Introduction to Year 11 and what we have

learnt so far.
Lesson Resources for Week 1

How to use this booklet

1
This booklet will contain all the notes and tasks for the first two weeks of the
course. All the information here will help you to start to consider how far civil
rights for Black Americans were achieved in the 1950s

The information and tasks should follow your lessons exactly. The idea here is
that you ‘use the notes; don’t make the notes’. This means that we would
rather you engage in the lessons, ask and answer questions, highlight key bits
of information, complete tasks rather than copying down the information from
the ppts.

It also means that we can introduce something called ‘flipped learning’. This is
where we ask you to read some new information that we will be looking at the
following week and we ask you to complete some tasks based on this. This
should make the Lead lessons less overwhelming for you. You will already
have met the information before, you can check your answers (and correct if
need be) and you can also ask if you don’t understand anything or want to
know more. This way of learning should help to make sure that you have a firm
understanding of the content before we move onto the Explore lessons. It is
crucial that this flipped learning is completed.

The textbook that we have asked you to buy will still be a valuable aide. It will
offer further detail in order to extend your understanding of the subject.

Please make sure that you have this booklet with you for each lesson and then
you can follow the lessons seamlessly. You can print it out and write on it or
save it to your computer, whichever works best for you.

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Week 1 Learn Lesson: Welcome to Year 11

Key Words

• Constitution - A constitution is a set of basic laws and principles that a

country or organisation is governed by.
• Amendment - Changes (amendments) to the US Constitution
• Federal Government - The central government of the USA, based in
Washington DC
• Civil Rights Movement - the civil rights movement was a struggle for
that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for black Americans
to gain equal rights under the law in the United States
• Discrimination - the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different groups
of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.
• Segregation - keeping different groups apart
• Jim Crow Laws - segregation laws in the USA
• Lynching - killings, usually hangings, done by a group, where the victim
is suspected of a crime but has not been tried
• Unconstitutional - against the constitution
• Plessy v Ferguson - a ruling by the Supreme Court that separate
facilities were allowed ( were constitutional) IF they were equal.
• Legal precedent - a ruling in a law case that is used by other courts
when deciding similar cases

What have we done so far?

Paper 2 : The Origins and Course of the First

World War, 1905-1918
3
 The long and short term causes of the First World War.
Trenches of the Western Front.
Battles of Passchendaele and the Somme and the Gallipoli campaign
Reasons for Germany’s eventual defeat and the end of the war itself.
Completed in Year 10
If you have missed this topic please speak to your Explore teacher

Paper 1: Germany: development of dictatorship, 1918–45

• Problems faced by Germany and its new government in the aftermath of
WW1.
• How far had Germany recovered by 1929?
• Rise of Hitler and how he was able to take control of
Germany in 1933.
• Life in Germany during the 1930s
• Life during WW2 and the end of Nazi Germany
• Completed in Year 10
• If you have missed this topic please speak to your Explore teacher.

Paper 1: A Divided Union: Civil Rights in the

USA, 1945–74
Same types of questions as Germany topic
Focuses on the fight for civil rights in America
between 1945 and 1974.
Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1940s and
1950s (completed in Year 10)
A booklet with the information from the start this topic is available on the
Learning Platform. Please take some time to read through it.
If you have missed the beginning of this topic and you are still worried
then please speak to your Explore teacher
Units:
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 McCarthyism and the Red Scare
Segregation and discrimination against Black Americans and the Civil
Rights Movement in the 1950s.
The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
Other protest movements: students, women, Vietnam
Nixon and Watergate

Week 1 Explore Lesson 1: To recap on the

Divided Union: Civil Rights in the USA 1945-74
topic

How do these pictures relate to our studies?

5
 What event does the above poster relate to?

Who is the above person and what did he do?

6
 Who is the above women and what did she do?

What is the key event above?

7
 What form of protest was this and how was it
significant?

The American Constitution

• A constitution is a set of basic laws and principles that a country is

governed by.
• The Constitution of the United States was produced in 1791 when it won
its independence from Britain. This established a system of government
for the new country

The Federal government based in Washington DC, is

the government for the whole country.

The Federal Government has three branches . These are entirely independent
of each other and none has over whelming power. This system is known as
‘separation of powers’ and was designed to stop any one individual or
institution from becoming too powerful

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The Legislative
Congress makes new laws. Both Houses – the Senate and the House of
Representatives – are also elected but in separate elections. This means that
the President might not come from the same political party that is in charge of
Congress. This can limit the President’s power. But laws passed by Congress
can be vetoed (rejected) by the President and the Supreme Court

The Executive
The Executive does the day to day running of the country. The President
chooses all the secretaries (ministers) who lead departments such as the State
Department, which carries out foreign policy. The President and Vice President
are directly elected by US citizens. But Congress can impeach the President
and remove them from office.

