CNNfyi.com - Bombing in Birmingham


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This CNNfyi.com lesson plan is supplemented with material from

Bombing in Birmingham

May 2, 2001
Web posted at: 6:48 PM EDT (2248 GMT)

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Curriculum connections: Social Studies - Civil Rights Movement

Objectives
Students will be able to:

Explain the bombing of a Birmingham church in 1963.
Analyze reasons for the delay of Blanton's trial.

Standards
National Council for the Social Studies
I Culture, grades nine - 12 High school students can understand and use complex cultural concepts such as adaptation, assimilation, acculturation, diffusion, and dissonance drawn from anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines to explain how culture and cultural systems function.

Materials
CNNfyi.com article, "Church bombing conviction comes, 37 years later"
Internet access

Suggested time
One class period

Procedure
1. Survey the class about their knowledge of the civil rights movement. Who were some of the leaders? What were some examples of protests? What were some examples of legislation passed in response to the civil rights movement? 2. Have students read the CNNfyi.com article, "Church bombing conviction comes, 37 years later" and ask the following:

Who is Thomas Blanton? Why was he convicted? What was FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's role in the prosecution? Why were tapes that incriminate Blanton not used against him previously? Why were the tapes included in his trial last week? The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is about search and seizure. Do you think that use of the tapes violate Blanton's constitutional rights? Explain your answer.
Who is Bull Connor? What impact did Connor have on the civil rights movement in Alabama? What has happened to the three other men involved in the bombing?

3. Share the quote by Mark Potok, spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center: "It (Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing) awoke the conscience of white America, which until that point had been in a long sleep." What is the significance and meaning of this statement?
4. Inform students that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned racial discrimination in the use of public facilities and in employment practices. Have students read the act and discuss the following question: What were other implications of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in regard to racial problems in the South?
5. Generate a class discussion about how leaders can affect attitudes and actions. How did leaders such as Montgomery's Police Chief Bull Connor and Governor George Wallace influence events in Alabama during the civil rights movement?

Assessment
Have each student write an essay answering the question, "Why do you think justice in the case of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham has taken almost 40 years?"

Accommodations Students can use the HighWired.com lesson entitled Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech to learn more about how King's powerful words brought people to a better understanding of the civil rights movement and its goals.

Challenge
Students can analyze issues facing African-Americans today using CNNfyi.com's Current issues facing African Americans. They can write essays about changes or lack of changes in attitudes towards African Americans since 1963. Students may include how current African-American leaders have encouraged changes in society.