Take a closer look at "one of the most important periods of American social history: the 1950s," as well as the type of society that the civil rights movement would endeavor to change. This engaging video begins by detailing the era of suburbanization, rise of consumerism, and celebration of the middle class lifestyle during the decade, and then proceeds into an interesting discussion on contradictions of a consensus culture and the rigid segregation that also existed.

Concepts

rosa parks, the civil rights movement, the montgomery bus boycott, segregation, thurgood marshall

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Additional Tags

levittown, earl warren, thurgood marshall, segregation, rosa parks, montgomery bus boycott, social studies

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Classroom Considerations

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• Illustrates history with enlightening discussion, photographs, video clips, graphics and animations
• Incorporates discussion of primary source quotation offered by Earl Warren on Brown v. Board of Education

Cons

• Queue video to skip initial third-party advertisement
• Best used as a summary or additional material rather than as a stand-alone lesson

Common Core

SL.9-10.5 SL.11-12.5 RH.11-12.7