Judiciary
The Supreme Court and other federal courts make sure that laws passed by
Congress are constitutional. The judges are chosen by the President, but have
to be approved by the Senate

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 Amendments to the American Constitution
• Amendments are changes/additions to the US Constitution
• There have only been 27 additions or amendments to the Constitution.
• The first ten of these were made in the months after the Constitution was
made final and are known as the Bill of Rights.
• The other amendments have made changes to the systems of
government or have added new rights for citizens.

Selected Amendments
 1st Freedom of religion, speech, the press and assembly
(1791)
 2nd The right to keep and bear arms (1791)
 6th The right to a fair trial if accused of a crime (1791)
 13th Abolition of Slavery 1865)
 14th Former slaves become American citizens with equal
protection of the law (1868
 15th All men of any race granted the right to vote (1870)
 19th Women of any race granted the right to vote (1920)

By 1890, according to the US Constitution, Black Americans were equal with

white citizens.
In practice this was far from the case. Black Americans found themselves
facing racism, discrimination and often violence that continued well into the
20th century.

Civil Rights in the 1950s

Civil rights - the rights that each person has in a society,
whatever their race, sex, or religion: Civil rights include
freedom, equality in law and in employment, and the right to
vote
• By 1890, according to the US Constitution, Black Americans were equal
with white citizens.
• In practice this was far from the case. Black Americans found
themselves facing racism, discrimination and often violence that
continued well into the 20th century.

Segregation and Discrimination: The South

• By 1890, the USA had abolished slavery and given black people equal
rights as American citizens. However, black Americans, especially in the
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 south still found themselves facing racism, discrimination and
segregation.
• In 1950 most States had some segregation laws that meant black people
and white people had to use different facilities.
• Segregation laws were most strictly enforced in the South were they
applied to almost all aspects of life.
• In these States ‘Jim Crow’ laws meant that Black Americans attended
separate schools, had to use separate areas in restaurants, libraries,
cinemas and parks and were also separated on public transport
• Most of these laws had been passed by state legislatures and approved
by state courts at the end of the 19th century.
• ‘Jim Crow’ laws kept black and white people separate. Facilities for Black
Americans were almost always poorer in quality than those for white
people

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 Key events Details Effects Limitations Overall
significance /10
Brown vs
Topeka
1954

The murder
of Emmett
Till

Montgomer
y Bus
Boycott

Civil Rights
Act 1956

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 Little Rock
1957

Brown vs Topeka

The 1954 case of Brown vs Topeka was a ground-breaking turning point in the
history of civil rights in the United States. The case began when Oliver Brown,
an Black American parent, sued the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas,
after his daughter was denied entrance to a white school.
Brown's case, along with similar ones from across the country,
made it to the Supreme Court. The justices, led by Chief
Justice Earl Warren, made the unanimous decision that
separating public schools based on race was unconstitutional.
This ruling effectively challenged and overthrew the 'separate
but equal' doctrine established by the Plessy v. Ferguson
ruling of 1896. This decision was a significant victory for the
civil rights movement, but it wasn't without its limitations. The court didn't
specify a means or timeline for desegregation, leading to fierce opposition,
particularly in Southern states. This opposition often resulted in a slow, and
sometimes violent, road towards true integration.

The Murder of Emmett Till

The tragic case of Emmett Till is one that left a lasting impact on America's
social fabric. Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black-American boy from Chicago, was
visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1955 when he was falsely accused of
offending a white woman in her family's grocery store. Till was kidnapped,
brutally tortured and murdered by the woman's husband and his half-brother.
His murderers were tried, but acquitted by an all-white jury, despite the
overwhelming evidence against them. The trial received extensive media
coverage, and Till's mother bravely insisted on a public funeral with an open
casket, allowing the world to see the gruesome reality of racially motivated
violence. The shock and outrage that followed became a pivotal moment in
galvanising the Civil Rights Movement. Still, the lack of justice served
underscored the pervasive racial bias in the American legal system.

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Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott began in December 1955, following the arrest of
Rosa Parks, a black woman who refused to give up her bus seat to a white
passenger, a requirement of Montgomery's segregated bus system. This
incident sparked a year-long boycott of the city's bus service by Black
American residents, organised by a then lesser-known minister, Dr Martin
Luther King Jr. The boycott proved to be a successful example of nonviolent
resistance, leading to a US Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public
buses was unconstitutional. While this was a significant step towards civil
rights, it was limited in scope to Montgomery. The larger challenge of systemic
segregation in the South remained, needing further civil rights actions to fully
address.

