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NLB and the Law
Lesson Plan
(includes Rubric and Student Handout)
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NLB and the Law
Lesson Plan
(includes Rubric and Student Handout)
Lesson Summary:
This lesson will introduce students to historical law and its impact on Negro Leagues baseball and Black Americans. After identifying and researching laws contributing to segregation or integration, students will chose one law to reenact in a historically accurate manner.
Key Features of Powerful Teaching and Learning:
(National Council for the Social Studies. “A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies: Building Social Understanding and Civic Efficacy.”
http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerful/)
Meaningful: Emphasizes how the law and historically significant events affected social and political issues of the time and in turn affected the treatment of Blacks throughout history.
Value-Based: Student groups will explore and learn about a variety of United States laws and historical events affecting the treatment of Blacks and NLB players.
Challenging: Student groups must internalize and accurately portray the United States political system, judicial system and the historical, social, and cultural climate during the 1800’s and 1900’s.
Active: Students will work cooperatively in groups to research, write, and reenact United States laws and historically significant events affecting the NLB and American society politically and socially.
Purpose/Rationale/Introduction:
This lesson will introduce students to historical law and its impact on Negro Leagues baseball and Black Americans. After identifying and researching laws contributing to segregation or integration, students will chose one law to reenact in a historically accurate manner.
Objectives:
1. Students will be able to identify important laws and historically significant events during the existence of Negro League baseball.
2. Students will navigate the Internet and gather information about the impact the law and historical events had on Negro Leagues baseball and Black Americans.
3. Students will be able to identify how laws passed in the United States and historical events contributed to or discouraged segregation and/or integration in society and in the Negro Leagues.
4. Students will reenact a historically accurate interpretation of one law including key historical figures and cases.
Materials/Primary Resources:
Black Diamond: The Story of the Negro Baseball Leagues, by McKissack and McKissack, access to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum website, note-taking supplies, other relevant Negro Leagues resources (see resources section).
Procedures and Activities:
Day 1:
Discuss what students already know about the treatment of Blacks in the 1800’s, the 1900’s, and today. Ask students what they know about Jim Crow Laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education, and other historically significant events such as the Alabama riots, the March on Washington, etc.
Distribute the student handout. Read page thirty-three from Black Diamond aloud to students. Have students take notes and discuss the impact of these laws/events on American society, Blacks, and Negro League baseball. Divide students into groups of three to five.
Ask student groups to select a particular law and/or event they would like to research and reenact from the approved list (See secondary resources listed below, or create your own approved list). Student groups begin planning and researching their selected law or event and the impact it had on American society and Negro League baseball.
Groups of two from each larger group may research on the computer. Students can switch later in the day or the next day and continue to rotate until all students have had a chance to research on the computer.
Day 2:
Students continue researching laws.
Day 3:
Students should begin planning and writing a draft of a reenactment of the law or event they researched. The reenactment should include key historical figures politically, socially and in Negro League baseball. The reenactment must be as historically accurate as possible and present the political, social and Negro League baseball perspectives, either simultaneously or in short, separate reenactments of the same law or event.
Day 4 & 5:
Student groups should finalize and begin practicing their reenactments.
Conclusion:
Discuss what students learned about the United States judicial system then and now. Question how people, places, and events affected life in the United States and the treatment of Blacks until the 1900’s. Are certain groups still treated unfairly in the United States? Who? How? Why?
Extension and Enrichment:
Research the treatment of a group of people still being treated unfairly in the United States. Document any laws and historical events which lead up to their current treatment, and pose possible ways to raise awareness and prevent unequal treatment of the group.
Online Resources:
A Look at Life in the Negro Leagues
http://coe.ksu.edu/nlbm/
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
http://www.nlbm.com/
The History of Jim Crow http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/home.htm
Jim Crow Laws
http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm
African American History
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/index.html
In Pursuit of Freedom and Equality:
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka
http://brownvboard.org/index.htm
African American World: Timeline
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/timeline.html
Negro Leagues Legacy
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/
mlb_negro_leagues_story.jsp?story=kaleidoscopic
Secondary Resources:
List of other possible laws and historical events:
• The Dred Scott Case
• The Housing Rights Act of 1968
• School Busing
• The Montgomery Bus Boycott
• Sit-Ins
• Milliken v. Bradley
• The Freedom Rides
• A Change in the Cloture Rule
• The March on Washington
• The Bakke Case
• Mississippi and Freedom Summer
• Perfecting Civil Rights Laws
• Alabama: Selma and Birmingham
• The Minority Bill of Rights
• Governor Faubus, Little Rock, Arkansas
• Plessy v. Ferguson
• The Murder of Emmett Till
A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States of America
http://www.africanamericans.com/CivilRightsHistoryIndex.
htm
Assessment
Day 6:
Student groups perform their reenactments for the class. Use the assessment rubric for this lesson to assess student achievement. Teachers could videotape the reenactments and post them online for students and parents to view.
Alternative Assessment:
Students complete a final research paper based on one selected law or event.
Scoring Rubric:
See link at above left to download.
Negro League Baseball and the Law
Student Handout Questions:
1. Describe the following laws:
Jim Crow laws -
Plessy v. Ferguson -
Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education -
2. What was/is the impact of these laws on:
American society -
Blacks -
Negro Leagues Baseball -
3. Select a particular law or event your group wants to research and reenact from the approved list. Why did your group choose this law or event?
4. Who were the key historical figures for this law or event?
5. Why were they important during this time?
6. What impact did the law or event have on American society and Negro League Baseball?