About this resource

In November 1967, Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr travelled to Newcastle University to receive an Honorary Doctorate in Civil Law. Newcastle University was the only British institution to award King an Honorary Degree, and Newcastle was the only place in Britain King ever visited outside of London. Newcastle University’s archival collection from his visit is a rich visual resource, and a great way to ground the history of the Civil Rights movement in a local context for British students, particularly those in the North East of England.

This teacher resource pack contains several activity suggestions for students who are studying the Civil Rights movement, centred around Civil Rights photography. There is also an image pack to use which goes with the activities, but feel free to use your own images alongside this, as well as images the students may bring as part of the activities.

Using the images of King’s visit to Newcastle as a springboard, these activities will encourage students to use analytical methods through the medium of photography to consider a wide range of themes within the Civil Rights movement.

These activities were recently used with great success during Black History Month workshops for A-Level students at Newcastle University. The students were particularly engaged with the use of primary sources and archives. They found that looking at a wide range of Civil Rights photographs allowed them to consider the variety of people and groups involved with the Civil Rights movement in ways they had not before, as well as considering the meaning and intention behind the photography and captioning of something so historically significant.

These activities work well together as a coherent resource, but most can be used as standalone class activities.

 

Content Warning: Please be aware that you and your students may find some of the images contained within the image pack upsetting.

 

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to Dr Ellie Armon Azoulay, Lecturer in Modern American History, and PhD student Genevieve Johnson-Smith for devising the activities featured in this education pack. Thanks also to PhD student Joe Redmayne for trialling some of these activities with A-level History students, along with Ellie and Genevieve. We are very grateful to staff and students from the following schools for taking part in and offering feedback on the activities: St Robert of Newminster Catholic School and Sixth Form College, Washington Park View School, Chester-le-Street St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School, Newcastle Teesdale School, County Durham. Finally, thank you to Newcastle University’s Black History Month Steering Group for supporting and providing funding for this project.