USA - A Divided Union: The Montgomery Bus Boycott

PowerPoint (with 6 slides) and a worksheet that examines the actions of Rosa Parks, the resulting Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956 and the end to segregation in bus transportation.

Activities include

• Quick Quiz recapping previous learning on the murder of Emmett Till.
• Discussion to probe pre-existing knowledge on bus segregation and Rosa Parks’ role in challenging it using two photograph prompts.
• Reading and comprehension exercise covering the details of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and its outcome, including the Supreme Court ruling on Browder vs. Gayle.
• Discussion with photograph prompt on why the tactic of a boycott was particularly effective.
• Debate on whether the bus boycott was more significant than Brown vs Board of Education for the improvement of civil rights.
• Plenary conclusion in which pupils write whether the NAACP or the Montgomery Improvement Association were more important in ending bus segregation.

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.

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