The Consequences of Segregation

Lesson Plan

Activity 1: Reflect on Segregation

Begin the lesson by asking students to complete a K-W-L reflection in order to activate their prior knowledge about segregation. 

Distribute the K-W-L Chart: Segregation handout to students, and then project or write the following definition and read it aloud to the class. 

Segregation: the official practice of keeping people apart, usually people of different sexes, races, or religions. ¹

Then, instruct students to complete the first two columns: “Know” and “Wonder.” Ask volunteers to share their questions from the “Wonder” category. 

Before students transition to the Big Paper activity, remind them of what they learned in the previous lesson, which explored the Plessy decision and the legal origins of segregation. Explain that while the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments of the Reconstruction period protected certain rights of Black Americans, those rights were conditional over time. This means that at times Black Americans enjoyed those rights with minimal interference, and at other times, Black Americans were denied those rights. The sources in today’s lesson will focus on how Black Americans’ lives in the South changed after the Plessy ruling and the impact of that change on democracy in the United States. 

Activity 2: Explore Segregation in a Gallery Walk

Next, students will engage in a gallery walk to explore the consequences of racial segregation using the resources found in the handout Images of Segregation. 

For the first round, ask students to silently tour all of the images using the Gallery Walk teaching strategy. As they walk around the classroom, ask them to record the following about each image, based on the 3-2-1 strategy: 

• 3 observations about the image
• 2 things that are surprising about the image
• 1 thing from the image that troubles them 

Then arrange the class into small groups of three or four and select a poster for each group to analyze in more detail. Please note that there are six gallery walk images (A–F) for students to work with. You may need to adjust the group size based on the number of students in your class or create duplicate posters. At their assigned poster, students should add their responses to the following focus question, using the Big Paper teaching strategy: 

• What does the evidence suggest about whether “separate but equal” can ever be equal?

Explain to students that they are to add their responses to the question above in writing on the image poster. The written conversation must respond to the question but can stray wherever students take it. If someone in the group writes a new question, another member of the group may respond, if so moved, by writing on the poster. Students can draw lines connecting a comment to a particular question. Remind students that all communication should be done in writing, and make sure students know that more than one of them can write on a poster at the same time. 

(Note that you may need to review the concept of “separate but equal,” which students learned about in the previous lesson.)

After students have finished their silent discussions, instruct them to complete the final column of their K-W-L chart to record what they’ve learned about segregation from the activity. When students are finished, ask for volunteers to share what they learned. 

Activity 3: Reflect on the Impact of Segregation on Democracy

In the previous activity, students explored images of segregation that illustrate its impact on people. In the closing reflection for this lesson, extend students’ understanding by asking them to consider the impact of segregation on democracy by responding to a quote from President Eisenhower in the late 1950s. (Note that students will critically examine Eisenhower’s decision-making during their study of the Little Rock integration crisis later in the unit.)

Project the following quote:

“[I believe] that every citizen—of every race … deserves to enjoy equal civil rights and liberties, for there can be no such citizen in a democracy as a half-free citizen.” ² —President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Begin by asking students to write a journal reflection in response to the following prompts: 

• What do you think Eisenhower meant when he said that there can be no such thing as a “half-free citizen” in a democracy? In what ways were Black Americans “half-free” under segregation? 
• How did racial segregation impact democracy in the United States? How did Eisenhower answer this question in the above quote? How would you answer it?  

For additional support, encourage students to review the “ladders” they made in Lesson 1.1 listing the three most important characteristics of a strong democracy. 

Then discuss the questions above in a whole-class discussion. 

• 1Collins online dictionary, “segregation,” accessed September 13, 2024.
• 2President Dwight D. Eisenhower to Jackie Robinson (letter), June 14, 1958, White House Central Files (Eisenhower Administration) Collection, National Archives Catalog, accessed August 2, 2024.