Targeted Level: high school History, Leadership, or Government classes
Targeted Time Period: two 90-minute Block
Objective: This lesson plan allows students to take on the role of a stakeholder in the community debate that occurred in Seattle over segregation in public schools during the 1950s and 1960s. The lesson uses the basic “town meeting” format to help students better understand the issue of segregation in schools and one form of protest local civil rights groups took to create change in their community. Also, the lesson is designed to expose students to the various dimensions involved in one particular form of protest, a boycott. The point of the exercise is not the vote that takes place at the end, but the critical thinking and communication that happen along the way.
Teacher Material
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Lesson Plan in downloadable Word format
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"Seattle's Segregation Story" a powerpoint slide show
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Data tables on school segregation in Seattle
Background information
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Segregated Seattle page with Segregation Maps and Restrictive Covenant Database
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"The Seattle School Boycott of 1966," by Brooke Clark, with photos and documents
Student Material
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Excerpt from Quintard Taylor, "The Civil Rights Movement in the American West," Journal of Negro History (1995)
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"Seattle Civil Rights Groups Feel Boycott Only Way Left to End Segregation" CACRC leaflet
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"Fact Sheet on the Schools" CACRC flyer
