Fairness and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Supplied materials

• Paper and pencil; drawing or spoken answers are welcome.
• Topic notes: Segregation: enforced separation of people by race. Boycott: an organized refusal to use or buy a service as protest. Organization: people coordinating practical support for an action. Civil rights: rights concerning equal treatment and participation in civic life.
• Original exercise cards: A historical policy requires racially separated bus seating. / Montgomery residents stop using city buses during the campaign. / Montgomery participants arrange carpools during the boycott. / A campaign challenges unequal treatment based on race. / A fictional group refuses a product to protest a policy. / A fictional group schedules rides for participants. / A movement demands equal access to public services. / A historical rule separates public facilities by race.

Learn the idea

In Montgomery, Alabama, Black residents challenged segregation on buses through a boycott that began in 1955 after Rosa Parks’s arrest. A boycott means refusing to buy or use a service as protest. Participants organized alternative travel. This was a real civil-rights campaign, not an invented story.

Segregation: enforced separation of people by race. Boycott: an organized refusal to use or buy a service as protest. Organization: people coordinating practical support for an action. Civil rights: rights concerning equal treatment and participation in civic life.

Look for a rule separating people by race, refusing bus use as protest, arranging support or seeking equal treatment. Ask an adult to read the notes and cards aloud. Point, draw or say your answer.

1. Ask an adult to read the four notes. Find the words Segregation, Boycott, Organization, Civil rights.
2. Look for a rule separating people by race, refusing bus use as protest, arranging support or seeking equal treatment.
3. Read the worked answer. Then try the other cards and explain which words helped you choose.
4. Point to, draw or say two different examples: one for Segregation and one for Boycott. Explain how their clues differ.

Check your reasoning

Your answer is temporary and is not saved to an account. Download your current answer before leaving or reloading. Written work on paper or in another app stays in your own file.

Take it further

New card: “A historical rule separates public facilities by race.” Match it with a note, then point to or say the words that helped. Check: The card says: “A historical rule separates public facilities by race.” That matches Segregation. Segregation is enforced separation of people by race.

Nothing here is saved to an account or sent to a teacher. The answer download includes your current choice and any checked feedback. It does not include choices from the separate More practice section. Download that section separately.