How similar & how different were the Montgomery bus boycotts and the Freedom Riders?

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see other’s points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking.” Dan

This lesson is a 40-slide PowerPoint presentation with graduated lesson aims (all will/most will/some will) and begins with some images and quotations to illustrate why bus segregation was such an important issue. The lesson then includes a “What’s Behind the Squares?” Starter Activity, which reveals two images: one of Rosa Parks on a bus in Louisiana and a photograph of an injured Freedom Rider. The main activity consists of an 18-piece card sort, in which students are invited to identify strategies, challenges, and impacts of both events (they’re colour coordinated), and then divide these into similarities or differences. Both were non-violent and led to desegregation, but there are also some key differences in terms of participants, scale of impact, and how they are remembered. The lesson concludes by referring back to the lesson aims and asks students to write a three-paragraph piece of work addressing the Key Question.

I hope your students find it as useful as mine always do. I haven’t included any YouTube links because the links often expire, but there are many terrific documentary clips you can use. You may also wish to play the Joan Baez song “We Shall Overcome” during the plenary.