Rosa Parks, Civil Rights icon

A Treasure Hunt for intermediate to upper intermediate level students

Introduction

Rosa Parks, the soft-spoken icon of the U.S. civil rights movement, died on October 31, 2005 at her home in Detroit, Michigan, at age 92. In 1955 the African-American seamstress refused to surrender her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, spurring civil rights supporters to boycott city buses.

In order to introduce the subject, you can study the history of Civil Rights. You will find information on this page. Click here

Lesson plan

Visit this site (click on the logo)

Read the story about Rosa Parks and answer the following questions. This work can be done in one or two hours. Pupils will work in pairs or in teams sharing the questions. Each team will of course give the anwers to the whole group.

Download the student worksheet and give it to the pupils

Download a map of the US and give one to each pupil.

Ask them to answer the questions on the student worksheet. They will find the answers by reading the 3 pages of Rosa Parks' story.

Download the teacher's worksheet

Click here to have direct access to the student's online Rosa Parks webquest

 

Page 1/3 On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, what happened on the bus?

Why was this forbidden?

What happened to Rosa Parks?

What did all Black people decide to do then?

Page 2/3 What was Rosa Park’s job?

What political group was she involved in?

Page 3/3 Who became the leader of the boycott?

What kind of reaction did he claim? What was the expression he used?

What was the ultimate consequence of the boycott?

How long did the boycott last?

How is Rosa Parks often called because of this boycott?

Now visit this site

Watch a video about Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement and write a summary of it.

If you wish to study this video in greater lengths, click here

Describe the following picture of Rosa Parks on the MSN Encarta website.

 

Now you can learn and sing, We shall overcome. Here are the lyrics :