Primary Documents Lesson Plan: Civil Rights and Domestic Terrorism

Grade Appropriateness: 9-12

Standards:
6.4.12 K. Postwar Years (1945-1970s)
6. Analyze the Civil Rights and Women’s Movements, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Civil Rights Act (1957 and 1964), the Little Rock Schools Crisis, the Voting Rights Act, Brown v. Board of Education, the formation of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the American Indian Movement (AIM), the formation of the National Organization for Women (NOW), and the passing of Title IX.

6.4.12 L. Contemporary America (1968-present)
4. Analyze United States domestic policies, including the civil rights movement, affirmative action, the labor and women’s movements, conservatism vs. liberalism, the post-industrial economy, free trade, and international trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

Essential Question(s):
-What did southern white supremacists hope to accomplish in carrying out violent acts?
-Were they successful in suppressing the civil rights movement?
-How did their use of violence, when compared with Dr. King’s non-violent resistance, affect the mood of the nation?

Introduction:
This lesson is intended to have students confront the issue of domestic terrorism in the American South during the civil rights era (1950-s – 1960’s). I have chosen two first order primary documents that deal with separate incidents – the September 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church which killed four black girls, and the August 1955 murder of Emmett Till. First order documents include two photographs of Emmett Till, a fourteen year old boy from Chicago, brutally murdered on August 28, 1955 in Money, Mississippi. Till was severely beaten to death by white racists after he allegedly whistled at a white lady. The casket-side photo of Emmett Till’s badly disfigured face illustrates the gruesome nature of this horrible attack. Demanding an open casket, Till’s mother hoped to expose the brutality of southern white racism. Till’s murderers were tried but acquitted by an all-white Mississippi jury. Clearly, this kind of material shocks – it may even turn some stomachs - yet I feel the Till photo is an appropriate starting point for this lesson. If students are to fully understand the scope and nature of southern white racism, they must then be able to come to grips with the cold blooded violence that characterized it. Possessing much more than mere shock value, the Till photo has the power to awaken students’ curiosities. However, most if not all history textbooks choose to omit events such as the Till murder - unfortunate since such documents can inform, instruct, and spur us to ask “why”?

Till’s photos are accompanied by an excerpt from Dr Martin Luther King’s “Eulogy for the Martyred Children”, given at the funeral service for the four black girls killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. Another example of domestic terrorism motivated by southern white racism, the church bombing dealt a blow to the segregationists’ image and cause. In this excerpt, Dr King reaffirms his belief in non-violent tactics, despite the killing of innocents by white supremacists. King refuses to back off his pacifist stance despite the call for revenge among many in Birmingham and in the movement. In this eloquent eulogy, King calls for patience and forgiveness. Thus, students are forced to wrestle with King’s uncompromising non-violent beliefs.

Second order documents include an editorial from the Birmingham World as well as a letter written by FBI head J. Edgar Hoover to the United States Attorney General, in which he determines that there was no need for federal involvement in the Till case. Hoover was roundly criticized by civil rights leaders for his unwillingness to dispatch federal resources to Mississippi and Alabama, two states where white supremacists were routinely acquitted by sympathetic all-white juries. These documents allow students to gain a better understanding of the mood of the region as well as some insight into the nature of institutional racism as exhibited by Hoover’s apathy.

Third order documents include two postcards of lynching, one of a woman hanging from a bridge, and another of a lynched man surrounded by a group of happy onlookers (including young children). Students may also feel spurred to locate other letters written at the time of Till’s murder. Thus, I have included some rather nasty letters written by white racists imploring the Mississippi state attorney general to “do what is right” and acquit the suspected murderers. One even proclaims that “the nigger got what he deserved”. Most high school history students are, I believe, eager to be exposed to this kind of lesson, for it is one that challenges the patronizing narratives of history textbooks and forces kids to wrestle with the truth. Students deserve the chance to learn about the events that have shaped our nation’s violent, recent past. Knowledge of these brutal attacks serves as a guard against the apathy which distorts our understanding of historical events. Therefore, the violent nature of race relations in the South must be met head-on, not omitted. This lesson offers students with invaluable instruction as to the nature of racial violence and its effects on social change. Had it not been for the attention these terrible crimes garnered, people’s perceptions about segregation and civil rights may not have changed as they did.


Primary Documents

First Order Documents:

Eulogy for the Martyred Children
by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
September 18, 1963.
Birmingham, Ala.

