About This Lesson
SOCIAL STUDIES – Learn about racial tensions in Detroit, the fight to desegregate a ship, and how this episode in history paves the way for Thurgood Marshall’s victory in Brown vs. Board of Education.
Learning Objectives:
- Students will learn about racial tensions in Detroit during the World War II period.
- By examining primary source material, students will see how tensions caused by segregated spaces gave way to “race riots” or White mob attacks and eventually a legal battle in which Thurgood Marshall filed a brief in her defense before the US for the desegregation of the SS Columbia ship.
- Students will gain insight into the civil rights movement in the North.
- After contextual reading, students can either work in groups or alone to discuss the questions for further thought at the bottom. Extension activities like a four corners debate and writing an editorial are also linked at the bottom of this page.
Education Standards:
Rhode Island Social Studies Standards
- Inquiry Topic 5: The Constitution, Amendments, and Supreme Court decisions
- Compelling Question: Should it be easier to change the Constitution?
- SS8.5.1 Constitutional amendments, congressional bills, and executive orders
- Argue the historical significance of Federal laws enacted by Congress and the Executive branch to protect, expand, or limit individual rights
- Learning Assessment Objectives:
- d. Analyze the laws or executive orders expanding civil rights and equal protection for race, religion, gender, sexuality, and disability that demonstrate the evolving protections to civil rights (e.g., 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act, 1972 Title IX, 1972 Equal Employment Act, 1990 American with Disabilities Act, 2014 Executive Order 13672, 2022 Executive Order 14076), and argue their impacts
- Inquiry Topic 6: Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens
- Compelling Question: Why should individuals participate in government?
- SS8.6.4 Movements for Civil Rights
- Argue the impacts individuals and groups have made towards securing civil rights in the United States
