Crossing the Bridge

Throughout the southern United States in the 1960s, African Americans faced a number of legal and extra-legal barriers to voting. In addition to facing outright intimidation and violence, blacks who went to the polls to vote confronted a battery of literacy and “understanding” tests designed specifically to deny them the vote. In 1965, Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) decided to focus the national spotlight on the fight for universal suffrage in Selma, Alabama. All of the SCLC’s initial efforts to protest blacks’ exclusion from the suffrage in Selma were met with violence, including the murder of a young civil rights worker, Jimmy Lee Jackson. In order to protest Jackson’s death and blacks’ continued inability to vote, King and the SCLC planned a symbolic march from Selma to Montgomery. Crossing the Bridge tells the story of the SCLC’s attempt to carry out their march and win the right to vote, in the face of violence and intimidation from many southern whites and from Alabama law enforcement officials. The documentary concludes with President Lyndon Johnson’s decision to submit voting rights legislation to Congress in 1965 and the spread of civil-rights-related violence to the North. Crossing the Bridge is appropriate for middle and high school level classes in American history.

Objectives

Students will be able to place the fight over voting rights for African Americans within the larger context of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Students should be able to explain the internal struggles within the SCLC, as well as those that took place between SCLC members and federal and state authorities. Finally, students will develop a deeper understanding of the role of the media within the Civil Rights Movement and understand Martin Luther King’s effectiveness in using the media to achieve his goals.

Standards

The lesson supports the following National Standards in Historical Thinking: 1 (Chronological Thinking), 2 (Historical Comprehension), 3 (Historical Analysis and Interpretation), and 5 (Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-making) for United States History, Era 9, Standard 4.

Discussion Questions

  1. Name some of the obstacles to voting that African Americans in Selma faced.

  2. What happened to Martin Luther King and other protestors when he first led a march to the Selma County Court House? Why did King and Ralph Abernathy refuse to post bail? Did their strategy work? Explain.

  3. Describe CT Vivian’s instructions to civil rights protestors before their march from Brown Chapel. How did Selma Sheriff Jim Clark respond to their demonstration?

  4. Name one of the events that occurred after Vivian’s march that convinced the SCLC of the need to lead an organized march to the state’s capital.

  5. What were Alabama Governor George Wallace’s instructions to law enforcement officials in the event of a protest march by the SCLC? Did they follow his orders?

  6. On what date did SCLC followers first attempt to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on their planned Selma to Montgomery march?

  7. Describe the events of “Bloody Sunday.” Do you think that this name fits the events of that day?

  8. When Martin Luther King attempted to organize another march, President Lyndon Johnson tried to convince him to call it off. How did the President do this? Was he successful?

  9. What happened to three Unitarian ministers in Selma following King’s demonstration march? How did the nation react? Do you think that this helped or hurt the cause of the Civil Rights Movement? Why?

  10. How did Lyndon Johnson ultimately react to all of the events that took place in Selma? What did he decide to do? And what did he say about the possibility of the movement for African American rights moving to the North?
Extended Activities

  1. Choose one of the speeches that King makes during this documentary that you think is the most powerful. What is the message of the speech? What is the manner of King’s delivery? How do people listening to the speech react? Paraphrase the speech and make a short presentation to your class, describing what King is saying and what impact you think it has on the Civil Rights Movement.

  2. Create a timeline of the following events. Choose one event and do further research, preparing a short oral presentation for your class. In addition, create a visual component for this event, drawing a picture or drafting a newspaper headline.

  3. Black Panthers Formed, Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, Brown v. Board of Education, Civil Rights Act, Desegregation of the Armed Forces, Freedom Rides, Freedom Summer, Little Rock Crisis Malcolm X’s Assassination, March on Washington, Martin Luther King’s Assassination, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Selma March, Sit-in Movement Starts in Greensboro, Voting Rights Act, Wallace’s Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, Watts Riots
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