1. Fighting for Justice: Rosa Parks and the US Criminal Justice System
Teaching Guide: College and University Classes
Introduction:
Rosa Parks is most often thought about in terms of Jim Crow segregation, with her bus stance marking the beginning of the end of Southern-style segregation. A clearer through-line in her lifetime of activism, though, is her work around criminal justice. Decade after decade, she fought for equal justice under the law for African Americans. Her lifelong work to find justice for black victims of brutality, to defend the wrong-fully accused, and to challenge the targeting and criminalization of political rebels offers important lessons for learning about the history of the criminal justice system, how it has historically related to Jim Crow, and how these inequalities have been challenged over decades.
All of the sources can be found on the corresponding sections of www.rosaparksbiography.org/bio. Some of the exercises could be completed in one day’s lessons, while others could be spread over two lessons.
TG1
Exercise 1
Key Question: What does justice mean in terms of histories of racism in the US?
As a class or in small groups, students should come up with brief definitions of “justice”. They should then be encouraged to think about what justice means in relation to various aspects of US history, including slavery, segregation, etc.
Definitions should be shared and points of commonality and difference in the definitions should be considered.
Some discussion questions and/or prompts:
- What kinds of justice, if any, were offered for slavery? What kinds of justice were actually received?
- What kinds of justice, if any, were offered for Jim Crow segregation? What kinds of justice were actually received?
- What kinds of justice, if any, were offered for lynching and other acts of brutality? What kinds of justice were actually received?
- How does the criminal justice system relate to issues of justice, including slavery, segregation, lynching and other acts of violence?
- If little justice has been offered and/or received, what might that indicate about the criminal justice system in America?
- What might that indicate about histories of black protest in America?
Exercise 2
Key Question: Has the criminal justice system historically operated differently for black citizens than white citizens?
Examine the sections called “Treading the Tightrope of Jim Crow”.
Discussion Questions:
- How was justice evaded in the following cases?
- Scottsboro Boys
- Recy Taylor and Gertrude Perkins
- Jeremiah Reeves
- Emmett Till
- What does it say about racism and segregation that justice was denied these individuals?
- What do these individuals’ stories of violence and injustice also tell us about the relationship between gender and racism?
- Why was it so difficult for Rosa Parks and other black activists to achieve justice for individuals like Taylor, Perkins and the Scottsboro Boys?
Sources:
Exercise 3
Key Question: Why did Rosa Parks refer to Jim Crow as a “criminal”?
Examine the section called “Let Us Look at Jim Crow for the Criminal He Is”.
Discussion Questions:
- Why was the bus system in Alabama and other Southern states segregated?
- How did Viola White, Geneva Johnson, Hilliard Brooks and Epsie Worthy try to defy the norms of segregation on the bus system?
- What do their acts of resistance tell us about segregation in the South – how immovable (or not) it was, the impact that it had and what kind of impact, etc?
- When Claudette Colvin resisted bus segregation, why do you think the judge dropped the charges of disturbing the peace and breaking segregation law but found her guilty of assault?
- Why did Rosa Parks refuse to move on the bus?
Sources
- “Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin”, NPR
- Negro Ministers of Montgomery and Their Congregations, “To the Montgomery Public”, statement that references previous arrests like White’s, Brook’s, Colvin’s
- Rosa Parks’s reflection on her bus stance
- 1956 Interview with Parks During the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Democracy Now
Exercise 4
Key Question: Were the courts a friend or a foe (or both) of the bus boycotters?
Examine the section called “We Are Having a Difficult Time Here but We Are Not Discouraged”.
Discussion Questions:
- What was the response of black Montgomerians to Rosa Parks’s arrest?
- Why was a bus boycott called for rather than leaving Parks’s case to the courts?
- How did the City of Montgomery use laws and courts to squash the boycott?
- Were these attempts legal? Were they just?
- How did black activists respond when bus segregation was ruled un-Constitutional?
Sources
- “5000 at Meeting Outline Boycott; Bullet Clips Bus”, Montgomery Advertiser, 6 December 1955
- Negro Ministers of Montgomery and Their Congregations, “To the Montgomery Public”, statement that references previous arrests like White’s, Brook’s, Colvin’s
- “Integrated Bus Suggestions” from 19 December 1956
Exercise 5
Key Questions: Do you think Rosa Parks thought that the police and criminal justice system operated differently in the North than they did in the South?
