Melba Pattillo and Ruby Bridges: Two Pioneers of School Integration
Subjects
Arts & Humanities
--Language Arts
Educational Technology
Health
--Mental Health
Social Studies
--Civics
--History
---U.S. History
Grade
3-5
6-8
9-12
Brief Description
Students put themselves in the shoes of the students who integrated Little Rock High School in 1957-58. Note: The primary resources in this activity provide powerful and poignant descriptions of what those students faced.
Objectives
Students will
read about the kids who took part in early school integration efforts in Little Rock, Arkansas, and New Orleans.
read recent reflections by two of those former students.
role-play an interview with Melba Pattillo, one of nine students who integrated Little Rock High School.
read background and look at photos about the integration efforts in Little Rock.
put themselves in the shoes of those kids who were pioneers in school integration and write a diary entry one of them might have written after the first week in her new school.
Keywords
Ruby Bridges, Melba Pattillo, Little Rock, integration, civil rights, Black History, African American, hero, Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall
Materials Needed
computer with Internet access, or copies of two articles and an interview (see below) printed from the Web
a copy of the book Through My Eyes, by Ruby Bridges, from your local library (optional)
pencils and paper
Lesson Plan
In this lesson, students read the recollections of two women who were among the pioneers of school integration in the Deep South.
Introduce students to the two women:
Melba Pattillo, now Melba Pattillo Beals, was one of nine students to integrate Little Rock (Arkansas) High School.
Ruby Bridges, now Ruby Bridges Hall, was a first grader when she became the first black child to attend William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.
Share the resources below with students; they are reflections of two girls’ experiences that were written by the girls as grown women. You might share these pages as a class, or students might read them online or in printed form on their own.
Read aloud the entire book, Through My Eyes, by Ruby Bridges (published by Scholastic). After reading, pose questions from the Discussion Guide to help students put their reading in perspective.
Share an inspiring interview with Melba Pattillo Beals. In this recent interview, Pattillo Beals responds to questions from students who have read her story. You might have students read this interview as a round-robin activity. Print out the interview. Then provide each student with a section (one question and its answer) of the interview. Have the students practice reading Beals’ response to the question they are assigned. Appoint one student to act as moderator. That student will ask each question and the student with the corresponding answer will read Beals’ response.
After sharing the thoughts of those two women as they look back on their early experiences, challenge students to attempt to put themselves in the shoes of one of those two girls; ask students to write a journal entry that one of the girls might have written after the first week in their new school.
Additional Resources:
Some of the following resources will offer students added background about, and a little more insight into, the experiences of Pattillo and Bridges:
PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH: Physical Education GRADES K - 12 NPH.K-12.6 Respect for Others NPH.K-12.7 Understanding Challenges
SOCIAL SCIENCES: Civics GRADES K - 4 NSS-C.K-4.2 Values and Principles of Democracy NSS-C.K-4.5 Roles of the Citizen GRADES 5 - 8 NSS-C.5-8.3 Principles of Democracy NSS-C.5-8.5 Roles of the Citizen GRADES 9 - 12 NSS-C.9-12.3 Principles of Democracy NSS-C.9-12.5 Roles of the Citize
SOCIAL SCIENCES: U.S. History GRADES K - 4 NSS-USH.K-4.1 Living and Working together in Families and Communities, Now and Long Ago NSS-USH.K-4.3 The History of the United States: Democratic Principles and Values and the People from Many Cultures Who Contributed to Its Cultural, Economic, and Political Heritage GRADES 5 - 12 NSS-USH.5-12.9 Era 9: Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)
TECHNOLOGY GRADES K - 12 NT.K-12.1 Basic Operations and Concepts NT.K-12.5 Technology Research tools
