GRASSROOTS

MOVEMENT
 • Warm up
• Video introduction
Table of Contents • Lecture/ Power point
• Assessment Time
 • Historians will begin to understand the Grass roots
organizational tactics that were implemented
Lesson Objective during the Civil Rights Movement and evaluate the
different forms of media used to create such strong
grass roots movements!
Warm Up
• Is it okay to break the law?
• If so when/ why is it okay to break the law?
• What comes to mind when you see this imagery?
• What comes to mind when you hear
Grassroots movement ?
• Write down a few sentences in your journal!
• No Wrong answers!
• Be ready to share your responses !!!
Google Form Warm Up
Introduction Video

• Take notes throughout the video!

• Before the class discussion talk with your
tables about what stood out about this
video!
• Be ready to discuss this video !
What is a Grassroots Movement?
• "A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or
economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to implement
change at the local, regional, national, or international levels"

• Components of Grassroots Movements!

• Identifying a goal- Identify a problem that affects your community, but can have roots in deeper systemic issues
• Getting Organized- Use safe community spaces ie(community center, church, school, clubs) that allow the
grassroot movement effort to flourish and allow for movement to gain strength and create plans! (community effort)

• Taking Action- Many different forms of actions that can be taken ie( Boycotts, protest, civil
disobedience, contact local representatives)
Institutions of Black Community
that allowed Grassroots
movements to develop

• African Americans needed safe spaces to

congregate to grow their movements!
• Examples of Black Institutions
o Churches
o HBCUs
o Lodges
o Community centers
Examples of Grassroots
Movements!
• Howard University Protest 1968
o Students from Howard seize administration
building 3/19/68
o Students wanted change in discipline actions
and want African American history course
offered in curriculum
o 1000 students form rally demanding change
o On March 22, four days into the protest, some professors
held impromptu classes on the quadrangle so that students
wouldn’t miss critical work with the end of the school year
approaching. A group of protesters hung a hand-made sign
over the “Howard University” sign on the front of the
building reading “Black University.

““Our Demand Is an Answer” — 50 Years since Howard University Protest.”

WTOP News, 19 Mar. 2018, wtop.com/dc/2018/03/demand-answer- howard-
university-protest-50/slide/5/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023.
 Freedom Summer

• Organized by the SNCC in the summer of 1964

• Movement aimed to expose the nation to the violent

oppression experienced by Blacks in rural Mississippi
that tried to exercise their constitutional rights

• Over 10000 volunteers gather in rural Mississippi and

train to help register Black voters, trach literacy and
civics freedom

• -Volunteers go missing under suspicious circumstances

during the summer of 64

• -Although 17,000 Blacks attempted to register to vote

in 64 only 1600 applicants were approved

• -this highlighted the need for federal voting rights

legislation

• This project created 41 Freedom schools that allowed

over 3000s MI to gain education

“Freedom Summer | the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute.” Kinginstitute.stanford.edu,
kinginstitute.stanford.edu/freedom-summer#:~:text=The%201964%20Freedom%20Summer%20project.
Montgomery Bus
Boycott
• -Took inspiration from Women's Political Council who
challenged Jim row Practices of the Montgomery city
busses

• -Re-ignited by Rosa Parks arrest in 1955

- Lasted 13 months

• -Ended with U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on

public busses unconstitutional

• -Coordinated by Montgomery Improvement Association

• -Demonstrated the power of nonviolent mass protest

• -Black Montgomery residents stayed off the busses through

1956!

• -Black Montgomery Residents organized carpools, walked,

and banned together to defeat segregation in the bus
system!

• -Ended with Browder vs Gayle and confirmed that bus

segregation was unconstitutional
Assessment Time
• Now that you have learned the importance of grass roots movement, I want yell to get
into groups 3-5 and create your own "Grassroots Movement"!
• Either create a Power Point, Video, or Poster to display to display your cause!
• Presentation must include purpose of grassroot movement, anything you will need
to create a successful grassroots movement
o Remember!
o Identify a goal
o How are you going to organize this grassroot movement (location, social media, etc.)
o How are you going to take action!
o Ask me question! And lets take this serious! We all have the power to implement change!