A Pivotal Moment in the Civil Rights Movement Lesson 4

This lesson is part of the following unit:
A Pivotal Moment in the Civil Rights Movement: The Murder of Emmett Till

In this lesson, students synthesize material from the first three lessons in order to develop a thesis that answers the question: Why was the murder of Emmett Till a pivotal moment in civil rights history?

At this point in the unit, students have learned about many factors that combined to create a pivotal moment in American history. Lesson Four asks students to evaluate the relative significance of these factors and to make some claims about how they interacted. Ultimately, students' answers to this question will vary, but hopefully all students will come away from this unit with a deeper understanding of how pivotal moments in history are the products of both individual actions and historical context.