Grammar for Writing: Level Orange — Chapter 7

Milestones in Civil Rights Photo courtesy of National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, TN www.civilrightsmuseum.org In the Sixties, sit-ins jolted the South. Accompanied by marches, boycotts, pickets and "selective buying programs," they proved a potent economic weapon. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks were not the only voices of the twentieth-century civil rights movement. Since the days of Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman, African-Americans have worked to achieve equal rights under the law in the workplace and in education. Each milestone toward the goal of equality has been a long-fought, hard-earned step. The magazine History Monthly is publishing a special edition for Black History Month. Write a feature article (a minimum of one and one-half pages) about one milestone in the African-American struggle for civil rights. Your article can cover a topic from any time period since the Civil War. In your article, include the important events leading up to your chosen milestone. Discuss the key people involved and their backgrounds. Include obstacles that were overcome, as well as hopes for the future. Use quotes about the event, newspaper reports, and editorial comments to add depth to your article. STEP 1: Initial Search Begin your research with visits to the following websites: Civil Rights Movement Timeline A timeline of major events in the history of the Civil Rights movement with links to articles about the movement's major figures and events. Voice of Civil Rights Visit the history section for an excellent timeline of important milestones in the fight for equal rights and the Voices page to read first-hand accounts of what life was like during the fight against segregation. African American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide This website contains articles and pictures about turning points in African-American history before the Civil Rights movement. STEP 2: Focus Your Search Use cluster diagrams to organize the facts you have discovered about major civil rights events. Choose the event or milestone that most interests you, and focus on it. Try to choose a milestone that few people know about. (See Grammar for Writing, Level Orange, page 11.) Search the Internet for more information on the civil rights milestone you chose, and explore other resources, such as books, videos, American Heritage magazine, articles listed in publications databases under "civil rights" and other, more specific topics. Collect eyewitness accounts, interviews with key people, and information about changes in laws that resulted from the milestone or event you chose. STEP 3: Define Your Audience Make your information relevant to readers interested in history and how history is made. Your audience may know something about civil rights, but may not know all the events leading up to the milestone you are reporting on. Make your article informative and accurate. Include details that make history come alive for the reader. STEP 4: Write an Outline Collect your notes and organize them into an outline. Be sure you have the facts and reports to explain the event. Arrange the material in a sequential, or chronological, outline. (See Grammar for Writing, Level Orange, pages 13 and 25.) In addition to outlining, there are two other methods for organizing ideas that might help you complete this assignment. They are the 5-W and How? questions. (See Grammar for Writing, Level Orange, page 11.) and freewriting (page 10). In addition to topic-specific searches, a professional always has a fallback for finding added material. Visit the following Web site as an additional search source: LibrarySpot.com Go to the virtual reference desk and use GOOGLE to search for those extra details that will give your article a unique perspective. STEP 5: Organize Your Ideas and Write Your Feature Article Write a rough draft, including all the pertinent material you have collected. Identify pictures, portraits, and works of literature that might support the article. Be sure to include quotations from key people to substantiate your viewpoint. School Section #13 Raleigh. Children of fugitive slaves attended this early Underground Railroad school in the Buxton (Elgin) Settlement, North Buxton, Ontario, Canada. STEP 6: Revise, Edit, and Proofread Your Article Reread the article. Be sure you have included enough facts, background, anecdotes, and quotations to help readers understand the importance and ramifications of the chosen milestone. Edit your writing for grammatical errors; then proofread your work carefully for spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors. STEP 7: Publish Your Feature Article Present your feature article to the class. You may want to mount a bulletin board display of the information. Another possibility is to work with teachers to develop an assembly for Black History Month, based on material collected by the entire class. Copyright ©2007 by William H. Sadlier, Inc. All rights reserved.