What is Segregation?

Essential questions

1. How does segregation take hold in a society?
2. How does segregation in communities affect people’s lives?
3. How do insights about the segregating of streetcars help us understand school segregation better?

Outcomes and objectives

After the lesson students will…

1. Recognize the ways segregation takes hold in a community and society broadly.

2. Explain the roles of policy, economic interests, and social pressure to segregate (or desegregate) areas of life in a community.

3. Describe insights supported by primary and secondary source materials about the affects of segregation on people’s lives.

Preparing to teach

• Review the materials section thoroughly.
• There are a few historical figures who students might not recognize. It would be helpful to make sure you are familiar with their lives to some extent:
  • Mary Morrison of Memphis, TN
  • Mr. Madison S. Jones II, the NAACP Director of Youth Programs

Scaffolds and accommodations to support learners

Reading support

Reading for this lesson includes two source documents: one academic journal article in the field of history and one historical primary source written by an NAACP director about segregation and desegregation following Brown v. Board of Education 1954 (see materials list).

• • Setting a clear purpose for why students are reading and what they should get from it is important as a reading support.
  • Tampering with the text: Students should have access to the complete text for context and differentiation possibilities, but orienting the task around a smaller section of text or rewriting complicated language in everyday/present-day language is helpful.
  • Co-reading: Students reading together in small groups or with a partner can support understanding and comprehension.
  • Setting context: Sharing sourcing information and the broader context of what was happening at the time of the document or the time when the story takes place supports student understanding of the bigger picture and specific ideas in the text.
  • Highlighter strategy: Provide students with 2-3 highlighters each of different colors. Ask them to mark up the documents the first time through with color A for things that are unclear and they don’t know, and color B for things they understand and think are important to responding to the prompts.

Differentiation

Adjusting for high school grades

Instructional activities sequence

1. (15 min.) Set context. What do students already know about segregation:

• Have students complete a K-W-L chart for this intro level lesson on segregation (see table below).

• Have students share some of their responses, and as the teacher you have the opportunity to share some of the policy, social, and historical contexts for Jim Crow and segregation.
• (30 min.) Students will read excerpts from the Bates history article on segregated streetcars in Tennessee in the early 1900s. It might be important to set the context for Jim Crow South policy and practices depending on students’ prior knowledge. The primary goal for this task is to think about the tensions and nuances of segregation as it emerges and is more deeply engrained in life in America. Tensions between policymakers and corporate interests contrasted with racial divides in public opinion and the ways they shape the human experience are important to explore here.

Bates, J. L. (2016). Consolidating Support for a Law “Incapable of Enforcement”: Segregation on Tennessee Streetcars, 1900-1930. The Journal of Southern History, 82(1), 97–126. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43918207 

• Important pages to provide: In addition, we encourage you to make the full text available for students who might have interest in reading more or for sourcing practice if that’s important for student learning.
  • Pages: 97; 103; 105, 106, 113-115
• These pages listed above offer students an opportunity to read excerpts from a complicated historical journal article and make some sense of segregation and the impact on people, including the role of policy and corporate interests. Students should respond to the prompts below and point to evidence they highlight in the excerpts. It is good practice to make the entire article available but a good reading support to direct students to segments of complicated reading that are most relevant to the questions.

1. Who was Mary Morrison?
2. What was Jim Crow? How did legislatures view interracial comingling at the time (1890s/early 1900s)?
3. What was it like riding a streetcar?
4. Why didn’t people care as much about segregation in streetcar systems as they did in other aspects of life, like schools?
5. What was the resistance to streetcar segregation and how did streetcar segregation policy play out?
6. What was the reaction of the Black community in Tennessee?

• (30 min.) Read about Mr. Jones’ perspective on the Brown v. Board of Education ruling and segregation, or rather, hope of desegregation.
• Sourcing: Who was Madison S. Jones II?
• 1. https://news.hrvh.org/veridian/?a=d&d=vcchro19460601-01.2.20&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------#
  2. Madison S. Jones (the author of the source document) was at one time the director of youth programs for the NAACP in the mid-20th century.

• Read the 11-page document written by Mr. Jones in reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the 1950s. While reading, students can discuss or respond to the following prompts by reading the text and looking up key phrases or ideas as needed:

1. 1. What do Plessy v. Ferguson and the 14th Amendment have to do with segregation? (pgs. 2-3)
   2. What are the effects of segregation on people, children especially, according to Mr. Jones? (pg. 3-4); What about according to the Kansas court, as cited by Mr. Jones? (pg. 4)
   3. What does it seem like Mr. Jones is arguing for or urging in this document? (pg. 5 and throughout)
   4. How does Mr. Jones attend to resistance to desegregation in society? (pg. 6-8)
   5. What does Mr. Jones think the impact of desegregation will be on people? And what is needed to bring it about? (pgs. 10-11)

Note: In response to these questions, students can also provide direct references to text that demonstrates both reading comprehension and disciplinary practices of using evidence to support a claim.

Assessment

1. An exit ticket or short response to the essential questions for the lesson:
   1. How does segregation take hold in a society?
   2. How does segregation in communities affect people’s lives?
   3. How do insights about the segregating of streetcars help us understand school segregation better?
2. Collect student notes from their reading and discussion.
3. Have students annotate their reading materials with highlighters and margin notes during reading time.
4. Revisit the K-W-L chart to complete the "what did I learn" section.

Materials needed and additional resources for enrichment

1. Bates, J. L. (2016). Consolidating Support for a Law “Incapable of Enforcement”: Segregation on Tennessee Streetcars, 1900-1930. The Journal of Southern History, 82(1), 97–126. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43918207 

Pages: 97; 103; 105, 106, 113-115

These pages listed above offer students an opportunity to read excerpts from a complicated historical journal article and make some sense of segregation and the impact on people, including the role of policy and corporate interests. Students should respond to the prompts below and point to evidence they highlight in the excerpts. It is good practice to make the entire article available but a good reading support to direct students to segments of complicated reading that are most relevant to the questions.

Who was Mary Morrison?

What was Jim Crow? How did legislatures view interracial comingling at the time (1890s/early 1900s)?

What was it like riding a streetcar?

Why didn’t people care as much about segregation in streetcar systems as they did in other aspects of life, like schools?

What was the resistance to streetcar segregation and how did streetcar segregation policy play out?

What was the reaction of the Black community in Tennessee?