Lesson Plan: Bloody Sunday

Essential Questions

• How have Black people been treated unfairly in America’s history?
• How does social change happen?

Literature Connection

• Memoir: Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom by Lynda Blackmon Lowery
• Graphic Memoir Trilogy: March by John Lewis

Preview Text Features (15 minutes)

Guide students to locate the article. Preview the text features by asking the following questions:

• Read the title and the subtitle, and look at the images at the top. What do you think happened on “Bloody Sunday”? Based on the photos and the subtitle, on “Bloody Sunday,” peaceful protesters were met with violence. One of the photos shows a woman with a sign that reads “Let my people vote,” so we can tell that the protesters were fighting for voting rights. The word bloody and the photo of people being beaten suggest that the protesters were attacked.
• Look at the map and read its caption. Find the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the map. This is where protesters were stopped and beaten by the police. Based on the map, did this event happen close to the starting point of the march or near its end? It happened close to the starting point of the march. The caption tells us that the march was from Selma to Montgomery. The Edmund Pettus Bridge is in Selma.
• Look at the photo at the end and read its caption. How do some people want to honor John Lewis? They want to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma after him.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (segregation, literacy, register, civil rights, discrimination) aloud and discuss the definitions.
• Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading  (5 minutes)

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

• Set a purpose for reading by explaining to students that they will find text evidence in “Bloody Sunday” that supports an important idea about John Lewis.
• Point out the Pause and Think boxes. Tell students they can check their understanding of what they’ve read by answering these questions.
• Point out the activity at the end of the story, and tell students they will complete it after reading. Tell them to keep the Think About It! question in mind as they read.
• Tell students that as they finish each section, they should think about how the text features on the page (e.g. photos, captions, and section headings) relate to what they’ve just read.

Guide students to read the article. Once they understand it well, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

• What were the events that led up to the march that began in Selma on March 7, 1965? (sequence of events) Protesters worked for months to draw attention to the fact that Black people in Alabama were being kept from voting. In January, people began protesting by standing in line to register to vote. Many were arrested. On February 18, a man named Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by the police. At his funeral, organizers planned the march from Selma to Montgomery. 
• The article says that John Lewis knew that the March to Montgomery “could change the course of history.” What does it mean to change the course of history? What does this statement tell you about how Lewis thought about the march? (interpreting text) To change the course of history means to have such a large impact that things go in an entirely new direction. If the March to Montgomery hadn’t happened, we might be living in a very different America today, maybe one where Black people don’t have the right to vote. This statement shows that Lewis, standing on the Edmund Pettus Bridge that day in 1965, understood the importance of the movement he was leading.
• What was the Voting Rights Act of 1965? What effect did it have (cause and effect) The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it illegal to discriminate against Black voters. After it was passed, many Black people were able to register to vote. In less than a year, 8,500 new Black voters were registered in the Selma area.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

• Bloody Sunday was a tragic event that caused a positive change in America. Why do you think people started paying attention to the issue of voting rights when they learned about what happened on Bloody Sunday? (critical thinking) Answers will vary. Students may say that the images of peaceful protesters being beaten by police probably touched a nerve and made Americans wake up to the unfair treatment of Black people. Seeing the shocking images made people react with their emotions. Even if they had believed before that Black people should have equal voting rights, they now felt moved to do something about it. 
• What do you think John Lewis meant when he said this summer, “Speak up, speak out, get in the way.” What is a problem in our world that bothers you? What can you do to fix it? How can you follow Lewis’s advice? (making connections) Answers will vary. Students may talk about climate change, factory farming, economic inequality, racial/cultural discrimination, or another social issue. Encourage students to brainstorm ways they can have an impact, or “get in the way.” 

• Have students work in pairs to complete the text evidence activity at the end of the story. As a class, discuss students’ answers and the Think About It! question.
• Use our Central Idea and Details Skill Builder, available in a higher and lower level version. (Click here to see all your Skill Builders.)
• Writing prompt: Imagine that you’re a journalist covering the protests happening in Alabama in March 1965. Describe the events of Bloody Sunday. Begin your article with the most important facts: who, what, when, where, how, and why. Then discuss the details. Remember to give your article a title and a subtitle.