Unit 2 Impact of Brown Decision
In this unit, students have the chance to investigate the lasting impact of the Brown decision and desegregation efforts in the United States and in their own communities. They will build spatial analysis and geographic literacy skills and a deeper understanding of the ways the legal system determines whether active desegregation efforts are needed. This unit offers a multi-disciplinary perspective, allowing students to think in and across psychology, politics, law, history, and geography.
Desegregation and Your State
This lesson is an examination of a city and its history of integrating public schools, providing a counternarrative to traditional understandings of a post-Brown America.
Grade level: 🎓
9-12th Grade
Subject: 🕮
History, ELA
Literacy Skills: ✎
Podcast Creation
Time Required: 🕗
180 mins
Lesson Pairing:
Primary: Unit 2: Impact of Brown
Secondary: Unit 4: 14th Amendment Legal History
Green Factors and Your School
This lesson will examine the Green Factors, established by the Green case, addressing inequalities in schools. By examining the intent of Green and the established precedent, students will then examine facilities in their school and will determine if they think they meet the Green Factor standards.
Grade level: 🎓
11th/12th Grade
Subject: 🕮
Government/Current Events
Literacy Skills: ✎
Reading and Listening to Legal Document, Presentation Creation
Time Required: 🕗
180 mins
Lesson Pairing:
Primary: Unit 2: Impact of Brown
Secondary: Unit 5: Life in a Multiracial Democracy
How Psychology Helped Desegregate Schools
This lesson is a cross-disciplinary examination of the Brown case, thinking about it from a psychology perspective. Students will analyze the psychological impact of segregation on Black students and reflect on the broader implications of racial segregation on educational outcomes and social development.
Grade level: 🎓
10th-12th Grade
Subject: 🕮
History/Psychology
Literacy Skills: ✎
Reading Legal Document, Reading Academic Sources
Time Required: 🕗
N/A
Lesson Pairing:
Primary: Unit 2: Impact of Brown
Secondary: Unit 5: Life in a Multiracial Democracy
Learning About Marshall’s Legal Strategy for Brown
This lesson will be looking at the legal strategy implemented by Mr. Marshall and the NAACP lawyers to overturn Plessy. The lesson will help develop reading skills and engagement with resistant, primary texts.
Grade level: 🎓
11th-12th Grade
Subject: 🕮
History and Government
Literacy Skills: ✎
Reading Legal Document, Podcast Creation
Time Required: 🕗
90 mins
Lesson Pairing:
Primary: Unit 2: Impact of Brown
Secondary: Unit 1: Introduction
Mapping Desegregation
Spatial analysis (map work) offers students the opportunity to see the content and related data in geographic relations to one another. This often leads to rich conclusions through comparisons or insights about the ways phenomena connect to and across places.
Grade level: 🎓
Grades 8-10
Subject: 🕮
Geography, U.S. History
Literacy Skills: ✎
Spatial reasoning; Mapping; Reading primary documents
Time Required: 🕗
N/A
Lesson Pairing:
Primary: Unit 2: Impact of Brown
Secondary: Unit 1: Introduction
Multimodal Historical Analysis of a Poem
This activity is designed to be a summative lesson that allows students to both think critically and creatively about a piece of literature and connect the themes of the poem to the desegregation era and content that has been covered in class.
Grade level: 🎓
11th/12th Grade
Subject: 🕮
US History/Current Events/ELA
Literacy Skills: ✎
Reading Legal Document, Reading Academic Sources
Time Required: 🕗
120-180 minutes
Lesson Pairing:
Primary: Unit 2: Impact of Brown
Secondary: Unit 5: Life in a Multiracial Democracy
Political Activism (Petitions) - Brown v. Board
Petition-writing offers citizens an opportunity to engage with the ideas and values of their community.
Following the ruling of Brown v. Board, this petition employs civic engagement in order to apply national rulings to local organizations.
Grade level: 🎓
Middle School
Subject: 🕮
Civics, Government, Public Activism
Literacy Skills: ✎
Reading primary source materials; Critique effectiveness of petitions as action
Time Required: 🕗
45 minutes
Lesson Pairing:
Primary: Unit 2: Impact of Brown
Secondary: Unit 5: Life in a Multiracial Democracy
Political Activism (Political Cartoons) - Brown v. Board
Political cartoons can particularly and more sincerely reflect the ideas of a certain community or reactions to certain events. Creating and sharing political art offers a way for individuals to spread opinions and perspectives on governmental and social developments.
Grade level: 🎓
Middle School
Subject: 🕮
Civics, Government, Public Activism
Literacy Skills: ✎
Picture and language cooperation
Time Required: 🕗
45-60 minutes
Lesson Pairing:
Primary: Unit 2: Impact of Brown
Secondary: Unit 5: Life in a Multiracial Democracy