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Amy Nathan reminds us all that music can be a powerful tool for social change. |
Social Studies
Explore US History - Civil RIghts
Author Nathan's Minute gives us the opportunity to share the arc of Civil Rights history with our students. Have students develop a timeline of events and people and court decisions from the Emancipation Proclamation to the present that have been instrumental in assuring that the citizens of the US enjoy their civil rights - the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality - as promised in the Declaration of Independence.
Explore meaning - civil rights
Ask your students to investigate a working definition of civil rights and then compile a list of examples of both civil rights and the denial of civil rights. Start with all of the examples included in this Minute. If you ask for them to add examples to a working timeline in your class, then you will have a powerful tool for analysis of the value of these rights and the problems that occur when they are violated or denied to groups of people.
Explore passive resistance
Author Nathan repeats the idea of peaceful protest throughout this Minute. Have your students look for examples of passive resistance, as well as the origin of this concept (and inspiring figure for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). Where can we find modern day examples of this? Is it always successful?
Explore legal solutions
Author Nathan mentions two powerful pieces of legislation that came out of the Civil Rights Movement: the 1964 Civil RIghts Law, and the 1965 Voting RIghts Law. Have students dig a little deeper. What was happening prior to the passage of these laws, and what exactly did the laws stipulate? Once the laws were passed, did the violations stop?
Explore protest movements
Have your students look for global examples of protest movements that lead to social change.
Music
Explore music as protest
This Minute explores the use of a song that becomes the sound of a protest movement. Have students explore how music and protest are often connected. Introduce them to the songs of the sixties that so often included complaints and laments about social conditions. Look earlier, to spirituals and other genres where people expressed their sorrows and hopes for change though music. Carry that through to the present and examine what kinds of music currently carry a voice for social protest and change.
Research Skills
Explore primary sources
The Civil Rights era is a treasure trove for proponents of primary source documents and artifacts. Use this opportunity to reinforce the value of primary sources, and then send them trawling The Civil RIghts Digital Library, the Sam Houston State University’s primary source collection, or the Civil RIghts pages of the cooperative Primary Source project.
Explore US History - Civil RIghts
Author Nathan's Minute gives us the opportunity to share the arc of Civil Rights history with our students. Have students develop a timeline of events and people and court decisions from the Emancipation Proclamation to the present that have been instrumental in assuring that the citizens of the US enjoy their civil rights - the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality - as promised in the Declaration of Independence.
Explore meaning - civil rights
Ask your students to investigate a working definition of civil rights and then compile a list of examples of both civil rights and the denial of civil rights. Start with all of the examples included in this Minute. If you ask for them to add examples to a working timeline in your class, then you will have a powerful tool for analysis of the value of these rights and the problems that occur when they are violated or denied to groups of people.
Explore passive resistance
Author Nathan repeats the idea of peaceful protest throughout this Minute. Have your students look for examples of passive resistance, as well as the origin of this concept (and inspiring figure for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). Where can we find modern day examples of this? Is it always successful?
Explore legal solutions
Author Nathan mentions two powerful pieces of legislation that came out of the Civil Rights Movement: the 1964 Civil RIghts Law, and the 1965 Voting RIghts Law. Have students dig a little deeper. What was happening prior to the passage of these laws, and what exactly did the laws stipulate? Once the laws were passed, did the violations stop?
Explore protest movements
Have your students look for global examples of protest movements that lead to social change.
Music
Explore music as protest
This Minute explores the use of a song that becomes the sound of a protest movement. Have students explore how music and protest are often connected. Introduce them to the songs of the sixties that so often included complaints and laments about social conditions. Look earlier, to spirituals and other genres where people expressed their sorrows and hopes for change though music. Carry that through to the present and examine what kinds of music currently carry a voice for social protest and change.
Research Skills
Explore primary sources
The Civil Rights era is a treasure trove for proponents of primary source documents and artifacts. Use this opportunity to reinforce the value of primary sources, and then send them trawling The Civil RIghts Digital Library, the Sam Houston State University’s primary source collection, or the Civil RIghts pages of the cooperative Primary Source project.
© Karen Sterling, 2018 - May be used for educational purposes without written permission
