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8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 12 of 15

Civil Rights

From Brown v. Board to equal rights for many groups

What your child practices

The civil rights movement from Brown v. Board of Education to the Voting Rights Act, its leaders and methods, and the efforts it inspired by women, farm workers, Native Americans, people with disabilities and the LGBT community, with key Supreme Court cases.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 8.9; 8.9a; 8.9b; 8.1c · the civil rights movement, equality under the law, and renewed efforts for equality by other groups

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ended legal school segregation under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
  2. Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. led peaceful protests; Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn became the first Black woman in Congress in 1968.
  3. Other groups fought for equal rights too: César Chávez and Dolores Huerta organized farm workers.

Example: Brown v. Board was decided under which amendment? The case was about equal treatment in schools. The equal protection clause is in one amendment. That is the 14th Amendment. Answer: the 14th

Civil Rights in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 12 of 15 in 8th grade Social Studies, after A Changing World and before A Changing Population.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    The Freedom Riders of 1961…

    • flew planes to Berlin
    • built railroads
    • rode horses west
    • rode interstate buses to challenge segregation in bus stations

  2. Question 2

    Brown v. Board was decided under which amendment's equal protection clause?

    • the 2nd
    • the 21st
    • the 18th
    • the 14th

  3. Question 3

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called for change through…

    • secession
    • nonviolent protest
    • staying silent
    • armed revolt

  4. Question 4

    Rosa Parks's arrest in 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat led to…

    • the Dust Bowl
    • the Montgomery Bus Boycott
    • the Spanish-American War
    • the Berlin Airlift

  5. Question 5

    The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)…

    • bans discrimination against people with disabilities
    • created the draft
    • banned ramps
    • ended Social Security

  6. Question 6

    Sonia Sotomayor, who grew up in the Bronx, became in 2009…

    • the first Hispanic justice of the US Supreme Court
    • mayor of New York City
    • the first woman in Congress
    • governor of New York

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