CRM, Black Freedom, and Today

12

1/20/16

Day

HEADING
Ben Shapiro
AAH 10th
Amount of Time and Period 1:20, 2nd
Subject of Lesson:
Government suppression of CRM and Black Power
OVERVIEW/ RATIONALE
This is a single day lesson about the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. I will try to
expose the students to some of his ideas that are not part of the common narrative.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS
1. When civil rights leaders began moving towards more radical stances, those in
power felt most threatened and reacted strongly.
2. Mainstream narratives of Martin Luther King ignore his more radical beliefs.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
1. What were MLKs beliefs and how are they portrayed by the media? Why are
they portrayed differently?
GOALS/OBJECTIVES
1. Compare the ideas of MLK to those depicted in the media IOT analyze why those
in power cover up some of his beliefs.
MATERIALS
1. MLK quotes (attached)
2. PowerPoint (slides 38-40)
3. Butcher paper/markers
4. MLK day video present day
5. Seat chart
PERSONAL GOALS/FOCUS: Consistency with rules. Dont talk over students. Stick
to rules. Be fair.
PROCEDURES
1. Objective on board
2. Assigned seats posted
OPENER
a. Share action plans (10 min)
i. Each group/person go.
ii. Does anyone have any comments? Any other tactics to add?
BODY OF THE LESSON:
1. What is a conspiracy theory?
a. Today, we are going to talk about conspiracy theories! Know what that is?
b. Anyone heard of any?
i. Tuskeegee experiments
1

2.

3.

4.
5.

6.

ii. Didnt land on the moon.

iii. 9/11 conspiracies.
Who assassinated MLK? (10 min)
a. Put up PowerPoint: picture of assassination with 3 choices.
b. Who killed MLK?
i. James Earl
ii. The FBI
iii. The Ku Klux Klan
c. Show the common answer picture.
d. Show website of 1999 verdict implicating the FBI.
i. Also, sent him a letter urging him to kill himself.
ii. He seemed to know he was going to be killed (SHOW VIDEO)
Why might the FBI want him dead? (5 min)
a. Discuss. IF government was involved, there had to be a reason.
b. What do we know about him? What did he believe in? What were his
goals? We know nonviolence. List them.
i. He believed these for years, why did the FBI increase activities
against him now?
Handout quotes of MLK look for new ideas, surprises. (15 min)
a. Underline anything that stands out/surprises you any of his ideas.
b. Circle vocab
Discussion: (10 min)
a. What was the main idea of this quote?
i. Call on someone.
ii. Read main sentence of each. (PowerPoint
1. Revolution- not always violent means extreme change
turning all the way around.
2. Capitalism
3. Linking war to injustice at home. Implemented Great
Society.
b. Final slide- all the points
i. Why might these ideas have angered the government even more
than his belief in equal legal rights?
1. Huge changes do those in power want this?
2. Cold war
3. People make money off of war. Huge movement against
war.
c. How many people knew about this side of MLK? Lets figure out why.
Discussion of these ideas and why they are not prominent in mainstream
media and history class. (15 min)
a. Show video of MLK day.
i. Put back up views.
b. Do we see any of these views in the normal news media? Why/why not?
You could look in your textbook, its not there.

i. Lets think. MLK is now a national hero. There are still poverty,
segregation, war. Military companies make billions. 1% own more
than everyone else combined.
c. Who do you think killed him and why? Was it cut and dry racism or
something else?
i. It looks like MLK went too far. Should have just stuck with racial
issues?
d. Are economic rights a civil right?
i. What good does it do to be able to sit at a lunch counter if you
cant buy a hamburger?
CLOSURE
If time, show some Eyes on the Prize.
ACCOMMODATIONS
Will be going around to check if people need help with language. Vocab box.
ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
Discussion.
POST-LESSON NOTES

Look at Beckys notes. Also, should show stats that connect military profits to lack
of social programs.

MLK Quotes
I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world
revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.
We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a
person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives
and property rights, are considered more important than people, the
giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are
incapable of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring
contrast of poverty and wealth.
- "Beyond Vietnam," Address, Riverside Church, New York, April 4,
1967
We are now making demands that will cost the nation something. You
cant talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without
talking about billions of dollars. You cant talk about ending slums
without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. Youre really
tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing
with folk then. You are messing with the captains of industry... Now
this means that we are treading in difficult waters, because it really
means that we are saying that something is wrong.., with capitalism....
There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must
move toward a Democratic Socialism (a system where the government
runs most of the economy and everyone is guaranteed housing,
healthcare, education, and a job).
- Statement to his staff, 1966 quoted in I May Not Get There With You
There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile (simple)
connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle (against
poverty) I and others have been waging in America. A few years ago
there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was
a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the
poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings.
Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken
and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society
gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the
necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as
adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money
like some demonic, destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly

compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as

such.
-"Beyond Vietnam," Address, Riverside Church, New York, April 4,
1967