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5th Grade ESL Tennessee History Part Seven: Segregation No More 
An all-black school in Tennessee in the 1940's PHOTO: TN State Library and Archives  Tell me about Tennessee's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.1) In the 1950's, life in Tennessee was not integrated. It was state law. There were no integrated schools. There were different schools for white children and black children. Parks, swimming pools, water fountains and cemeteries were segregated. How would you feel if you were segregated because of the color of your skin? 
Myles Horton Highlander Research and Education Center 3) In the 1950's, leaders of the Civil Rights Movement received training and support at the Highlander Folk School in Grundy County, Tennessee. The school was started by Myles Horton and was attended by thousands of people who were active in the Civil Rights Movement, including Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. It taught its participants to use non-violence in reaction to discrimination and abuse.
Two of the many tents in the Tent City located on Shepherd Towles' land PHOTO: Earnest Withers 4) A tent city was established on the farm of a man named Shepherd Towles, when blacks from Fayette and Haywood counties joined together to gain the right to vote. They were evicted from homes owned by white landowners. The tent city became their new home.
Matthew Walker, Peggy Alexander, Diane Nash, and Stanley Hemphill were the first Blacks to be served at a lunch counter in Nashville PHOTO: Associated Press 5) Nashville's model civil rights movement was the sit-in movement. About 100 students, both black and white, would sit at the segregated lunch counters of downtown Nashville stores. They would be yelled at, spit at, and sometimes slapped because they refused to leave.
A few weeks later, a bomb was thrown into the home of a lawyer who represented the students. No one was hurt, but 3,000 people, mostly black and some white, marched from Tennessee State University to the Nashville courthouse. Ben West, the mayor of Nashville, met them there and promised to integrate all Nashviile lunch counters. Why did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. call the sit-in movement a model movement? 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a few weeks before he was assassinated PHOTO: Wayne State University College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs 6) Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He was in Memphis to show support for the sanitation workers strike. Most of the sanitation workers were black. During a speech, he was killed by James Earl Ray. After King was killed, Memphis felt pressured to work with the sanitation workers' labor unions. Why are sanitation services needed in a city?
Our new Tennessee History words *integrated: Something is integrated if it allows equal access for all. *segregated: Something is segregated if it does not allows equal access for all. *non violence: Non violence is a strategy for change that does not use physical violence. *discrimination: Discrimination is the unfair treatment of someone because of prejudice. *abuse: Someone is abused if they are treated very badly. *evicted: An evicted person is someone who is forced out of their home by their landlord. *model: A model is something worthy of imitation. *sanitation workers: Sanitation workers are trash collectors. *strike: A strike is the stopping of work by employees to get better working conditions. |
