe famous “I Have A Dream” speech was delivered by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was three weeks prior to the bombing of the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham – and just after he was released from jail.

THE “I HAVE A DREAM” SPEECHI am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

THE “I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH” I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

THE 24TH AMENDMENTThe twenty-fourth amendment to the Constitution ended a practice known as the poll tax. States once charged a fee in order to cast your ballot, thereby denying the poor their suffrage rights. Often, African-Americans were discouraged from voting.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964TITLE II--INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AGAINST DISCRIMINATION IN PLACES OF PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION

SEC. 201. (a) All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin. (b) Each of the following establishments which serves the public is a place of public accommodation within the meaning of this title if its operations affect commerce, or if discrimination or segregation by it is supported by State action: (1) any inn, hotel, motel, or other establishment which provides lodging to transient guests, other than an establishment located within a building which contains not more than five rooms for rent or hire and which is actually occupied by the proprietor of such establishment as his residence; (2) any restaurant, cafeteria, lunchroom, lunch counter, soda fountain, or other facility principally engaged in selling food for consumption on the premises, including, but not limited to, any such facility located on the premises of any retail establishment; or any gasoline station; (3) any motion picture house, theater, concert hall, sports arena, stadium or other place of exhibition or entertainment

SELMA, ALABAMA

SELMA, ALABAMADuring an incident known during the Civil Rights Movement as “Bloody Sunday” a group of protesters seeking voting rights planned a march from Selma, Alabama to the state capital: Montgomery, AL. As the marchers went across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were attacked by Alabama State troopers on horseback, tear gas was fired into the crowd, and men and women in the non-violent group were brutally beaten. John Lewis, from the previous frame, was beaten unconscious and had his skull fractured. When Americans saw the footage of this incident Sunday evening, they were horrified at the similarities between the American South and pogroms which had taken place in Nazi Germany during the 1930s.

THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965SEC. 2. No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.

DOES THIS INFORMATION CHANGE THE WAY YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RESOLVED STATEMENT?

RESOLVED: Social justice and equal rights are achieved by passing laws that forbid discrimination and guarantee equal opportunity.