Section 3: Overview

Charles Moore, Birmingham, Alabama, and the Civil Rights Movement

How did the photographic images of Charles Moore define the American Civil Rights Movement and serve as a catalyst for social and political change? To study this question, we will examine photos taken by photojournalist Charles Moore during the Civil Rights Movement and learn about the context surrounding Moore’s photographs—what happened before, during, and after the photos were taken. We will also examine historical and rhetorical texts to better understand the movement itself. To demonstrate what we have learned, we will write an expository essay about Moore’s work and how it was a catalyst for social change.

• Lesson 1:

  How did the photographic images of Charles Moore define the American Civil Rights Movement? We will examine photographs by Charles Moore from the civil rights era to see what we can learn from the images. To build context and background knowledge, we will then watch a brief, award-winning, student-created documentary about the Civil Rights Movement.

• Lesson 2:

  How did an iconic civil rights photograph document and influence history? We will examine one particular photograph by photojournalist Charles Moore, titled Birmingham, Alabama, taken in 1963. We will then read a 2010 newspaper article that focuses on Moore’s work and discusses how photojournalism has evolved since his time.

• Lesson 3:

  What are the role and responsibilities of a photojournalist? In light of what we have learned about photojournalists like Edward Curtis, Dorothea Lange, and Charles Moore, we will review the code of ethics that contemporary journalists are expected to follow.

• Lesson 4:

  How did the words of Martin Luther King underscore the messages about injustice inherent in photographs such as Birmingham, Alabama? We will read excerpts from “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We will continue to build our understanding of the background and context of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as skills for close reading and rhetorical analysis of the language, claims, and appeals King uses in support of his argument.

• Lesson 5:

  What is memorable about the rhetoric and prose of Martin Luther King’s writing? We will analyze King’s use of language and will continue to compile powerful and interesting sentences in our Mentor Sentence Journals.

• Lesson 6:

  How did other American photojournalists document and influence significant events in civil rights history? We will examine the Birmingham civil rights confrontations and other marker historical moments through the eyes of other photojournalists, whose work we will research through their primary source photographs and secondary informational sources.

• Lesson 7:

  How do scholars characterize the impact of photographs on history? We will read an excerpt from the beginning of Imprisoned in a Luminous Glare to examine how, during the past 100 years, activists embroiled in the struggle for equal rights have used photographic imagery to gain political recognition and to develop a different visual vocabulary about the experiences of Black Americans.

• Lesson 8:

  We will form an evidence-based claim and begin preparing our response to the Section Diagnostic question:

  How did the photojournalism of Charles Moore and others define the American Civil Rights Movement and serve as a catalyst for social and political change?

• Lesson 9:

  We will form an evidence-based claim and write a three-paragraph response to the following question:

  How did the photojournalism of Charles Moore and others define the American Civil Rights Movement and serve as a catalyst for social and political change?

• Lesson 10:

  We will review feedback on the Section Diagnostic. We will use the feedback to make revisions to our work.

• Lesson 11:

  We will share the understanding we have gained through our independent reading and continue to read our texts.