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Leadership and Legacy in History

Racial Equality

U.S. Civil Rights

Movement
Martin Luther King Jr.
Research
Questions

Leadership and Legacy in History

Leadership and Legacy in History

Books containing footnotes or

a bibliography can provide you
with listings of many other
sources that the author used for
their research, both primary
and secondary, relating to your
topic.

Sample: Rosa Parks

Why did the city of Montgomery
have these policies? Why did Rosa
Parks and others decide that it was a
good time to take a stand? What
impact did the bus boycott have in
and beyond Montgomery?

What motivated Rosa Parks to take

a stand against segregation? What
were the motivations of city
officials in Montgomery for
arresting her?

How did the city of Montgomery

and government policy change
during the course of the Civil Rights
Movement?

How was the Montgomery Bus

Boycott a turning point in the Civil
Rights Movement? How were
things different in Montgomery and
the Civil Rights Movement after
this event?

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Rosa
Parks; citizens in Montgomery, Alabama; civil rights leaders,
Montgomerys city government officials.
Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, which
violated a law enforcing segregation on Montgomery city buses. She
was arrested and went to jail. Civil rights leaders, including Martin
Luther King, Jr., organized a boycott of buses and challenged the law
as unconstitutional.
Montgomery, Alabama
Parks was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955; the boycott started on
Dec. 5 and lasted for 382 days.
Civil rights
leaders wanted to overturn segregation laws.
The boycott forced change in Montgomery and succeeded in
overturning the law requiring segregation on public transportation.
This success inspired other civil rights protests and helped Martin
Luther King, Jr. develop his non-violent strategies to fight
segregation.

Before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the

impact of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court
decision was limited to the segregation of schools. Civil rights
leaders used the Montgomery Bus Boycott to expand the protection
of equal rights to public transportation. This effectively ended the
"Separate but equal" standard established in the Plessy v.
Ferguson decision. The success of the boycott inspired other
challenges to segregation and was a turning point in the Civil
Rights Movement as new leaders, like Martin Luther King, Jr.,
emerged from the struggle in Montgomery.

In 1955, Rosa
Parks emerged as a leader for civil rights when she refused to give up
her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. The
resulting bus boycott and a successful Supreme Court lawsuit
gave Rosa Parks a legacy of demonstrating the effectiveness of nonviolent economic protest and legal strategies used in securing equal
rights.

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Download a Contest Rule

Book from
our website!

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HEART
OF THE
STORY

Be sure to design your

3-D exhibit so people
know where to
begin reading.

15

16

Hey, listen up!

Storyboards will
save you time.

17

18

(2 minutes 30 seconds)

A simple three-panel
backdrop provides a
great place to make
costume changes!

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Title
Brainstorm a creative title for your website and write it here.

Navigation
Think about which pages would best
support your thesis statement and write
them below. Rememberyou can add as
many or few pages as you want as long
as youre organized.

Home

Thesis Statement
You will want to include your thesis on your homepage, but do not have to label it thesis.
Write your thesis here and use it as a guide to decide which pages you want to include on your
website.

Process Paper & Bibliography

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Quotations count
towards the word
limit in research
papers!

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(Sample title page for process paper)

A Force for Higher Civilization:

Clara Ueland and the Fight for Womens Voting
Rights in Minnesota

Jill Jones and Rebecca Smith

Junior Division
Group Exhibit
Exhibit Contains 500 Student-Composed Words
Process Paper 500 Student-Composed Words

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