Context

This activity is organized around an group of photographs taken during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and 1956. In small groups, students study photographs from the Boycott, and then engage in a series of activities based on these images. In the first place, each small groups re-enacts their image in tableau form—that is, in a live, frozen picture, and then their classmates examine and reflect upon what they see in this frozen picture. From there, the teacher go in any number of directions, depending on the larger goals of his or her less. These activities can be used to amplify and enrich students' study the democratic process, racial injustice, and/or the political changes that were won by black Americans in the middle of the twentieth century; to raise questions about how change happens in a democracy; or to ground and demythologize the work of Rosa Park and the victories of the Montgomery Bus Boycott movement (and thus suggest to your students that they have power to change the world around them.)

• New York State Social Studies Standards:
  • Key Idea 1.4: The skills of historical analysis include the ability to: explain the significance of historical evidence; weigh the importance, reliability, and validity of evidence; understand the concept of multiple causation; understand the importance of changing and competing interpretations of different historical developments.
  • H10: consider different interpretations of key events and/or issues in history and understand the differences in these accounts
• Purpose:
  • Students will understand that Rosa Parks did not act alone or spontaneously. That the Boycott was the result of many years of planning and vigilance.
  • Students will also learn that although Rosa Parks' actions was an important catalyst, the Boycott only succeeded because of the sacrifice and hard work many people, mot of whose names we do not remember. These participants were a diverse group of people who came together around a cause.
  • Students will begin to generate questions about who tells stories in history, how the creator of a text (words or images) has a particular perspective that they want to communicate, and that they should investigate many sides of even common historical stories in order to get a fuller picture of what happened and why.
• Materials: Photographs of ordinary people from the Montgomery Bus Boycott. You will need a different photograph for each of your small groups, but enough copies of each photo so that each member of each group can have his or her own copy. (This is in part for the sake of the students' learning and in part for the purposes of written assessments at the end of the experience). There are many good and provocative photos in Russell Freedman's young adult book, Freedom Walkers. You can also find some electronic images online by following the links in the Resources section of this website.
• Number of class periods needed: 1

Connection

You should explain to the students to the purpose of the day's lesson and how it fits into the larger context of the work in which they are engaged. You might say something like:

"Recently in social studies, we have been studying biographies of famous Americans. One American we studied as a class was Rosa Parks. We learned that authors of biographies include different information about her and her role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Today, we are going to be historians and closely examine some photographs that were taken during the boycott. We can use this information to understand the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in new ways."

Procedure

1. Break students into groups of 4-6. Give each group one copy of one photograph. They should not share their photograph with other groups. Explain to them that they need to get together and find a way to recreate the image in their photograph using all the members of their group. They may not have enough people in the group to represent each person in the photograph. They will need to decide who (or what) they should represent. Tell them that they can choose to literally represent the image in their hands—or that they can do something more abstract, in an effort to represent the mood or larger meaning of that image.
2. Give students about 10 minutes to work on this in their groups. Then reconvene the whole group and one by one ask each group to show the rest of the class their re-enactments. Ask each group to hold their tableau for about one minute so that the rest of the class can look it over carefully. Then, after a minute, tell them to relax, and ask the audience questions about what they saw: What do we see? What do you think is the mood of this image? Where does the power lie in the interaction represented? What do you think is happening here?
3. Once each group has gone (and gotten feedback from their audiences), ask students to go back into their groups and rework the images based on what they are hearing. Then come back and share again. This time, as each group presents its new image, begin to ask the "characters" what they are thinking as the photographer is snapping the photograph. Discuss.
4. After you've gone through each group a second time, ask students to get back into their groups and create a short scene illustrating the minute before the image was taken. The scene should end with the frozen image. Alternately, you could ask them to recreate the minute after the image, starting with the frozen picture. Then discuss these new scenes. What issues emerged from the pictures? Why do you think people felt the way that they did? What historical information did you learn from these enactments?

Click for a quick overview of how to set up and debrief tableaux

Assessment

Listen in on student conversations as they set up the tableau and to the discussions and questions about the tableaux once they are presented. In particular, listen for:

• insights into how images are created to tell a certain story
• insights into different points of view in history
• comments that show an understanding of the role of individuals in the Boycott

Written reflection

Glue your photograph in your notebook. Pretend you are the photographer. Write a letter to a friend that explains what you were thinking when you were taking this picture. Why did you choose to frame the image as you did? What made you want to take this particular shot? What point were you trying to make? What photographs didn't you take because you were taking this one?