Examine the section called “The Northern Promised Land that Wasn’t”.
Discussion Questions:
- What did the police murder of Cynthia Scott reveal about the criminal justice system and about the police in the North?
- Did police act justly during the Detroit Uprising of 1967?
- Why did Rosa Parks think the Uprising took place?
- How did Rosa Parks and other black freedom fighters challenge unjust police practices in Detroit?
- Why did the establish a People’s Tribunal in response to the Algiers Motel killings?
- Why was Judge George Crockett criticized for his handling of those Republic of New Africa members who had been arrested in 1969?
- What does this reveal about the nation’s criminal justice system?
- What is a “political prisoner”? Why did Rosa Parks help to fight for them?
Sources:
- Coverage of the march against police brutality in the wake of Scott’s murder
- Interview with Ed Vaughn
- “Acquit Detroit cop in killing of Negro youth in ’67 riots” article in Chicago Tribune, 11 June 1969
- Statement of George Crockett, 1969
- National Lawyers Guild ‘Resolution in Support of RNA Citizens Unjustly Held in U.S. and Mississippi Prisons
- Hurricane Carter’s support for the Gary Tyler campaign, October 18 1976 (page 8)
- October 25 1976 issue of Worker’s Power article on a recent demo of the Detroit Committee to Free Gary Tyler
2. When History and Memory Clash: Rosa Parks’s Rebellious Life
Teaching Guide: College and University Classes
Introduction:
Rosa Parks is one of those figures in US history whom many people think they know. Knowing of her bus stance and the way it sparked a movement, many people think that what they learned about Parks in elementary school still stands. But the larger history of Parks “rebellious” life (as she put it) troubles not only the two-dimensional Parks of public memory but it also shows us how much the movement that she participated in for decades has also been mis-remembered. Analyzing the fable of Rosa Parks and its political uses illuminates the larger political uses of memory and civil rights history in American politics today.
All of the sources can be found on the corresponding sections of www.rosaparksbiography.org/bio. Some of the exercises could be completed in one day’s lessons, while others could be spread over two lessons.
TG2
Exercise 1
Key Question: What’s the relationship between history and memory?
Individually or in small groups, students should come up with brief definitions of history and of memory.
These definitions should be shared, and the class should consider points of commonality and difference.
Students should be asked to consider the relationship between history and memory – the differences and commonalities between them, how memory is forged and by whom, examples of when history and memory seem at odds with each other and why this happens, etc.
Exercise 2
Key Question: What do you know about Rosa Parks?
Ask a large group, ask students to reflect on what they know (or think they know) about Rosa Parks. Some prompts might help:
- What do you know about her bus stance?
- Do you know anything about her life before or after her bus stance?
- What part of the country is she tied to in public memory? Why?
- Where did you learn about Rosa Parks – books, movies, music, school?
- What are some examples of how and where she gets remembered – in music, museums, elementary or high school, in current social movements, in political debates (e.g. putting her on the $10 bill)?
- How is Rosa Parks usually talked about in relation to the civil rights movement?
Exercise 3
Key Question: If Rosa Parks was neither the first to resist bus segregation nor new to political activism, what does it mean that her bus stance is remembered in the way that it is?
Examine the sections called “Treading the Tightrope of Jim Crow” and “Let Us Look at Jim Crow for the Criminal He Is”.
Discussion Questions:
- What kinds of political activism did Rosa Parks carry out before her bus stance?
- How does viewing this work shift how we think about Parks’s bus stance?
- Why was the bus system in Alabama and other Southern states segregated?
- How did Viola White, Geneva Johnson, Hilliard Brooks and Epsie Worthy try to defy the norms of segregation on the bus system?
- Why do you think their acts of resistance aren’t known in public memory in the way that Rosa Parks’s is?
- How did Parks and others rally around the case of Claudette Colvin?
Sources:
- Letter to ‘friend’ about segregation in Montgomery
- Photo of a segregated bus in Alabama
- Negro Ministers of Montgomery and Their Congregations, “To the Montgomery Public”, statement that references previous arrests like White’s, Brook’s, Colvin’s
- “Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin”, NPR
Exercise 4
Key Questions: Does the Montgomery Bus Boycott mark the beginning of the civil rights movement? In what other ways should the boycott be remembered?
