The Civil Rights Movement and Black Power – Tasks

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Bilde: John G. Moebes

Use H5P.org to make 10 multiple choice question from the article. Exchange with a fellow student. Do we have a winner?

Use Quizlet to practise vocabulary from the text.

1. Explain how some states managed to disenfranchise most of its African American population.
2. Discuss why educational segregation was such an obstacle to the advancement of the Black population.
3. Look at the 10 Point Plan of the Black Panther Party at: Black Panthers. Which of these demands do you think have been met by American society, and which have not? Which of the points are in line with socialism as we know it in Scandinavia? Explain your suggestions.
4. Is it fair to describe the BPP as a purely violent group? Google them and find out what their “survival programs” consisted of.
5. Read or listen to Martin Luther King’s “ I Have a Dream” speech. Then read Malcolm X’ speech " Message to Grassroots" from 1963. Discuss how the two speeches differ in content, language and style.
6. When we see pictures and films from the Civil Rights Era, we very often see White people attacking Blacks; very few incidents of Blacks attacking Whites were caught on film. This is not a coincidence. Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, including Martin Luther King, were very aware of the power of television coverage. Look at the following websites and discuss how television influenced the movement. How might the civil rights leaders have intentionally used the media to gain support for their cause? See
   The Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and its Impact on the Occupy Wall Street Movement and The Civil Rights Movement and Television.

Choose one of the topics below and make a presentation using Moviemaker or Photostory. Make sure that the material you use has a Creative Commons license.

1. Look up one of the people mentioned in the article and present him to the class.
2. Look up one of the protest actions mentioned in the article. Go deeper into it and present it to the class.
3. Many women also fought for civil rights. Look up one of the following female civil rights heroines and present her to the class: Ella Baker, Dorothy Height, Angela Davis, Fanny Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks.
4. Music played an important role in the struggle for civil rights. Google “music of the civil rights era” or “civil rights songs.” Pick one of the songs you find and prepare a presentation of it for the class. When was it written? Who wrote it? Who performed it? Explain the content of the song. In which ways is it representative of its time? OR: Write a text about the song.