USA - A Divided Union: James Meredith and Ole Miss

PowerPoint and two worksheets that examines the events that took place in Mississippi in 1962 when Black civil rights campaigner James Meredith attempted to attend the all white Ole Miss University. The lesson covers the actions of Meredith, President Kennedy and the Federal Government, the Ole Miss Riot and its aftermath.

Activities include

• Decision making exercise in which pupils must consider events from the perspective of James Meredith, the Governor of Mississippi, President Kennedy and the Federal Government based on prior learning of earlier civil rights campaigns and the nature of the southern states.
• Having discussed potential courses of action, pupils complete a gap fill activity of a passage of text to reinforce the actual events that took place.
• Ranking activity on the relative importance of the Meredith case, Brown vs Board of Education and Little Rock in improving access to desegregated education for Black people in the south.

Designed for the teaching of Edexcel iGCSE History 4HI1 Paper 1 Depth Study 7 A Divided Union: civil rights in the USA, 1945-74.
Lesson Length: 1hr depending on pace.