This afternoon we gather in the quiet of this sanctuary to pay our last tribute of respect to these beautiful children of God. They entered the stage of history just a few years ago, and in the brief years that they were privileged to act on this mortal stage, they played their parts exceedingly well. Now the curtain falls; they move through the exit; the drama of their earthly life comes to a close. They are now committed back to that eternity from which they came.These children—unoffending, innocent, and beautiful—were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity. Yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity.And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. They have something to say to every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.And so my friends, they did not die in vain. God still has a way of wringing good out of evil. And history has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. The innocent blood of these little girls may well serve as a redemptive force that will bring new light to this dark city. The holy Scripture says, "A little child shall lead them." The death of these little children may lead our whole Southland from the low road of man's inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and brotherhood. These tragic deaths may lead our nation to substitute an aristocracy of character for an aristocracy of color. The spilled blood of these innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry of Birmingham to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. Indeed, this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience. And so I stand here to say this afternoon to all assembled here that in spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair. We must not become bitter, nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers. Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.


Photos of Emmett Till (with mother and casket-side)









Second Order Documents:

“Killing of the Innocents” editorial
Birmingham World - Sept. 18, 1963

Lethal dynamite has made Sunday, September 15, 1963, a Day of Sorrow and Shame in Birmingham, Alabama, the world's chief city of unsolved racial bombings.

Four or more who were attending Sunday School at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on the day of Sorrow and Shame were killed. Their bodies were stacked up on top of each other like bales of hay from the crumbling ruins left by the dynamiting. They were girls. They were children. They were members of the Negro group. They were victims of cruel madness, the vile bigotry and the deadly hate of unknown persons.

Society in a free country has a solemn responsibility to itself and those who make it up. Free men are bound by an irrevocable civic contract to safeguard the rights, safety, and security of all of its members. This is the basic issue in what is happening in Birmingham. The continued unsolved racial bombings tend to suggest the deterioration of society in this city.

Our neighborhood and church leaders has also the challenge of seeking some lofty, but real self-defense strategy and technique. Patience is a human element and subject to no less frailties. The unsolved bombings have taxed patience and aroused unquenchable fears - fears of police, of the sincerity of public leaders, and of the quality of Negro leadership in this City of Sorrow and Shame.

To the families of the bombed victims, the Birmingham World offers its sympathy. To the pastor and the members of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church we offer a friendly hand. We are angered by the murderous bombing and shocked by the lack of solution. The Birmingham World has been in the struggle against this kind of insanity, intolerance, disrespect of the House of God, defiance of established law, and disregard of human values since its beginning which the bombings substantiate. We shall try to carry on in the struggle, believing in the divine goodness. We have that overcoming faith in a Higher Being to guide us.

Those who died in the September 15 bombing also died serving the Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified. This will be an unforgettable day in our nation, in world history; in the new rebellion of which the Confederate flags seem to symbolize. Yet, if members of the Negro group pour into the churches on Sunday, stream to the voter-registration offices, make their dollars talk freedom, and build up a better leadership, those children might not have died in vain.

The Negro group in Birmingham is unhappy. The Negro group is dissatisfied with the kind of protection they are getting. The Negro group is disturbed when law enforcement remains all-white in Birmingham and in Jefferson County. The Negro group is disappointed with the lack of more help from the Federal Government. This makes Birmingham a city of uneasiness for the Negro group.

Where does Birmingham go from here? The huge bomb reward fund grows bigger, but the bombings solution does not seem to be near. Governor George Wallace says he stands for law and order but he seems to attract the support of the negative forces whose credo inspires less. From the lips of the Governor come assertions which seem to imply defiance of the Supreme Court decision on schools.

Is Birmingham a sick city? We cannot answer for sure. There are tensions because there is fear...there is a feeling of diminishing faith in City Hall to measure up to the responsibility of the kind of municipal leadership needed in his City of Sorrow and Shame. The killers of the innocents have challenged the conscience of decent persons everywhere.

Neither the living who were bombed nor those who have not been bombed should give ground to the bombers. The United States government and other law enforcement agents must leave no stone unturned until the perpetrators of this heinous crime are brought to justice.

http://www.useekufind.com/peace/a_1963_church_bombing.htm#RACIAL%20TENSION



Letter from J. Edgar Hoover to U.S. Attorney General

"...no investigation should be conducted..."

September 6, 1955

To: Herbert G. Brownwell , Attorney General
From: J. Edgar Hoover, Director, FBI

I want to bring to your attention certain facts concerning the alleged kidnapping and death in Mississippi of the victim, a fifteen-year-old Negro from Chicago, Illinois. It is noted that considerable "pressure" is being generated by some newspapers and organizations in an effort to have the Federal Government take some action in this matter.

On the morning of August 28, 1955, the victim was taken from the home of his uncle near Money, Mississippi, by the subjects. The victim's body was found in the Tallahatchie River on August 31, 1955, and Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam have been arrested by the Sheriff's Office at Greenwood, Mississippi, on warrants charging them with kidnapping. These individuals are being held without bond and the Sheriff also holds a warrant for Mrs. Bryant on the same charge. These two individuals were arrested by the Sheriff's Office before the recovery of the victim's body.