Examine the section called “We Are Having a Difficult Time Here but We Are Not Discouraged” and the “Highlander Folk School and the criminalization of organizing” page (under the “Treading the Tightrope of Jim Crow” section).
Discussion Questions
- How did the Montgomery Bus Boycott begin?
- Why was a bus boycott called for rather than leaving Parks’s case to the courts?
- What impact did Parks’s bus stance and the bus boycott have on Parks and her family?
- What efforts were made to squash the bus boycott?
- Why do you think these attempts are so often forgotten in public memory around Rosa Parks, the bus boycott and the larger civil rights movement?
- How did black activists respond when bus segregation was ruled un-Constitutional?
Sources
- “5000 at Meeting Outline Boycott; Bullet Clips Bus”, Montgomery Advertiser, 6 December 1955
- Negro Ministers of Montgomery and Their Congregations, “To the Montgomery Public”, statement that references previous arrests like White’s, Brook’s, Colvin’s
- Photo showing Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King at civil rights related “training” at Highlander
- “Integrated Bus Suggestions” from 19 December 1956
Exercise 5
Key Questions: How does our view of the black freedom movement shift when we consider why Parks called the North the “promised land that wasn’t”?
Examine the section called “The Northern Promised Land that Wasn’t”.
Discussion Questions:
- What kinds of racism and injustice to Parks encounter when she moved to Detroit?
- Did police act justly during the Detroit Uprising of 1967?
- Why did Rosa Parks think the Uprising took place?
- How are the uprisings (or “riots”) of the 1960s generally remembered, if at all?
- How did Rosa Parks and other black freedom fighters challenge unjust police practices in Detroit?
- Why did the establish a People’s Tribunal in response to the Algiers Motel killings?
- What was Rosa Parks’s relationship to the Black Power movement?
- How did Rosa Parks and other black activists fight to free political prisoners and why?
Sources
- Coverage of the march against police brutality in the wake of Scott’s murder
- “Acquit Detroit cop in killing of Negro youth in ’67 riots” article in Chicago Tribune, 11 June 1969
- LeRoy Henderson talks about photographing Rosa Parks at a political convention
- Black Community Notice on the creation of the Black United Front
- Hurricane Carter’s support for the Gary Tyler campaign, October 18 1976 (page 8)
- October 25 1976 issue of Worker’s Power article on a recent demo of the Detroit Committee to Free Gary Tyler
3. Fighting for Justice: Rosa Parks and the US Criminal Justice System
Teaching Guide: 10th – 12th Grade
Introduction:
Rosa Parks is most often thought about in terms of Jim Crow segregation, with her bus stance marking the beginning of the end of Southern-style segregation. A clearer through-line in her lifetime of activism, though, is her work around criminal justice. Decade after decade, she fought for equal justice under the law for African Americans. Her work to find justice for black victims of brutality offers important lessons for learning about the history of the criminal justice system, how it has historically related to Jim Crow, and how these inequalities have been fought.
All of the sources can be found on the corresponding sections of www.rosaparksbiography.org/bio. Some of the exercises could be completed in one day’s lessons, while others could be spread over two lessons.
TG3
Exercise 1
Key Question: What is the criminal justice system, and what is justice?
Individually or in small groups, students should come up with brief definitions of “justice” and of the criminal justice system.
Some prompts may help: What is included within this system (e.g. police, courts)? What brings all of these things together – what do they have in common? What does it mean for something to be “just”?
These definitions should be shared and points of commonality and difference in the definitions should be considered.
Exercise 2
Key Question: Has the criminal justice system historically operated differently for black citizens than white citizens?
Examine the section called “Treading the Tightrope of Jim Crow”.
Discussion Questions:
- How do the following related to criminal justice?
- Scottsboro Boys
- Recy Taylor and Gertrude Perkins
- Jeremiah Reeves
- Emmett Till
- Did these individuals receive justice?
- What does it say about racism and segregation that justice was denied these individuals?
- How did Rosa Parks fight for their justice?
Sources:
Exercise 3
Key Questions: Was it a crime to resist bus segregation? Was it just to resist bus segregation?
Examine the sections called “Let Us Look at Jim Crow for the Criminal He Is” and “We Are Having a Difficult Time Here but We Are Not Discouraged”.
Discussion Questions:
- Why did black Montgomerians think the segregated bus system was unjust
- How did they resist bus segregation?
