Free Civil Rights Packet: Timeline of Events Leading to the Civil Rights Movement

Yesterday I shared the Civil Rights books we’ll be using in our Civil Rights Movement unit.  Before we go into a lot of depth about the events of the 1950s and 1960s, I wanted to make sure the kids really understood some of the history leading up to this period.

I created a photo timeline of events to help my kids review (and/or understand) the events leading to the Civil Rights Movement. We spent the week really going over that material. The packet goes over the basic history of slavery and post slavery events. Some of the topics we reviewed included…

      • the first slaves (Jamestown) picking tobacco
      • Slave Trade
      • the Declaration of Independence and Constitution (and the fact that slavery was not addressed)
      • Cotton and Plantation Life
      • Black Codes
      • Civil War
      • 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
      • KKK
      • Separate but Equal (Plessy v Ferguson)
      • Jim Crow Laws
      • Segregation

Not only did we go over the notebook pages (below), but we also pulled out the resources we used last year. We pulled out the notebook pages on the Constitution (which is in our Civics and Government Packet)  to make sure they remembered some of the details about that. Last spring, we spent quite a lot of time going over the Transatlantic Slave Trade. (You’ll find a list of books we read and notebook pages the kids added to their history notebooks last semester at that post.)  Plus, we read a few chapters from one of our history books.

Here is a collage of the notebook pages I made for their history notebooks. The photo timeline covers the topics I mentioned above. You can download this photo timeline free. It is 13 pages.

Photo Timeline of Events Leading to the Civil Rights Movement:

Timeline-EventsLeadingtoCivilRtsMovement

Photo Timelines:

The kids spent a couple of days making their own timelines. Several pages in the packet above include just photos of the events. My kids made their own long timeline and  used the photos in their project. (They are included in the packet above, but not shown in the photo collage.)

I made a quick timeline to show them how you can block out time periods to show how long something lasts. (For example having a line from 1861 to 1865 to show that the Civil War lasted for 4 years.)

ED did a simplified version of the timeline, just cutting out the pictures and pasting them on to her timeline.

Timeline1

 

The other two wrote out more dates and added in information.  I guess I didn’t take a picture of LD’s timeline, but you can see DD’s timeline in the orange below:

Timeline2

 

What else did we do to review these 300 years of history?

*During our writing workshop time we had a mini-lesson about historical fiction.  I made sure the kids knew the difference between fiction and non-fiction.  DD still sometimes gets the two mixed up because “non” makes here thing that its “not” true. Anyway, once I established that they knew what those both meant, we read the book, Now Let Me Fly: The Story of a Slave Family. (affiliate link) We’ve read it before. It covers a slave family from the time a little girls was kidnapped from her African village, chained, brought across to America, sold at market… through to when her children we sold or escaped from bondage. After we finished reading the book, I had the kids pull out elements of the story that really happened in history and what parts were made up by the author. For writing that day, the kids had the option of writing their own historical fiction story.  DD chose to write a story about Christopher Columbus. (LD worked on something else.)

*We also watched the The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. (affiliate link) This movie won 9 Emmy Awards. The story is really compelling and covers nearly a hundred years of history… from when Miss Pittman was a young slave girl during the Civil War through to her act of defiance drinking out of a “whites only” drinking fountain at the age of over one hundred! This story was also fiction, but we talked about the elements of the story that really did take place.

For those of you with younger kids, there is a scene of lynching that I would suggest you skip. (I made the girls leave the room. Other than that, it is truly a wonderful movie that really helps bring that 100-year period alive.

*The last activity we did was that I had the kids give a “presentation” about all the events they covered in their timeline. We talked about some of the elements of giving speeches…

  • Greet the audience –
  • Engage the audience – look people in the eye, smile
  • Give a brief overview of your topic before launching into your topic
  • Know your material
  • Thank the audience for coming
I had them practice on their own and then they gave a talk in front of the rest of us. Before they began they wanted a little more guidance about how to start… we came up with an opening together… “Thank you for coming. I’m going to give you four hundred years of history in four minutes or less! Are you ready?”  I was really glad they did this activity. It’s a skill we haven’t practiced much in our homeschool and it’s a reminder to me to make sure they have opportunities like this.
Well, that was about it! Next week, I’ll talk more about the Civil Rights Movement itself and share a couple more resources I made for the kids.
————————————————————————

Other posts in this series: 

CivilRightsMovement

Other posts from our Civil Rights Movement unit:
**Civil Rights Books for Elementary**Free Civil Rights Packet: Timeline of Events Leading to the Civil Rights Movement — This packet covers the 350 year history prior to the Civil Rights Era.  It also includes several pages of photos so kids can make their own timeline. Gandhi notebook pages; Transatlantic Slave Trade Learning Pack**Key Events of the Civil Rights Movement (free packet) : Covering the main events of the Civil Rights period such as
  • Emmett Till
  • Rosa Parks
  • Montgomery Bus Boycott
  • Little Rock 9: Little Rock Central High School
  • Greensboro Sit-Ins
  • Ruby Bridges attends a new elementary school
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964
  • Freedom Rides
  • The Children’s Crusade
  • March on Washington
  • Selma and more

Key Events of the Civil Rights Movement

**Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

 

Rosa-Parks-Worksheets

**Civil Rights Movement: School Integration, Sit-Ins and Selma — books and movies my kids loved

You might be interested in these related posts:

Civics-Government-Unit-45Page-Packet

American-Revolution-Unit-Worksheets-ReviewCards

See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page! Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter. ~Liesl
Other history posts and downloads that might be of interest: 

Gandhi-Worksheet

  • U.S. Constitution Worksheets (We reviewed the three branches of government again and explained how all three branches had important roles to play throughout the history of slavery, the abolition of slavery, protecting black citizen’s rights (14th/15th Amendments)… through to the Civil Rights Era)

US Constitution Worksheets

 Civics-Government-Unit-45Page-Packet

American-Revolution-Unit-Worksheets-ReviewCards

  • West African History — Free Notebook Pages, African Picture Books (and transatlantic slave trade pages)

WestAfricanHistory-NotebookPages

TransatlanticSlaveTrade

LearningAboutIslamWorksheets

Africa-LearningPacket

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.

See you again soon here or Homeschool Den Facebook page. Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter! ~Liesl

14 Responses

  1. cYNTHIA Hern says:

    LOVE these units and information. I am planning a “Black History” project and these ideas and facts have helped to give me ideas for it. My classes are with special needs students and they are excited about doing this!!!! Thankyou in advance! Cyndee Hern

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