The victim with two other Negro juveniles allegedly visited the Bryant store at Money, Mississippi, on August 27, 1955, at which time the victim reportedly made "ugly remarks" to Mrs. Bryant. The action against the victim was allegedly taken because of this incident.

On August 31, 1955, after the receipt of information that the victim's body had been recovered, the above facts were furnished to Mr. A. B. Caldwell, Chief, Civil Rights Section, Criminal Division, by a representative of this Bureau and Mr. Caldwell stated that the facts did not indicate a violation of the Civil Rights Statute and no investigation should be conducted. The opinion expressed by Mr. Caldwell was confirmed by my memorandum to Mr. Olney of September 1, 1955.

The facts in this case indicate a state offense of kidnapping and murder but there is no indication to date of a violation of the Federal Kidnapping Statute or the Federal Civil Rights Statute inasmuch as the action was taken against a private citizen by a group of citizens. There has been no allegation made that the victim has been subjected to the deprivation of any right or privilege which is secured and protected by the Constitution and the laws of the United States which would come within the provisions of Section 241, Title 18, United States Code. It should be noted that recently in Washington, D.C., a group of white boys from the State of Mississippi were beaten and knifed by Negro youths and this Bureau did not conduct an investigation into that matter upon the instructions of the Criminal Division.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/filmmore/ps_reactions.html



Third Order Documents:

Letters to Mississippi Attorney General from racist white citizens

"...got just what he deserved..."

Postmarked September 8, 1955, Chicago, Illinois

To: Dist. Attorney Gerald Chatham, Hernando, Mississippi, Prosecutor
From: Anonymous

I see where you are going to invite Mrs. Roy Bryant down there for the trial. Do you plan on rolling out the red carpet and putting her up at some classy hotel in one of the most expensive suites. That nigger of hers was trying to show the Southerners how "tough" their kind from Chicago could be and got just what he deserved. If he was so good why was his mother so careful to caution him before he left as to what he did or said. Check on his reputation up here before too many of the sob sisters and brothers try to make him a little angel. It's good to know that the Southerners still try to protect their women. The niggers up here have nothing else but rape and crime in their minds. They've raped little girls from 2, 7, 17 and women to 65. Don't let yourself be soft-soaped. Just a Southerner in Chicago.


"...the little nigger asked for it..."

September 11, 1955

To: Mr. Gerald Chatham, Hernando, Miss.
From: J. S. Connelly, Morehouse Gin Company, Morehouse, Missouri

Dear Mr. Chatham:

We have a case that needs careful handling. Certain features, sticking out like a sore thumb, demand consideration if justice is to be done.

(a) The little nigger asked for it and got precisely what was coming to him.

(b) Any apology or consilation offered to the negress that had such a son, or to the NAACP which condones the impudence is unwise. Appeasement serves only to encourage the opposition and make it bolder. They would come to think the little nigger was right.

(c) Mrs. Bryant's husband and his kinsmen are her natural protectors from insult and injury. Those men deserve honor, not blame, for doing their duty. Even if they actually killed the little darkey, which has not yet been shown, a verdict of Justifiable Homicide would be in order.

(d) To mete out punishment to such men would be a major blunder. It would be to weaken or destroy the defense of every woman against insult (or worse) at the hands of the up-surging negroes, who have become much bolder in the commission of crime since the infamous decision of the supreme court. (Mississippi's great Senator, James O. Eastland, has shown conclusively that the decision was based on considerations of "psychology, sociology and anthropology," as set out in books by crackpots, more than half of whose number are Communists or fellow-travelers. He shows further that it was NOT based upon CONSTITUTIONAL grounds.)

Let us not be so upright as to 'lean over backwards.'

P.S. Just where do I come in? I am from much farther south than the letterhead indicates. I was born and reared near Helena, Arkansas.



Lynching



The barefoot corpse of Laura Nelson. May 25, 1911, Okemah, Oklahoma.

The lynching of Lige Daniels. Onlookers, including young boys. August 3, 1920, Center, Texas.

Activity
Source Analysis Guide to Historical Thinking

What type of document is it?
-letter
-speech
-photograph/postcard
-public record
-newspaper editorial/article

Analyze the document
-main idea of document/photo
-how it relates to other documents
-intended audience
-biases of author/photographer
-questions to ask

Historical context
-local/regional: people, events, and ideas of the time
-national: people, events, and ideas of the time
-world: people, events, and ideas of the time
-conclusions about local/regional, national, and world context

Identify habit of mind and vital theme and narrative represented
Habit of mind:
-the way you used this Habit of mind to analyze the document
Vital theme and narrative:
-Evidence the document represents this vital theme and narrative
Evidence the document relates to other documents
-1st order
-2nd order
-3rd order

Relationship to a discipline in the Social Sciences/Social Studies
Discipline
-evidence of relationship
NCSS theme
-evidence of relationship