The Legacy of the Little Rock Nine

Lesson Plan

Day 1

Activity 1: Define the Success or Failure of a Movement

Explain to students that in the past several lessons, they’ve explored the choices made by leaders, students, and upstanders. In today’s lesson, students will reflect on the broader significance of the Little Rock Nine’s efforts to integrate Central High School. 

Ask students to write a response in their journals discussing whether they agree or disagree with the following statement and explaining their reasoning: “The success or failure of a movement for social change should be determined by whether or not it provides immediate, tangible (able to be seen or felt) results.” 

As the class responds to the statement, post two signs at opposite ends of the classroom: one labeled “Agree” and the other “Disagree.”

Once students have finished writing, use the Barometer teaching strategy to lead a class discussion of the prompt. (See Teaching Note 1: Preparing for the Barometer Discussion for guidance on how to prepare for this activity in advance.) Read aloud the statement: “The success or failure of a movement for social change should be determined by whether or not it provides immediate, tangible (able to be seen or felt) results.” Then ask students to silently find a place to stand between the two signs. Explain that the closer they are to a sign, the more strongly they are showing their support for that position (e.g., if a student is standing close to the sign “Disagree,” it is because they strongly disagree with the statement). Although students may feel certain of their position at the start of the activity, be sure they understand that they can change their place along the line if their opinion changes. 

After everyone has lined up between the two signs, ask various students to explain why they have chosen their current position along the line. Once three or four viewpoints have been heard, allow time for students to change their thinking and move their place along the line. If students change positions, provide an opportunity for them to explain their reasoning. 

After volunteers have shared, ask the class to return to their seats. Explain to students that they will revisit their reflection at the end of the lesson and ask them to keep their written response in a safe place. (See Teaching Note 2: Keeping Students’ Written Reflections for additional guidance.)

Activity 2: Analyze Progress and Setbacks to School Integration After 1957

Explain that in this two-day lesson, the class will explore a timeline of events related to the history of school integration after the Little Rock Nine attempted to integrate Central High School in 1957, and they will think about how to view the progress and setbacks that shaped the movement to integrate public schools.

​Explain to students that before they examine the “big picture” by working with the timeline posted around the room, they will first take time to think about some of the individual events that appear in the timeline. Specifically, they will work in small groups to read a brief description of an event and reflect on the progress or setbacks that occurred during that time period. 

Arrange students in small groups of four, and assign each group one of the following event cards that you have cut out from the handout Event Cards: School Desegregation and Integration After 1957. (See Teaching Note 3: Preparing the Classroom for additional guidance on how to set up this activity.)

• Event Card 1: The Closing of Schools in Little Rock in 1958
• Event Card 2: The Lost Year
• Event Card 3: Resistance to School Desegregation and Integration Continues
• Event Card 4: School Desegregation During the Johnson Administration
• Event Card 5: Green v. New Kent County
• Event Card 6: Board of Education of Oklahoma City Public Schools v. Dowell
• Event Card 7: School Segregation Today

Instruct groups to read through their assigned event card. As they read, ask them to make the following annotations to the text:

• Write a “P” next to information that describes progress toward school integration.
• Write an “S” next to information that describes setbacks to school integration.

Then distribute the Event Card Summary handout and ask groups to work together to write answers to the following questions on the handout:

• Write a one-sentence summary of your event card that responds to the following prompt: What happened to efforts to integrate schools during this time period? If you were to summarize the events on your card, would you say they describe progress toward school integration? Why or why not? Support your answer using statistics or facts from your event card.
• Which date from your event card is most significant? Why? 

Before students begin their work, consider choosing an event from the timeline for a think-aloud to help them better understand the task. Then give students five to 10 minutes to discuss their assigned event and answer the questions on their Event Card Summary handout.

Activity 3: Return to the Barometer Activity

Close by asking students to revisit the Barometer activity from the beginning of the lesson.

Ask students to reread their original response to the following statement: “The success or failure of a movement for social change should be determined by whether or not it provides immediate, tangible (able to be seen or felt) results.”

Then ask students to respond to the following prompt in their journals: 

How did your thinking about the statement change as a result of the information you learned from your event card?

Before class ends, remind students to save their materials from Activity 2 for the next lesson and store them in a safe place. (See Teaching Note 4: Managing Student Materials Across a Two-Day Lesson for additional guidance.)

Day 2 

Activity 1: Revisit the Journal Reflection from the Previous Day

Remind students that in the previous lesson, they worked in groups to learn about significant events related to school desegregation and integration following the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in 1957. 

Instruct students to share their journal reflection from the previous day with a partner using the Think-Pair-Share strategy. Ask pairs to discuss similarities or differences in their reflections. 

Activity 2: Create a Human Timeline

Before beginning this activity, print the handout Year-by-Year Titles | School Integration After 1957 Timeline and hang the years in chronological order around the classroom. (See Teaching Note 3: Preparing the Classroom for additional guidance on how to prepare for this activity.)

Explain that today, students will create a human timeline to explore important events related to school desegregation and integration between 1957 and today, and they will reflect on the progress and setbacks that shaped the movement to integrate public schools in the United States. 

Instruct students to arrange themselves in the same groups as on the previous day. In their small groups, have students review their group’s responses to the Event Card Summary handout.

Then distribute the handout Progress and Setbacks After 1957 and read the instructions aloud. On a piece of chart paper, or on available whiteboard space, create a two-column chart with the headings “Event After 1957” and “Progress/Setback. Why?” so that you can model how students can complete the handout Progress and Setbacks After 1957.

Next, ask each group to choose a spokesperson to share their group’s assigned event card by summarizing the card in their own words and sharing their group’s responses to the analysis questions on the Event Card Summary handout. 

Then invite those students to line up along the timeline you have constructed in the room (using the information on the handout Year-by-Year Titles | School Integration After 1957 Timeline), bringing their event card and the Event Card Summary handout. Since most of the event cards cover long periods of time, instruct students to line up near the date they had identified as “most significant” in the second question from the Event Card Summary handout.

As students report out, model taking notes on the chart you created to support them as they complete their graphic organizers.

Time permitting, you may instruct students to color-code the rows in the handout Progress and Setbacks After 1957 to help them visualize the progress toward and setbacks to school integration. Distribute crayons or colored pencils, and ask students to choose one color that represents progress and another that represents setbacks and then shade in each row of their handout accordingly. 

Activity 3: Analyze Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Quote

Next, students will have the opportunity to process the previous activity by drawing connections between the events they learned about from the human timeline and a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on progress. 

Pass out the handout Quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and read it aloud to the class:

“The line of progress is never straight. For a period a movement may follow a straight line and then it encounters obstacles and the path bends. … A final victory is an accumulation of many short-term encounters. To lightly dismiss a success because it does not usher in a complete order of justice is to fail to comprehend the process of full victory … ” ¹ —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Explain to students that this quote was written in 1967, during a period of perceived setbacks during the civil rights movement. Unpack the quote with students, using the following questions to guide the discussion: 

• According to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., how should setbacks to progress be understood?
• The timeline you explored in class shows that schools have become more segregated over the last 30 years. How can Dr. King’s understanding of progress help us make sense of this trend? 
• Why might it be important to reverse the school segregation trend? 
  • For individuals?
  • For communities?
  • For democracy? 

• 1Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968), 12.