Let Freedom Ring: The Life & Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

NCSS.D4.1.3-5. Construct arguments using claims and evidence from multiple sources.

NCSS.D4.3.3-5. Present a summary of arguments and explanations to others outside the classroom using print and oral technologies (e.g., posters, essays, letters, debates, speeches, and reports) and digital technologies (e.g., Internet, social media, and digital documentary).

NCSS.D4.7.3-5. Explain different strategies and approaches students and others could take in working alone and together to address local, regional, and global problems, and predict possible results of their actions.

Before the lesson, explore what students already know about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Divide the class into groups of 3–4 students each. Have each group create a "bubble map" with Dr. King's name in the center bubble; in smaller bubbles around the center, have them write words and phrases that they associate with Dr. King. After the groups have completed their maps, go around the room round-robin style, asking one member from each group to call out a word or phrase from his or her group's map. Compile a master list of the students' ideas on the board.

Next, read the class a brief biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. A summary of the major events of King's life can be found on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project website. You may print this document out and read it to the class.

After you have shared this biographical information with the class, ask students what they now know about Martin Luther King, Jr. that they didn't know before. Add this new information to the master list.

Use the video above to show students why the March on Washington was organized and how Dr. King came to be a leader for civil rights. Explain to students what the March on Washington was. Tell them that its full title was the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," that it was held on August 28, 1963, and that thousands of Americans from all walks of life attended it. Let students know that although Dr. King emphasized the struggles of African-Americans, he devoted his life to the freedom of all Americans. As long as even one of us was not free, he believed, none of us could be truly free.

Activity 1. View photographs of the march

In order to gain a sense of the magnitude and power of the march, as well as the wide diversity of Americans who attended it, students may view photographs from the extensive collection available through the EDSITEment-reviewed National Archives website and use the selection provided below: 

"We March for Higher Minimum Wages"

"End Segregated Rules in Public Schools"

"They're Pouring in From All Over"

"We March for Effective Civil Rights Now"

Military Color Guard and crowd on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

View of the crowd at the March on Washington, D.C.

As they view the photographs, ask students to take special note of the variety of people represented. What do they think motivated each of these people to attend the March?

Activity 2. Watch and Read the Speech

Ask students if they have ever heard Dr, King's "I Have a Dream" speech, which he delivered at the March on Washington. Now have students read the final section of Dr. King's speech, the full text of which is available through the EDSITEment-reviewed Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project website. After accessing the speech from the opening page of the website, scroll down to the final section of the speech, beginning with the words, "I say to you today, my friends [applause], so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream…" 

After students have read and/or listened to the speech, ask them to write down 5-7 words or phrases of the speech that especially stood out to them. Then divide the class into groups of three students each. To emphasize the poetry and beauty of King's language, have each group create a "found poem" by combining into the form of a poem, in whatever order they wish, the words and phrases that were selected by each of the group's members. Upon completion, have one member of each group read the group's "found poem" to the rest of the class.

Activity 3. Let freedom ring!

Now turn to "My Country 'Tis of Thee" to show how Dr. King drew upon the language of this familiar song in crafting his own speech (much as the students drew upon the language of Dr. King's speech in crafting their "found poems"). Read or have students join you in singing the lyrics of the song:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims' pride,
From every mountainside.
Let freedom ring!

Take note not only of how Dr. King quoted these lyrics directly in his speech, but also of how he alluded to the phrase "from every mountainside" with phrases such as "the red hills of Georgia," "the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire," "the mighty mountains of New York," and "the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania." Ask students to read out the other phrases about mountains that Dr. King included in the final section of his speech.

For further inspiration, you may wish to have students consider the words of "America the Beautiful," the poetic grandeur of which are also reflected in King's use of language:

Oh beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountains' majesty
Above the fruited plain.
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee.
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

Activity 4. Geographical locations

Next, have students make a list of the geographical locations mentioned in Dr. King's speech, and have them find these locations on a United States map. A large selection of maps is available in the "Atlas" section of the EDSITEment-reviewed National Geographic Society Xpeditions website. In the Map section, go to North America and click on "United States" for a current map of the United States.

Ask students to take note of the specific geographical features of different regions, and then have them create new phrases that King might have used to refer to other states ("Let freedom ring from…"). In selecting places to represent on their posters, students might wish to consider some of the locations where other notable struggles for freedom have taken place (e.g., Plymouth Rock, Lexington and Concord, Philadelphia, Appomattox, Seneca Falls, Wounded Knee, Selma). Have each student write his or her phrase at the top of a sheet of poster paper.

Activity 5. Persistent inequities

Discuss with students some of the inequities that persist in American society today. (Students might note, for instance, inequities based on skin color, ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, or gender.) Has Dr. King's dream been realized, or is it yet to come true? Which forms of inequality would King protest if he were alive today?

Finally, have each student create a symbol representing a form of freedom that has yet to be realized in America, and add this symbol to his or her poster beneath the phrase he or she created in Step 5. These posters may become part of a bulletin board or classroom display with the title "Let Freedom Ring!"

With adequate computer access and appropriate software, students can create electronic versions of the "Let Freedom Ring!" assignment. After completion of the lesson, have students access individual state maps, available through the Atlas of North America feature of Xpeditions, and locate the sites of notable struggles for freedom (e.g., Plymouth Rock, Lexington and Concord, Philadelphia, Appomattox, Seneca Falls, Wounded Knee, Selma). After conducting web searches for information pertaining to these events, students may create a virtual tour of these "sites of freedom" in a word-processed document containing "live" URL links to relevant web pages and maps.

Students may also wish to visit the EDSITEment-reviewed website We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement, which provides information about people and events connected to historic sites throughout the nation.