Lesson 2: Building Background Knowledge: The 1960s, Part 2

Directions: With your group, review the photographs and discuss the following question:

• Based on these photos, what do you think life was like in 1960s Tulsa?

Tulsa, like many cities in the 1960s United States, was expanding rapidly and becoming more modern. Many Tulsa residents—often white people in upper economic classes—moved to suburbs and wealthier neighborhoods. However, not all people in Tulsa experienced the benefits of this growth. While some residents lived comfortably, others lived in poverty.

Part A: Build Knowledge of the 1960s

Turn and Talk

Directions: Turn and talk with a partner to share your responses to the homework prompt:

• What does the word inequality make you think of? What do you think this word means as it relates to groups of people, including groups of people in the 1960s?

Connecting Inequality and Poverty

Define inequality and record your ideas below. Refer to what we learned in Lesson 1 about segregation and discrimination.

Now, write a sentence that uses both words and shows how the words are connected.

Watch and Discuss: Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty”

Watch the PBS LearningMedia Video “1964: LBJ’s War on Poverty.” Then, discuss these questions in your small group:

• Consider what you learned about social issues and divisions in the 1960s, such as racial segregation and the influences of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. How did the video help you understand these issues?

• The video notes that many groups of Americans were “completely left out” in the 1960s. What do you think they were “left out” of?

• Based on the context of the video, what do you think the word alleviate means? How do you think alleviating poverty might be different from ending poverty?

• Think about how the words justice and injustice are used in the video. How do you think inequality is connected to injustice?

Part B: Analyze Data: “Who’s Poor in America? 50 Years into the ‘War on Poverty,’ a Data Portrait”

Directions: Let’s read the opening paragraphs of “Who’s Poor in America?” as a class. Keep in mind that you do not need to understand the analytical terms (such as those describing data measures) or all the vocabulary words. To understand the author’s points, pay attention to transitional terms such as “but” and “for example.”

• What does the phrase ‘War on Poverty’ describe?

• What is the meaning of the word demographics?

Complete the sentence and discuss it with your partner.

• According to the author, some critics believe that poverty rates have ___________ since the 1960s, while others think that poverty rates have _________________.

Give One, Get One

Review the rest of the article with a partner, paying particular attention to the subheadings (in bold font) that summarize the data. Then, write brief (two- or three-sentence) responses to each of these questions in the “My Ideas” column of your graphic organizer.

• What do the article and statistics help you understand about the challenges of addressing poverty? Use evidence from the text in your response.

• How and why do you think poverty impacted people’s sense of belonging in the 1960s?

After completing the article and discussion with your partner, rotate to new partners and “give” and “get” ideas to collect a variety of responses to each question. In this routine, one partner will share a response, then the other will write the response under the “Your Ideas” column in the graphic organizer. Rotate between partners until you have collected at least two new ideas for each question.

After your final rotation, discuss this question with your new partner:

• How did the article and the video portray the War on Poverty differently?

Reflection

Directions: With a partner or small group, answer the question:

• What have you learned about how inequality can impact belonging from today’s lesson?