Teaching Page

What’s the point of reteaching the Civil Rights movement? The Civil Rights movement is taught as being self-contained within America. While this isn’t wrong, it doesn’t tell the full story. Yes, it is true that the movement was against the Jim Crow Laws, in a struggle to find racial equality in the United States. And yes, it is also true that the movement saw great success and support abroad, and that fighting for equality wasn’t only for African Americans, but all groups struggling against white supremacy. The best way to teach the Civil Rights movement, would be to have a debate. 

Divide the class into two teams. Team #1 will read Path 1, the national perspective, and Team #2, will read Path 2, the international perspective. By only analyzing one path, the students become experts into their respective arguments. By forcing them to debate, they are subconsciously forced to ‘teach’ the other class why their perspective should be taught over the others perspective. Through this argument both should realize that both arguments have their merits, that both arguments have their place in our understanding of the history of the civil rights movement. At the end of the debate have the class think about possible ramifications of either viewing. This can be facilitated with a deep understanding of Jill Lepore's article and Black is a Country by Nikhil Pal Singh. By doing this, we create an understanding of the international aspect of the civil rights movement, while seeing why the international aspect is downplayed. After this, have the class create their own interpretation and see what they deem important to teaching the civil rights movement.

The debate format allows them to understand their own argument, and be taught the other team's argument in much greater depth. Meanwhile, debating fellow classmates is an opportunity for the class to do good work, and also have a bit of fun.