Day One:
Warm-up Activity:
Post the following questions on the chalkboard or overhead
projector and have students write down their responses:
- Who are your heroes?
- What have these people done to deserve the label
“hero”?
Display picture of the Greensboro Four
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/archive/09/0909001r.jpg
Explain that because these four students sat down to
order lunch in 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King said that
we should recognize them as heroes.
Ask students to speculate about why sitting at this
counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960 might
make them heroes.
Procedure:
1. Divide the class into groups of three or four.
2. Read aloud the Greensboro sit-in article from February
2, 1960. After reading, have the students identify the
who, what, where, when, and why referenced
in the article. These should be posted on the chalkboard.
3. Assign one of the four sit-in news articles of February
4-24, 1960 to each student in each group. In turn and
following the chronological order of the articles, each
student should read his or her article aloud. After
each article is read, ask the students to work as a
team to record the positive and negative information
and/or reactions related to the sit-ins mentioned in
the news that day. This information should be recorded
on the Sit-In Articles Note-taking Chart.
4. Once all groups have completed this activity, findings
for each of the articles should be shared with the class
as a whole.
5. Next ask the students to respond to the questions
listed below. (This can be done as an informal group
discussion, or each student can write a formal response
to the questions before the class discussion.)
Discussion Questions:
A. Based on information in the February 4 article, what
was responsible for the segregation of Woolworth lunch
counters in Greensboro?
B. Based on the articles, what were some of the positive
effects of the publicity given to the sit-ins?
C. Just based on the information from the articles from
February 4-24, would you call the Greensboro sit-ins
a success? Why or why not?
Homework Assignment:
- Display picture of the 1963 lunch-counter sit-in
in Jackson, Mississippi. (Scroll down to middle of
webpage: http://www.crmvet.org/images/imgcoll.htm)
Explain to the students that their homework will be
to read a firsthand account of this sit-in written
by one of the participants -- a woman named Anne Moody,
who was a college student in Jackson in 1963.
- Distribute Sitting In in Mississippi, 1963 by Anne
Moody, and the related questions. Tell the students
that besides reading the excerpt, the second part
of their homework assignment is to answer the questions.
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