The Brown Decision: Challenging Segregation

Lesson Plan

Day 1 

Activity 1: Analyze a Photo of the Clark Doll Experiment

As an introduction to the NAACP’s arguments in the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, begin the lesson by projecting the photo The Clark Doll Test by Gordon Parks. Ask students to engage in a See, Think, Wonder reflection by posing the following questions. Pause after each question to give students time to reflect.

• What do you see? What details stand out? (At this stage, elicit observations, not interpretations.) 
• What do you think is going on? What makes you say that? 
• What does this make you wonder? What questions does this image raise for you?

When students are finished reflecting, ask them to share their responses with a partner in a Think-Pair-Share. 

When pairs have finished sharing, provide framing for the lesson by explaining the context of the photo. Share with students that this photo was taken in 1947 during a psychological study known as the Clark doll experiment. Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark designed this experiment to understand how racial segregation affected the way Black children saw themselves and their self-esteem. 

Activity 2: Analyze the NAACP’s Argument: The Clark Doll Experiment

In this next activity, students will learn more about the Clark doll experiment and how the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) used the experiment in the Brown v. Board of Education case to argue that racial segregation in public education was unconstitutional. 

Distribute the reading The Clark Doll Experiment to each student. Due to the sensitive nature of the study, we recommend that you read the text aloud together as a class. (See Teaching Note 1: Preparing to Teach Emotionally Challenging Content for additional guidance.) 

After the class has finished reading, give students the opportunity to independently process their emotions in reaction to the reading by responding to the following prompt in their journals: 

• What emotions does this reading raise for you? 

Next, have students choose one or two sentences from the reading that resonate with them for one of the reasons listed below. Then have students copy the sentences in their journals. 

• Because of something about myself (my identity and experiences)
• Because it teaches me something about the world (other people, other places, other times, other ways of being and feeling)
• Because of how it is written (how the author uses language)

Give students the option to share their quote with a partner and discuss why it resonated with them. 

Activity 3: Discuss the Significance of the Brown Decision

Use the following questions to engage students in a whole-class discussion about the significance of the Brown decision:

• What did the findings of the Clark doll experiment reveal about how segregation affected Black children?
• How did the Brown decision contrast with the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson? 
• Explain in your own words why, according to Brown, separate is not equal in public schools.

Close the lesson with an opportunity for students to independently journal about the significance and (ongoing) impact of the Brown decision. Using an adaptation of the The 3 Y’s Thinking Routine from Project Zero, ask students to journal their responses to the following prompts: 

• Why does the Brown decision matter to me? 
• Why does the Brown decision matter to my community? 
• Why does the Brown decision matter to the country and to democracy? 

To help students respond to the third question, encourage the class to review the “ladders” they made in Lesson 1 listing the three most important characteristics of a strong democracy.  

Day 2 

Activity 1: Reflect on the Pace of School Integration

In a brief mini-lecture, provide framing for the lesson by describing the Supreme Court’s integration guidelines in the Brown decision. Explain that:

• In May 1955, nearly a year after the Brown ruling, the Supreme Court issued guidelines for school integration.
• The court did not impose a deadline for school integration to begin or end, nor did it provide specific rules for how schools should proceed with integration.
• Instead, the Supreme Court directed local governments to integrate “with all deliberate speed.” 

Then discuss the following questions with the class:

• What do you think the Supreme Court meant when it told local governments to integrate with “all deliberate speed”? 
• What challenges do you anticipate this language might have created when it came to following the court’s guidelines? 

Activity 2: Explore the Impact of the Brown Decision

In the next activity, students will explore the choices of individuals and communities in response to the Brown decision and the impact of those choices on the progress of school integration in the South. 

Set up the classroom for an activity based on the Stations teaching strategy with three stations, one for each of the documents below. (See Teaching Note 3: Setting Up the Stations Activity for additional support.)

• Station 1: Map of School Desegregation in the South, 1958
• Station 2: Communities Respond to Brown
• Station 3: Implementing Integration Plans After Brown

Then distribute the handout Analyzing Choices and Consequences in Response to the Brown Decision. Explain to students that they will work in small groups to consider documents at each station in order to find evidence that helps them answer the questions in the handout. 

Divide the class into groups of three to four students and start the activity by assigning each group a station at which to begin. Give groups 10 minutes at each station, and then ask students to rotate to the next station. Remind students to leave the copy of each resource at their station for the next group. 

After students have visited each station and completed their handouts, regroup as a class. Ask a few volunteers to share what they learned from the activity about how different communities and individuals responded to the Brown decision, the factors that may have motivated their choices, and the impact of those choices. 

Then return to the question that students explored in Activity 1 about the impact of the Supreme Court’s guidelines that local governments integrate with “all deliberate speed.” Discuss the following questions as a class:

• How did local governments respond to the Supreme Court’s guidelines to integrate with “all deliberate speed”? 
• What new insights do you have about these guidelines after examining these sources? 

Activity 3: Analyze a Political Cartoon

Give students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge about the impact of the Brown decision by analyzing a cartoon titled “Inch by Inch.” Project the Inch by Inch Cartoon, Bill Mauldin for the class, and ask students to write three or four sentences in their journals, using evidence they’ve gathered, to explain the message the cartoon is trying to convey.