Civil Rights Act 1957

The Civil Rights Act of 1957 represented a meaningful, though limited, advance
towards racial equality in America. The Act was the first civil rights legislation
passed by Congress since the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. Its
main purpose was to ensure that all Black Americans could exercise their right
to vote. The Act created the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice
and gave it the authority to seek court injunctions against anyone interfering
with the right to vote. However, its effectiveness was limited as it did not
remove other discriminatory voting practices, like literacy tests. Furthermore,
its enforcement was often impeded in practice. Nevertheless, it was a
significant step, paving the way for stronger legislation in the 1960s, including
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Little Rock 1957

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In 1957, nine Black American students, later known as the "Little Rock Nine",
faced violent resistance when they attempted to attend the previously all-white
Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. This happened despite the 1954
Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, which had declared
segregation in schools unconstitutional. In response to the Governor of
Arkansas, Orval Faubus, using the Arkansas National Guard to block the
students' entry, President Eisenhower sent in federal troops to enforce
desegregation. The events at Little Rock signified the deep-seated resistance
to racial equality in the South, revealing the limitations of court rulings without
effective enforcement mechanisms. It highlighted the role of federal
intervention in upholding civil rights, illustrating the ongoing struggle for racial
equality in the United States.

Plenary:
Write one key takeaway from the lesson and one remaining question.
We will review these questions at the beginning of the next class.

Week 1 Explore Lesson 2: Planning a Type C

Question
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Starter:

Which event are these statements about. Categorise them using the
below colours:
Brown vs Board
Death of Emmett Till
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Civil Rights Act 1957
Little Rock 9

These will be the questions – no surprises!

16
Part (c) questions: explain, analyse and make
judgements.

You will be given two questions for the third question in your exam for Paper 1
(The USA and Germany topics). You have to choose to answer one of these.
This question will give you a quotation that beings in a similar way to one of
the following:
‘The main reason for…’
‘The most significant…’
‘The worst effect…’
You will then be asked: How far do you agree? Explain your answer.
The question will then include: You may use the following in your answer:
You will be given two bullet points containing pieces of content that relate to
the topic. You will then be told:
You must also use information of your own.

C) The most important event in the fight for civil rights in the 1950s was the
Brown v Topeka case.’
How far do you agree? Explain your answer.
You may use the following in your answer:

Brown v Topeka
Little Rock.
You must also use information of your own. (16 marks)
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 Top Tips for being successful at Question C
 Look at both Ci and Cii and carefully decide which one you think you can
answer best.
 Focus - underline the focus of the question. Who/what is the question
asking you about. Be clear before you begin!
 Dates – what are the dates in the question? You will be given no credit
for anything outside of these dates - even if what you are saying is
amazing (examiners are mean like that)
 Three - you must talk about three bullet points/areas of content. You
can use the two that are given (you don’t have to) but you have to
include a third. If you do not then you are limited to how many marks
you can get.
 Plan out what bullet points you are going to talk about BEFORE your
start. This question is not asking for pages and pages of information.
Select the information that best supports your argument.
 Link to the question - explain why each event was so important in the
fight for civil rights
 Use your knowledge. Show what you know. Accurate AND relevant
knowledge
 Judgement - come to a conclusion and answer the question . What was
the most important event? Was it the Brown Case or was it something
else? Don’t forget to explain why you think this. You can be evaluating
each event as you go along – it all counts.
 Spend 24 minutes on this question.

What should my answer look like?

Your answer should have 5 paragraphs
 An introduction: this is where you state if you agree or disagree with the
statement. You then identify what other factors you are going to discuss
in the essay too (what are the points for the other two paragraphs). You
can also give your reasons for your judgement here. This might be
something to think about if you tend to run out of time – see example
later.
 Second paragraph: this is where you discuss your first bullet point
 Third paragraph: this is where you discuss your second bullet point
 Fourth paragraph: this is where you discuss your third bullet point
 Conclusion: overall which was the main reason and why? Do you agree or
disagree with the essay statement? Why? You need to justify your
argument/evaluation for why one factor is stronger than the others.

18
Planning your essay
Step 1: Read the question carefully. Underling the focus of the question. Make
sure you understand it. Here it is asking me about which events were most
important in the fight for civil rights.

Step 2: Check the dates! Don’t write about events outside of the 1950s!

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Step 3: Plan your answer. Know what you are going to write about. This will
ensure that you have three points. What could you write about?

Little Rock 1957 Civil Rights Murder of

Act Emmett Till
Bus Boycott Brown v Topeka
Step 4: Decide your THREE reasons NOW before you start.

Step 5: Which one is most important?

Step 6: Decide which order you will address them in. Have a sense of hierarchy
in your answer. Start with the least important (or most, up to you) and
structure your answer that way. So, the least most important is the first point
(second paragraph), followed by the second most important (third paragraph)
and finish with the most important point (fourth paragraph). You could do this
the other way around if you wish OR you could do it in chronological order if
you prefer. But making sure your paragraphs flow will help your answer to
develop and maintain coherence.

