Yesterday, we learned about civil rights leaders like SNCC and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What kind of tactics did they use in their struggle for basic rights?
Are there any other tactics available that they aren’t using? Can you think of groups or people who might have used them?
Intro to New Material
Read pages 240-263 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Chapter 14: Black Muslims).
As you read, copy any sentences that particularly stand out to you.
Guided Practice
In the late 1960s, the Black Panther party advocated "black power." Read the following excerpts from their party platform and write a single sentence summary.
WHAT WE WANT
We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black community.
We want full employment for our people.
We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our black community.
We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society....
We want all black men to be exempt from military service.
We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.
We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
We want all black people when brought to trial be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as our major political objective, a United Nations-supervised [vote] to be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate, for the purpose of determining the will of black people as to their national destiny.
Independent Practice
Create a Venn diagram comparing the tactics and beliefs of Dr. King and SNCC with the Black Panthers and Black Muslims.
Learning Log
It’s 1963 and you’ve made up your mind to work for civil rights. Which group would you join? Give three reasons for your choice.
