Grade: 8

Unit 4 Justice vs. Injustice

By the end of the unit, students will answer the following writing prompt:
The definition of justice is the use of power as appointed by law, honor or standards to support fair treatment and due reward. Justice includes
the notion of upholding the law. But beyond the concept of justice lies the notion of balance - that people get what is right, fair and appropriate.

Dr. martin Luther King said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" in his April 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

After reading and analyzing the events from the Civil Rights Movement, what was the worst injustice faced by African-Americans? How was that
injustice a threat to justice everywhere?

Write an argument that states your opinion clearly and is supported with evidence from this text, as well as supplemental nonfiction texts
considered in this unit. Remember to acknowledge counterclaims and organize your ideas clearly in your paper.

Dont forget:
Introduce your claim with precise language and establish the significance of the claim.
Develop the counterclaim fairly, and distinguish your claim from the counterclaim.
Anticipate audiences knowledge, concern, and possible biases.
Create cohesion between reasons and evidence and claims and counterclaims.
Maintain a formal style.
Your concluding statement should follow from and support your claim.





Week Mentor text Supplemental
text/Multimedia
Reading
Standards
Writing
Standards
Speaking/Listening
Standards
Language
Standards
Assessment
1 Mississippi Trial 1955 (870 L) by
Chris Crowe
The Shocking Story of Approved
Nonfiction and Short
Text
Warriors Dont Cry by by
Melba Pattillo Beals
RI.8.1,
RI.8.2,
RI.8.6,
RI.8.8
W.8.1,
W.8.4,
W.8.4,
W.8.5,
SL.8.1, SL.8.2,
SL.8.3, SL.8.5
L.8.1,
L.8.2,
L.8.4, L.8.6
Quick Write
Main Idea:
Analyzing its
Development
Over the Course
Killing in Mississippi
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/sf
eature/sf_look_confession.html

Poetry & Rhymes: A Wreath for
Emmitt Till (NP) by Marilyn Nelson
1000L


Marching for
Freedom: Walk
Together Children
and Dont Grow
Weary by Elizabeth
Partridge 960L

The Civil Rights
Movement: A
Photographic History,
1954-68 by Steven
Kasher
Like A Mighty Stream:
The March on
Washington by Patrik
Henry Bass

There Comes a Time:
The Struggle for Civil
Rights by Milton
Meltzer 1090L

Freedoms Children:
Young Civil Rights
Activists Tell Their
Own Stories by Ellen
Levine 760L

The Road to Memphis
by Mildred Taylor 670L

http://www.heroism.
org/class/1950/heroe
s/till.htm

Movies
W.8.7,
W.8.8
W.8.9
of the Text 7 or
9, and Content
Map 4: The
Analysis,
Essential
Strategies for
Specific Skill
Instruction,
Debra Evans


The Barber of
Birmingham: A Foot
Soldier of the Civil
Rights Movement

http://www.pbs.org/w
gbh/amex/eyesonthep
rize/

The Untold Story of
Emmett Louis Till by
Keith Beauchamp
Mighty Times: The
Childrens March
Produced by Teaching
Tolerance

Lyrics

The Death of Emmitt
Till by Bob Dylan
http://www.bobdylan.
com/us/songs/death-
emmett-till

2 Excerpt
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by
Phillip Hoose
http://www.npr.org/templates/story
/story.php?storyId=101719889
Justice by Langston Hues
http://allpoetry.com/poem/8495433
-Justice-by-Langston-Hughes
Rules for Riding Desegregated Busses
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eye
sontheprize/sources/ps_bus.html
RI.8.1,
RI.8.2,
RI.8.6,
RI.8.8
W.8.1,
W.8.4,
W.8.4,
W.8.5,
W.8.6,
W.8.7,
W.8.8
W.8.9
SL.8.1, SL.8.2,
SL.8.3, SL.8.5
L.8.1,
L.8.2,
L.8.4, L.8.6
Quick Write
Main Idea:
Transferring the
Concept of
Main Idea and
Content Map 4:
The Analysis,
Supporting
Details to an
Argumentative
Writing,
Essential
Strategies for
Specific Skill
Instruction,
Debra Evans

3 Nonviolence vs. Jim Crow
http://civilrightsteaching.org/resourc
e/nonviolence-vs-jim-crow/
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.a
sp?tc=CN0147
Jim Crow in America
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classro
ommaterials/primarysourcesets/civil-
rights/
RI.8.1,
RI.8.2,
RI.8.6,
RI.8.8
W.8.1,
W.8.4,
W.8.4,
W.8.5,
W.8.6,
W.8.7,
W.8.8
W.8.9
SL.8.1, SL.8.2,
SL.8.3, SL.8.5
L.8.1,
L.8.2,
L.8.4, L.8.6
Quick Write
Main Idea:
Transferring the
Concept of
Main Idea and
Content Map 4:
The Analysis,
Supporting
Details to an
Argumentative
Writing,
Essential
Strategies for
Specific Skill
Instruction,
Debra Evans


