The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Procedure:

Day 1

1. Divide your class into six groups.
   
2. Explain that each group will be investigating an event in Montgomery, Alabama that lead to a US Supreme Court case that affected the lives of the citizens of Alabama.
   
3. Assign each group one event and provide the related primary source documents and/or photographs.
   • Groups 1 & 2: Rosa Parks Arrest
   • Groups 3 & 4: The Montgomery Bus Boycott
   • Groups 5 & 6: Browder v. Gayle Court Case
     
4. Review the questions on the document and photo analysis sheets.
   
5. Using the Document and/or Photo Analysis sheet, have students look at each primary source and determine key facts that help them understand each event.

Closure:

 Ask each group to identify and share two key facts they have found about the event they are investigating with the whole class. 

Day 2:

1. Have each group create a poster illustrating the event in Alabama using the information from the document and/or photo analysis worksheet and the primary sources.
   
2. Each poster should include the title of the event, date(s) of the event, and key facts regarding the event. The posters may include the primary sources.
   
3. Have each group orally rehearse their poster presentation. All students must participate in the oral presentation.
   
4. While each group presents their poster, students record information about the events on the Montgomery to the US Supreme Court sequence map.

Closure:

Using their sequence map, have students turn to their neighbor and share one fact about each event.

Day 3:

1. Inform students that the defendants from the City of Montgomery decided to appeal or ask different judges to reconsider the lower courts decision to desegregate the buses. The appeal went to the United States Supreme Court.
   
2. Have students predict which way the Supreme Court ruled. Did they uphold or keep the decision to desegregate the buses or did they say that segregation is allowed in the Constitution?
   
3. Divide students into groups of two or three.
   
4. Pass out the Supreme Court decision primary source documents and Document and/or Photo Analysis Worksheets.
   
5. Have each student in the group analyze a different primary source using the analysis worksheet.
   
6. Students share what they discover about the Supreme Court's decision from the primary source with their group.
   
7. Have students complete the last section of the Montgomery to the US Supreme Court sequence map.

Closure / Discussion Question:

Based on the primary sources we've investigated, how does the United States Supreme Court affect the lives of people living in the United States? Record your response on the bottom of the Montgomery to the Supreme Court sequence map.