Teacher's Guide
Although the 13th Amendment legally abolished slavery in the United States in 1865, African Americans continued to have their basic human and civil rights denied. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, African Americans collectively fought to secure the freedoms officially guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, freedoms that were the bedrock of America’s democratic principles and laws.
Use this interactive student lesson to have students delve into the historical context of the 19th and 20th centuries for African Americans, as well as explore how Thurgood Marshall used the courts as instruments of democracy. By framing civil rights as a democracy-building mission, Thurgood Marshall led many critical legal battles, most notably Brown v. Board of Education (1954), to hold the United States accountable to uphold its ideals and to ensure that every person living in the country received their guaranteed human rights.
Lesson Information
- Grade Band: 6-8
- Focus Standard: Maryland Middle School United States History Standards
- Topic: U.S. History - Civil Rights, Constitution
- Completion Time: Three 50-minute class periods
- Vocabulary: Visit the Glossary page for definitions of key vocabulary in this module.
This interactive lesson will have students:
- Identify the purpose of the Reconstruction Amendments established within the U.S. Constitution.
- Identify how African Americans in the United States were denied human rights that were established in the U.S. Constitution through the Reconstruction Amendments.
- Explore how the Reconstruction Amendments were the bedrock of Thurgood Marshall’s work.
- Identify how Thurgood Marshall used the law to ensure that the ideals of democracy existed for all who lived in the United States.
- Make connections to Thurgood Marshall’s legacy and impact.
Teacher Resources
Important Note:
This interactive student lesson includes some very sensitive and difficult topics, such as lynching and slavery. These topics, while possibly uncomfortable, provide important opportunities for students to understand the past, to analyze the impact of the past on the present, and to work towards a better future for all. In addition, by grappling with these topics, students are able to strengthen their critical thinking skills, learn to recognize prejudice and discrimination, and build empathy for diverse perspectives and people. Teaching sensitive and difficult history leads to more informed and empathetic citizens.
Use the following teacher resources to help you with teaching these topics in an age-appropriate, responsive, and accessible way for your students:
- Carolina K-12: Tiips for Tackling Sensitive History & Controversial Current Events in the Classroom
- Stanford Business: Handling Sensitive Topics
- SPLC: Teaching Hard History in Grades K-5
- SPLC: Teaching Hard History
- SPLC: “All Our Terrible and Beautiful History”: Teach American History as a Human Story
Standards
College, Career, and Civil Life (C3) Standards
- D2.His.1.6-8. Analyze connections among events and developments in broader historical contexts.
- D2.His.2.6-8. Classify series of historical events and developments as examples of change and/or continuity.
- D2.His.3.6-8. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to analyze why they, and the developments they shaped, are seen as historically significant.
- D2.His.4.6-8. Analyze multiple factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras.
Maryland State Standards
- Standard 2.0 Peoples of the Nations and World Students shall inquire about the people of the United States and the world using a historically grounded, multidisciplinary approach in order to recognize multiple narratives and acknowledge the diversity and commonality of the human experience.
- Standard 5.0 History Students shall inquire about significant events, ideas, beliefs, and themes to identify patterns and trends and to analyze how individuals and societies have changed over time to make connections to the present in their communities, Maryland, the United States, and the world.
- Standard 6.0 Skills and Processes Students shall inquire about civics, geography, economics, history, and people and nations of the world using disciplinary literacy skills and processes to critically evaluate content through a variety of source materials across disciplines and use reading, writing, and other forms of communication to develop, defend, and critique arguments in order to take informed action.
Additional Resources
- The Southern Manifesto and “Massive Resistance” to Brown v. Board of Education Read more about the “Massive Resistance” to Brown that took place in Virginia and other Southern states.
- What was Brown v. Board of Education The Brown case was made up of five legal appeals that challenged segregation in public schools. Read more about those cases on this website.
- Massive Resistance Go deeper into Virginia's efforts to resist the integration of schools.
- Civil Rights: The Little Rock School Integration Crisis Check out primary sources related to the integration of Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas.
References
Adwar, C (2014, May 30). Charts show that segregation in US schools is still a major problem. Yahoo! Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/charts-show-segregation-us-schools-155204153.html.
Bates, D. (1957, December 17). Letter to Roy Wilkins on the treatment of the Little Rock Nine. Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/images/br0127p1s.jpg.
June-Friesen, K. (2013, September/October). Massive resistance in a small town. HUMANITIES, 34 (5). https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/septemberoctober/feature/massive-resistance-in-small-town.
Maryland Public Television, (2025). Becoming Thurgood: America’s Social Architect. [Video]
Maryland Public Television. (2007). The Fourteenth Amendment - Part II. [Video] PBS LearningMedia. https://mpt.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/vtl07.la.ws.style.fouramenii/the-fourteenth-amendment-part-ii/.
Maryland Public Television. (2004). White resistance. [Video]. PBS LearningMedia. https://mpt.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/iml04.soc.ush.civil.resist/white-resistance/
Civil Rights Movement Archive. (n.d.). Report on segregation education in Mississippi . https://www.crmvet.org/docs/630000_ms_education-rpt.pdf.
Stephanie. (2018, May 29). Separate but equal’ in photographs. National Archives: Education Updates https://education.blogs.archives.gov/2018/05/29/davis-photographs/.
The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights. (2008, July 8). James Meredith and Ole Miss.. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4M8wmoPto.
National Museum of African American History & Culture. (n.d.). The struggle against segregated education Smithsonian Institution. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/struggle-against-segregated-education.
Using This Site
This lesson may contain PDFs for students to complete. They can print the PDFs and fill them out by hand, or download the files and fill them out on the computer. Most or all portions can be filled out online. Please check with your Instructional Technology Specialist for instructions on downloading the PDF. (Note that to complete the PDFs on the computer, you will need a viewer, such as Adobe Reader, that supports forms.)
Technology
This site is an Internet-based activity, and it was built to run on the following computer operating systems and browsers:
- Windows 7 or Newer: IE 8, 9, 10, 11; Current version of Chrome; Current version of Firefox
- Mac OS 10.7 or Newer: Current version of Safari
- iPad2/iOS6 or Newer: Current version of Safari
- Android 4.0 or Newer: Current version of Android browser
- Chromebook: Current version of Chrome
Users running Internet Explorer 8 will not be able to use the highlighter tool. Instead, teachers should consider partnering students for a brief discussion.
Visit the Accessibility page for detailed information on the site's accessibility features.