- Why did Rosa Parks refuse to move on the bus?
- What did Rosa Parks notice about how black people were treated in jail after she was arrested?
- How did the City of Montgomery try to stop the bus boycott? Was this just?
Sources:
- Negro Ministers of Montgomery and Their Congregations, “To the Montgomery Public”, statement that references previous arrests like White’s, Brook’s, Colvin’s
- Photo of a segregated bus in Alabama
- Rosa Parks’s reflection on her bus stance
- Parks’s recollection of police booking
Exercise 4
Key Questions: How did Rosa Parks fight for justice in the North?
Examine the section called “The Northern Promised Land that Wasn’t”.
Discussion Questions:
- What examples of unjust police practices did Rosa Parks encounter in Detroit?
- How did police treat African Americans differently from whites?
- To what extent does this happen today?
- How did Rosa Parks and other black freedom fighters challenge unjust police practices in Detroit?
- What is a “political prisoner”? Why did Rosa Parks help to fight for them?
Sources:
- Coverage of the march against police brutality in the wake of Scott’s murder
- Interview with Ed Vaughn
- “Acquit Detroit cop in killing of Negro youth in ’67 riots” article in Chicago Tribune, 11 June 1969
- Statement of George Crockett, 1969
- National Lawyers Guild ‘Resolution in Support of RNA Citizens Unjustly Held in U.S. and Mississippi Prisons
- Hurricane Carter’s support for the Gary Tyler campaign, October 18 1976 (page 8)
- October 25 1976 issue of Worker’s Power article on a recent demo of the Detroit Committee to Free Gary Tyler
4. When History and Memory Clash: Rosa Parks’s Rebellious Life
Teaching Guide: 10th – 12th Grade
Introduction:
Very often, Rosa Parks’s bus stance is thought of as the beginning of the end of segregation in the South, but her lifetime of activism challenged segregated systems in both the South and North. Indeed, looking across the whole of Parks’s life helps students to see how Jim Crow shaped not just the former Confederacy but the nation.
All of the sources can be found on the corresponding sections of www.rosaparksbiography.org/bio. Some of the exercises could be completed in one day’s lessons, while others could be spread over two lessons.
TG4
Exercise 1
Key Question: What is segregation, or “Jim Crow”?
Individually or in small groups, students should come up with brief definitions of segregation.
Students should be asked to consider the relationship between racism and segregation, why and how segregation is so associated with the South, what they’ve learned about segregation and how they’ve learned it (e.g. from school, movies, music, etc).
These definitions should be shared, and the class should consider points of commonality and difference.
Exercise 2
Key Question: How did segregation shape life in the South?
Examine the sections called “Treading the Tightrope of Jim Crow” and “Let Us Look at Jim Crow for the Criminal He Is”.
Discussion Questions:
- In what ways was life in the South segregated?
- Why did segregation exist? How did it continue?
- How did Rosa Parks and other African American folks in the South resist segregation – on buses and elsewhere?
- What were the dangers in trying to resist segregation?
- Why do you think people like Rosa Parks persevered in their attempts to resist segregation?
Sources:
- Letter to ‘friend’ about segregation in Montgomery
- Photo of a segregated bus in Alabama
- Negro Ministers of Montgomery and Their Congregations, “To the Montgomery Public”, statement that references previous arrests like White’s, Brook’s, Colvin’s
- Rosa Parks’s reflection on her bus stance
- 1956 Interview with Parks During the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Democracy Now
- Parks’s recollection of police booking
Exercise 3
Key Question: How did segregation shape life in the North
Examine the section called “The Northern Promised Land that Wasn’t”.
Discussion Questions:
- What kinds of problems did black activists like Rosa Parks highlight about the North?
- Was Northern segregation different from Southern segregation? If so, how?
- Why did the Detroit Uprising of 1967 take place?
- What were some of the events that happened during the uprising that also indicated that segregation and racism existed in the North?
- How did Rosa Parks and other black activists resist segregation and racism in Detroit and the North more broadly?
Sources:
- Detroit Walk to Freedom photo
- Coverage of the march against police brutality in the wake of Scott’s murder
- Interview with Ed Vaughn
- “Acquit Detroit cop in killing of Negro youth in ’67 riots” article in Chicago Tribune, 11 June 1969
- Statement of George Crockett, 1969