1. Essential Question: How has the Civil Rights movement impacted our lives as American citizens?
Objective: Writing a Document Based Essay on the Civil Rights movement

3. Writing the Introduction
Re-state what is in the task box to create a thesis statement
Provide 1-2 examples of barriers and methods that you will discuss in the essay
Do not : use “I”; This essay will discuss, or You will find out in this essay….etc
Suggestion: Create a transition sentence between your discussion of barriers and methods in your intro: (Example- These barriers required Civil rights leaders to use various methods to try to obtain equal rights.)

4. Sample intro:
During the 1950’s, African Americans faced barriers when trying to obtain their civil rights. For example, they had to overcome _____________ and _____________. As a result, African Americans needed to use many different methods to win their civil rights. Two of these methods were ________________ and ______________
BODY PARAGRAPH….(getting started)
There were many barriers faced by African Americans during the Civil Rights era. For example, one barrier was …………. Document _ shows an example of this. In this document, ……….. This was a barrier for African Americans because……… Another barrier was ……….. {OR: One method that people used to overcome this barrier was…. }

5. Body Paragraph Format
Topic Sentence regarding the Civil Rights movement
Identify the barrier or method
Give an example from the document (*)
Explain how the document shows the barrier or method
Make a connection to other knowledge not found in the document
Identify an additional barrier or method
Repeat the process
Concluding sentence …
(beginning of next paragraph- transitional phrase… In addition to….., …

6. Referring to documents in the essay
* Referring to documents in the essay* (references to at least 4 different documents)
Examples:
The photograph in document 1 illustrates…..
According to document 2…..
The map of the Freedom rides shows…….. (document 4)
Many Civil rights leaders made speeches. For example, In his I have a Dream Speech , Martin Luther King said…… (document 6).

7. Model paragraph barriers
One barrier that African Americans faced in the south was segregation. Public facilities such as restaurants, schools and movie theaters separate people based on race. For example, document 2 “Segregated Movie theater, Belzoni, Mississippi” is a photograph of an African American man walking up the stairs to the “Colored Admission” section. The caption illustrates that Whites sat upstairs while non whites had to sit upstairs. This was a barrier to African Americans achieving equality because they would not be accepted as equal if they could not share the same spaces as people of different races. The fact that they had to sit in a different section is an example that people of color did not have the same opportunities as white people. An additional barrier that African Americans faced was………………. The excerpt in document 1 illustrates………………

8. Model paragraph methods
As a result of these barriers, African Americans had to use a variety of methods to win their civil rights. One method was protesting. There were a variety of protests including _______, ______ and ______________. One example of a protest is evident in document 7. This is a photograph of people picketing outside of a southern movie theater in the 1940’s. The people are marching and holding signs that say “Stop lynching” and “Pass Anti Lynch Bill.” These individuals were trying to bring attention that innocent people of color were being killed because of their race. They were trying to get people to take notice so that they would change the laws so that people who committed these crimes would be punished. Another method that African Americans used was Document 4……..

9. Writing your Conclusion
Concluding phrase… (example It is evident that… In conclusion, Evidence has shown that ……. Followed by restatement of thesis
Briefly re-state examples that you stated in body paragraphs
End with a sentence that sums up the main idea of the essay