Introduction
You are about to read the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The story is set in the town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930's. One of them main characters, Atticus Finch is asked to defend a black man charged with the rape of a white woman. The novel is filled with the true racism, violence, and prejudice of the deep South during the 1930s. To best understand the lessons of this great novel, you must first understand what was going in America and specifically the South, during the 1930s.
Task
Your task is to go back in time and research what was going on in the United States during a crucial period in history, the 1930s. Each group will research one of the assigned topics:
Group 1: Jim Crow Laws
Group 2:The Scottsboro Trial
Groups 3: Emmett Till
Group 4: Education for Blacks in the 1930s
Group 5: The History of the Death Penalty in the United States
STEP 1: In your assigned groups, answer the questions for each topic on the following page using links to help you research your assigned topic.
STEP 2: As a group, create a Prezi using the information that you found in Step 1 to help teach the class about your assigned topic. You will then present the Prezi to the class.
Process
Group 1: Jim Crow Laws
USE THE FOLLOWING LINKS TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/jim-crow.html
http://www.nps.gov/malu/learn/education/jim_crow_laws.htm
1. What were the Jim Crow laws?
2. What were the original laws and policies?
3. Where did the term "Jim Crow" come from?
4. How is the origin of this term offensive? List 3 ways.
5. How did the term "Jim Crow" become synonymous with the segregation laws in the South?
6. What impact did Jim Crow Laws have on African Americans?
7. What rights did they violate?
8. How did whites and the states defend Jim Crow Laws?
USE A GOOGLE DOCUMENT TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THEN SHARE WITH ME.
AFTER YOU HAVE ANSWERED THE QUESTIONS, CREATE A PREZI USING THE INFORMATION YOU FOUND TO RELATE TO THE CLASS.
GROUP 2:The Scottsboro TrialUSE THE FOLLOWING LINKS TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS
Explain/summarize what the case was (i.e. who was involved, what the charges were, when it
occurred, what the final decision was, etc.)
Why was this case such a significant one in terms of its impact on capital punishment?
What were the mistakes made in this case by prosecutors, defenders, witnesses, etc. that
indicate this may have not been a fair case? How does this case illustrate how race impacted
the outcomes of court cases?
1.Who were the Scottsboro Boys? What were each of their ages?2.How did they get into so much trouble? 2. Where and when did the Scottsboro Boys' original trial take place? How do you think this affected the outcome of their trial?3. What does the NAACP acronym stand for? Why did the NAACP decide not to help the Scottsboro Boys?4. The Communist Party came to the aid of the Scottsboro Boys. How did the South perceive the Communist Party, and how was it similar to the perception of blacks? What was the Communist Party's hidden agenda in providing aid to the Scottsboro Boys?5. The Scottsboro Boy were not provided with adequate defense lawyers. Please list at least 3 ways in which the defense lawyers were inadequate.6. Describe the trials. Were they fair or unfair? Please include at least 3 supporting facts to back up your description.7. Were the Scottsboro Boys ever pardoned of their convictions?8. The Scottosboro Boys' trial took place during the childhood of To Kill A Mockingbird's author, Harper Lee.. Make a prediction about how this trial might be an important impetus for the book.