Picturing Equality: Exploring Civil Rights’ Marches through Photographs

Abstract

Exploring controversial and difficult events and issues with young children can be challenging. The Civil Rights Movement is an abstract, perhaps remote, issue for young children today. However, it is an important part of our country's history and a theme worthy of study. This article suggests ways to use photographs to explore this mature subject matter that allow children to observe, discuss, and relate to pictures as a means of developing language along with concepts. Furthermore, discussions inspired by viewing the photographic documentation of the historic events surrounding the struggle for civil liberties allow students to share their insights about basic human rights and relate them to their lived experiences. The essential question guiding this lesson plan is: How can photographs provide insight into historical events? Scaffolded questions, based on the photographs, guide the students from observing and understanding to reflecting and analyzing. In addition to the lesson plan, the article contains historical background on the marches and related picture books and teaching resources based on the marches.

Keywords:

• early childhood
• photograph analysis
• social studies

Related Picture Books

A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2005).

• Two young girls sneak out of the house to join the Civil Rights marchers and listen to Dr. King speak.

If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks by Faith Ringgold (Simon and Schuster Books for Young People, 1999).

• Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a bus led to a boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, that lasted more than a year.

Martin Luther King, Jr. by Pamela Walker (Children's Press, 2001).

• A book designed for early readers covers the biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rosa Parks by Lola M. Schaefer (Pebble Books, 2002).

• This is a brief biography of Rosa Parks, the black woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus.

Teaching Resources

• Alabama Department of Archives and History. http://www.archives.alabama.gov.

• Central Intelligence Agency Photo Analysis Challenge. https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/games/photo-analysis-challenge.

• LBJ for Kids. From Selma to Montgomery. http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/lbjforkids/selma-mont.shtm.

• National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places: The Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March: Shaking the Conscience of the Nation. http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/133SEMO/133selma.htm.

• People Get Ready: Music and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. http://www.gilderlehrman.org /history-by-era /civil-rights-movement /essays/%E2%80 %9Cpeople-get-ready % E2 % 80 % 9D-music-and-civil-rights-movement-1950s.

• Photo Analysis Worksheet. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/photo.html.

• Teacher's Guide: Analyzing Photographs and Prints. http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/reso-urces/Analyzing_Photographs_and_Prints.pdf.

• The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Center. http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/.