ABSTRACT
Educated in an overwhelmingly white suburb of Washington and Baltimore, the author never experienced much in the way of diversity. After establishing the origins of the rebellions that came to dominate the 1960s, the author focuses on the civil rights movement. Specifically, this investigation emphasizes the historical thinking skill of significance. Students are asked to decide when the modern movement for African American civil rights began. Tackling the question of the origins of the civil rights movement requires students to access their understanding of continuity and change over time and, more important, to explore their understanding of what makes an event, individual, or accomplishment historically significant. The American civil rights movement generated some of the most defining changes of the twentieth century. Though the discussion and student assessment do not reach the sophistication of Jacquelyn Dowd’s argument or Arnesen’s counterargument, they do mirror the essence of the debate.
