New York City Mayor Robert Wagner greeting the teenagers who integrated Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas / World Telegram photo by Walter Albertin

Strategy By
Laura Krueger
Link/Citation

Albertin, Walter. New York City Mayor Robert Wagner greeting the teenagers who integrated Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas. Photograph. New York World-Telegram, 1958. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/00649862/(link is external).

Source Type:
Photographs and Prints
Suggested Grade Level and Audience: Grade 6, Grade 7, Grade 8
Instructional value of primary source for the curriculum and/or classroom

This primary source is a valuable tool as it provides a starting point for students to study a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Creating a platform for inquiry, the photograph engages students to dig deeper into African American history. It will help students understand the value of education for all, and it highlights trailblazers during this time period.

Summary/Description

The New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection (Library of Congress) consists of an estimated one million black-and-white photographs, most from the 1920s to 1967. Photojournalist Walter Albertin contributed fifty-nine photographs to this collection. Those pictured in this photograph are, from “front row, left to right: Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Carlotta Walls, Mayor Wagner, Thelma Mothershed, Gloria Ray; back row, left to right: Terrance Roberts, Ernest Green, Melba Pattilo, Jefferson Thomas” (Library of Congress).

Context for the Primary Source

In an effort to begin integrating Arkansas schools following the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, nine African American high school students attended Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the fall of 1957. Known as the Little Rock Nine, the students persevered through verbal abuse and a hostile learning environment. With the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, eight of the nine students were able to finish the school year, and Ernest Green became the first African American graduate of Central High School.

Focus Question(s)
  • What do you notice or wonder about the people in the photograph?
  • In what time period was this photograph taken? How do you know?
  • What are the consequences of dividing people by race in an educational setting?
  • What are the benefits of socioeconomic diversity in a community?
  • Discuss the importance of understanding the Civil Rights Movement as a part of civic literacy.
  • How can students and other stakeholders in a community prevent racism?
Standards Connections

Common Core(link is external) State Standards

RH.6-8.7 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.

  • This primary-source photograph invites students to think critically about the challenges that African American students and people in their communities faced during the time period. Integrating photographs and videos into a newscast format allows students to incorporate multiple perspectives as the course of the country changes from segregation to desegregation.

WHST.6-8.7 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.

  • Students will be able to conduct research in order to present information about events in the Civil Rights Movement, including the experience of the Little Rock Nine as shown in the primary-source photograph. This primary source can be paired with the Civil Rights Movement primary source set provided by the Library of Congress, for further research related to desegregation and civil rights for African Americans.
Suggested Teaching Approaches

Consider incorporating this primary source into a Civil Rights Movement unit in which students conduct research related to civil rights topics such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Freedom Riders, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the Greensboro sit-ins. Students can utilize the Civil Rights Movement primary source set(link is external) provided by the Library of Congress to create a mock newscast(link is external) from the time period by writing a script in small groups and taking on other roles, including director, producer, audio tech, news anchor, and journalist on the scene who interviews important historical figures. In this unit, teachers can incorporate lessons about how to avoid plagiarism and how to create a works-cited page using MLA format(link is external). After synthesizing information researched, students can present their newscast to their peers as a live performance or as a prerecorded and edited segment using green screens, iPads, or other technology.

Potential for Challenge
  • The history of segregation and racial discrimination in our country is a difficult topic and can present challenges when teaching about this time period. Navigating through racial violence, political upheaval, and corruption in society is essential to afford students the opportunity to understand citizenship and democracy in the United States today.

Links to resources for approaching those topics

Subject:
Journalism/News , Photography , Social Studies/Social Sciences/History/Geography , STEM
Topics:
African American History , Government, Law, and Politics , News, Journalism, and Advertising , Photographs, Prints, and Posters
Year/Date of Creation or Publication
1958