Civil Rights: A Global Perspective

Civil Rights: A Global Perspective allows students to examine the non-violent social justice principles of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alongside ideas and practices of other influential human rights activists from around the world in order to build an understanding of the struggle for civil rights globally. Students will be inspired to learn more about finding their own voice as they look ahead to stepping into their role as citizens and becoming change agents. This unique, all-digital curriculum is designed around five themes: Freedom, Perseverance, Hope, Justice, and Conscience. 


Freedom 
In this unit, students will interact with what the concept of freedom has meant to generations of activists and identify common patterns in those meanings; the unit includes 14 lessons.

 Primary Texts
“I Have a Dream” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights 


Perseverance 
In this unit, students will examine the practice of perseverance in a variety of historical and contemporary contexts; the unit includes 16 lessons.

Primary Texts
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
“Ain’t I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth 


Hope 
In this unit, students will consider how hope has emerged and survived under circumstances that on their face seem unlikely to generate such optimism; the unit includes 15 lessons.
 
Primary Texts 
“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Mahatma Gandhi’s speech on Satyagraha in South Africa" 


Justice 
In this unit, students will consider forms of justice ranging from reconciliation to restoration to incarceration and reflect on how justice is understood and applied; the unit includes 15 lessons. 

Primary Texts
“Eulogy for the Martyred Children” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
“Testimony from the relatives of the shooting victims at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston”, South Carolina 
 

Conscience 
In this unit, students will examine how human rights activists (both historical and contemporary) have acted upon their conscience at great personal cost to their popularity, their health, and sometimes even their lives; the unit includes 15 lessons.

Primary Texts
“Beyond Vietnam” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 
“2013 Ambassador of Conscience Speech,” by Malala Yousafzai