Introduction
On August 28th, 1963 in Washington D.C., 200,000 people gathered near the Lincoln Memorial to speak on their outrage against racial inequalities. The idea of the march was originally proposed 22 years earlier when a civil rights leader and labor unionist, A. Philip Randolph thought to organize a march that called out the discrimination against Black people from jobs. A day before the march was scheduled, President Roosevelt met with Randolph and issued an order banning discrimination against workers in government and defense jobs as well as established the Fair Employment Practice Committee to investigate racial discrimination in hiring practices and jobs. Five years late the committee was dissolved, and Randolph revived the idea for the march.
Years late, Martin Luther King Jr. and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference were planning a march for freedom, and Randolph and leaders from the NAACP were planning a march for jobs. The two groups joined together for the 1963 march where King gave his memorable "I Have A Dream" speech. This march brought the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into effect and it also led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Task
For this lesson you will be assigned groups and asked to conduct research and read stories from the 1963 March on Washington.
Your group is going to create a news report containing interviews with people from the march. You will be assigned roles and your news report will be a video recording just as a news report you would see on TV today, including a interviews and statements of facts that truly happened.
As a formative assessment, you will be asked to answer questions based on what they have learned.
Process
1. Students will be assigned to groups of 4 or 5.
2. Each group member will be assigned a role.
- reporter
- interviewer
- person being interviewed
- camera man
- card holder
3. Now begin research over the 1963 march. Use the following links:
This article consists of interviews with people who participated in the march 50 years ago and gives students information from an inside perspective
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/oral-history-march-washington-180953863/
Information over the March on Washington
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-washington
This website gives a brief explanation of the march as well as provides media such as photos from the march, posters, artifacts, etc.
https://www.si.edu/spotlight/1963-march-on-washington
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech
4. Begin planning your news report. You will need a(n):
- Introduction - including name and event that you are reporting on
- Breaking News - name of the event
- On the scene report - description of event
- Interview - questions about the event that lead into key facts
- Conclusion - conclude what is going on and end the news report in a creative way
5. Begin recording!
Time to put all of your hard work together and make your news report.
6. Once you are finishing up your reports, I want you to answer these questions to see what you have learned today.
- What did the March on Washington hope to accomplish?
- Why was the march introduced and then put on a hold?
- What major bill was passed a year after the march?
- What was your main takeaway from this lesson?
Evaluation
For the news reports, students will be evaluated on the following:
- Participation: Group worked extremely well together and everyone took equal part in the project.
- Presentation: Group presented the information including key facts.
- Creativity: Group's report was very creative, kept the audiences attention and included all major parts of a news report.
For the questions at the end, students will be evaluated on how they answered the questions and if I can tell if they paid attention and understood the lesson.