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Lesson One: Understanding the Man

A Leader, a Minister, a Friend

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Lesson One: Understanding the Man - A Leader, a Minister, a Friend - Lessons - Life Stories Interviews

Courtesy LBJ Presidential Library

Essential Question: How does learning about Martin Luther King Jr. as a multifaceted person enrich our historical understanding of him and his leadership during the Civil Rights Movement?

* In this lesson students will expand their historical understanding of Martin Luther King Jr. as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, a congregational minister, husband, father, friend, and an individual with humor, doubts and fears. To deepen their understanding of this lesson’s essential question, students will engage with multiple historical sources and practice the skill of historical corroboration by analyzing historical photographs, documentary film clips, and first-person interviews from the Interview Archive. They will demonstrate their understanding of Dr. King through writing a persuasive essay addressing the complexity of historical memory and what may be missing from this particular narrative.

Materials: Equipment for viewing film clips and copies of handouts

Length: Two 50-minute class periods with homework plus a writing assessment

Download Lesson Plan PDF

Lesson Objectives

Students will increase and complicate their historical understanding of Martin Luther King, Jr. by:

*Analyzing historical source material including photographs and documents

*Critically viewing documentary film and first-person interviews to inform their understanding of history

*Synthesizing new learning through developing questions for further historical inquiry

*Demonstrating their understanding of the lesson topic through a final writing exercise

1. Do-Now: Opening Questions

Teacher Note: Have students discuss or respond in writing to these questions:

*What was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s role in the Civil Rights Movement?

*Write down five words or phrases you would use to describe what you know about Dr. King.

*What do you imagine Dr. King was like when he was not in front of a microphone or a camera?

2. Analyzing Images

Teacher Note: Students will use visual analysis skills to “read” visual sources as if they were employing literary analysis skills. Project or print and distribute the photographs under the “Images” title on this page and have students discuss the questions in small groups.

*Describe what you see in the photograph.

*What questions would you ask the photographer about these photos?

*How can we know that these images are accurate?

*What larger story do the photographs tell when viewed together?

3. Analyzing Film as Text

Teacher Note: These clips contain leaders from the Civil Rights Movement remembering different aspects of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. beyond his role as leader.  

Distribute Handout 1: MLK - Understanding the Man Note Catcher in "Resources" section. Review the Note Catcher questions to help students watch the film clips actively and with critical eyes. You may choose to watch the clips more than once so students can collect detailed notes.

Watch Clip 1: "MLK - Understanding the Man" (run time: 9:48) in "Film Clips" section.

Watch Clip 2: "He Joked Because There Was No Other Way to Be" (run time: 8:13) in "Film Clips" section.

Habit of a Historian
After having seen the photos and watched the film clips, have students write down further questions about Dr. King that they would like to explore.

4. Close View of Interviews

Teacher Note: The film-makers conducted 19 interviews to produce King in the Wilderness. The complete interviews and academic notes for each interviewee are available at www.kunhardtfilmfoundation.org/interview-archive.

For each lesson, interview segments that were not used in the film, but contain insights relevant to the lesson topic, are edited together to create “interview threads.“  There are three interview threads in this lesson that teachers and students can choose from, or use together, to deepen their understanding.

Before students watch an interview thread(s), discuss: 

* What is the value of first-person accounts, like those featured in the interview threads, that is different from other kinds of historical sources?

* What questions arise from using memories as a historical source?

Print and distribute Handouts 1 - 3 in "Resources" section.

Watch the Interview Threads
As they watch, students will:

* Follow along on the transcript.

* Underline details that catch their attention. 

* Jot down questions and insights that come to mind after viewing the threads.

Thread One: MLK - Understanding the Man: Humor (run time: 11:42)  Featuring Tom Houck, Cleveland Sellers, Diane Nash, and Andrew Young        
Thread Two: MLK - Understanding the Man: As a Leader (run time: 6:49) Featuring Marian Wright Edelman, Mary Lou Finley, Cleveland Sellers, and Richard Fernandez
Thread Three: MLK - Understanding the Man: As a Minister (run time: 4:23) Featuring Richard Fernandez and Harry Belafonte

Discuss: 

* What do we learn from the first-person accounts featured in these interview threads that are different from other kinds of historical sources?

5. Research and Corroborate

Teacher Note: After viewing and reading the interview threads, have students choose one or more historical details that stood out to them to practice the process of corroboration. Students will research and identify a credible historical source that will verify or complicate the detail they selected from the interview.

Here are suggested archives to use to find corroborating evidence:
1. The King Center
2. Stanford University: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
3. Library of Congress

Discuss: What other sources can help you better understand and corroborate first-person interviews and use them as historical resources?

6. Closing Discussion Questions

*How does viewing all the historical sources in this lesson contribute to your understanding of Dr. King as a whole person?

*What can we extrapolate from this lesson that teaches us about how historical figures are remembered and represented?

Images

President Lyndon Johnson meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., White House, Washington D.C., March 18, 1966 (Courtesy LBJ Presidential Library)

President Lyndon Johnson meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., White House, Washington D.C., March 18, 1966 (Courtesy LBJ Presidential Library)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Cabinet Room at the White House, Washington D.C., January 18, 1964 (Courtesy LBJ Presidential Library)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Cabinet Room at the White House, Washington D.C., January 18, 1964 (Courtesy LBJ Presidential Library)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., March 2, 1965 (Courtesy Library of Congress)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., March 2, 1965 (Courtesy Library of Congress)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Coretta Scott King, 1965 (Courtesy Library of Congress)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Coretta Scott King, 1965 (Courtesy Library of Congress)

Resources

Handout 1: Note Catcher MLK - Understanding the Man
Download PDF
Handout 2: Thread Transcript Understanding the Man, Humor
Handout 2
Handout 3: Thread Transcript Understanding the Man as a Leader
Handout 3
Handout 4: Thread Transcript Understanding the Man as a Minister
Handout 4

Assessment

Writing a Persuasive Essay

In King in the Wilderness we see several ways in which Dr. King’s moral grounding as a Baptist minister guided every decision he made as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Marian Wright Edelman offers the following insight:

“The real misconception—[FBI Director] J. Edgar Hoover tried to destroy, you know, his character, whatever. But he was a man of deep faith and deep courage. Who loved his country so much he was willing to die for it. But to die for it nonviolently and at the hands of violence. . .. We need to hear him. And not to deify him. Not to-- to -- make him into something he wasn’t, but his message was the message as Abraham Joshua Heschel said, he was a prophet for our time.”

 

As an assessment, have students write a persuasive essay expanding on their ideas about why it is important, as Marian Wright Edelman says, “not to deify him. Not to make him into something he wasn’t.” Their essays may address what we remember about historical leaders, who influences our historical memory, and why. Students can refer to any of the historical source material included in the lesson or resources they discover through independent research.

Common Core Standards

Anchor Standards

Reading Literature and/or Information: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

RL/RI.X.7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

RL/RI.X.8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

RL/RI.X.9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration.

SL.X.1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

 

SL.X.2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

SL.X.3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.

Writing: Research to Build and Present Knowledge.

W.X.7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

W.X.8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

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