Ms. Rachel Durfee

Computers and Technology

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When I ask you, my students’, our leaders of the future, about the civil rights movement, the typical response I get is ‘‘oh that’s how we got our rights,’’ or ‘’yeah, that’s how everyone became equal.’’ As your teacher I am heartened to know that you are at least aware of the civil rights movement but I am equally dismayed. After speaking with many of you it seems most students are under the impression that the civil rights movement was ‘‘one thing’’, some giant uprising of people who ‘‘Righted a wrong’’. Were it but that simple! Look around you! Examine you world! Have racism and prejudice truly disappeared from our world?

The Civil Rights Movement was a set of revolutions and revolutions are complicated and messy especially since they demand not only a change in our actions but also in the very nature of how we view equality, justice, and freedom. This was a messy, oftentimes violent revolution especially since Americans have varying views on who should be free. The truth is the civil rights movement was more than Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. This year alone in social studies you have/will learned about various aspects of the civil rights movement. During this pivotal time in history there were countless revolutions expressed through art, activist groups, and local government reform. Perhaps the must controversial of all was the battle for educational reform and the desegregation of out schools, a battle that continues on to this very day.

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The nineteen-sixties have been termed, by historians, as the decade of “Turmoil and Revolution”. The Vietnam War, which cost over fifty thousand American lives and a quarter of a million casualties, fractured the country. Hawks vs. Doves, Young vs. Old, and Conservative vs. Liberal were just a sample of the controversies that marked this era. A new generation of Americans became leaders of the country. John F. Kennedy, the first President born in the century, was elected in 1960 and brought with the illusion of “Camelot.” His assassination in Dallas, in 1963, changed all that. Lyndon Johnson became President and assumed the unfinished agenda begun by his predecessor.

But above all, the critical problem that had to be addressed in this decade was “Civil Rights”. Blacks had been segregated since 1619, when the first slave entered Colonial America from Africa. This dehumanizing institution belittled approximately fifteen-percent of Americans and created a “racist” policy that would endure for 350 years. Washington, Jefferson and other “Founding Fathers” based their wealth and position on slave ownership. Slavery was accepted in the United States Constitution in 1789 with the ratification of the”Three Fifths Compromise”. He Civil War was supposed to have ended the “peculiar institution” but, by 1896, it seemed nothing changed in the South. Plessey v. Ferguson, reinforced “dejoure” racism when the court legalized “separate but equal”. Jim Crow remained the public policy, especially in the Deep South, from 1877 through 1954. In that year, Brown v. Board of Education reversed the Plessey decision and unleashed a firestorm that is still felt today. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, spurred the “Civil Rights Movement” that had its beginnings in the two “Black Migrations” and the entrance of Jackie Robinson as the first black player in the all white Major Leagues.

The nineteen-sixties, was the decade in which the racism and the civil rights movement boiled over into every aspect of American life. The social problem, racism, brought federal legislation, social reorganization and political turmoil. It will be your job, in this web quest, to analyze and evaluate racism and the civil rights movement.

You will be asked to present a paper to the “United States Civil Rights Commission”. Your paper will evaluate the history of racism in America, the public policies that evolved out of the sixties-civil rights movement and make recommendations to the commission to avoid racism in this new century.

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR QUEST….You may be able to help millions who may have been or will be exposed to the evils of racism in the future.

You will produce a formal research paper using the template we have practiced in class. In addition you will use our outline format and the PPA worksheets 1-6 to help you compose multiple drafts and a professional product.

Your research paper must include:

· An introduction, thesis, body, analysis, and conclusion

· Cited sources from both websites and research texts; cited with footnotes

· A complete, alphabetized bibliography

· Your worksheets (printed out), your outline, and all three drafts of your paper

· 8 PAGES, TYPED, IN MICROSOFT WORD, USING MLA STANDARDS

You will use the American History Public Policy Analyst as a format to complete the task

AMERICAN HISORY PUBLIC POLCIY ANALYST

Click on the links below, read each web page and complete the worksheets under each step.

You will work in groups of three to complete the research. However, each group participant will complete an individual research paper. The paper will include the Public Policy Analyst format as described below. Each step of the AHPPA should be in your research paper.

I: IDENTFYING THE SOCIAL PROBLEM

II: GATHERING EVIDENCE FOR THE PROBLEM AND

FINDING THE CAUSES FOR THE PROBLEM

III: IDENTIFY THE CAUSES

IV: EVALUATE THE POLICY

***You will use these worksheets as source material for completing your task

*** You will use the Internet sites listed in the “Resource” section of the web quest to complete the sheets and compile information for your task. Be sure to use each of the four steps in your task presentation. The “Commission” wants to know all the facts, both past and present.

GENERAL INTERNET SITES

WWW.GOOGLE.COM

WWW.YAHOO.COM

WWW.ASKJEEVES.COM

SPECIFIC WEB SITES FOR COMPLETING THE AHPPA WORKSHEETS

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html

http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/

http://search.eb.com/Blackhistory/home.do;jsessionid=51D678825CE62F44E6FEB18DED9671D3

http://www.crmvet.org/

RUBRIC FOR WRITTEN REPORT

CATEGORY	4 GRADE A	3 GRADE B	2 GRADE C	1 GRADE F
Organization	Information is very organized with well-constructed paragraphs and subheadings.	Information is organized with well-constructed paragraphs.	Information is organized, but paragraphs are not well-constructed.	The information appears to be disorganized. 8)
Sources	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented in the desired format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but a few are not in the desired format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but many are not in the desired format.	Some sources are not accurately documented.
Quality of Information	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2 supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or examples are given.	Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic.
Amount of Information	All topics are addressed and all questions answered with at least 2 sentences about each.	All topics are addressed and most questions answered with at least 2 sentences about each.	All topics are addressed, and most questions answered with 1 sentence about each.	One or more topics were not addressed.
First Draft	Detailed draft is neatly presented and includes all required information.	Draft includes all required information and is legible.	Draft includes most required information and is legible.	Draft is missing required information and is difficult to read.
OUTLINE	Follows structure Includes all requirement	Somewhat follows outline format Includes most of the requirements	Meets minimal requirements Includes minimal information	Contains little or no format or information Does not follow requirements
Paragraph Construction	All paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence.	Most paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence.	Paragraphs included related information but were typically not constructed well.	Paragraphing structure was not clear and sentences were not typically related within the paragraphs.
Internet Use	Successfully uses suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Usually able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Occasionally able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance.	Needs assistance or supervision to use suggested internet links and/or to navigate within these sites.

You should have learned from this web quest that:

· The Civil Rights Movement was a complex, ongoing, set of revolutions

· The various aspects, specific resistance, and revolutionary organizations that worked with each other and against each other during the civil rights movement

· The role our judicial system played in social reform and the desegregation of our school systems

· There were various resistance groups both violent and non-violent

· You can research primary documents and court cases to inform your own thesis on how effective the civil rights movement actually was in addressing racism in the 1960’s

· It is important to understand the public policies that have been instituted throughout the course of history

As you have learned, not all Public Policy is beneficial. It is critical, in a democratic society, that voters understand the government’s position on human rights issues. It is also critical that participants be aware and active in creating and changing public policy. Remember, democracy demands participation or citizens’ runs the risk of being controlled by negative influences. The “Public Policy Analyst”, thus plays an important role in preserving the Bill of Rights and Constitutional guarantees.

THANKS FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION

Let’s hope you made a difference!

ENGLISH STANDARDS

English Language Arts

Standard 1:   Language for Information and Understanding

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Standard 3:   Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS

Standard 1:   History of the United States and New York

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

Standard 5:   Civics, Citizenship, and Government

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation