Choices in Little Rock

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Choices in Little Rock is a teaching unit that focuses on efforts to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957—efforts that resulted in a crisis that historian Taylor Branch once described as "the most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War." The unit explores civic choices—the decisions people make as citizens in a democracy. Those decisions, both then and now, reveal that democracy is not a product but a work in progress, a work that is shaped in every generation by the choices that we make about ourselves and others. Although those choices may not seem important at the time, little by little, they define an individual, delineate a community, and ultimately distinguish a nation. Those choices build on the work of earlier generations and leave legacies for those to come.

 Table of Contents

Introduction iv

Part 1: Individual and Society 1
Lesson 1: Who Are We? 3
Lesson 2: Why “Little Things Are Big” 7
Lesson 3: Why Differences Matter 12
Lesson 4: Race and Identity 15

Part 2: Dividing a Nation, Segregation & Its Consequences 21
Lesson 1: The Legacies of Segregation 23
Lesson 2: The Legal Basis for Segregation: Plessy v. Ferguson 30
Lesson 3: The Consequences of Plessy v. Ferguson 37
Lesson 4: The Road to Brown v. Board of Education 50

Part 3: Choices in Little Rock 55
Lesson 1: The First Day of School 57
Lesson 2: The Choices Leaders Make 66
Lesson 3: The Choices the Media Made 87
Lesson 4: The Choices the Students Made 97
Lesson 5: The Choices the Community Made 118

Part 4: The "Lost Year" 126
Lesson 1: The State v. the Federal Courts 128
Lesson 2: Shaping Public Opinion 135

PART 5: Legacies 147