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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 6 of 9

The Civil Rights Movement

Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma

What your child practices

Key events, methods, leaders and foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama and the nation, from Brown v. Board and the Montgomery Bus Boycott to Birmingham 1963 and the Selma to Montgomery march, and how opponents tried to stop it. Told plainly.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 5.12 · key events, organizations, methods and leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama and the nation, and its opponents

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–56) ended when the Supreme Court ruled in Browder v. Gayle that segregated buses were unconstitutional.
  2. Protests in Birmingham and Selma pushed for change.
  3. The Civil Rights Act (1964) banned segregation; the Voting Rights Act (1965) banned unfair voting tests.

Example: Which 1965 law protected Black citizens' right to vote? The marches from Selma were about voting. The law that followed in 1965 protected voting rights. Answer: the Voting Rights Act of 1965

The Civil Rights Movement in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 6 of 9 in 5th grade Social Studies, after World War II and before The Cold War & the Rocket City.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    John Lewis and Hosea Williams led the Bloody Sunday march. John Lewis later served many years in…

    • the space program
    • Congress
    • the Supreme Court
    • the Army

  2. Question 2

    On September 15, 1963, a bomb at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church killed…

    • a dog
    • the mayor
    • no one
    • four young girls

  3. Question 3

    The Civil Rights Act of 1964…

    • gave women the vote
    • banned segregation in public places and discrimination in jobs
    • started the space program
    • ended the Civil War

  4. Question 4

    The boycott ended when the Supreme Court ruled in Browder v. Gayle that…

    • only white people could ride
    • buses must stop running
    • segregated buses were unconstitutional
    • the boycott was illegal

  5. Question 5

    On March 7, 1965, called Bloody Sunday, voting rights marchers were attacked on the…

    • Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma
    • Brooklyn Bridge
    • Tennessee River dam
    • Golden Gate Bridge

  6. Question 6

    Charles Gomillion led a case to the Supreme Court in 1960 after Tuskegee's city lines were redrawn to…

    • make the city bigger
    • build a dam
    • keep Black voters out of the city
    • add more parks

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