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Other Sessions 1. New World Encounters 2. The Coming Revolution 3. The New Nation 4. Expansion and Reform 5. Civil War and Reconstruction 6. The Settlement of the West 7. World War I 8. The Progressive Era 9. The Great Depression and the New Deal 10. The Civil Rights Movement

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Featured Media

Option 1:

This series of six videos excerpted from American Experience: "Simple Justice" is a dramatization based on the non-fiction book Simple Justice by Richard Kluger. You will need to set up a free registration for Teachers' Domain to view these resources.

Simple Justice 1: A Handful of Lawyers
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/osi04/soc/ush/ civil/ lawyers/ index.html

Simple Justice 2: Social Science Evidence
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/osi04/soc/ush/ civil/ dolltest/ index.html

Simple Justice 3: The Trial Begins
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/osi04/soc/ush/ civil/ begins/

Simple Justice 4: Arguing the Fourteenth Amendment
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/osi04/soc/ush/ civil/ arguing/

Simple Justice 5: Marshall's Closing Statement
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/osi04/soc/ush/ civil/ marshallsj

Justice 6: Justice Warren Reads the Decision
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resources/osi04/soc/ush/ civil/ warren/

After you watch the videos, discuss these questions with colleagues or reflect on them in your journal:

1. What was Charles Hamilton Houston trying to achieve, and why did he prepare a selected group of lawyers? How did he motivate them? Do you think the Supreme Court decision in 1954 was a fulfillment of Houston's legacy?
2. How did the NAACP lawyers use the results of the "doll test" in their case?
3. Thurgood Marshall said in his opening argument, "We're growing up in America." What do you think he meant?
4. Compare how the two sides used the Fourteenth Amendment to argue their side of the case.
5. How did Marshall use the everyday experiences of black children and white children in the South to argue against segregation in public schools?

Option 2:

For this, you will need access to a copy of Separate But Equal (1991), starring Sidney Poitier as Thurgood Marshall. The film begins with a request by parents in a poor black South Carolina community for much-needed school buses and follows the case to the final Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in schools.

After you watch the film, discuss these questions with colleagues or reflect on them in your journal:

1. In the movie, South Carolina Governor James F. Byrnes says, "I am determined to show that segregation and discrimination are not the same thing." How does this statement reflect attitudes about segregation in the United States, particularly in the South?
2. As they prepare to bring their case to the South Carolina court, the NAACP lawyers debate about which direction to take -- focus on enforcing separate but equal or on abolishing segregation. What are the concerns with each option? How does the case finally take the direction of challenging segregation in South Carolina? What arguments do they make in support of their position?
3. What path does the case take from the appeal in the South Carolina court decision to the final Supreme Court decision? Who is involved at each stage?
4. How does the film portray Earl Warren's role in the final Brown decision?

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