|
|
 |
 |
|
| Martin Luther King Jr.: His Legacy as Seen Through the Mississippi Summer Freedom Project |
|
 |
|
|
|
Lesson
Student Exercise One
- Have students research the organization and goals
of CORE and the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project.
General accounts may be found at these and other sites:
- Research the following: literacy tests, poll taxes,
and Supreme Court decisions on the Fifteenth Amendment
-- Reese v United States (1876) and Williams
v Mississippi (1898). General information can
be found at these and other websites:
- Discussion: How did Southern state governments respond
to the Supreme Court decisions in Reese v United
States and Williams v Mississippi? How
were the goals of CORE ’s Freedom Summer Project
related to these decisions?
Student Exercise Two
- Have the students work in groups to research the
events of June 21, 1964 in Neshoba County, Mississippi,
and the investigation, the indictments, and trial
that resulted from the events (U.S. v Price
et al.) The following websites provide general information:
- In order to determine the kind of information they
need to deepen their understanding of the civil rights
movement in 1964, students should identify the important
historical questions they want to ask. Questions might
include:
- What was the nature of race relations in Mississippi
in 1964?
- What were the goals of CORE?
- Why did CORE target Mississippi for its Freedom
Summer Project?
- Why did Northerners join CORE?
- How was the investigation of the murders of
Cheney, Goodman, and Schwerner conducted?
- How do the indictments and trial help us to
assess the effectiveness of the civil rights movement?
Why is this trial being revisited?
- Have students rewrite or add a section to their
textbook accounts of the civil rights movement that
includes the lives and deaths of the three CORE volunteers
(Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner). Have the students
use what they have written to enlighten and enrich
the class’s understanding of the history of
the movement.
Essay
To what extent do the events surrounding the murders
of the three CORE volunteers help us to understand
the effectiveness of the civil rights movement in
1964?
Student Exercise Three
- Have students research the biographies of CORE
volunteers: James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael
Schwerner. Biographies may be found on these and other
websites:
- Discuss a strategy for identifying significant
information in the biographies. The students should
formulate questions they might ask about Cheney, Goodman,
and Schwerner. For example:
- Where and when were they born?
- What were their family histories and religions?
- What historical events affected their lives?
- What common experiences did they share?
- Discussion Question: In what ways does the biographical
information on the three CORE volunteers help us to
understand the following recent statement by Mississippi
Attorney General Michael Moore:
"The problem with [the Mississippi Burning] case is
that we didn't do anything--we didn't investigate
it; we didn't prosecute it." (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/
ftrials/price&bowers/Account.html)
|
|
|
