Civil Rights

Grade Range: 9-12
Resource Type(s): Reviewed Websites, Primary Sources, Lessons & Activities
Duration: 90 minutes
Date Posted: 10/11/2016

This historical investigation is aligned with the C3 Framework and is from C3teachers.org.

This annotated inquiry leads students through an investigation of the civil rights movement using the lens of nonviolent direct-action protest. The content of this inquiry relates to Key Idea 11.10, Social and Economic Change/Domestic Issues (1945 – Present). The compelling question “What made nonviolent protest effective during the civil rights movement?” asks students to grapple with the means of achieving the various ends of the civil rights movement—an end to segregation as well as the achievement of voting rights and true equality as citizens. This investigation is situated in the unique time of the civil rights movement in which a large number of individuals and organizations strategically chose to use tactics that on the surface may have seemed counterintuitive and yet yielded effective results.


National Standards

United States History Standards (Grades 5-12)

Historical Thinking Standards (Grades 5-12)

Common Core State Standards (Grades 9-10)

Common Core State Standards (Grades 11-12)

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards (Grades 9-12)