The first part of the unit will introduce students to the themes of equality, negotiation and reconciliation and how these themes manifest in the United States and in world events. The work of Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu will be presented and discussed.
The next part of the unit will introduce students to the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth Constitutional Amendments and other laws designed to empower freed slaves that were enacted during the period of Reconstruction. Students will describe the positive, although temporary, effectiveness of these laws through researching the successful elections of African Americans to positions in local and national governments. Students will also research the forces that brought down these successes such as The Ku Klux Klan, Black Codes and the oppressive attitudes of some of the politicians who were in power at the time.
To assess students’ grasp of the concepts and events as presented they will be assigned daily journal entries written as if they were a particular person living at the time of Reconstruction. The culmination project assigned will be a timeline from 1864 to 1879. The timeline will include several illustrations of events, people and organizations, mini biographies of prominent African Americans of that time period, parallel world events, descriptions of Constitutional amendments and descriptions of organizations opposed to empowering freed slaves.