5th Grade Florida History

The Integration of Lunch Counters in Miami

Essential Question

What strategies were used by the Black community to integrate lunch counters in Miami?

The Integration of Lunch Counters in Miami

Florida literacy Standards Alignment:

LAFS.5.RI.1.3 Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

LAFS.5.W.3.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

NGSSS - Social Science Standards Alignment:

SS.5.C.2.5: Identify ways good citizens go beyond basic civic and political responsibilities to improve government and society.

SS.5.C.3.5: Identify the fundamental rights of all citizens as enumerated in the Bill of Rights.

Topic: The Integration of Lunch Counters in Miami

Essential Question

What strategies were used by the Black community to integrate lunch counters in Miami?

Learning Goals

Students will analyze text features and understand how citizens were able to pressure local government to change the law in order to establish more equality in Miami.

Overview

After reading a story on the efforts to integrate lunch counters in Miami, the students will complete a graphic organizer “picturing the story.”

Background information

On February 5, 1960, four black college students sat down at a "white-only" department store lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. This Woolworth's counter was but one of the many segregated public facilities in the American South where African Americans were prohibited from such activities as eating, swimming, and drinking withwhites. When the restaurant refused these students service, they remained seated until the store closed for the evening. The students returned each morning for the next five days to occupy the lunch counter, joined by a group of protesters that grew to the hundreds. In 1960, there was a national wave of sit-in campaigns to desegregate lunch counters and public accommodations. Such efforts came to Miami in February and March of that year.

Source:

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Materials

  • Global Nonviolent Action Database article “Students sit-in, win victory for civil rights, Miami Beach, Florida, March 1960”
  • “Picturing the Story” Graphic Organizer

Activity Sequence (15 minutes)

Introduction (2 minutes)

Explain to the students that segregation was a system that separated Blacks from whites that kept Blacks living in an unequal standard of living justified through the 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy vs Ferguson. Explain further that segregation became the law of the land, especially in southern areas of the country including Miami, Florida. Emphasize that segregation was ruled as unconstitutional by The Supreme Court in the court case Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It was after the Brown decision, Civil Rights activists throughout the country pushed harder to end segregation in public places. (2 minutes)

Activity (12 minutes)

  • Read the article on the lunch counter sit-ins in Miami with the students: (5 minutes)
  • Have the students complete the “Picturing the Story” Graphic Organizer. (5minutes)

Closure (3 minutes)

  1. In how many other cities was the sit-in movement taking place?
  2. Who were some of the main activists in Miami that are mentioned in the article?
  3. Where was the main meeting place for activists according to the article? Why do you believe that was case?
  4. Why did Miami Mayor get upset when he learned about a boycott?
  5. What were some of the Civil Rights organizations involved?
  6. What was the resolution between the Civil Rights groups and the City of Miami?

Optional Extension

  • Have the students do research and a reenactment of the sit-in lunch counter movement.

References for links

Graphic Organizers:

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES