Cross-Cultural Activism

A One Week Curriculum

By: Ashlei Flemming and Felix K. Seda

Main Objectives

• Students will gain an understanding of civil rights and discuss how they might be violated.

• Students will compare and contrast the cultural backgrounds, goals, tactics, and struggles of various civil rights leaders.

• Using role play and reconstruction of strategies, students will predict how successful these leaders would be if they used the same tactics for issues in the students’ community today.

DAY 1

What Are Civil Rights?

Word Associations

• On a sheet of paper, students will write down words that come to mind when they hear “Civil Rights” to prepare them for an open discussion.

• What are civil rights?• What are your own views on civil rights and what

rights are you entitled to?• How can someone’s rights be violated?• What should be done if someone’s rights are

violated?• Can you think of a circumstance where it is ok

for someone’s rights to be violated?• Who are civil rights leaders that you have

learned about?

Students will be asked questions to facilitate open discussion:

Civil Rights Leaders of Today

• What kinds of people fight for civil rights today?

• Do you know anyone who is passionate about helping others?

• Could you see yourself as a civil rights leader? Why or why not?

Visual Resource

Homework: Students will answer the following

question in preparation for the next class:

What qualities should a civil rights leader possess in order to be

effective?

Day 2

Introduction to Specific Leaders of Civil Rights

The Black Panther Party

• Students will be introduced to the Black Panthers using the teacher’s resource guide entitled Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching and a printed biography of The Party.

• Students will also look over the BPP’s Ten Point Program

Supplementary Materials•Students will watch Black Panther Films (1969) The film will discuss different leaders of the party, the party’s objectives and tactics, as well as the atmosphere in which the BPP worked.

•Students will work in pairs to complete a Venn-diagram.

Students will complete a Venn-diagram

Mahatma Gandhi

•Students will be introduced to Mahatma Gandhi using excerpts from a book entitled Gandhi which tells his biography.

Supplementary Materials

• Students will watch a video titled Gandhi’s India (1971)

• Students will work in pairs to complete a Venn-diagram (India 1971 vs. Hartford 2006).

Day 3

Introduction to Final Leader and

Review

Preliminary Work On Final Activity

Comandadante Filiberto Ojeda Rios

• Students will read about Rios using a biographical Handout printed from http://www.answers.com/topic/filiberto-ojeda-r-os

Review

• Students will complete an assessment sheet, answering questions about the videos and leaders.

Assessment Sheet• 1) What was the setting of the leader’s civil rights

movement? (Date, description of environment)• 2) What types of struggles was the leader fighting

against?• 3) What were the specific goals and reasons of intent

behind the leader’s movement?• 4) What tactics and strategies did the leader use in order

to preserve people’s rights?• 5) Do you think this leader’s tactics were appropriate and

the most suitable for his or her environment?

Preparation for Final Activity

• Students will be broken up into five groups of five.

• Students will be separated into groups according to assigned specific roles.

Group Objectives

• Interviewers: Come up with questions to assess the ability of a leader from the past to succeed in Hartford 2006.

• Leaders: Come up with persuasive arguments for your leader having the most effective strategy that would work in Hartford 2006.

• Judges: Judge the effectiveness of each leader’s tactics in Hartford 2006 based on each group’s answers to the questions.

Day 4

Continue Preparation for Final Activity

Day 5

Final Activity and Evaluation

Layout of Final Activity

THE END

Thank You for your time!