Picturing Equality: Exploring Civil Rights’ Marches through Photographs
Exploring controversial and difficult events and issues with young children can be challenging. The Civil Rights Movement is an abstract, perhaps remote, issue for young children today. However, it is an important part of our country's history and a theme worthy of study. This article suggests ways to use photographs to explore this mature subject matter that allow children to observe, discuss, and relate to pictures as a means of developing language along with concepts. Furthermore, discussions inspired by viewing the photographic documentation of the historic events surrounding the struggle for civil liberties allow students to share their insights about basic human rights and relate them to their lived experiences. The essential question guiding this lesson plan is: How can photographs provide insight into historical events? Scaffolded questions, based on the photographs, guide the students from observing and understanding to reflecting and analyzing. In addition to the lesson plan, the article contains historical background on the marches and related picture books and teaching resources based on the marches.