The Emmett Till Generation

Lesson Plan

Activity 1: Reflect on Mamie Till-Mobley’s Quote

Begin the lesson by sharing with students the following quote from Mamie Till-Mobley:

Two months ago I had a nice apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South I said, ‘That’s their business, not mine.” Now I know how wrong I was. The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of all of us.

Ask students to reflect on the quote in their journals by answering the following questions:

• What do you think Mamie Till-Mobley meant when she said that “what happens to any of us . . . had better be the business of all of us?” 
• Have you witnessed or experienced this idea in your own life? If yes, when or where?

After students have written their reflections, ask them to share their responses with a partner. When the class is ready, elicit responses from volunteers. If you’d like students to make deeper connections between the quote and their own lives (and your schedule gives you additional flexibility), consider assigning the handout Making Connections with Till-Mobley.

Activity 2: Exploring the Emergence of the “Till Generation”

In the next activity, students will explore sources highlighting the impact of Emmett Till’s murder on youth activism during the 1950s and 1960s. Using the Save the Last Word for Me strategy, students will work in small groups of three to read and analyze one of the three readings:

• Reading 1: Joyce Ladner and Cleveland Sellers on Emmett Till 
• Reading 2: John Lewis, “I Couldn’t Accept the Way Things Were” 
• Reading 3: Anne Moody, “Coming of Age in Mississippi” 

Pass out one reading to each group and also the handout Instructions for Save the Last Word for Me. Read the instructions as a class. Students will begin by reading their assigned reading silently to themselves and then recording one sentence that stands out to them from the reading, along with an explanation of why they chose it. Then students will break into their small groups and each take a turn reading the sentence they chose. First, the other two members of the group have the opportunity to discuss the meaning and significance of the sentence while the student who provided it listens. Then the student who read the sentence gets the opportunity to weigh in on the discussion and explain why they chose the sentence. The group then repeats the process until each member has had the opportunity to contribute a sentence for discussion. 

Finally, students will respond to the following prompt in their journals or on a separate sheet of paper: Why did the murder of Emmett Till galvanize a generation of activists to pursue racial justice? After they’ve written, each student will share their response with their group members. In the next activity, students will be responsible for summarizing their assigned text to another group of students who have not read the text.

Activity 3: Share Findings in New Groups

In this Jigsaw activity, students will summarize their assigned text to another group of students who have not read it. Rearrange students into new groups of three so that each new group includes students who have all read a different text. For example, each group will include one student who read Reading 1, another student who read Reading 2, and a third student who read Reading 3.

Instruct each student to summarize his or her source for the new “teaching” group and to share their written reflection. Ask students to extend their own written reflection after their peer shares their summary and reflection.

Activity 4: Discuss Takeaways from Today’s Lesson

Reconvene the class and ask students to spend five minutes discussing the following questions in their small groups:

• How did young people (Ladner, Sellers, Lewis, and Moody) react to the murder of Emmett Till? How were their reactions similar? How were they different?
• How do you think young people found the courage to join the civil rights protests and challenge racism? 
• What lessons might we draw from their example as we consider how to respond to racial injustices today?

Bring the class back together and begin eliciting responses from volunteers to the questions above.