Worksheet to accompany the Selma Simulation at www.activehistory.co.uk/l/selma
Selma: The Simulation
Have you ever been required to answer 100 questions on government, some abstruse even to a political specialist, merely to vote? Have you ever stood in line with over 100 others and after waiting an entire day seen less than ten given the qualifying test? This is Selma, Alabama. There are more negroes in jail with me than there are on the voting rolls"
Martin Luther King Jr, ‘Letter from Selma Jail’, February 1965
• The Selma Campaign arguably marks the high point of the 1960s Civil Rights movement.
• It drew national attention to the many obstacles used by local authorities (even including physical violence) to prevent black people from registering to vote. By so doing, the Selma campaign successfully ensured that President Johnson introduced – and Congress then passed – a Voting Rights Bill which outlawed these injustices once and for all.
• The Selma Campaign involved almost everyone of historical significance in the struggle - both heroes and villains - and culminated in a triumphant march led by Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery.
• In this simulation you will learn about key figures involved in the struggle as events unfold step-by-step. For each character you will be invited to step inside their shoes and consider how you should react to the situation you face if your objective is to attract favourable media attention that will help get a Voting Rights Bill through Congress.
• In this way you will form a judgement about how each character helped or hindered the success of the campaign (deliberately or inadvertently!) and which people were most significant in the struggle.
Task 1: Individual Contributions
As you progress through the simulation, complete this table with DETAILED notes about each of the key actors in the story whenever they appear (TIP: some appear more than once). The more thoroughly you make your notes at this stage, the easier the remaining tasks will be. / Campaign objectives:1. To draw national attention to the obstacles used by local authorities to prevent black people from registering to vote.
2. By so doing, to ensure that President Johnson introduces – and Congress passes – a Voting Rights Bill outling these injustices.
TIP: some heroes in the story may have inadvertently hindered the campaign; some villains my have inadvertently helped it…
Name of key actor / Essential information (e.g. job, / Ways they helped achieve the campaign’s objectives / Ways they hindered the campaign’s objectives
Frederick Reese
Jim Clark
Malcolm X
John Lewis
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Stokely Carmichael
George Wallace
Lyndon Johnson
James Reeb
Amelia Boynton
Jimmie Lee Jackson
Andrew Young
Task 2: Prioritisation
EITHER: Triangle 9
• Using the “Triangle 9” template which can be downloaded from www.tarrstoolbox.net, change the title to read ‘Who was the most significant individual in the success of the 1965 Selma Campaign?’
• Next, choose nine characters from your completed table in the previous task.. Rank these in terms of significance, with the most important towards the top and the least important towards the bottom.
• For each character, clearly include their name, and explain clearly how they contributed (deliberately or otherwise) to the success of the Selma Campaign.
• You will see that the diagram is configured to allow you to explain clearly in key places why you have ordered the characters in the way that you did.
• There are also spaces for a couple of relevant images. Choose these carefully.
OR: Paper People
Take your list of people and connect them together in a chain to highlight connections between their contributions (the following example connects characters from the Industrial Revolution):
Ensure that your completed “Paper People” project:
· Highlights at least FIVE key individuals
· Includes an image of each key character (e.g. the ‘face’ of each person)
· Includes the name of each key character (e.g. across the ‘shoulders’ of the person)
· Includes detail about the achievements of these key individuals (e.g. in the ‘body’)
· Includes two key words to sum up the qualities of each person (e.g. in the ‘legs’ area)
· Establishes connections between these people (e.g. on the ‘arms’ area linking the people together)
· Credit will be awarded as appropriate to the work containing the most detail, the clearest links, and the most attractive presentation.
Task 3: Written response
Produce a timed essay to the question “Analyse the reasons for the success of the 1965 Selma Campaign” (45 minutes)
Extension Tasks (TIP: These could be divided among different members of the class)
1. Watch the feature film “Selma” (2015), conduct some additional research on the context in which it was produced, and use it to answer the following question:
“With reference to its origins, purpose and content, what are the values and limitations of the film ‘Selma’ for an understanding of the role of key individuals in the 1965 Selma Campaign?”
2. There remains some debate about how far the strategies and objectives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. were converging by the time that Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. Conduct your own research on this issue and deliver a presentation to the class on the subject “Compare and contrast the strategy and objectives of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X”.
3. Research the subsequent life and careers of several of the key figures you have learned about during this simulation. Use what you have learned to answer the question “Which individuals involved in the Selma Campaign had the most lasting influence on the civil rights struggle?”
4. Construct your own sourcework exercise based around the Selma Campaign, using a selection of photos, political cartoons and written sources (for example, extracts from MLKs ‘Letter from Selma Jail’ and LBJs “We Shall Overcome” speech). The best of these might be used by your teacher as a practice exam exercise.
5. The Voting Rights Act has recently been undermined by the case of Shelby County v. Holder (2013). Conduct some research into this case (including the article from The Guardian entitled ‘Selma leaders lament voting rights losses at congressional award ceremony’) to answer the question “To what extent has the long-term impact of the Voting Rights Act been undermined by recent events?”