4
Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroo
mmaterials/primarysourcesets/naacp/p
df/daisybates.pdf
Ordinary People Living Extraordinary
Lives: The Civil Rights Movement in
Mississippi
http://www.usm.edu/crdp/html/cd/int
ro.htm
RI.8.1,
RI.8.2,
RI.8.6,
RI.8.8
W.8.1,
W.8.4,
W.8.4,
W.8.5,
W.8.6,
W.8.7,
W.8.8,
W.8.9
SL.8.1, SL.8.2,
SL.8.3, SL.8.5
L.8.1,
L.8.2,
L.8.4, L.8.6
Quick write
Main Idea:
Transferring the
Concept of
Main Idea,
Content Map 4:
The Analysis,
and Supporting
Details to an
Argumentative
Writing,
Essential
Strategies for
Specific Skill
Instruction,
Debra Evans


5
Birmingham News article 03/22/65, Alabama
Department of Archives and History Public
Information Subject Files - General Files, Civil
Rights - Selma to Montgomery March,
http://www.archives.alabama.gov/te
acher/rights/lesson4/doc4.html

Selmas Bloody Sunday
http://www.archives.alabama.gov/te
acher/rights/lesson4/doc5.html

RI.8.1,
RI.8.2,
RI.8.6,
RI.8.8
W.8.1,
W.8.4,
W.8.4,
W.8.5,
W.8.6,
W.8.7,
W.8.8
W.8.9
SL.8.1, SL.8.2,
SL.8.3, SL.8.5
L.8.1,
L.8.2,
L.8.4, L.8.6
Main Idea:
Transferring the
Concept of
Main Idea,
Content Map 4:
The Analysis,
and Supporting
Details to an
Argumentative
Writing,
Essential
Strategies for
Specific Skill
Instruction,
Debra Evans
Performance
Assessment

Excerpt: 'Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice'
by PHILLIP HOOSE
CLAUDETTE: One of them said to the driver in a very angry tone, "Who is it?" The motorman pointed at me. I heard him say, "That's nothing new . .
. I've had trouble with that 'thing' before." He called me a "thing." They came to me and stood over me and one said, "Aren't you going to get up?" I
said, "No, sir." He shouted "Get up" again. I started crying, but I felt even more defiant. I kept saying over and over, in my high-pitched voice, "It's
my constitutional right to sit here as much as that lady. I paid my dare, it's my constitutional right!" I knew I was talking back to a white policeman,
but I had had enough.
One cop grabbed one of my hands and his partner grabbed the other and they pulled me straight up out of my seat. My books went flying
everywhere. I went limp as a babyI was too smart to fight back. They started dragging me backwards off the bus. One of them kicked me. I might
have scratched one of them because I had long nails, but I sure didn't fight back. I kept screaming over and over, "It's my constitutional right!" I
wasn't shouting anything profaneI never swore, not then, not ever. I was shouting out my rights.
It just killed me to leave the bus. I hated to give that white woman my seat when so many black people were standing. I was crying hard. The cops
put me in the back of a police car and shut the door. They stood outside and talked to each other for a minute, and then one came back and told
me to stick my hands out the open window. He handcuffed me and then pulled the door open and jumped in the backseat with me. I put my knees
together and crossed my hands over my lap and started praying.
All ride long they swore at me and ridiculed me. They took turns trying to guess my bra size. They called me "nigger bitch" and cracked jokes about
parts of my body. I recited the Lord's Prayer and the Twenty-third Psalm over and over in my head, trying to push back the fear. I assumed they
were taking me to juvenile court because I was only fifteen. I was thinking, Now I'm gonna be picking cotton, since that's how they punished
juvenilesthey put you in a school out in the country where they made you do field work during the day.
But we were going in the wrong direction. They kept telling me I was going to Atmore, the women's penitentiary. Instead, we pulled up to the
police station and they led me inside. More cops looked up when we came in and started calling me "Thing" and "Whore." They booked me and
took my fingerprints.
Then they put me back in the car and drove me to the city jailthe adult jail. Someone led me straight to a cell without giving me any chance to
make a phone call. He opened the door and told me to get inside. He shut it hard behind me and turned the key. The lock fell into place with a
heavy sound. It was the worst sound I ever heard. It sounded final. It said I was trapped.
When he went away, I looked around me: three bare walls, a toilet, and a cot. Then I feel down on my knees in the middle of the cell and started crying again. I didn't
know if anyone knew where I was or what had happened to me. I had no idea how long I would be there. I cried and I put my hands together and prayed like I had
never prayed before.