Step 7: Think about you introduction. Do you agree/disagree with the

statement?

Section A (PEAL) Planner

C) The most important event in the fight for civil rights in the 1950s was the Brown v
Topeka case.’
How far do you agree? Explain your answer.
You may use the following in your answer:

Brown v Topeka
Little Rock.
You must also use information of your own.

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 INTRODUCTION: Make a judgement, give brief reasons,
and mention the other points that you will explore.
I agree/disagree with the view that….

POINT EXAMPLE/ ANALYSIS LINK

EXPLANATION

Conclusion/Judgement:
Start with a judgment. Try to incorporate words from the
question into this sentence
Counter: Show that you are aware that there is some evidence
to counter your judgment and give the best example.
Support: Explain why, overall, you have reached the judgement
you have. Give your key reasons why.

21
What a good one looks like!
Introduction:
I agree with the view that the most important event in the fight for civil rights
in the 1950s was the Brown case. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the
events at Little Rock were undoubtedly significant, but it was the Brown Case
which first successfully challenged segregation and gave hope to campaigners
at the time.
Paragraph Two:
The Brown v Topeka case was extremely significant in the fight for civil rights
in the 1950s. The verdict in 1954 Supreme Court judgement of Brown v Topeka
meant that for the first time it was illegal for US states to have segregated
schools for black and white children. This meant that desegregation, not only in
schools but in other facilities, could finally get started. This was momentous as
it overturned the precedent of Plessy v Ferguson. It also gave Black Americans
hope for the future as this was the first time that the Supreme Court had ruled
in their favour. More legal challenges to desegregation now had a chance of
being successful. Admittedly, this ruling did not mean that desegregation in
schools started happening immediately. School integration was very slow and
in some towns segregation became more extreme due to ‘white flight’ and
there was also an extreme racist backlash in the Deep South with the
formation of White Citizens’ Councils and a increase in KKK membership.
However, in spite of these issues the symbolic importance of Brown v Topeka
and the encouragement it gave to those fighting for civil rights cannot be
underestimated.
Conclusion:
Overall, I believe that the Brown ruling was the most important events in the
fight for civil rights in the 1950s. Although both Little Rock and the Bus Boycott
were important, it was the Brown verdict which directly led to the events at
Little Rock and it was the Brown verdict which gave hope and inspired the
subsequent campaigns for integration such as the Bus Boycott The Brown v
Topeka judgement was ground breaking in aiding the progress of civil rights as
it showed that the Supreme Court was willing to make integration and equality
a constitutional requirement for all states of the USA.

Week 1 HIS Apply Tasks

Complete the planning table in your booklet

Use the plan to write an answer to the C type question below:

22
The most important event in the fight for civil rights in the 1950s was the
Brown v Topeka case.’
How far do you agree? Explain your answer.
You may use the following in your answer:

Brown vs Topeka
Little Rock.
You must also use information of your own.

Flipped Learning: The Meredith Case

Watch the clip on the learning platform and read the information in the below.
Extra information available in your textbook on pages 47 & 48. Complete the
table below.
Sometimes protestors acted as part of a group, but other times individuals took
their own stand.
In 1961, an Black American student, James Meredith, apply to study at the
famous ‘Ole Miss’ - Mississippi State University. Up until that point, no black
person had ever been admitted, and he was rejected. However, in 1962, he
won his appeal with the help from the NAACP to overturn the decision.
Mississippi State and university officials objected, so Robert Kennedy, US
Attorney General, sent in over 500 federal troops to make sure Meredith could
attend his classes.
The night before Meredith was due to attend, a riot involving thousands of
people erupted on the campus. President Kennedy called in hundreds of
reinforcements from the army and military police. Two civilians were killed
Andover 160 people were wounded.

Impact and significance

Despite the riot, Meredith nevertheless entered ‘Ole Miss’ as planned on the
1st October 1962. He was guarded by hundreds of state troops, 24 hours a
day, until he graduated the following year.
The events had shown the extent that President Kennedy was willing to go to in
order to enforce the Supreme Court rulings. However, the steps that were
necessary, and the numbers of troops which were needed also demonstrate
the strength of the opposition. Nevertheless, after this, Black American
students were rarely refused entry to universities on the basis of race.

The Meredith Case, 1961

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Summarise
the events of
the Meredith
Case
Summarise
the effects of
the Meredith
Case

Judgement
How
Overall, how significant?
significant
was the
Meredith Case
100 Highly
in the fight % Significa
for civil nt
rights.
Colour in the 75% Significa
extent ‘o nt
meter and
explain your
answer
50% Some
significa
nce

25% Limited
significa
nce

0% No
significa
nce

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