Desegregation: Through Their Eyes

What can we learn from shared experiences?
What are the differences in experiences based on age, race, geographic location?
How is the narrative of a particular period shaped?

Students will engage in interviewing and inquiry based learning techniques in order to compare and contrast experiences of the individuals living during the desegregation era while exploring themes of collective memory.

The student will apply social science skills to understand the key domestic and international issues during the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries by examining the impact of the Civil Rights Movement, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the changing role of women on all Americans;

Dimension 3: Evaluating sources and using evidence

Dimension 4: Communicating conclusions and taking informed action

By the end of this lesson, students are able to compare and contrast the experience of individuals living during the desegregation era.

Primary Sources:

Mary Jones oral history interview conducted by Will Griffin in Albany, Georgia, 2013 March 09.
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Arlington, Virginia, 2013 March 17.

Suggested Links:

Jim Crow and Segregation
Brown v. Board at Fifty: “With an Even Hand”
The NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom

Other University Library Archives:

Desegregation of Virginia Education
Civil Rights Oral History Collection

Google Classroom
Chart Paper or Venn Diagram

This lesson will serve as an enrichment to students who are learning about the desegregation era in their history classes. They will have previously learned the content and now they will be able to see how different people of different racial backgrounds in different geographic locations were impacted.

Part I:

1. Students will be told to take two minutes to write down exactly what is happening in the room.

2. Once the timer goes off, students will be asked to share their story with a partner.

3. A few students(~5) will then be asked to share their stories to the whole class. We will then discuss similarities/differences amongst the stories.

4. I will then explain that each of our stories were different because they are all from our particular perspective and that it is important to recognize that history takes shape because of the stories that are told. However, in order to gain a full perspective of the events that occurred having a variety of stories will help us to have a better understanding of the event and the experiences that people had.

5. Students will watch a 5-10 minute clip of each of the oral histories and take notes on the two different experiences.
   a) Mary Jones oral history interview
   b) Joan Trumpauer Mulholland oral history interview

   After the students have watched the videos, I will call on students to share what they heard. We will talk about the similarities/differences.
   

6. I will pose the question: Does one story tell us all that we need to know about a particular event? Why/Why not? A short discussion of this question as a whole class.

Part 2:

1. I will explain to students that in order to understand desegregation further, we will be collecting stories from people within our families to compare/contrast experiences with one another.

2. Students will work with a partner to come up with three questions that they think would be essential in asking. They will post these on a Google Classroom thread. At the end of the given time, we will look at the questions together and decide on the top ten questions that we will all use.

3. These questions will be put into a GoogleDoc and handed out to each of the students in their Google Classroom.

4. Students will be given one week to answer the questions and collect the stories of someone within their family.

5. In order to practice interviewing, I will give them a short list of five questions to ask each other in pairs. Once we are done we will make a list of “to-do’s”/tips when interviewing.

Part 3:

1. Students will come prepared to share their stories with the class.

2. Students will be put into a three to share their stories. They will also be given a venn diagram to complete to compare/contrast their interviewee’s experiences.

3. Each pair or group will be given a chance to present their diagram. I will be taking notes on the experiences that the people have on the Smartboard.

4. At the end, we will look at all of the collective experiences of the people who we interviewed.

5. To conclude, around the room there will be chart papers with the following questions on them around the room:

   a) How do experiences of desegregation differ?

   b) How do different perspectives help us to understand events?

   c) What else do you want to know?

   Students will use sticky notes to respond to these prompts and we will discuss as a whole group.

For students who do not have a family member present that meets the interviewing criteria, then they can partner with another student or there will be staff volunteers to interview.

The learners will be assessed through the connections that they are able to make during their interview and the Venn Diagram of comparisons/contrasts with their partner(s).

Once students have completed the assignment, they will have the option to turn their interviews into a magazine that will be made available to those who participated, their families, and individuals within the community. The goal of the magazine will be to tell the various narratives of those who were impacted during desegregation who may not have ever had their stories told.

Students will directly collaborate with their families because they will be interviewing them in order to collect information on what desegregation was like for a particular individual. This story will then be shared amongst the whole group to help us to further build a more well-rounded view of the desegregation narrative.

Tuning Your Practice sessions were quite helpful and affirming. I was excited to share my lesson and even more enthused once I presented it to the group and received all of their constructive feedback. They were excited about the lesson. They were also willing to give feedback on the areas that I asked. I did not know what to do as a summative activity and they suggested that instead of a paper to culminate, we did something a bit lighter, which formed the sticky-note and chart paper idea. In addition the group suggested turning the interviews into a magazine which I thought would extend the learning and have students take ownership in the work that they did to make something even greater to provide to the community. I thoroughly enjoyed engaging in this learning community and am thankful for the feedback.