Slavery, the Legacy of the Civil War, and the Struggle for Civil Rights for All

The Abolitionist Movement and the Causes of the Civil War

In Cluster 1, students deepen their understanding of the abolitionist movement (first encountered in Unit 1) and the role that this movement played in challenging the continuation of slavery in the United States. Students work to organize information from multiple primary and secondary sources as they conduct an Inquiry Cycle that asks, How did the abolitionist movement work to create a “more perfect union”? The lessons in this cluster introduce students to the concept of a movement and an understanding of how the issue of slavery increasingly divided the nation in the years leading to the Civil War. Additionally, they provide practice with the skills of researching and analyzing the work of an activist, which will be key to the unit’s Summative Assessment. Note: The content standards from 5.T5.1 are addressed in Lesson 1 of this unit, however they receive more extensive attention in Unit 3 (The Early Republic).

The Civil War

Cluster 2 focuses on the Civil War. In these five lessons, students analyze primary and secondary sources and engage with multiple perspectives by studying the goals of the Union, African Americans, and the Confederate States in fighting the war. In doing so, they encounter the agency of African Americans in shifting the Union’s goals for the war toward the abolition of slavery. This cluster also provides students with information about the generals and battles that determined the war’s outcome. The cluster ends with a lesson on Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Here, students analyze its message calling for a new birth of freedom for the nation and a rededication to the democratic principles of its founding. Through this reading, they prepare to engage with the promise of Reconstruction and the disappointment of the backlash to progress toward African American civil rights during the Jim Crow era in Cluster 3. Note: At the beginning of the Civil War, the goal of the Union was to contain slavery in the states where it was legal before the war. Lincoln stated in his inaugural address that the Constitution protected slavery in states where it existed and that it was his job to uphold the Constitution. The goal of ending slavery only became part of the Union’s goals after 1863. This shift was due in large part to the agency and resistance of African Americans. Cluster 2 focuses on that shift.

Progress and Backlash after the Civil War

Cluster 3 begins with a focus on the expansion of African American civil rights during the era of Reconstruction. Students consider what freedom meant for African Americans after the Civil War as they study the changes that came with the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, the election of Black representatives to Congress, and the efforts of the federal government to protect and promote African American civil rights in the 12-year period after the end of the Civil War. As the unit moves into the 20th century, students study the backlash to this progress in the Jim Crow era and the work of individuals, churches, newspapers, and civic organizations to unify and organize the African American community to continue the struggle to secure and protect civil rights. In doing so, they gain the important understanding that although slavery ended with the Civil War, racial discrimination, threats of violence, and legal protection of racist practices did not. These issues were not limited to the South but were experienced by African Americans throughout the nation. Perhaps more importantly, students are able to understand that the African American community continued to resist and show resilience in the face of efforts to deny their full humanity. Throughout these lessons, students organize information from multiple primary and secondary sources in order to identify, describe and explain the history of the struggle for civil rights for all in the United States.

The Struggle for Civil Rights for All

Cluster 4 sets the context for the unit’s Summative Assessment, where students research the work of an activist who took action to secure and protect civil rights. Through these lessons, students organize, annotate and analyze multiple primary and secondary sources as they work to understand how and why the 20th-century African American Civil Rights Movement began in the 1950s; who participated in the movement; how and why the strategy of nonviolence was used to effect change; and how legislative acts like the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were used to expand and protect civil rights. The cluster ends with a lesson focused on the ways the Civil Rights Movement has inspired multiple other communities to employ nonviolent forms of activism to advance their campaigns for rights, freedom, and equality. This final lesson before the assessment provides students with an initial and cursory exposure to the Women’s Movement, Disability Rights Movement, LGBTQ+ Rights Movement, Chicano Movement, and the American Indian (Indigenous Rights) Movement. These movements, as well as others that are not covered in fifth grade — for example, Black Power and Yellow Power — are addressed in eighth-grade Civics and high school U.S. History.