INVESTIGATE:

Why did the boycott of Montgomery's buses succeed? (Read each source below, then answer the questions in the notebook. Ask your teacher for an inquiry organizer worksheet to help you think about the ways that the sources support and contradict each other.)

SOURCES:

READ: Handbill from Central Alabama Citizens Council rally

Head Note: This handbill was given out at a rally in Montgomery organized by the Central Alabama Citizens Council. 10,000 white citizens attended. Leaders of Montgomery’s local government—including Mayor Gayle—spoke to the crowd about preventing integration.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to abolish the Negro race, proper methods should be used. Among these are guns, bows and arrows, sling shots and knives.

We hold these truths to be self evident that all whites are created equal with certain rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of dead niggers.

In every stage of the bus boycott we have been oppressed and degraded because of black slimy, juicy, unbearably stinking niggers. The conduct should not be dwelt upon because behind them they have an ancestral background of Pigmies, head hunters and snot suckers.

My friends it is time we wised up to these black devils. I tell you they are a group of two legged agitators who persist in walking up and down our streets protruding their black lips. If we don’t stop helping these African flesh eaters, we will soon wake up and find Rev. King in the White House.

LET’S GET ON THE BALL WHITE CITIZENS.

The Book "Declaration of Segregation" will appear April, 1956. If this appeals to you be sure to read the book.

Source: Handbill produced by the Central Alabama Citizens Council, February 10, 1956. Montgomery, Alabama.

USE THE NOTEBOOK (instructions):

Vocabulary

These definitions should help with reading comprehension.

  • handbill: a small sheet of paper with a notice or advertisement printed on it, distributed by hand

Historian Think Aloud

Professor Fred Astren is reading Central Alabama Citizens Council handbill.

Using the Think Aloud

Listen to educator Daisy Martin explain how to use the Think Aloud in analyzing the document.

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